Category Archives: Mobile

[Video 334] Tom Occhino: Introducing React Native

React.js is a popular client-side JavaScript framework that has become quite popular since it was introduced about two years ago. Earlier this year, Facebook unveiled a new library based on React.js, called “React Native.” This framework is for native mobile apps, rather than Web applications, but uses the existing React paradigms. In this talk, Tom Occhino reviews the past and present of React.js, and then describes where it is going, in React Native. If you have heard about React.js but don’t quite know what it does, or would like to use JavaScript for native app development, this talk should explain much of it to you.

[Video 307] Rene Schmidt: Taking Storage for a Ride with Uber

How does Uber store its data? Uber uses MySQL, a popular open-source relational database.  But it also uses a NoSQL system known as “schemaless,” which is an append-only system that takes a functional approach to data. How does this work, and how did Uber come to decide on it for their storage needs? How does this system scale at a company that’s growing at such a phenomenal rate? And what does the future hold for Uber’s “schemaless” system?  In this talk, Rene Schmidt addresses all of these questions and issues, describing the types of messages that Uber sends and stores, and the ways in which schemaless has helped them succeed as a company.

[Video 221] Estelle Weyl: Mobile Web Performance

The Web is increasingly mobile; people are increasingly using phones and tablets, in addition to desktop computers.  We hear a great deal about how we thus need to take mobile devices into account in our development work — but “mobile” means much more than having a responsive site. We need to take mobile devices’ speeds, battery lives, UI, and sizes into account when considering our Web application performance. In this talk, Estelle Weyl tells us what Web developers need to know in order to develop sites that are high quality for mobile devices, as well as for the desktop.

[Video 189] Janne Jul Jensen: UX in an Agile Process

We know that UX is an important part of software design.  But the high principles associated with UX design can sometimes fall somewhat short of the real-world situations in which designers find themselves.  How can you reconcile real-world constraints with the your UX plans? In this talk, Janne Jul Jensen brings a case study from a mobile banking system on which she worked.

 

Aimee Maree Forsstrom: FireFoxOS and the Linux Kernel

Firefox is a well-known open-source Web browser from the Mozilla Foundation. FirefoxOS is a new open-source mobile operating system, designed to comply with Web standards and be as open as possible. In this talk, Aimee Marie Forsstrom introduces FirefoxOS, describes the different parts of this architecture, and shows how it is similar to (and different from) Android.

David Crawshaw: The State of Go on the Android Platform

Android is (as we all know) a major mobile platform. To date, virtually all Android programs have been written in a version of Java. However, it is now starting to be possible to write Android programs using Go. Go was designed to be a new, compiled system programming language, meant to replace C for many modern tasks. If you are interested in Go, Android, or both, then it’s worth learning about this new direction in which the mobile application world may be moving.