Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have taken the world by storm. Even people who do not usually spend a lot of time online find themselves doing so because of these platforms. Businesses have also realized the potential of these platforms, and software developers are capitalizing on this. As such, we get to see all these new platforms advertising themselves as the “Facebook of business” or the “Twitter of business.”
WorkLight is a company which develops various social networking software, much like other software companies out there. However, unlike the “Facebook of business” companies, WorkLight takes on a slightly difference approach. Instead of creating whole new platforms and selling them as the “[place popular social networking platform here] of business,” WorkLight is bringing their widgets to the existing popular platforms.
WorkLight specializes in business applications which can be used for online banking, travel management, and other basic collaboration tasks. The good thing is that the applications can be published in various platforms such as Facebook, iGoogle, iPhone (yep!), and blogs. To date, WorkLight is working in collaboration with 17 consumer channels. This means that anyone who uses a widget that WorkLight has created can publish it easily to those channels.
The main advantage of this idea is that businesses need not spend a lot of money on developing widgets for different platforms. They only have to invest on a single application and then simply publish to the relevant platforms wherein the business may already have an established presence.
For more information on WorkLight, visit their web site here.
This post is for web developers and other individuals who are interested in making use of their spare time and having fun while at it. Samsung has fast made a name for itself in the mobile phone arena, and has consistently provided users with great options. One of the things that mobile phone users look forward to is the release of new widgets, which make the phone experience all the more interesting and useful.
This year, Samsung is encouraging the creation of new widgets with Innovation Quest. Also known as SIQ or Samsung IQ, the event this year is focusing largely on the GT-i8910 home screen. The competition is being co-sponsored by The Symbian Foundation.
Those who will be joining the competition are in for an exciting event for sure. More than simply being participants and coming up with something new, contestants are going to be equipped with a lot of tools and resources, which the sponsors are providing. For example, a series of technical papers on widgets for mobile purposes is to be made available.
If you are worried that you are not an expert and you merely like to dabble with software development, you should rest easy. The event is meant for the expert as well as the novice.
At the end of the competition, the SIQ winner will take home around $25,000 and the potential income from the sales of the winning widget. Register at Samsung Mobile Innovator to join now. Deadline is 14 August, so it’s not too late!
When the Samsung Omnia came out, it was touted as one of the iPod killers. At that time, I was pretty skeptical. After all, it is very hard to overcome the hype that Apple products always come with. Months down the road, it seems that the Omnia is living up to the expectations of its fans.
For those of you who have a Samsung Omnia, one of the things that you might have noticed missing is the capability for lotsa widgets. I can imagine how frustrating this could be. I may not have a Samsung Omnia but I do know how cool widgets for mobile phones are and as cool as an Omnia can be, it just doesn’t live up to its potential if it does not have widgets.
So here’s the good news – Samsung has recently released a new ROM, which includes new widgets. The ROM was only released on the 11th of March and is still in the beta version. From what I hear, some of the widgets that are already active include a stocks widget, a news widget, a weather widget, and a Google and Yahoo search widget. There is also a section for “more widgets,” but unfortunately, it is not functional as of yet. And that is why perhaps some people are waiting for the more stable version of the ROM to come out before downloading it. If I had the Omnia, though, I would download the beta version and find out for myself.
What are your plans for tonight? If you are a fan of the day of love, then I suppose that you had made plans weeks ago. If you are like me, though, your idea of a romantic Valentines Day may be limited to a nice steak meal and some Valentines themed posts and widgets. If you are liking the latter idea, then here are a couple of interesting widgets that will help you share the love today.
The I Love You Widget
Scared of actually saying the three words out loud? Why not make the Internet do the work for you? Get the I Love You Widget here and post it wherever you think it should be posted. I was thinking that it would look good in any blog and that it would definitely be perfect for the weekend. It does not really do much – it’s just a bunch of cute letters and a heart floating above the clouds – but if cute is what you’re going for, then this would work perfectly. This widget can be posted in a blog, a web site, your desktop, or even your phone.
Love E-cards
I love e-cards, who doesn’t? They are perfect for any occasion and you get to save some trees while at it! This widget is not new but it is perfect for Valentines weekend. You are sure to get a lot of hits as I can just imagine the large number of people trying to send love e-cards at the last minute.
Happy Valentines!
Do you know how to create widgets? Is this something that you like doing in your spare time? Are you frustrated with the available widgets in the market and you think that you have a better idea?
If you answered yes to the questions above, then you might want to consider joining Vodafone’s latest stunt – a widget making competition. Vodafone is one of the largest telecommunications company in Europe today and they have launched the competition to invite developers to outdo themselves and each other in creating mobile widgets that just might be the hottest downloads in the near future.
In order to be the winner, you have to wow the judges in several areas: usability, innovation, and value to users. So no cool but hard to use widgets – neither should you create something useful but something “old.” This competition will surely require radical thinking and hip encoding in order for the developers to gain a competitive edge.
Not that there is going to be a lack of entries, I think. What with more and more people using mobile phones which have access to the Internet, the need for a wide array of widgets is even more imminent. I am quite certain, actually, that a lot of ideas have been brewing in countless techie minds across the globe. This competition is only one way of giving them a venue.
Oh, have I mentioned the prize? Up for grabs is £20,000
This is more than enough incentive huh?
Widget Apps In The Future For Java Mobile I went to the mall yesterday and was overwhelmed by the number of new gadgets on display in all the stores. Everywhere I looked, I saw phones – smart phones galore. I couldn’t help myself – I had to get one and immediately played with it the moment I got home. I am quite happy with it as it is everything. I did notice one thing, though – there seems to be a lack of widgets.
That is why I was quite happy to read about the latest thing that the guys at Java are working on. According to reports, Sun Microsystems, the company behind Java, is working on two specific technologies that are aimed towards the mobile market. This is what Computer World has reported:
Sun Microsystems is readying two technologies to better enable the mobile trend: Java On Device Portal (ODP), for widget applications, and the JavaFX Mobile runtime, due next month as part of the JavaFX rich Internet application platform.
“[ODP] has two primary functions,” said Eric Klein, Sun vice president of Java marketing. “The first function is to make it easier for Java developers to quickly create these small widget applications using a consistent framework, and the second part is an on-device portal that lets that widget appear and be dynamically delivered.”
How long do we have to wait till we actually get our hands on the technology? They are due to unveil JavaFX Mobile in February during the Mobile World Conference. ODP is up and running and they expect some carriers to be offering this in the very near future.
