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LiveCode (Formerly Runtime Revolution) Gaining Some Serious Cred
My favorite programming language is gaining some serious traction in the world of iOS development.
Formerly called Runtime Revolution after the company that made it, the more recently christened LiveCode is up for a MacUser award in the innovations category and a fairly simple demo app written using only LiveCode has gained significant recognition both on YouTube and on the iPhone/iPad platforms in Apple's App Store.
The app is called Sheep Herder and while it's a bit simple-minded to make a really playable game, it has enjoyed a four-star rating and lots of great user comments. The YT video shows the game's designer/developer building the complete app in LiveCode in just over three hours. (BTW, you can download the entire source code for the app here, but it won't do you much good if you don't own LiveCode and an iOS developer account with Apple.)
LiveCode is good enough that a number of folks who have seen the video (upwards of 250,000!) and the game have expressed doubts that the story that the game was written without using XCode or Objective-C. I can say this: LiveCode is certainly fully capable of creating the game and a lot more complexity than that. Could a LiveCode newbie do it? Sure. Not in three hours, probably, but certainly it's possible. And LiveCode has one of the shallowest learning curves for a programming language I, a language junkie, have ever encountered.
The only reason I don't still live in LiveCode as I once did is that it's still not quite where it needs to be for me to build Web apps, i.e., apps that run entirely in the browser. You still need a plugin for that and folks seem more reluctant than ever to download and install plugins outside a handful that have gained reputations for reliability and safety.
Android Sales Misleading Thanks to Massive Returns
Would you believe some Android phone models are showing return rates approaching 40%!!?? Well, that's what TechCrunch is reporting. The primary reason appears to be user dissatisfaction and/or confusion. People buy an Android to save money and "think differently" and then compare their purchase to their friends' iPhones and go back to the store disappointed.
Interestingly, the same piece says the return rate on iPhone 4's is an unbelievably low 1.7%.
Combine these return rates with the heavily fragmented platform story surrounding Android and it becomes a far less attractive development option than it first appears, and even that first appearance isn't all that hot.
I have to say that I have both an Android and an iPhone and as I compare them in side-by-side usage the Android almost always comes out on the short end of the stick. The things it excels at are of interest primarily to techies who, in case you missed it, aren't a huge market segment.
John Allsopp: "Hybrid Phone Apps Are BS"
SitePointe columnist Louis Simoneau had a good piece on the role of hybrid apps in the skyrocketing world of smartphone and portable device app development the other day. Featured in his article was a link to a fascinating podcast with long-time smartphone guru and conference organizer John Allsopp.
In this podcast -- and lots of other places on the Web -- John faces the issue of hybrid apps head on, opining that they are essentially dead ends that there are "a whole pile of reasons" not to engage in. His view is that Web apps built using HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS are destined to be far more successful and less prone to sudden shifts in the markets caused by disruptive technology and marketing decisions by the owners of the few App Stores out there. I've been saying this for some time, of course, but it isn't only the fact that John and I agree that causes me to recommend this podcast. Listen carefully to what he says; he offers software developers of all stripes a cogent look at the near-term future.
