Accelerate Mobile Development with Cross-Platform Tools

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Cross-platform tools allow developers to repurpose existing skills to accelerate native, multi-platform #mobile development.

While many of your mobile, cross-platform goals can be accomplished with HTML5, you might be wondering if there’s a solution for pure native code. There are a growing number of options out there using popular programming languages and even no code at all.

Appcelerator provides an IDE and the Titanium SDK allowing developers to create cross-platform apps using JavaScript. Unlike Hybrid apps, the JavaScript is compiled to native code for better performance. APIs are included to ensure apps can take advantage of all platform features as well as native UI elements.

If you’re a .NET shop with developers comfortable with Visual Studio and skilled in the C# programming language, Xamarin is right for you. This development tool runs on its own or plugs into Visual Studio allowing you to build native iOS, Android and OSX apps. It also implements the native UI of each platform so users will never know the apps weren’t built in Objective-C, Swift or Java. Xamarin is a great way to leverage .NET investments across devices.

Zero-code or low-code solutions like AppArchitect, Alpha Anywhere, SkyGiraffe, Force.com, PowWow, WorkSimple, PowerApps, Reddo, MobileSmith, StarMobile and others are worth your due diligence to speed up development efforts as long as they don’t create a risk to your business platforms.

Reduce expenses by building apps for all mobile platforms with a single codebase and a smaller development team to get your product to market more quickly and pervasively. Has your company pivoted to cross-platform development tools?

Learn how to digitally transform your company in my newest book, “Mobile Strategies for Business: 50 Actionable Insights to Digitally Transform your Business.”

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Click here to purchase a copy of my book today and start transforming your business!

Enterprise Mobility on STL Tech Talk CodeCast

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I was thrilled to join Gus Emery (@n_f_e) and JJ Hammond (@jjhammondmusic) for a lively discussion of the past and future of Microsoft enterprise mobility on CodeCast Episode 12 of @STLTechTalk.

These guys are doing great work in the developer community! Go check out their site!

Sharing my knowledge and helping others never stops, so connect with me on my blog at https://robtiffany.com , follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RobTiffany and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/robtiffany

 

Computer Science Education Week

It’s Computer Science Education Week so I’m hoping teachers and volunteers everywhere will spend an hour teaching your students how to write code.

Learning how to program computers changed my life and I know it can do the same for millions of young people who are looking to try something new and exciting.

I started programming BASIC when I was a kid on a Timex Sinclair 1000 computer with only 2 Kb of RAM and I saved my apps to a cassette tape.  It seemed like magic at the time.

Timex Sinclair 1000

I learned more about BASIC coding for DOS PCs in a Computer Math class in High School and then learned database development in college using dBase III+.  Buying lots of computer books and teaching myself how to program for OS/2 and Windows while serving on board a submarine in the U.S. Navy really made the difference for my future career.

Nokia Lumia 1520

Fast-forward to today and imagine the computing power you have in the palm of your hands with our modern smartphones and tablets.  The most challenging, fulfilling, and highest paying jobs today and in the future require a background in Computer Science.  Unfortunately, millions of these incredible jobs are going unfilled because coding is not being broadly offered in 90% of schools alongside subjects like English, Math, History, and Science.

  • Students, if you’re not being offered this critical education in your school, I challenge you to raise your hand and ask your teacher, “why not?”
  • Teachers, educating your students about software development doesn’t have to be rocket science and I encourage you to start your journey at http://code.org/learn.

One More Thing…millions of my fellow soldiers, sailors, and airmen are coming home from a decade of overseas conflict.  WE owe them a chance at a bright future and coding can help light the way.  WE == ME so you can be sure I’ll take on this challenge.

Steve Jobs: “Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think.”

Keep Coding!
– Rob

Sharing my knowledge and helping others never stops, so connect with me on my blog at https://robtiffany.com , follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RobTiffany and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/robtiffany