Internationalization and Localization for Mobile Applications

by

Grio was recently asked by Soundwater Technologies to add Spanish and Portuguese translations to their iOS and Android mobile applications.  The app pairs with Soundwater’s hardware to use ultrasonics to measure water flow. This project was a large undertaking, but it could have been avoided: if internationalization and localization patterns had been used during the initial app development, the process would have been nearly instantaneous. 

Improving UI Development with Flutter

by

App development is a field that has undergone rapid progress over the last decade. As new technology enters the field, the preferred tech continues to grow and change. Today, I want to discuss one of the more recent development tools to enter the market: Flutter.

Redefining Android UI Development with Jetpack Compose

by

At Google I/O 2019, Google announced that they were working on a new toolkit, Jetpack Compose, which would redesign how user interfaces (UI) are developed on the Android platform. In August 2020, the alpha version of Jetpack Compose was released. In this post, I will be examining how Compose differs from the current Android UI toolkits, and will discuss the benefits that the new program will bring to Android UI development. 

Using Intents to Create Transitions in Android Applications

by

Creating a successful application isn’t just about ensuring that all of the components work; the layout and design of the application are also crucial. The design must be professional and engaging, and the layout should be easy for users to navigate. Design components, such as animations and navigation transitions, can also enhance the usability of the application.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a Mobile App?

by

A mobile app is a great way to bring new ideas to life, add value for your customers, or boost awareness of your business—but only if you can build a quality mobile experience without breaking the bank. And nailing down the cost of an app in advance isn’t exactly easy. App development costs can range from trivial to extreme, depending on a host of factors such as what your app does, how users will interact with it, and how you plan to staff the project.

Unmanned Grocery Stores

by

Unmanned Grocery Store

These days grocery stores are facing many challenges, like high maintenance costs, price competition with online stores, and limited business hours. All of these issues can be solved with unmanned grocery stores.

Introduction to Mobile Cloud Platforms

by

If you are building a mobile application of any sophistication, you are likely to need some services to support your app. You’ll need a way to distribute your app for testing prior to submitting to the app store(s), as well as analytics, error logging, crash reporting, and possibly user and data management services. Of course, you could write these services yourself and provision servers to host these services, but why do that when you don’t have to?

Mobile App Development: Native vs Hybrid

by

Your company needs a mobile app and you want to save money (of course). You want the app live last week, and you’d really like to avoid hiring Android and iOS devs on top of your existing web team.

In light of these considerations, going the hybrid route looks like a pretty good option. Hybrid mobile apps promise to be cheaper and faster to develop, and they’re built with tried and true technologies like Javascript, HTML, and CSS. The hybrid sales pitch can be summarized as “one codebase for multiple platforms”. Hybrid platforms include React Native, PhoneGap, Ionic, Titanium, and others.

Meet Kotlin

by

Kotlin is a JVM language that hit version 1.0 about a year ago (February 2016).
It is developed by JetBrains, the same people who make my favorite suite of
IDEs. The language itself is open-source under the Apache License 2.0 and is
developed as a community project over at kotlinlang.org. Kotlin is something
that I have become rather excited about over the past year. This post’s goal is
not to teach you Kotlin but to get you excited about it!

What is Pixel Density and Why Should You Care?

by

Pixel density is the number of pixels per linear physical unit. Measured in pixels per inch (ppi or dpi). Pixel density and resolution are technically the same thing, but often people say “resolution” to mean “pixel count,” a related metric:

count = densityH * width * densityV * height

When other things are held constant: