Nowadays it’s almost impossible to write an article about mobile phones without mentioning the very successful iPhone. Apple had practically turned the mobile  industry upside down with its touch screen device. Some people will argue to the death about how the iPhone, or the “Jesus Phone” as some call it, is the best thing since sliced bread – and nobody can argue against how successful this device has become. But I am predicting a total onslaught of Android devices within 2 years. The Android army of phones will be everywhere you look and you will not be able to visit any cellphone store without running into at least 50 different phones running this OS. OK – maybe that is going a bit far but I think you get the message and already we are seeing signs of it. At the time of writing this article there are 16 official Android devices. How will this army of Android devices be created you ask ? Enter the Open Handset Alliance.

The Open Handset Alliance was formed in 2007 and currently has 47 members. It is a consortium of technology and mobile companies all dedicated to bringing us better mobile experiences, with Android being their first project . There are some big names amongst the 47 members, including Google, Intel, Nvidia, HTC, Asus, SonyEriccson, LG, Ebay. With so many big names dedicated to Android development, it is bound to be amongst the top mobile device OS’s. You can read more about this argument here, let me get to the Android architecture.

Android is a Linux based software stack. On top of the Linux kernel layer lies a layer for the system libraries such as SQLite, SSL, OpenGL, etc. This layer also houses the Android runtime, which runs the Dalvik Virtual Machine. On top of this there’s the Application Framework, housing the managers like the Activity Manager, Window Manager, etc. Then finally there is the application layer, which is the layer we are most interested in.

Android applications can consist of different sections, namely Activities, Services, Broadcast Recievers and Content Providers. Activities form the User Interface(UI) part of the application, Services run in the background similar to RSS feed readers checking for updates. Broadcast Receivers just listen for particular system broadcasts, for example , when the battery is low. Content Providers just provide content to any asking application , for example your application asking the contact book to provide the users contacts for use within your application. We will mostly be concerned with Activities.

Activities were designed to be totally integrated with one another. What I mean is that Activities can call one another and pass data to one another, basically  like an event driven system, but on a system wide level. An application is thus a group of Activities passing Intents to one another. It is then possible to include , lets say, a Google Maps Activity into your application by passing a Google Maps Intent to it and waiting for a result from it. It would seem to the end user that you created a Google Maps section to your app. I think this is pretty powerful.

To get started with creating these applications you need the free Android SDK, Apple iPhone developers need to register first($99!). Then you going to need an IDE, there is an Eclipse plugin, the Android Development Tools(ADT) plugin that has everything including the latest stable SDK. You don’t immediately need a phone to test on as ADT comes with an Android emulator that you can debug and test with but you will eventually need a phone to properly test with. ADT is pretty awesome as it comes with many tools to tell you exactly whats happening on the phone, which threads are running,it has code completion, wizards to quickly create sub classes and much more. It took me less than 30 minutes to get a “Hello World” application running on the Android emulator from the time I installed the ADT!

Since ActionScript 3 is a lot like Java I could easily jump in even though there were a few syntax differences – but after about 2 days and the help of ADT I had a basic application drawing a ball bouncing round the screen. But that was only the beginning and have rewritten sections of the game many times. Now after two weeks of lots of learning I have created the game and have it running on my phone. It is still a prototype and even though it needs weeks more spit and polish, after demonstrating the game I have gotten the thumbs up to turn it into a real game which we will be registering in the Android market.  There is still a lot to learn from this wonderful framework but the Android groups have been great help, as well as all the Android forums and of course, the Reference guide which ships with the SDK. It has been a challenge to get to grips with this entirely new development area but it was far easier than imagined it would be. I spent about 10 times longer getting to know Flash, and that was with people available to help me.

What about my experience using the phone? I can honestly say I am now more connected than ever before. My email, both gmail and exchange, is pushed to the phone. My Twitter application runs in the background constantly fetching  tweets, while my Facebook application gets all my buddies’ status updates to me as often as I want to see them. News and weather is updated all the time. My calendar and contacs are synchronised between my phone and my mobile. I never get lost anymore, maps are always available and my Gtalk status is always “available” and running in the background, unlike on some other phones Oh, and it makes phone calls as well.

I will follow up with another article of my findings, good and bad, this time focusing on the actual Android game development.

Part of SWAT’s work is to stay abreast of the latest web-related technology. One of the ways we do this is by developing applications that serve as proofs of concept for emerging and important technology. And often these apps are quie a bit of fun too!

We have decided to make the applications publicly accessible – some of you may already know applications such as feedalizr – SWATLabs showcases our other work. You can expect to see further applications published on a regular basis. The team appreciates all feedback, including suggestions for future applications.

The applications in SWATLabs have come about in various ways. But an important source of innovations for SWAT is what we call “CodeScrums”. A CodesScrum is where we let one or two people use 5 days to dedicate to creating something new for the web. There are almost no restrictions to the kinds of application that the team can develop during this time. If the idea turns out to be a good one, we develop the application further. find2follow was the product of a recent CodeScrum. We will blog more extensively about CodeScrums in the future.

Enough talking – click on the image below to go straight to SWATLabs.

Thanks to Andrew for yet another spot-on design. Andrew is at www.andrewb.co.za.

The Stellenbosch Media Lab is a joint initiative between Naspers and the University of Stellenbosch. The Naspers/MIH group is sponsoring research into New Media at the university, and offering students exposure to the group’s internet-related activities.

You can find more information on the program by looking at this application form. Although applications for 2009 has closed, you might want to consider applying for a bursary on Masters or Doctoral level for 2010 and beyond. We encourage all South Africans with an excellent academic record, a creative and innovative approach, and an overwhelming interest in new media to apply for one of these bursaries.

So….what is SWAT’s connection to the Media Lab ? SWAT has been tasked by the MIH group to be the direct liaison between MIH and the University of Stellenbosch. We perform the relevant management functions on behalf of the group, and we liaise closely with the students and management team from the Labs. How closely can be seen in the pictures below:

Learning about feedalizr

Learning about scrum

Product strategies

Communication is a two way street of course, and each of the students presented their topics to the entire SWAT team.

Academic work

The cutting-edge work being done by the Media Labs students enabled a lively discussion to follow each of the student’s presentations – subjects ranging from the mathematics of social graphs to hot new ideas for immersive games were explored.

The day was very successful from SWAT’s point of view – we learned a great deal, and once again affirmed our commitment to enabling and promoting cutting edge technologies within the MIH group.

(Following soon – SWAT South Africa in pictures)

Before the battle ... Miguel, Tadeu, Rafael, John

Jacques and Roberto

Red team crying after losing...Tadeu, John, Felippo

Renato and Rafael - ready to give their all

BOPE...Otavio and Jacques

Winning team member - Dani Valentin

True grit - Felippo and Renato

His sorrows are drowning him...Felippo

@Braz - Rafael, Otavio, Jacques, Dani, Renato, Katie

@Braz - John, Hein, Katie, Roberto, Tadeu, Miguel, Rafael, Otavio, Jacques, Dani, Renato

Origin:

The term Scrum comes from a study by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka in 1986, which was published in the Harvard Business Review. In this paper (The New New Product Development Game) they described a holistic approach in which the development phases overlap and where project teams are made up of small cross-functional teams. They compared these high performing teams that work together towards a common goal, to the Scrum formation in rugby.

The first software development Scrum was created at Easel Corporation in 1993 by Jeff Sutherland, who used their study as the basis for team formation and adopted Scrum as the name of the process as a whole. Jeff introduced Scrum Ken Schwaber in 1995, who then formalized the process for the worldwide software industry in the first published paper on Scrum at OOPSLA 1995.

Definition:

Various definitions of Scrum exist, but the following two defines it the best.

[ScrumPapers - Nuts, Bolts, and Origins of an Agile Process by Jeff Sutherland] Scrum is a simple framework used to organize teams and get work done more productively with higher quality. It allows teams to choose the amount of work to be done and decide how best to do it, thereby providing a more enjoyable and productive working environment. Scrum focuses on prioritizing work based on business value, improving the usefulness of what is delivered, and increasing revenue, particularly early revenue. Designed to adapt to changing requirements during the development process at short, regular intervals, Scrum allows teams to prioritize customer requirements and adapt the work product in real time to customer needs. By doing this, Scrum provides what the customer wants at the time of delivery (improving customer satisfaction) while eliminating waste (work that is not highly valued by the customer).

Scrum is a simple “inspect and adapt” framework that has three roles, three ceremonies, and three artifacts designed to deliver working software in Sprints, usually 30-day iterations.

• Roles: Product Owner, ScrumMaster, Team.

• Ceremonies: Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, and Daily Scrum Meeting

• Artifacts: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Burndown Chart

[An Overview of Scrum – Mike Cohn] Scrum is an agile process that allows us to focus on delivering the highest business value in the shortest time. It allows us to rapidly and repeatedly inspect actual working software (every two weeks to one month). The business sets the priorities. Teams self-organize to determine the best way to deliver the highest priority features. Every two weeks to a month anyone can see real working software and decide to release it as is or continue to enhance it for another sprint.

Naspers/MIH has one of the largest developing market investment portfolios in the Internet/Mobile space. You can see our investment portfolio here.

The SWAT team is a global product development and Internet Strategy team, comprised of Internet Analysts, Product Specialists and software engineers. Together we form a think tank and execution arm of the Internet division within Naspers, and this blog serves as our outlet for strategic thoughts, technological idea sharing and general discussion both with the users of the products within Naspers/MIH Internet as well as other new WWW destinations.

We encourage our team members as well as other Internet thinkers within our Group to write blog posts and welcome feedback and debate from the wider community.

Welcome All!

John Kotsaftis

CIO Naspers/MIH Internet