Coming Soon: Multi-Tasking on the iPad with Many-Device Apps

Virtualization is a star - at least in the big stage of the iPad. Since the device launched, Citrix Receiver has been one of the top ranked business apps in the store.

Chris Fleck, mobility leader on the Citrix team shares this demonstration showing a Citrix Receiver application enabled with four applications running side by side on iPad. He goes further to show the same apps running on a host of other devices.

Born to Multitask

Citrix Receiver uses HDX, the name of the remoting technology Citrix has innovated based on the ICA Protocol (Independent Computing Architecture) the company has been developing on for over 15 years. Fleck tells us that HDX is conceptually similar to RDP/VNC but it includes significant optimizations for WAN performance, Multimedia, and user experience across multiple devices and OS's.

Here is a clip from the demonstration video showing four side-by-side apps running on iPad. Citrix Receiver is able to zoom on in each application to make it full screen, or display all four simultaneously.

Many Apps - Many Devices

The demonstration continues showing each device in this picture, from Mac to PC, iPhone to Android, all running the same applications.

At one point, Fleck goes on to demonstrate how to "flick" multiple applications on the iPhone. This demonstrates one app showing full screen and the four other applications are swipable, like photos in your photo library. This seems like a natural extension of the iPhone and really could be useful for building larger enterprise applications or portals.

This demonstration reminded us of one thing, the apps matter. When we see an iPhone application on Android, or Windows 7, it still looks pleasing to navigate. Perhaps there is room in the enterprise for a Apple's Mobile Human Interface Guidelines.

Enterprise designers, maybe it's your time to build insanely great apps for the enterprise that follow patterns of the iPhone and iPad. Whether new, or old, Citrix Receiver is breathing life into applications and iPad is getting down to business.

The company plans to release this capability with its partner SoftwareFX at the Citrix Synergy event next month.

Virtualization could become a default way to connect iPad in the enterprise - at least in year one.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2010/04/multitasking-ipad.php

Lenovo: Mobile will be 10-20% of Revenue in 5 Years

PC maker Lenovo announced today that the company expects its mobile Internet products to account for 10%-20% of revenue in five years' time. This statement comes from President and COO, Rory Read, delivered at a media briefing that coincided with the launch of the newest Lenovo "LePhone" smartphone device in China. With the phone, a handset running the Google Android mobile OS, Lenovo hopes to grab a good-sized chunk of the still-emerging Chinese smartphone market.

Interestingly enough, Lenovo had, in early 2008, sold off its mobile phone unit to focus solely on its PC business. But as the financial crisis hit, companies delayed refreshing their corporate desktops and laptops in an effort to save money, a move which heavily impacted Lenovo's bottom line. Last year, the company decided to once again diversify their offerings by bringing back the mobile unit.

In January, Lenovo launched an improved "Ophone" device at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, its first smartphone since the $200 million reacquisition of the once-discarded mobile business, returned to the company in November of last year. At the time, Lenovo execs said the phone would be central to the company's mobile strategy.

Today, they're echoing that sentiment. According to Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing, mobile Internet devices will overtake traditional PCs in the next five years. And Read reminded everyone that the smartphone market in China was only now emerging. "It's just the beginning," he said.

PC Manufacturers Focused on Mobile

Lenovo isn't the only PC manufacturer making changes in this direction, with smartphone launches laser-focused on China especially. Dell, for example, announced in November they would launch an Android-based handset called the Dell Mini 3 that would be sold only in Brazil and China to start. The company is also hard at work on an Android tablet, a colorful consumer-targeted device apparently being called the "Dell Streak."

Acer, too, has a line of smartphones running both the Windows Mobile OS and Android, available outside the U.S. in parts of Europe and Asia.

HP, although still more focused on PCs, is set to launch its first "new-wave" tablet in the form of the HP Slate, a multi-touch lightweight device running Windows 7. 

As for Lenovo's claims about the timeframe to mobile's domination over the PC? Those figures may very well have been snagged from Morgan Stanley's Internet analyst, Mary Meeker. In her latest "state of the Internet" report, she predicted that the mobile Internet market will be bigger than the desktop Internet market within five years. She also noted in particular how fast mobile Internet has grown - even faster than its desktop counterpart ever did.

For those who like to segment the phases of the Internet's growth, the current era, aka this mobile surge, represents the fifth major technology cycle, she says. Previously, we had the mainframe era of the 1950s and 60s (counts for two), the mini-computer era of the 1970s and the desktop Internet era of the 80s. The new mobile cycle is being driven by the spread of 3G technology, now reaching 20% of the world's cellular users.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/lenovo_mobile_will_be_10-20_of_revenue_in_5_years.php

Android and Linux Discuss Code Reunion

The guardians of the Linux Kernel Archive, repository for the source code for the Linux open source operating system, turned the code for Google's Android phone out the door last year. The guardians felt they were getting too little cooperation from Google and too few patches from its engineers.

However, at the Linux Collaboration Summit, taking place today and tomorrow in San Francisco, Google has apparently broached the topic of bringing it all back home.

Both Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, and Chris DiBona, open source and public sector engineering manager for Google, reportedly believe it will be done. DiBona, however, told a reporter that he believed the restoration would be a "multi-year process."

DiBona even told ZDNet's Paula Rooney that Google was hiring two engineers just to work on the kernel.

He dismissed worries over forking and fragmentation, "noting that smart phone operating system code is not all appropriate for the operating system kernel." In fact, that seems to lie at the kernel of the fuss over the kernel, the fact that Google, he says, is shipping millions of Androids per day. The exigencies of the profit-driven corporation and the clean code values of the guardians don't seem like they will ever fit together seamlessly.

Top photo by Paolo Massi
Bottom photo by Seth Rasmussen

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/android_and_linux_discuss_code_reunion.php

Where Does Android Register on Google's "Evil" Meter?

As we mentioned briefly last night, Google is going to attempt to reintegrate Android into the main Linux kernel - the code had been booted in December because it was "no longer being cared for," according to Greg Kroah-Hartman, the Novell developer who maintains the staging, USB and driver core for Linux. The reintroduction process will take years, says Google open source programs manager Chris DiBona.

On the one hand, it's good to see Google trying to do the right thing by the open source community, but on the other hand, the argument could be made that Google appropriated Linux for its own for-profit ends without giving back.

This move has been dubbed by some as "evil," (in reference to Google's infamous company motto, "Do No Evil"). The issue: Google forked Android's development into private branches, implemented a closed code review process and and then trademarked the "Android" name all while providing an incomplete public software developers kit which is missing several key items needed to build a Android-based handset. Open? No. But is that evil?

The Arguments as to Android "Openness"...or Lack Thereof

Vision Mobile's research director Andreas Constantinou makes these same points and more over on the blog run by the market analysis and strategy firm. The post, entitled "Is Android Evil?" is worth reading in its entirety. But we'll summarize some of the main points here by snipping out a handful of his top arguments as to why Android isn't really open source software:

1. Private branches: As noted above, select partners (OEMs mostly) have access to private codelines that are estimated to be 6+ months ahead of the public SDK. This allows them to stay competitive.
2. Close review process: All code reviewers work for Google. Few outside contributions get in with no explanation as to why.
3. Speed of evolution: Google innovates on Android so quickly that OEMs have no choice but to remain close to the company in order to get in on the new features and bug fixes.
4. Incomplete software: The public SDK lacks radio integration, international language packs and operator packs.
5. Android is a trademarked name.
6. Private roadmap: The published roadmap is a year out of date. You have to contact Google to see the private one.

Constantinou makes a few other arguments, too, like how the Android Marketplace is controlled by Google for example, but that's not really as important to this issue - especially since there's no Apple-like review process when it comes to accepting new applications.

Another argument to Android's not-so-open nature is that Google chose the Apache license so the derivative code doesn't have to be contributed back. Google's DiBona dismissed this, claiming differentiation is good and enables commercial vendors to succeed, according to the ZDNet report.

Profit Isn't Evil

Commercial success with Linux isn't a new (or "evil") idea, though. Distributions like Redhat, SuSE, Oracle Unbreakable Linux - heck, even Tivo - among many others have turned a profit thanks to Linux. That's not evil, that's just good business.

But the issue here is that Google is succeeding commercially on top of Linux while making changes to Android that are not shared with the community. Meanwhile, they get to promote "Android" as "open," when, in reality, that doesn't appear to be the case.

The question we ask now is this: does this make the Android business "evil?" Or does Google get a pass since Android is far more open, comparatively speaking, than most other mobile operating systems today? Where does Android fall on Google's "evil meter? in your eyes?

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/where_does_android_register_on_googles_evil_meter.php

More Details Emerge About the iPad's Connectivity Issues

According to Dow Jones, some colleges have banned the iPad from their networks. Princeton and Cornell, for example, are seeing major networking and connectivity issues that mirror the problems many users are seeing with their iPads at home. Princeton also decided to share details about the issues it is seeing on its network in a detailed statement that could help Apple diagnose and fix the connectivity issues that have plagued the iPad since launch.

As we reported earlier this month, quite a few iPad owners have experienced WiFi connectivity issues with their devices. There seems to be a wide variety of issues, ranging from bad WiFi reception to regular drops on the WiFi connection because of what looks to be a bug in how the iPad connects to some routers.

The iPad's Problem According to Princetion: DHCP

According to the report from Princeton, at least one of these connectivity problems can be traced back to how the iPad handles DHCP leases. DHCP, which stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, is responsible for assigning IP addresses to computers on a local network. Normally, these IP addresses are renewed at regular intervals. If the device doesn't request a renewal of the address, the DHCP server can hand this address out to another device.

The Princeton team found that, under certain circumstances, iPads renew their lease of a given IP address once but then allow the lease to expire. Once the lease has expired, however, these devices still try to use the same address without asking for a new lease, which is bound to fail, as the router doesn't remember the device anymore and has probably assigned the IP address to another device already.

You can find more details about Princeton's diagnosis - as well as a step-by-step guide for reproducing this issue here.

Is This Good News for iPad Owners?

If this is indeed the source of most iPad connectivity issues, then this is good news for Apple and iPad owners who are currently experiencing these issues, as a straightforward software update can probably remedy this problem.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/more_details_about_the_ipads_connecitvity_issues_e.php

Developers Line Up to Build iPad Apps

Just 13 days after it launched to the public, the iPad is the subject of the latest Silicon Valley developers' unconference event. At 5 PM this evening iPadDevCamp kicked off at the PayPal/eBay offices in San Jose. The photo above of developers waiting in line to enter was posted to Twitter by Portland, Oregon based iPhone (and now iPad) push notification service Urban Airship.

Build some cool apps in there, folks!

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/developers_line_up_to_build_ipad_apps.php

Alice for the iPad

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gew68Qj5kxw