Singlebrook Technology was interviewed for a front page article in the Ithaca Times.

From the Ithaca Times, 2/16/2011

"Ithaca businesses creating, utilizing mobile applications"

Rob Montana

Managing Editor

Apps.

No longer the shortened version of appetizers, the word "app" has become an increasing part of our daily vocabulary as we become even more immersed in technology. Apps, in this case anyhow, refer to applications, specifically mobile computing applications. Netbooks, tablets and smartphones are part of a growing market of taking our computing on the road, making it easier to access maps, work remotely or get wrapped up in a time-sucking game like Angry Birds.

It seems like just a short time ago it was a big deal to be able to access the Internet on your phone, the clunky navigation and lack of visuals notwithstanding. Those dark ages led to the development of mobile websites, stripped down pages designed to convey the important information while allowing for easier browsing by removing the visual components that slow them down.

"A mobile optimized Web site, this can function like an app," said Elisa Miller-Out, chief executive officer of Singlebrook Technology, founded in 2006 and located in Ithaca. "A Web site or Web-based application of some kind, we can design that Web site so it's easily accessible on a mobile device.

"When you go to that site on, say, an iPhone, that Web site has been designed to be viewed on a mobile device, designed with a touch screen-friendly interface," she added. "It's been optimized so there won't be big finger-friendly buttons on it. It's designed for use with fingers, so there might be different things you can do on the site with your phone. It's a very different kind of interface."

A mobile Web site does offer something not necessarily offered with an app -- access to anyone with Internet access on their phone.

"While an app can integrate Web-based features, there are components that will work offline," Miller-Out said. "A calculator app would be an example. You do not need an Internet connection; you could be using it on a subway with no real service. If you are works with the Internet in some way, those apps will be successful and work with varying degrees of success depending on what kind of connection they have."

Native Apps

A native app is a piece of software developed to match the specifications of each phone system, as opposed to mobile-optimized Web site is designed to be accessible by anyone with internet access no matter what brand of phone they are using. Apps that are available in the iTunes store for use with an iPhone are developed with the iPhone requirements in mind, while apps for Google's Droid phones are found in the Android Market and offerings for the Blackberry system may be purchased through Blackberry's App World.

"A native app is an actual piece of software developed for a particular platform," Miller-Out said. "An iPhone app can only run on the iPhone platform, it can't run on a Blackberry or Nokia phone.

"There are also native apps for some of the other platforms, like Blackberry or Android," she added.

While native apps are designed with a platform in mind due to the software requirements needed, they also are designed to take advantage to the special characteristics of each device.

"With an iPhone, you can shake it and get it to do certain things," said Miller-Out. "You can shake it and get e-mail. It might mean different things; it activates some particular features in a variety of apps.

"With an iPhone, you can pinch and stretch the screen. In some apps that might mean something special," she added. "These are things that are specific to a native app, designed to take advantage of that particular platform."

Don Ellis, director of technical planning for Gorges, a web development and Internet solution company in Ithaca, said the app market has been growing steadily in the last couple of years. He said there are a few different development environments -- programs that aid in the creation of software -- that are used for designing apps, depending on the platform of mobile device that will be used. The environment acts as a foundation with which the app's "house" will be built upon.

"The really important thing in selecting a foundation is determining what native output you will have," Ellis said, adding he hopes nobody creates apps in line-by-line code anymore. "Is it capable of output for iPhone and Android and Blackberry and on and on?"

Ellis said Gorges uses a development environment that can create apps for the iPhone and Android, and he expects the next upgrade to include tools to build native apps for Blackberry as well.

"Another thing about the development environment is that you should also be able to output a mobile-friendly version of a Web site," he added.

When designing a native app it is important to figure out how an individual would use it and what they might like to be able to do with it.

"There are other kinds of important considerations," Ellis said. "One question, 'How is the owner of this app going to keep it up to date?' This is a very major consideration and has everything to do with shaping the technology.

"Typically, a company will have a Web site that contains much of the information they would want on a mobile app. If they want a native app, we build that native app and link it to their Web site using RSS (real simple syndication) to output anything from the Web site they want to be a part of the mobile app," he added. "That means they don't have the redundancy of having to maintain two separate media. You keep the content up-to-date on the Web site and the RSS will push that to the app immediately."

Businesses looking to enhance their profile with a mobile presence have some options -- they can go for a mobile-optimized Web site, create a native app or a combination of approaches. There are even choices for developing native apps, as they can choose to have it function with the iPhone, Blackberry or Droid -- or create something that will work with all the platforms.

"If a big enough company wanted to do all of the above, the experience will tend to be, in some cases, a richer user experience," Miller-Out said. "If you're looking for the broadest accessibility, then a mobile-optimized web site might be the way to go, because it's accessible on any platform.

"One thing people point out as different between native and web-optimized, is that native apps tend to have some offline functionality," she added.

Local Use

Keith Kubarek, who has operated his company -- One Bad Ant -- on a full-time basis for eight years, has designed several local apps -- including ones for the Discovery Trail and trail member the History Center, as well as one for the Cornell Alumni Magazine. The Discovery Trail and History Center apps are free in the iTunes store, while the Cornell Alumni Magazine -- listed as camonline -- is 99 cents. Kubarek's fourth app creation isn't Ithaca-centric, it's about hiking in the Adirondacks and the range's 46 high peaks.

"The alumni magazine was the first one," Kubarek said. "That was more complex than the History Center and Discovery Trail, which had a lot of lists of times and where the museums were located and what they had to offer. The magazine has each issue on it, and you can navigate through the previous issues."

He started developing apps about six months after the first iPhone was released and is now looking into iPad app development.

"It's really interested in how this all has developed," Kubarek said. "The first iteration was to create mobile Web sites for smartphones, which is a really good thing for a company to have in place.

"You lose a lot, though, if you only do a mobile version of your Web site, because you can't take advantage of the hardware and you also have to have a connection to get data," he added. "For example, the Discovery Trail and History Center apps have all their hours. If you're traveling through or around Ithaca, with all the hills and valleys, you might lose service, but you still have all the information."

Discovery Trail Coordinator Nancy Grossman said Kubarek had some ideas about the app development -- currently only available for the iPhone, as are Kubarek's other apps -- and went forward with it. She said the app was reviewed before its iTunes release, and thought it was a positive addition to the promotion of the Trail.

"It's another way to reach out to people," Grossman said. "With people using so much technology these days, any way to get yourself visible in front of your audience is a good thing and add more ways to get people in the door.

"We want to have a community of lifelong learners," she added. "We're going to have information about new exhibits, new events and what's happening on the Trail to engage more people."

Kubarek, who said he'd love to be able to predict whether more local businesses would start utilizing apps, feels there is lots of opportunity for companies in Ithaca to do so, and do so creatively.

"I can see all kinds of amazing uses in Ithaca for apps, but it's been slow to catch on," said Kubarek. "My feeling is there are great opportunities for places like the Sciencenter. Cornell hasn't done much, Ithaca College hasn't done much.

"I could see apps being useful in tracking tourism," he added.

He could also see using apps to aid people following the History Center's historical trail or taking the Sciencenter's Sagan Planet Walk.

"Right now, the History Center, has a PDF that talks about the historical trail you can take through town," Kubarek said. "You could do that on an app, follow the GPS from location to location, when you reach a location there could be information about what took place there.

"The Planet Walk, it would be interesting to do something with that. It could provide more information about the planet you're looking at," he added. "Those are just a couple of things. The Museum of the Earth could have an amateur paleontologist kind of app where students could go around with an iPhone, unearth bones, record notes and a GPS location, and that all could feed to a central database on PRI's (Paleontological Research Institute) Web site so others could look at the information."

The possibilities, Kubarek said, "are just amazing."

"With the iPad now, there are even more opportunities, especially for print and magazines," he said. "The (Cornell) Alumni Magazine was thinking about that, but they have the funding and time to do those things. There are a lot of interesting possibilities right now; it's exciting."

While the possibilities may be endless, just how hard is it to create a native app? Not too hard for those who know the language of computers, said Miller-Out. Web firms like Singlebrook, Gorges and One Bad Ant are capable of developing apps, but there are also freelance individuals around Ithaca that are working on them.

"Most firms that have the capability to do basic web programming could do an iPhone app pretty easily," Miller-Out said. "All of our app programmers started out either as Web programmers or software programmers, and all were able to create native apps very quickly.

"They spent a few extra hours learning about it," she added. "If a they're a good Web developer, they can learn new languages pretty quickly. The concepts are the same, they do cross over from language to language."

Miller-Out also has seen a slow move locally by businesses and organizations to embrace native apps for their use.

"It's definitely happening, but it's still somewhat slow. It always takes a little while for people to catch up. We're going to experience more explosive growth with midsize tablets and iPads, and those all have apps," she said. "It's a slightly different way people are interfacing with it. There is more and more of a need for businesses of all kinds to be updating their Web presence, whether it's through a mobile Web site or tablet-friendly sites. It's going to be pretty essential to having a Web site for any business. It just takes a while for these things to catch on.

"But, people are accessing more and more information on the go, and the new devices make it so easy and enjoyable," Miller-Out added. "Before when surfing on the phone wasn't like it is on smartphones, surfing the Web or really accomplishing anything like that on the phone was challenging. But when you have the interfaces we have now, it really is a game changer, it really is."

For more information about Singlebrook Technology, visit www.singlebrook.com; for more information about Gorges, visit www.gorges.us; and for more information about One Bad Ant, check out www.onebadant.com.