Join the Department of Information Systems and Technology for an informative, free lecture.
Tapping Into Apps:
Local and Cloud Services on the iPhone and Android
Monday, March 15, 2010 at 4:30 p.m.
Widener Center Lecture Hall
Speaker: Douglas Dixon
Smartphones are the new platform, and apps are the core.
Apple reports that the App Store for iPhone has surpassed 140,000 applications, and users have downloaded over 3 billion apps – not bad for a new market that was created only a year and a half earlier. Meanwhile, Google’s Android Market doubled over the last quarter to around 20,000 apps.
This talk will explore the range of apps being developed for these new platforms.
In particular, beyond rude sound effects and popping bubbles, developers are leveraging both the intelligence of the handset and the power of back-end cloud computing to provide new kinds of timely services. For example, location-based services now go beyond displaying maps to find a nearby Starbucks or report the lowest local prices for gas, and providing the pulse of the neighborhood from real-time Twitter feeds. New “augmented reality” services can use a smartphone’s camera to provide information on what’s around you – to look up a product bar code, or an interesting landmark or painting, or to identify the buildings that you see in front of you.
So bring your favorite apps, and think about future possibilities. It’s not much of a stretch to imagine face recognition apps that can identify business colleagues – and perform instant background checks on potential dates.
About the Speaker:
Douglas Dixon is an independent technology consultant, author, and speaker specializing in digital media. A graduate of Brown University, and previously a product manager and software developer at Intel and Sarnoff, he is the author of four books and has published hundreds of feature articles.
Doug writes for magazines including Videomaker, Digital Photographer, and Condé Nast Traveler, and the U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton. He also was editor-in-chief of Mediaware magazine and tech editor of Camcorder & Computer Video. He has presented over a hundred seminars and talks on digital media over the past ten years, at conferences including CES and NAB. His consulting work includes expert witness services, for cases including RealNetworks v. DVD CCA / MPAA and Apple Computer v. Burst.com. Doug posts regularly on digital media on his Manifest Technology blog, and makes his articles and technical references freely available on his website (www.manifest-tech.com).