Tag Archives: android

Hands on overview of the Kotlin programming language

Events, Featured, , , ,

Presenting Hands on overview of Kotlin programming language by Dhananjay Nene. Brought to you by PuneTech, TechJam Pune, and SICSR. The event is free for anybody to attend, but registration is required

Agenda

  • 4:30 – 5:00 pm Networking
  • 5:00 – 7:00 pm Introduction to Kotlin
  • 7:00 – 7:15 pm Q&A and Closure

We will start exactly on time, so please plan to reach a bit early.

Abstract of the Talk – Hands on overview of Kotlin programming language

This session will cover an introduction to the Kotlin programming language and lots of hands on examples of how Kotlin helps write concise, safe and expressive code. It will also refer to how naturally Kotlin interoperates with existing Java libraries and frameworks and how Java and Kotlin frameworks and libraries can work smoothly with each other. The session will focus on core programming rather than any specific areas such as Android or Web or other specialised types of programming.

The audience is presumed to be reasonably aware of Java programming.

About Kotlin

Kotlin is one of the hottest new programming languages in recent times. One of the fast growing languages of 2017, it has the potential to become the preferred language for Android app development, for backend development on the JVM, and even has to potential for use in the frontend (browser). It is a concise and modern language with many advanced features like null safety, extension functions, infix notation. It has full Java compatibility (so you can use all Java libraries without any significant impedence mismatch), good IDE support (Android Studio, and IntelliJ), improves code readability, reusability, and development speed.

Kotlin has been announced as an official Android Development language by Google, and it has been adopted by a number of high-profile companies like Amazon Web Services, Pinterest, Coursera, Netflix, Uber, Square, Trello, Basecamp, and others.

About the Speaker – Dhananjay Nene

Dhananjay is a Software Engineer with over 26 years of experience in programming. He has worked with Citicorp  and AT&T in the pre millennial times. After that as a consultant he has worked on providing solutions to a number of diverse problems including building interactive educational software for pre teen children, building administration suites for workflow authoring applications, creating applications that compute electromagnetic wave signal strengths, financial supply chain services and building frameworks and applications which process in excess of a million financial transactions per hour.

For the last year he has spent most of his time on GST and he wrote, and helps manage, Vayana GSP—one of India’s leading GSPs. GSPs are the licensed systems that allow ERPs and accounting softwares to interface with the GST Network. The Vayana GSP is written in Kotlin.

Apart from programming, he has been involved with the cloud for more than a decade including all aspects of operations management and operation automation. He has switched across a number of roles including those of a developer, chief architect, chief technology officer and head of product development. He continues to be passionate about programming and design and all that comes under the umbrella of software engineering.
Dhananjay has done his post graduation from IIM-Ahmedabad, and has been involved in Senior Management positions, and has managed team sizes in excess of 120 persons.

Specialties: Software Architecture, Technology Research, OO Modeling and Design, Programming

Fees, Registration, Logistics

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here.

The event is in Room 707, on the 7th floor, from 4:30pm to 7:00pm, on Saturday, 6 January, at SICSR, Model Colony. Note: This is Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research, near Om Supermarket Circle. There are 2 or 3 different Symbiosis institutes on the same road, so read the signs carefully to ensure that you’re entering the correct one.

Tech Events this Week: iOS & Android in C#; Arduino Girls; PHP OOPS; Amazon Cloud

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Here is a list of technology events happening in Pune over the next few days. To be informed of these events in advance, you should subscribe to get the PuneTech calendar event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe.

(Paid) Working with the Amazon Cloud Program – Developer Edition [Revised Edition] 2-day workshop

  • Date: 13-14 Jun
  • Location: Pune – Contact Organizer for details

This 2-day program from Cralina takes one through all the fundamentals of
cloud computing as well as Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud and the
infrastructure services which comprise AWS through a delightful mix of
lectures, demos and hands-on exercises. By the end of the program one will
have enough hands-on experience with AWS to be able to deploy, configure and
secure one’s own scalable web application(s) on the Amazon cloud. This
program also covers the Amazon API’s useful for developers. The revised
edition of the program covers 70% of IBM Cloud Computing Infrastructure
Architect Certification and the program material covers 100%.
Target Audience:

  • Engineers/Leads/Managers who would like to get a jump start on programming
    using Amazon Web Services.
  • Engineers/Leads/Managers who intend to deploy applications or services on
    the cloud sometime in future
  • Software developers who wish to integrate Amazon cloud services into their
    own software
  • Industry professionals who would like to get an in-depth understanding of
    cloud computing using Amazon Web Services

About Cralina

Cralina provides consulting services and technology trainings in niche areas
to leading software companies and professionals with an objective to highly
improve productivity and skill levels. Cralina’s consultants have a strong
background working in a fast paced product development environment in Fortune
500 companies as well as successful startups.

Fees and Registration

This is a paid event. Check the event website:
http://www.cralina.com/upcoming-programs#Amazon for details.

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

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(Paid) 1-Day Workshop: Brand Management for Entrepreneurs

  • Date: Sat, 14 Jun 9:00am – 5:00pm
  • Location: Training Room, Venture Center, NCL Innovation Park, Pashan Road

For Whom: Entrepreneurs with product/ service offerings keen on creating a brand, Brand Managers, Brand Consultants, Management Students, Law Faculty and Students

Agenda

  • Why brands matter and How brands create value
  • Strategic branding to your advantage
  • Advertising and promoting your product/service offering with the help of your brand
  • Knowledge of designing your brand
  • Measuring brand value

Speakers:

  • Ms. Melamie Kini : MBA from SIBM, MS Advertising, NewHouse School of Public Communication Currently a Partner at Positron Consulting Services
  • Ms.Sonali Brahma: Independent Brand strategist, Creative Director, Writer and corporate trainer, Branding strategy and communication
  • Mr.Anant Govande: Chartered Accountant, Cost Accountant and Company Secretary
  • Ms. Nazima Munshi: Assistant Professor at IIPS, Mumbai (LL.B, M.Phil)
  • Mr.Manoj Kothari: Co-founder, director and principal strategist at Onio Design Pvt. Ltd

Fees and Registration

This is a paid event and fees range from Rs. 700 for students all the way up to Rs. 2000 for employees of large companies. For more details and registration information, see: http://www.ipface.org/workshops.php

About Venture Center

Entrepreneurship Development Center (Venture Center) – a CSIR initiative – is a not-for-profit company hosted by the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. Venture Center strives to nucleate and nurture technology and knowledge-based enterprises by leveraging the scientific and engineering competencies of the institutions in the Pune region in India. The Venture Center is a technology business incubator specializing in technology enterprises offering products and services exploiting scientific expertise in the areas of materials, chemicals and biological sciences & engineering.

Fees and Registration

This workshop costs Rs 1500. Please register here: http://em.explara.com/event/aime-pune

For more information, contact: Miss. Lipika Biswas, Venture Center, Phone: +91-20-20250934/64011024; Email: eventsdesk@venturecenter.co.in

See also: http://www.ipface.org/workshops.php

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

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>@PuneUserGroup and @CSIPune event: iOS and Android Development using C# with Xamarin

  • Date: Sat, 14 Jun 10:00am – 2:00pm
  • Location: CSI Office, Prabhat House, Damle Path, Off Law College Road, Behind INDSEARCH

Come celebrate Xamarin 3 with cake and food, and learning how to create iOS and Android applications in C#. Xamarin 3 was just announced including some amazing new features and enhancements such as the brand new iOS Designer, Xamarin.Forms, and support for Shared Projects. This month we will deep dive into iOS and Android Development in C# with Xamarin and all of the latest features that were just released. There will be something for everyone in this content packed meetup no matter if you are new or have been developing with Xamarin for some time. Here are just a few topics that we will cover.

Agenda

  • Sharing More Code (10:00-11:00)
    • File and project linking are no fun, and that is where PCLs and Shared Code projects come in to alleviate all of this pain. Full support is now built right into Xamarin Studio for these projects and a brand new NuGet package manager makes managing apps easy.
  • iOS Designer & Xamarin.Forms (11:00 – 12:00)
    • We already share all of our business logic, but what about the user interface? That is where Xamarin.Forms API comes in. We will see how to create your first Xamarin.Forms app to share all of your native user interface and business logic between iOS, Android, and Windows Phone!
  • Introduction to MVVM Light (12:00 – 01:00)
    • Learn MVVM and advantages of it to build cross platform applications. Learn how to use MVVM Light to implement MVVM pattern and use blendebility, testability, extensibility in your projects
  • Pizaa & Networking (01:00 – 02:00)

About CSI Pune

Computer Society of India (CSI) is one of the oldest computer science user groups in the country, and CSI Pune is has been one of the most active chapters in the country by virtue of its numerous activities and contributions in various fields. It has helped the people in implementing computerized systems in various sectors such as Industry, Banking commercial, Public sector Research and Development establishments and Government departments. With several programs and a strong IT professional network, the Pune chapter has been a part of the growth of Pune’s IT industry.

Working at the grass-root level, the chapter has also contributed toward stronger computer education is various ways. With chapters in various colleges in Pune, CSI has a very wide reach amongst the students of computer science too.

About Pune User Group

Pune User Group (aka PUG) is a Pune (India) based not-for-profit organization, an association of professionals and students interested in Microsoft technology who are dedicated and devoted to the noble cause of spreading knowledge. It is a platform for you to share your experiences and educate professionals through the learnt lessons of the best Gurus in IT indutry….because “Knowledge is wealth..” and we “Gain Knowledge by Sharing knowledge…”

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here: https://onedrive.live.com/survey?resid=94C06BE0EDFD7DCB!714&authkey=!AJfrGdBhqS8QpcE

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

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Arduino Girls: Arduino event just for girls

  • Date: Sun, 15 Jun 10:00am – 5:00pm
  • Location: Doo, 402A, Town Square, Above Dorabjees, Airport Road, Viman Nagar

Priya Kuber (https://twitter.com/beachbrake) & Ankit Daftery from Arduino India will be here to conduct the workshop.

Agenda

  • Getting Started
  • Basic Electronics
  • Interfacing and controlling using the Arduino
  • Expand your scope

Fees and Registration

This event is free, but is open only to women. Please register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1cuq0LxzPQ94ZxaC3tSE5t-E051qC0vzMTzaq0DrG6BE/viewform

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

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PHP Event: Object Oriented Programming in PHP

  • Date: Sun, 15 Jun 11:00am – 12:30pm
  • Location: Sacred World Towers, Jagtap Chowk, Wanowrie

Lets meetup on PHP OOPs various topics like –

  1. Inheritance
  2. SPL
  3. Magic Methods
  4. Autoloading
  5. Namespaces

This will be an open discussion to learn by sharing each other experience and knowledge.

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here: http://www.meetup.com/PHP-Jagruti-Meetup-Group/events/187851242/

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

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### About the PuneTech Calendar

**Get event announcements by email.** [Click here](http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=2324058) to subscribe (free) to the [PuneTech Calendar](http://punetech.com/calendar) of events, or [follow @punetech on twitter](http://twitter.com/punetech)

Pune’s Swipe Telecom gets further funding from Kalaari Capital (30cr)

Money Matters, , , ,

(Sorry, this news is being posted here a little late; I was on vacation when this news broke, and decided that a late update is better than no update at all.)

Pune based Swipe Telecom, which has been selling low-priced tablets in the Indian market for the last 2 years has received Rs. 30 crore in funding from Kalaari Capital, [reports the Economic Times][blink].

Here is some interesting information about Swipe from the article:

Swipe offers around 23 types of tablets which include those with 3D resolution as well as a range aimed at children. While its current products are on Google’s Android platform, it will soon introduce tablets on the Microsoft Windows platform.

and, some information about the founder:

“We want to be a leader in one category ,” said Shripal Gandhi, cofounder & CEO of Swipe who has 11 patents in nanotechnology. He has earlier worked at Unidym, where he worked on touch screen technologies for clients like Samsung and Apple. It is this focus that is proving attractive to investors.

And information about their revenues:

The fast growing company, founded by Gandhi and Aman Gupta two years ago, has seen a three-fold increase in revenue which touched Rs 100 crore in fiscal 2014, with an estimate to touch Rs 300 crore next year. Swipe Telecom, which says it can develop and roll out products in five weeks, is able to customise its tablets for enterprises and plans to make pre-loaded tablets for education institutes and banks.

Read the full article

Tech Events this Week: @NexusVP, @GNUnify, Mobile Apps, @SpotZot, Cocoa, OpenStack

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Here is a list of technology events happening in Pune over the next few days. To be informed of these events in advance, you should subscribe to get the PuneTech calendar event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe.

Panel Discussion: Intelligence at the Edge with @DruvaInc @Helpshift @Uniken_Inc and @nexusvp

  • Date: Thu, 13 Feb 6:00pm – 9:00pm
  • Location: Sumant Moolgaokar Auditorium, Ground Floor, Wing A, ICC Trade Center, SB Road

Nexus Venture Partners is one of India’s top technology venture capital firms, and has invested in 4 of Pune’s top technology startups: Druva, Helpshift, Pubmatic and Uniken.

On 13th October, Nexus is hosting a panel discussion on the topic “Intelligence at the edge”. With the CTOs of Druva and Helpshift, and the CEO of Uniken as panelists, it promises to be a great event that every techie in Pune who’s interested in the future of technology must attend.

Detailed Program:
– 6 – 6:30pm: Introductions
– 6:30 – 7:30pm: Panel Discussion.
– Panel Moderator:
– Jishnu Bhattacharjee, MD, Nexus Venture Partners
– Panelists:
– Milind Borate, Co-founder & CTO, Druva
– Baishampayan Ghose, Co-founder & CTO, Helpshift
– Sanjay Deshpande, Chief Innovation Officer & CEO, Uniken
– 7:30 – 8pm: Q & A
– 8 – 9pm: Networking over dinner

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16L17gU5zTGPFtfIxQWymz5tJWqcfzG3IsWvdeIag5DA/viewform

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

Get event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe (free) to the PuneTech Calendar of events.

(Paid) Android QuickStart

  • Date: 14-15 Feb
  • Location: Pune – Contact Organizer for details

This Android application programming workshop from Cralina is a hands on workshop designed to address the need of professionals who would like to start up on Android mobile application development. It is also useful for professionals who have worked on any other mobile platform and need to develop a good understanding of Android application development concepts.

Target Audience:

  • Developers, technical leads/managers who need to develop a good basic understanding of Android
  • Engineers/Managers who wish to understand Android architecture, application development on Android and also test Android based products
  • Anyone who wishes to develop a good understanding of the workings of Android

Fees and Registration

This is a paid event. Check the event website: http://cralina.com/upcoming-programs#AS for details.

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

Get event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe (free) to the PuneTech Calendar of events.

GNUnify 2014 – 2-day open-source technologies conference

  • Date: 14-15 Feb
  • Location: SICSR, (Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research, near Om Market, Model Colony)

GNUnify is one of India’s biggest open source conferences, will happen again in Pune, this Friday and Saturday (14, 15 Feb) in SICSR.

The conference will have talks and workshops on Android Hacking/Development, Programming with GCC/GDB/GMake, HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript/JQuery, Python, Google Admob challenge, OpenStack, Drupal and more.

Lots of people from all over India, and also some from abroad, usually come for this conference. This is your chance to connect with people passionate about technologies, and enthusiastic students.

This conference is free and open for anyone to attend. Click here to register.

From Idea to APP (Google Admob Challenge)

  • Date: 14-15 Feb
  • Location: 7th floor, SICSR, (Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research, near Om Market, Model Colony)

This is a 2 day workshop happening at SICSR along with GNUnify, the 2-day free and open source conference. Participants get an insight into how to transform an idea into an app. Student participants can present the same app in “Student’s admob Challenge”. Find more details at http://www.google.co.in/ads/admob/challenge.html

Entry is free. Though students can participate in Student’s Admob Challenge, working professionals too can participate as campus has kept it open to all.

Event website: http://www.meetup.com/Pune-GDG/events/164627612/ and http://gnunify.in

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

Get event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe (free) to the PuneTech Calendar of events.

(Nominal Fees) Breakfast with @TiEPune: Lessons on E-commerce & Internet advertising for entrepreneurs

  • Date: Sat, 15 Feb 8:30am – 10:30am
  • Location: Shekhar Natu Hall, 5th Floor, A-Wing, MCCIA, ICC Towers, SB Road

TiE Pune Breakfast session – with Pehr Luedtke CEO of SpotZot

As with any business move or expansion, considering an online presence can raise a sometimes dizzying list of questions for an entrepreneur. Exactly what must be put in place to make it happen? How does an online presence change the market for the business? What are competitors doing? How will people shop? What kind of security is required? How will customers pay online? Small businesses that have little or no e-commerce capabilities on their websites should know about taking the next step in converting their marketing sites into selling locations that extend their customer bases, images and sales in entirely new ways. Those entrepreneurs not yet online need to discover how the Internet is likely to transform their businesses and introduce them to markets far beyond those which are currently in reach. The most amazing aspect of e-commerce is its ability to impact sales and marketing efforts immediately. By going online, suddenly a neighborhood bakery or a home based consulting service expands its reach to a national, or even international base of potential customers. Web-based sales know no international boundaries.

About the Speaker – Pehr Luedtke

Pehr has a decade of experience in ecommerce, internet advertising, and retail. Currently, Pehr is the CEO of Spotzot, a leading location-based mobile advertising platform for retailers and brands. Spotzot employs proprietary technology to create compelling offers for consumers near retailers that they care about. Spotzot is venture funded with headquarters in San Francisco and a large development center in Pune. Prior to Spotzot, Pehr was on the executive team at Bazaarvoice, the leading ratings and reviews software company. He joined Bazaarvoice through its acquisition of PowerReviews, where he was CEO. Prior to PowerReviews, Pehr held leadership positions at eBay, Levi Strauss, and Oliver Wyman. He has an undergraduate degree from Princeton and an MBA from Stanford. Pehr lives in the Bay Area with his wife, two children, and a new puppy.

About TiE Pune

Pune chapter of TiE – A non-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals, established to foster entrepreneurship and nurture entrepreneurs.

Fees and Registration

Fees : 150/ members and 300/- non-members of TiE.

Register here: http://em.explara.com/event/tiepune15feb

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

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Pune Cocoa Meetup: Database Wars: YapDatabase Vs Core Data

  • Date: Sat, 15 Feb 3:00pm – 5:00pm
  • Location: Synerzip (3rd Floor, Revolution Mall, next to City Pride, Kothrud, Pune)

Chaitanya (@chaitanyapandit) from http://www.includetech.co will be speaking about his new found love towards YapDatabase.

YapDatabase is a “key/value store and MUCH MORE” built atop sqlite for iOS & Mac. It has the a Ton of features can be found on GitHub page

There will be a follow up Panel Discussion on YapDatabase Vs Core Data.

So, roll up your sleeves, brush up your thoughts on both these DBs and see you there.

About Pune Cocoa Meetup Group

See http://www.meetup.com/Pune-Cocoa/ for more details about the Pune Cocoa meetup group.

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here: http://www.meetup.com/PuneCocoa/events/162447612/

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

Get event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe (free) to the PuneTech Calendar of events.

WordPress User Group Pune Meetup

  • Date: Sat, 15 Feb 5:00pm – 7:00pm
  • Location: Cafe Coffee Day, Ground Floor, Mariplex Mall

If you’re interested in meeting other WordPress developers in Pune…

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here: http://www.meetup.com/WordPress/Pune-IN/1103872/

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

Get event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe (free) to the PuneTech Calendar of events, or follow @punetech on twitter

Software Developers Meetup: Intro to developing a mobile app using PhoneGap

  • Date: Sun, 16 Feb 11:00am – 1:00pm
  • Location: 5th Floor, A-Wing, MCCIA, ICC Towers, SB Road

In this tutorial, we shall create a fully functional mobile application with PhoneGap. We shall cover:

  • How to use different local data storage strategies.
  • How to use several PhoneGap APIs such as Geolocation, Contacts, and Camera.
  • How to handle specific mobile problems such as touch events, scrolling, styling, page transitions, etc.
  • How to build an application using a single page architecture and HTML templates.
  • How to build (compile and package) an application for 6 platforms using PhoneGap Build.

To attend this tutorial, all you need is a code editor (Notepad++ is fine too!), a modern browser, and a connection to the Internet (will be provided at the venue). A working knowledge of HTML and JavaScript is assumed, but you don’t need to be a JavaScript guru.

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here: http://www.meetup.com/Software-Developers-In-Pune/events/165018212/

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

Get event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe (free) to the PuneTech Calendar of events, or follow @punetech on twitter

OpenStack Pune Meetup Group: Network Virtualization – Beyond the Basics

  • Date: Tue, 18 Feb 5:30pm – 8:30pm
  • Location: JW Marriot, SB Road

Agenda

  • 5:30-6pm: Registration
  • 6pm-7:30pm: Future of Network Virtualization: Going beyond the basic Use Cases, Speaker : Martin Casado
  • 7:30pm: Networking and Dinner

About OpenStack Pune Meetup Group

This group is for OpenStack and Virtualization enthusiasts – Developers, IT Admins, Open Source Contributors to learn and share knowledge about this upcoming platform. This group is interested in Open Source, Cloud Computing, SaaS and Cloud Computing, OpenStack – Quantum, Virtualization, Building private cloud with OpenStack, OpenStack.

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here: http://www.meetup.com/OpenStack-Pune/events/162779722/

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

Get event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe (free) to the PuneTech Calendar of events.

Pune’s AppSurfer covered by TechCrunch

News, ,

Pune based startup AppSurfer, which allows Android app publishers to “publish” their apps on the web, so that buyers can try out the app in a browser before having to download it to their mobile phone, has just been covered by TechCrunch.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Amazon’s Appstore for Android has long allowed consumers to test apps in the browser before purchase, but a new startup debuting now wants to offer an alternative. AppSurfer, as the company is called, has a bigger vision: it wants to become the “YouTube of Android apps.” Whether or not the company can get there is still an unknown, but there’s something interesting about this idea of making apps browser experiences which can be tried, tested, shared, run and embedded anywhere.

AppSurfer was first covered by PuneTech last year, when it was one of the companies selected to be part of the PuneConnect 2011 event. (It was called DroidCloud in those days.) As a result of being one of the top companies of PuneConnect 2011, they were invited by Economic Times’ ET Now TV Channel on their Super Angel Show. AppSufer went on to win at Super Angels show, getting Rs. 1cr of Angel Funding.

App developers interested in using AppSurfer technology can sign up here.

QuickOffice Launches ‘Connect’ – Frontend Developed in Pune

News, , , ,

QuickOffice, the mobile office/documents software company, has recently launched Connect by QuickOffice, which is an ambitious platform which allows users to synchronize their documents across all their devices (multiple mobiles), clouds (Dropbox, Google Docs, Microsoft SkyDrive), and computers (office computer, laptop, home desktop).

QuickOffice has an offshore development center in Pune (in Pune-based Synerzip), and this team has played a significant role in this project. Vishwesh Jirgale, Architect and Delivery Head for the Client-side of Connect by QuickOffice writes:

For past one and half year I led a team of passionate engineers for Quickoffice Pune ODC and finally Quickoffice launching their new product in market, Connect By Quickoffice, which will change the way you work.

The entire client side development (Android + iOS + Windows Desktop + Mac Desktop) happened out of Pune ODC where we had large team of DEV + QA.

For more information, see this article

Pune based RainingClouds (AppSurfer) get 1cr Angel Funding

Featured, News, , , ,

Pune based software startup RainingClouds Technologies has just raised Rs. 1cr in angel funding from Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of One97 Communications. RainingClouds makes AppSurfer, which allows people to access any android app from any browser.

The funding happened as part of the Finale of the Super Angels show of ET Now. (We’ll update this post with a link to the video of this show once it appears on YouTube.) RainingClouds got into the Super Angels show as a result of being one of the winners of the PuneConnect 2011 event organized by PuneTech along with Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP) and Pune Open Coffee Club. (There, AppSurfer is referred to by its older name, DroidCloud).

Here is a description of DroidCloud from PuneConnect 2011:

DroidCloud allows users to try and use Android apps from any desktop web browser. Normally, applications intended for Android phones cannot be used by people who do not have an Android phone. DroidCloud gives every user a virtual Android phone in the cloud that they can use to run apps. This is useful for app developers to demo apps to clients, app publishers to show demo of apps to potential customers and users, and different teams in large organizations to collaborate on apps.

The DroidCloud team consists of Aniket Awati, Ratnadeep Deshmane, Amit Yadav and Akshay Deo, all techies from Pune.

Event Report: IndicThreads Conference on Mobile Application Development

Event Report, Featured, , ,

(This is a live-blog of the IndicThreads conference on mobile application development that is currently happening in Pune. Since this is a live blog, so please excuse the greater-than-normal number of errors and lack of coherence sometimes.)

NFC in mobile devices – Ashutosh Tripathy, Talentica

Ashutosh Tripathy talked about NFC in mobile devices and why it is important. NFC is “Near Field Communication”, which is a very short range wireless communication between devices. The range is very low – just a few centimeters, and the bandwidth is also low – just 424kbps max. But the important thing is the ease of use it gives in a large number of use cases – e.g. event tickets, sharing business cards, ID cards, easy printing, file sharing, mobile payments etc.

The important thing about NFC is that it does not work at a distance (and it can be configured so that it does not work when the screen is off). This means that NFC communication can only happen with the knowledge of the user of the device. Thus, for many applications you can get rid of complex security procedures and passcodes that are needed to prevent malicious users from getting access to your device without your knowledge.

For example:

  • Bluetooth + NFC gives instant Bluetooth pairing – without requiring passcodes and other complex mechanisms. So if you want to transfer a file between two devices, you bring them close together and NFC is used to set up the Bluetooth pairing. After this, the actual file transfer happens over Bluetooth, so that it will continue to work even when distance between the devices is increased.
  • Wi-Fi + NFC can similarly give very easy to use wi-fi configurations

NFC Enabled Phones in the market already:

  • Google Nexus S (Android)
  • Samsung Galaxy SII (Android)
  • Nokia C7
  • Blackberry Bold 9900 and 9930
  • Nokia 6131

Upcoming and rumored:

  • iPhone 5
  • Nokia N9, N5
  • Lots of Android 2.3.3 phones
  • LG Optimuz NET
  • Various Samsung BADA OS based phones

It is expected that most new smartphones will be NFC enabled soon.

Ashutosh followed it up with a demo of how to build an NFC app on Android.

Developing mobile enterprise applications – Yateen Shaha, SAS

More and more enterprise apps are now mobile enabled. The primary business drivers behind this trend is increased productivity, faster/better decisions, and thus competitive advantage.

Important Things to worry about when building enterprise mobile apps:

  • Delivering the right functionality – not all functionality can be supported in the mobile device. So choosing what is in and what is not included is important
  • Access Everywhere – User should be able to access the app from inside the company intranet, but also from outside over public networks.
  • Offline Access – Should be allowed
  • Protecting data – Security is very important to enterprise customers, so you need to take great pains to keep them happy.
    • Authentication could be device based, or user based, or ideally both.
    • Data Encryption:
      • Over the Air: The data being sent over the public internet should be encrypted
      • At Rest: The data stored on the device should also be encrypted, so that if the device gets lost, the data is still protected
  • Storage/Bandwidth limitations – Since storage and network bandwidth on the mobile device is going to be limited, you need to carefully design the architecture of the app (and the backend services supporting the app) in such a way that it does not require lots of data to be downloaded and stored locally.
    • Some of the decisions could be based on what kind of network connection the device is currently using. Thus, use network liberally when on wi-fi but be more careful when using 2G or 3G.
  • Code Reuse – having to maintain two different code bases, one for desktop apps, and another for mobile apps is a pain. Design the overall app (e.g. by using model-view-presenter patterns) so that maximum code is reused.

Tips and tricks:

  • Cache whenever you can, to improve performance
  • A good user experience is very critical – much more so than for desktop apps
  • Must take advantage of device features
  • Performance and Response time is critical for user acceptance

Other Talks

There was a panel discussion on “Mobile is the next Desktop.” I was one of the panelists, so unfortunately, I could not live-blog this. Topics discussed were why mobiles are going to take over the world, how developing for mobiles is different from developing for PCs, how the fragmentation in mobile (devices and platforms) is a huge pain (with no solution in sight), how html5 might or might not replace native apps, and other topics.

Mayur Tendulkar gave a presentation on Windows Phone 7. Most of what he said was similar to the talk he gave a few months back at TechWeekend 7, so I’m not repeating it here.

Abhay Aggarwal, from Xebia India talked about building an app that needs to target multiple screens. These are the various sizes available: 240×320, 240×400, 320×480, 360×640, 480×800, 540×960, this doesn’t even count the tablets. He talked about a process & architecture that would minimize the pain of doing this.

(At this point I had to leave even though there where two more talks later in the day, and a full day of talks the next day that I could not attend. However, the presentations are online at http://m11.indicthreads.com if you’re interested.)

Two tech events for Mobile Developers this Saturday in Pune

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Mobile apps are the next big thing. There is no question about that. So now is the time to learn Android or iPhone development, or if you already are an Android developer, then to meet other developers and exchange ideas.

First for Android developers – The folks behind the Pune Android Developers List have started a series of meetups of developers in Pune interested in Android, and this Saturday, 11th June, is the first meetup of this group. For now the agenda is to mainly figure out the interests of the members, and other such things. The meeting will be from 4pm onwards, at the Barista coffee shop on Law College Road. The people organizing this meeting are Aditya Laghate, and Shrenik Vikam.

The second event is organized by Tech Next, a group started by @Rohit Ghatol, with the idea of having tech talks on a monthly basis. The first in event in this series will have three speakers giving introductory talks on iPhone and Android development. This event is also on Saturday, 11th June, at 4pm. It will be at Synerzip office, 3rd Floor, Revolution Mall, next to CityPride Kothrud. For more details see the meetup page for this event.

Both these events are free for anybody to attend. You must register. For the Android Developers meet, register here and for the Tech Next intro to iPhone/Android meet, register here.

Event Report: TechWeekend Pune 7 – Mobile Application Development

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TechWeekend Pune 7, on Mobile Application Development was held on Saturday, 19th Feb. These are the live-tweets, collected here for your benefit. Remember, they are live-tweets that were being typed while the event was happening, so they’re not necessarily as coherent and as well-organized as a regular article.

Windows Phone 7 by Mayur Tendulkar

The first talk was by Mayur Tendulkar talking about Windows Phone 7

  • This talk is a basic overview of Windows Phone 7. Important now, because Nokia has now thrown its weight behind it.
  • “If windows is not behaving well, you format your drive and start again. MSFT did same with its Mobile OS. Win Phone 7 is completely new”
  • Mobile phone world suffers from large number of devices of different resolutions that behave differently. This is not true of Win Mobile 7. Windows Phone 7 insists on a standardized hardware & screen configuration. So your Win Phone 7 will always look and behave the same.
    • WinPhone7 screen config: 480×800 or 320×480. No other sizes allowed. S-LCD/AMOLED capacitive touchscreen. 4-point multi-touch
    • WinPhone7 will always have these sensors: A-GPS, proximity sensor, accelerometer, compass, light.
    • All WinPhone7 devices must have these three buttons: Start, Back, Search. (As usual, to shutdown, you press Start 🙂
  • App Development for WinPhone7: regular apps using Silverlight, and game apps using XNA.
    • “Silverlight is just like Flash”. Modern app UI framework. Apparently has 500,000 developers spanning windows, web (and now mobile)
    • Visit the Tata Nano site or the Hard Rock Cafe New York site to see some cool uses of Silverlight
    • The XNA framework for game development is mature and widely accepted – because it was in XBox 360, Windows and Zune.
  • WinPhone7 developers get all the goodness of Visual Studio for developing mobile apps with Visual Studio 2010 Express for WP.
  • Other developer tools: Silverlight Dev Kit. XNA Game Studio 4.0. Expression Blend 4.0. Also VB for WinPhone7.
  • All these development tools for WinPhone7 are free.

This was followed by a walk through of building a WinPhone7 app using Visual Studio 2010 and Silverlight.

Some interesting audience Q&A:

  • Q: What languages are supported for WinPhone7 development? A: At this point, only Visual Basic and C#
  • Q: Does WinPhone7 support multi-tasking. A: No. Some standard system services can run in the background; but apps don’t multitask.

Cross-Platform Mobile Application Development by Rohit Ghatol

Next up: Rohit Ghatol talking about cross-platform mobile app development using phonegap, titanium etc.

  • Two ways of developing cross-platform apps. 1. Develop html5 apps for webkit. 2. Use a translator that translates your app to native code.
  • For now, all major mobile platforms have a webkit based browser (except WinPhone7). So writing an app targeting webkit is “cross-platform”
  • Q: Will a webkit based app work with WinPhone7? A: No. But Mango release of WinPhone7 will support html5, so you should be close.
  • Translating common codebase to different native apps – Titanium. Write in JavaScript, and translate to Native.
  • PhoneGap = HTML5 + CSS3 + JavaScript + special ability to make calls to access phone sensors etc.
    • Note: HTML5/CSS3 development for mobile apps works because all phone browsers are much more advanced on this issue than desktop browsers
    • Features supported by phonegap: accelerometer, camera, compass, contacts, file io, geolocation, audio recording, sound, vibration, storage. Note: not all these features are supported on all mobile phone platforms
    • PhoneGap prerequisites: Need to be a html/javascript expert. Also, it doesn’t help you with UI, you need to be able to develop that
    • So with PhoneGap app development, you’ll probably be doing UIs by using JQueryUI or something like that.
    • Note: PhoneGap ultimately creates a native app that users install. Not just a website that they visit in the browser.
  • At this point, Rohit, showed actual PhoneGap code for a mobile app – to write an app that shows a google map of my current location.
  • Big challenge of PhoneGap is that you need to bring your own UI development framework. This is an advantage also! – PhoneGap allows you to have same UI framework for website as well as your mobile app.
  • Rohit’s suggestions for UI framework – 1. GWT 2. jQueryMobile
  • With Titanium, you write apps in Javascript. This is interpreted by MozillaRhino on Android, and by Webkit JavascriptCore on iOS
    • You have two different directories for images – one for Android, & one for iPhone, because they handle images differently.
    • iPhone requires just one size of images. Android allows different images for different screen sizes/resolutions/orientations.
    • Titanium problem – layout is absolute. For people used to the great layout capabilities of Android, this is a big step down
    • Titanium uses native UI (iPhone and Android), where are PhoneGap uses non-native (html/css) UI. Former gives better experience…
  • PhoneGap/Titanium both use Javascript Interpretation, so both can’t do multi-threaded apps
  • Building your own webkit based cross-platform framework makes sense if you want to overcome limitations of phonegap/titanium.
  • This won’t be as clean as phonegap/titanium, but might be good for your specific case. Steal phonegap/titanium code if required!
  • Comparison of PhoneGap vs Titanium. Titanium more proprietary, limited UI, …
    html5/css3/javascript is the future; but not there yet. Until then, write to webkit specs…

Android Performance Tuning by Anand Hariharan

Next speaker was Anand Hariharan talking about Android Performance tuning.

  • For app performance: first focus on what the user wants, don’t just improve performance for the sake of improving performance. Optimize only after measuring performance, and having specific performance goals. A lot of performance tuning, is really about managing user perception. When doing something that will take time, keep user engaged.
  • Don’t optimize everything for performance – you don’t have the time. Focus on the most important user visible features and fix those. In mobile world – reduce features and use the time saved on fixing performance.
  • Manage user perception better: e.g. Apple’s use of loading a bitmap image of app at beginning to give impression that app has loaded. At app startup time, load a bitmap that looks like your app without the latest data. Gives impression that app load is fast.
  • Performance tips: All platforms have a “recommended best practices” doc. Read that – many developers dont 🙂 e.g. Android best practice: for tasks that take time, use a background service (not an activity).
  • Anand talking about how to avoid an “Application Not Responding” (ANR) dialog for your app
    • An android app is single-threaded. So don’t do io (network or disk) synchronously. Use an async mechanism.
  • Keep activities small. Don’t overload activities. Use different activities to do different things.
  • Use the minimum number of views. Do not use a deeply nested view hierarchy. Your view hierarchy shouldn’t be more than 3 levels deep. If you’re views are getting complicated, consider writing custom views.
  • Track memory allocations. Garbage collection happening during user activity causes slowdowns.
  • Close your cursors. Otherwise garbage collector cannot reclaim memory. Then you get GC cycles, and slowdowns.
  • use onRetainNonConfigurationInstance() to retain large amounts of data between device orientation changes (landscape to portrait)
  • Use SoftReferences to cache data so that the garbage collector can reclaim the memory when required.
  • Avoid database writes as far as possible. Writes take 5ms to 200ms. And full SD card has slower writes.
  • Avoid using data from mutiple tables in a single list (AdapterView). First copy data from multiple tables to a single table and show that. e.g. in Email app, subject and body came from different tables. This really slowed down the inbox view (which shows first line of body).
  • Tools to help with android app optimization: Fix your views using: hierarchyviewer, layoutopt. Check flow & times using: traceview. Use zipalign to optimize your apk (improves app load time).
  • Above all, you must understand what you’re optimizing and why. Measure, measure, measure.