iTexico Top 5 Mobile Development Stories. November 2013 Edition

The end of 2013 is near and looking back we’ve had some great announcements and releases during the whole year. From Apple we saw the announcements of the new mobile operating system iOS 7 and its new user interface, the much expected iPhone 5S, the super light iPad Air, among other things. In the other hand, Google kept Android app developers very busy as well with things like the Nexus series for tablets and phones, the announcement of Android 4.4 Kit Kat and Samsung releasing the newest versions of its smartphones.

Wearable Tech was very trendy too with all those smartwatches making the news such as the Pebble, Samsung Galaxy Gear, even an ongoing rumor about the "iWatch" and, of course, the controversial Google Glass that has captured the attention of many users and early adopters having fun with it.

So as you seen, lots of things going on. But what is left for the last quarter of 2013? Well here are the latest stories in the industry, let's start.

There were a lot of rumors and videos about the flexible OLED attempting to make a trend in the future of smartphones. Now LG announces the first “real” curved smartphone, which includes all the promised features of a curved smartphone such as unlocking the device and taking a quick look to see messages.

The new LG G Flex smartphone’s main feature is not only the curved screen but also that it is the first “self-healing smartphone” That’s right, it heals from scratches, kind of.

In the link you can see a YouTube video where device is put through a test, from a scratch with the keys to a cut with a knife! The results are amazing and makes you wonder how many things can be built with that kind of material.

Peter Traeg, of Smashing Magazine, brings us a series of tutorials to build mobile applications in four different ways: Native iOS, Native Android, PhoneGap and Appcelerator Titanium. In this first part he discusses the Native iOS development.

As an excellent opportunity to broaden your scope as a mobile developer, as the author says, it’s not about converting into a particularly technology but to provide some insight into how applications are created in different technologies.

In this segment you can see the basics of iOS development and how a project is created in XCode, Storyboards, objective C test and more.

Now you can have the blueprints for a do-it-yourself phone where all software and hardware details are provided through GitHub.

The cellphone is a basic GMS service where you can make calls, send text messages, store names and it can be made by you in many variants. An interesting hobby for those who are into the technology and can help younger generations to understand the functionality of the common day objects.  Just like solving math problems and computer language coding, it helps young eager minds solve complex problems.

You can find the complete project, owned by David A. Mellis, order parts, software and instructions on his webpage to create a cellphone that is completely made by you.

2014 is just around the corner and we had a lot of news buzzing this year.  In the beginning of this year we talked about curved phones, Apple releasing TouchID, the growing adoption of smart TVs, the release of Xbox one and so on. As you can see the trends were very different at the beginning of 2013. So what can we expect from the upcoming year??

Jayson DeMers from Forbes.com explains the most possible trends for next year. Smart TV as a basic device for the families and upgraded interaction with smartphones are just a few. Smart watches and other smart gears will get smarter indeed. A forecast about google glasses is waiting on standby with the release of the version 2.0 and more.

Let’s not forget that Amazon is attempting to make delivery by using drones and the growing community of 3D printing. More and more start up projects are arising and, I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see what is coming in the near future.

With the surprise announcement of the new Android OS’s name and its promised new features, the Android community is impatient to get the new update on their phones. The new features has been appearing slowly on the web and until the official release date is announced we can do nothing but wait eagerly.

Google Nexus 5 will come with Android 4.4, while Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One will be available for upgrades. More devices will be announced. Meanwhile see a preview of the top features for Android Kit Kat by IBNLive.

Alfonso Banuelos is a Marketing Associate at iTexico. He holds a Bachelor in Marketing and a Diploma in Marketing and Sales Strategies by the University of Guadalajara. Additionally, he is one of the main voices driving iTexico's Social Media updates and communications.

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