Mobile Dev + Test 2016 - Developer
Monday, April 18
Swift Programming: From the Ground Up
If you are an experienced developer who is interested in the new Swift programming language, this hands-on workshop is for you. James Dempsey will introduce you to Swift from the ground up, as you learn both the syntax and concepts hands-on. We’ll start with the basics and then build on them to come up to speed quickly on the most recent version of Swift. You’ll learn fundamental pieces of Swift, starting with defining functions, control-flow, using String and Int values, and collections like Dictionary and Array. James then introduces the rich set of Swift types—classes, structs, enums—...
Android Development Introduction: A Hands-On Workshop
Learn Android development from the ground up. We'll start with the SDK and the Android Studio IDE, and build, test, and deploy applications on both emulators and physical devices. We will discuss and implement the basics of Android development—from activities to resources to asynchronous communications. With examples we’ll show how to use the new Gradle build system for Android. We'll use the embedded SQLite database to store data, and access a RESTful webservice and parse the resulting JSON data to update the user interface.
Programming Skills...
Tuesday, April 19
iOS and Swift Quick Start: The Fundamental Pillars of iOS Development
If you are an experienced developer who wants to get up and running on iOS development, join James Dempsey for this hands-on workshop focusing on the fundamentals. You’ll build two iOS apps while learning about the core tools, frameworks, and concepts you need to start building iPhone and iPad apps of your own. In the first part of the day James introduces the suite of freely-available Apple developer tools, focusing on Xcode 7. While learning the tools, you will build a simple app that teaches you techniques for creating user interfaces and connecting them to code. We’ll cover Swift...
Use Selenium to Test Mobile Web Apps in the Cloud
With the burgeoning number of mobile OSs, browsers, and platform combinations, comprehensive mobile app testing can be a nightmare—but it doesn’t have to be! Brian Hicks demonstrates ways to leverage the open source Selenium (IDE) with cloud services to test mobile apps across multiple browsers and platforms. Through hands-on exercises, you will experience how Selenium interacts with web browsers below the GUI to test actions, inputs, and expected outcomes. Brian and participants will examine how the Selenium framework works and learn how to expand Selenium tests to improve device and...
Mobile App Project Kick Off: Get It Right the First Time
The critical steps that need to happen before coding starts are all-too-often brushed over or skipped entirely. Developers, testers, product owners, and anyone at any level who is looking to refine or plan the critical UX portion of either a new product or revamping an existing product will benefit from this tutorial. Because user experience (UX) will make or break every new app, you have to get it right the first time. Jaimee Newberry explores brand/product voice and personality questions that help teams quickly map out the direction that affects everything—product experience, visual...
Internet of Things: From Prototype to Production
In this hands-on workshop developers, testers, and product managers learn how to to quickly create connected IoT prototypes that can lead to commercial IoT solutions using pre-certified hardware and the ARM mbed platform. This “prototype-to-production” workshop guides you on how to employ crowdsourced libraries for sensors and peripherals using a cloud-based IDE and move data from edge sensor/processor to cloud platform as a service using a cellular module. Learn how to build successful IoT solutions based on proven business...
Use Mobile/IoT Big Data Analytics to Improve Development and Testing
Mobile and IoT software apps generate tons of data and live in a world of social media crowdsourcing. Probably more importantly, back end systems are capturing terabytes of usage data on mobile and IoT applications—data that is ripe for big data analysis. Jon Hagar examines how development and test teams can put this data to work to improve mobile and IoT products and projects. To stay competitive, product teams must find ways to use analytics in a variety of fashions and from varied sources. This hand-on session explores where to find the data you need and examines way to mine and...
Super Rad Brainstorming
Ever had a brainstorming session that failed to produce the quality results you hoped for? Think you already have good brainstorming sessions but know there’s room for improvement? Facilitating Super Rad Brainstorming sessions for eons now, Jaimee Newberry is an industry leader in improving brainstorming skills and surfacing incredible ideas. Work together as Jaimee facilitates a dialogue-based session that highlights tips and tricks for making your own brainstorming sessions more productive. Learn what supplies to bring, how to prepare for a session, and how to handle common sticking...
Advanced Android Development
The Android API library is large and complex. Knowing the basics is a good start, but for practical applications you have to go far beyond the basics. Ken Kousen explores aspects of Android development that come up frequently in app development. Go beyond simple activities and intents to build more interesting, complex applications. Use dialog boxes both to notify users of new information and as a basis of how to interact with multiple activities. Create notifications to inform users of information and events, and allow users to respond. Understand services and how they allow you to...
Prototyping Wearable Devices Using Android
Prototyping wearable devices used to be something that required specialized skills in electrical engineering, embedded development, and mechanical engineering. Today, thanks to the maker revolution, we can combine our knowledge of programming with basic electronics/soldering skills and access to a 3D printer to create useful devices. More importantly, there are now boards that give Android developers the ability to interact with them without needing to create our own custom Bluetooth Drivers and write firmware in C++. In this half-day tutorial, Lance Gleason will take you on a quick tour...
Wednesday, April 20
Usability vs. Security: Find the Right Balance in Mobile Apps
Successful mobile apps have two key features: a great user experience and the ability to protect users’ data. Balancing user experience and security—a key aspect of product design and engineering—requires a multidisciplinary approach. According to Levent Gurses, a well-balanced app is designed through a series of informed decisions, meaningful compromises, and research that supports core user behaviors. Based on lessons learned from designing winning mobile apps and securing front- and back-end infrastructure, Levent shares his method for scientifically discovering the most critical...
Developing and Testing a Connected Bracelet for Mind and Body
With wristworn wearables, the stakes are higher than almost anywhere else. Not only are you competing with tech giants like Apple and Fitbit, you are competing with luxury watches and accessories for valuable real estate. Skip Orvis, COO and Head of Systems Development for Caeden, will explain the unique challenges involved in the development and testing of the Sona Connected Bracelet, a jewelry-inspired connected bracelet that bridges design, innovation and technology to offer a unique feature set focusing on wellness for mind and body.
The 4th Industrial Revolution and IoT Predictions: A Software Perspective
IoT technology is a driving force for what some are calling the 4th Industrial Revolution—or Industry 4.0—which predicts that manufacturing as we know it will morph into something almost completely new. To support this revolution, the demand for software will grow exponentially, possibly leading us to a new software crisis. Stefano Rizzo presents eight key predictions about software and supporting technologies that will make Industry 4.0 a reality and deliver the promises of IoT. Stefano describes a new generation of application development and test/QA platforms replacing the current crop...
Can Your Mobile Infrastructure Survive 1 Million Concurrent Users?
You’re building the next killer mobile app. How do you ensure that your app is both stable and capable of near-instant data updates? Build a backend! But there’s more to building a backend than standing up a SQL server in your datacenter and calling it a day. Since different types of apps demand different backend services, how do you know what sort of backend you need? And, more importantly, how can you ensure that your backend will scale so you can survive an explosion of users that comes from events like being featured in the app store? Siva Katir and Melissa Benua will discuss the...
IoT Scalable Deployments with M2M Cellular Networks
For the past decade cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) applications and more recently IoT applications have been deployed across many industries: vehicle telematics, smart grid, medical, distribution, and many more. When considering cellular M2M for IoT applications, there is a perception of excessive monthly recurring costs, high chip set costs, connectivity issues, or the limited bandwidth of existing networks. Join Brian Huey as he covers the driving M2M cellular trends, including LTE releases, building management, residential, smart grid, new technologies, and the expected capital...
Building Connected and Disconnected Mobile Applications
Designing for the future: What’s Your “Why"?
Better and more meaningful results always happen when your team has clarity of vision around WHY they're doing what they're doing. "The Future” is about getting technology out of the way of our everyday functions and actions while using it to enhance lives in every conceivable way. We must be thinking far beyond what’s next. The process is almost always about people, and most people need to ease into change. As designers of software, we need to be thinking about what is several futures down the road and breaking that vision into baby steps that won’t freak people out or be “too much too...
Gradle for Android Developers
Rapid Application Development for Raspberry Pi
The IoT explosion has driven many developers to build systems that work with single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi. Because there are not a lot of tools available for these computers, development work slows down. Today, most developers use Python, which has a steep learning curve that does not allow for quick app development and is difficult for developing apps with a GUI. Geoff Perlman describes and demonstrates Xojo, a new rapid application development (RAD) tool for single-board computers, which has an interface builder, compiles to native code, and is cross-platform, making...
10,000 Years in Your Pocket: The Deep History of Your Mobile Device
We live in amazing times with amazing technology all around us. And mobile technology, delivered in iPhones and Android devices, is possibly the most amazing of all. While we designers, developers, and testers strive to make fantastic mobile apps and products, we often spend our efforts fixing the things that are wrong with the mobile experience. Taking a page from recent work in the field of positive psychology, James Dempsey wants us to pause and focus on the positive. Join James to appreciate the deep history of science, technology, and even religion that has led us from communicating...
Thursday, April 21
The First Wave of IoT—Blood in the Water
In the past two or three years the consumer market has seen the idea of the Internet of Things (IoT) go from a prediction to reality. The first wave of IoT products was largely fueled by the parallel innovation of crowdfunding, which allowed makers and early stage ideas to get off the ground without traditional funding sources. Many feel that the promised innovations from IoT have not yet been realized. Almost weekly another crowdfunded startup announces it’s closing its doors without ever shipping a product. Products that do ship often offer a poor user experience and are notoriously...
Balancing New Tools and Technologies vs. Risk
Your engineering team wants to dive deeply into the newest programming tool or next generation technology for a mission critical project. How do you balance the promised rewards of a new language, software tool, or hardware technology with the risks of unstable software, hardware that does not work as promised, or new tools that are abandoned? Ellen Shapiro describes how the iOS and Android teams at Vokal approach all the new tools and technologies they evaluate. Discussing manufacturer-built and supported languages like Swift, cutting-edge projects like JetBrains' JVM language Kotlin,...
Build Smarter Mobile Apps with Real-Time Relevance
Making IoT Enterprise Development Simpler
Launching enterprise IoT products to the marketplace is a complex maze of steps and hurdles that takes most IoT development teams eighteen-to-twenty-four months to reach. Why does it take so long? Developers have to merge the diverse disciplines of back-end IT requirements, RF design, mixed signal, big data, and much more into a complete IoT system. Eric King discusses the major steps of Internet of Things development and shows you how to make your systems simpler and less risky. Eric explores the often forgotten areas of testing and certification for IoT systems and the increasing...
Scalable and Collaborative iOS UI Test Automation in Swift
Testing IoT Apps with the Cloud
The industry move towards wearables is all the rage and taking advantage of these new devices doesn’t have to mean learning a whole new platform. For example the Microsoft Band is a multi-function wearable device that works with your smart phone to help you track heart rate, steps, calorie burn, sleep quality and be productive with email and calendar alerts and more. While you can quickly and easily build an app for the Band in just a few minutes how can you be sure the back end is up to the scale you’d need to support potential massive growth if it were to take off? Enter the cloud...
Hardware Solutions to Start—and Fast-Track—IoT Development
Telemetry and machine-to-machine communication have evolved from custom, purpose-built solutions into a new generation of Internet of Things products that broker data to multiple clouds. Michael Finegan focuses on public vs. private networks and how to create intelligent end-node and gateway solutions using embedded cellular and long range RF systems. Learn when you should use a pre-certified device and when to move to a custom embedded module. Michael shares how to prototype solutions using ARM’s mbed (crowdsourced) browser-based compiler and how to move into production using cloud-based...
Get Started with Google Fit and Its API
Google has created a service that lets you store and read any health data you want—for free! Like every new API, mystery surrounds how it works, what it can do, and where the opportunities are. Google Fit supports storing activity data such as runs and pushups, nutrition information about that delicious piece of cake you just ate, and even stats like weight. Users then can see the information combined from multiple sources, instead of having to mentally or manually compile the data. Luke Wallace shows you which parts Google has built for you and what parts you’ll have to build yourself....
Apple Watch, Wearables, and Mobile Data—with IBM MobileFirst
Wearables are the ultimate in personal computing, the most personal devices ever created. Wearable devices offer new ways to collect data and respond to information about your health and the environment around you. Wearables introduce new interaction paradigms and new things to consider when building mobile/wearable applications. Because wearable apps are always at your fingertips, always in context, and always expected to perform quickly and efficiently, Andrew Tice asserts that they must be super-reliable, -fast, and -efficient. Learn strategies to develop, optimize, and maintain...
Future Perspective: Cloud Connectivity in an IoT World
In the Internet of Things (IoT) world, you need to understand and exploit opportunities in the rapidly evolving core connectivity domain. To ensure that products will realize IoT benefits, plans and roadmaps must include connectivity requirements, activities, and projected costs. Steven Woodward shares perspectives from communication industry standards—NIST, TM Forum, QuEST Forum, ISO/ IEC, OMG, and ITU-T. He describes the NIST Cloud Carrier Framework that clarifies where the carrier and communication activities fit into the cloud and IoT ecosystem. This model defines the connectivity...
Use the Modern Cloud to Build Mobile Apps
What’s the secret sauce to a successful mobile product strategy? You need to stand on the shoulders of giants. There was a time when starting from the ground up meant architecting a lot of code from a low level to do basic things. Mike Benkovich explores ways you can use the latest technologies and services to quickly and consistently deliver a cloud-connected mobile experience by leveraging the features such as Push Notifications, OAuth for Identity, and Dynamic Data. With the advent of the cloud we can exploit many powerful features and capabilities with a few lines of code that used to...
Prototype the Internet of Things with Javascript
Prototyping IoT devices is something that you may believe requires specialized skills in electrical engineering, embedded development, and mechanical engineering. Not so fast! Lance Gleason says that, thanks to the maker revolution, we can combine our deep knowledge of programming with access to a 3D printer and some basic electronics/soldering skills to create valuable prototypes. More importantly, there are now boards that give Javascript developers the ability to interact with them without requiring custom Bluetooth drivers and writing firmware. Join Lance for a quick tour of IoT...
Friday, April 22
Designing Apps for Android Devices
With the many versions of Android available today on hundreds, even thousands, of device types, just how do you build something that will look good on Android devices you’ve never seen? Is it possible to build an app that will look good on the newest devices and not look strange on your grandma’s phone from 2012? Luke Wallace clears a path through the jungle of Android-based hardware and takes on the fragmentation beast. See how his company, Bottle Rocket, one of the top mobile development companies, handles this challenge day-in-and-day-out—without compromising the experience. Luke shares...