Apple’s iOS 6 Vs Android’s 4.0: Who Comes Out On Top?

For mobile and tablet lovers, the big news from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2012 conference was the official unveiling of their new mobile operating system, iOS 6. Stacked with over 200 new features, we thought why not pitch Apple’s latest operating system against Android’s most recent, just to see which one really is the best. Here are some of the highlights:

Apple has finally ditched Google Maps with iOS 6, and their new map feature may finally come close to the might of the ever-popular Google Maps found on Android 4.0. Having teamed up with TomTom and C3, Apple’s new map feature boasts 3D imaging and turn-by-turn navigation which allows you to arrive at your destination thanks to spoken directions. However, Google Maps have been ruling the roost for years with 3D views, Street View, as well as their own turn-by-turn navigation.

Apple has also added enhanced functionality for Siri with iOS 6. You can launch apps, as well as ask for latest sports scores and fixtures. In addition, you can find out the latest movie listings and book a table at a restaurant. All very innovative and cool. In comparison, Samsung’s S-Voice, only exclusive to the Samsung Galaxy S3, is also innovative, but more basic than Siri.

Androids 4.0 introduced some fascinating developments on the camera front. Users can enjoy comprehensive editing functionality, as well as live video effects. There’s also a nifty feature allowing you to use the camera whilst in lock mode. On iOS 6 users can benefit from an added photo stream feature which allows the sharing of photos and photo streams across all devices. Both Android 4.0 and iOS 6 allow users to now chat over 3G and WiFi connections.

There’s a great deal more to consider when comparing the two, user interface, video calling, browsing and security too. Overall though, the inclusion of Apple Maps and a smarter Siri just gives iOS 6 the edge. The downside is that we have to wait until autumn 2012 to find out for ourselves.

==== About the Author ====
This guest post has been provided by Insurance2go, a leading provider of mobile phone insurance.

The post Apple’s iOS 6 Vs Android’s 4.0: Who Comes Out On Top? appeared first on Techie Buzz.

347 days ago • Google Reader • Tags: Android, comparison, iOS, Reviews

Cppcheck – A free static analyser for C and C++

I got a tip from Anna-Jayne Metcalfe of C++ and QA specialists Riverblade to check out Cppcheck, a free static analyser for C and C++. I ran >100 kLOC of PerfectTablePlan C++ through it and it picked up a few issues, including:

variables uninitialised in constructors
classes passed by value, rather than as a const reference
variables whose scopes could be reduced
methods that could be made const

It only took me a few minutes from downloading to getting results. And the results are a lot less noisy than lint. I’m impressed. PerfectTablePlan is heavily tested and I don’t think any of the issues found are the cause of bugs in PerfectTablePlan, but it shows the potential of the tool.

The documentation is here. But, on Windows, you just need to start the Cppcheck GUI (in C:Program filesCppcheck, they appear to be too modest to add a shortcut to your desktop), select Check>Directory… and browse to the source directory you want to check. Any issues found will then be displayed.

You can also set an editor to integrate with, in Edit>Preferences>Applications. Double clicking on an issue will then display the appropriate line in your editor of choice.

Cppdepend is available with a GUI on Windows and as a command line tool on a range of platforms. There is also an Eclipse plugin. See the sourceforge page for details on platforms and IDEs supported. You can even write your own Cppcheck rules.

Cppcheck could be a very valuable additional layer in my defence in depth approach to QA. I have added it to my checklist of things to do before each new release.

Filed under: C++, QA, reviews, software, tools Tagged: C++, Cppcheck, free, QA, software, static analysis, tool

569 days ago • Google Reader • Tags: C++, Cppcheck, free, QA, Reviews, software, static analysis, tool, tools

Welshare – A Central Location For All Your ‘Likes’

Welshare refers to itself as a single “like” button for all your messages, no mater what social network they come from. It lets you “like” and “favorite” content and access it from a single location. Additionally, Welshare gives you the ability to cross-post your likes and favorites to your social accounts.

For instance, liking a message on Welshare can be posted to your Twitter account and likewise, liking a tweet on Twitter can be posted to your Welshare account. You can also get notifications every time your messages are liked, retweeted, or replied to. So Welshare also makes it easy to keep up with your own content and who is sharing it.

Welshare gives you a score (social reputation), which is calculated using a special formula created by Welshare. This gives Welshare the ability to rank you among other users and also based on your city and country.

Connect Your Accounts

Currently you can connect your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ accounts to Welshare.

Each account has its own customization options and you can also format the way that messages are posted. Google+ and LinkedIn even give you the option to enable active sharing by default.

Welshare uses its own URL shortener by default, but you can also enter your bit.ly credentials (username and api key) so that you can track your links via your own account if you prefer.

Home Page

Your home page is where you’ll find status update from your friends, which are imported from the accounts that you choose to connect to Welshare. This page is where you can like, reply, and add messages to your favorites. As you can see from the image below, messages from all accounts are mixed together and you’ll be alerted of new messages at the top of your stream.

Your Page

“Your Page” is where you can see all of the messages that you’ve shared via Welshare. There is a status update box where you can enter messages (up to 300 characters) to be posted to your social accounts and add a picture and/or link. There is also an option to schedule posts for later (though I couldn’t get it to work at this time).

Top Users

In this section you can get a glimpse of the top Welshare users along with their score and number of messages posted. You can also search by country or city to help you find local users and follow users right from the list. This is a great way to find and connect with other Welshare users.

Final Thoughts

The design needs some tweaking and there are also a few features which I couldn’t get to work properly (like using my bit.ly account and scheduling messages). While Welshare advertises itself as simply a like button for all of your content, it does so much more than that.

On the features page, you can see that it’s a unified stream, message scheduler, viral graph, notification center for your shared content, and much more. The design and buggy features could be a deal-breaker for some, yet it’s definitely a useful tool that will come in handy for many others.

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