Schedule

 

Download the Full 2012 M3 Conference Program

Augmented reality is changing and evolving the way B2C and B2B companies engage with customers. By leveraging augmented reality, companies can engage customers in a unique and interactive experience. You will learn how augmented reality works, what the advantages are over other mobile engagement options, and you will see some examples of how it is being used.

Windows 8 is the largest developer opportunity that combines the broad reach of Windows, MSFT's best in class developer tools and a re-imagined user experience with new support for chipsets and industry-leading business terms in the App Store. Come spend a day learning how to build real-world Windows 8 applications; quick topic discussions followed by hand-on time with experts around!
Session topics:

• The Windows 8 Platform
• Designing Apps with Modern UI Principles and Windows Personality
• Building Windows 8 Apps with XAML: What .NET Developers Need to Know
• Everything Web Developers Must Know to Build Windows Apps
• Integrating with the Windows 8 Experience through Contracts
• Windows 8 App Controls & Data
• Application Lifecycle Management for Windows 8 Apps
• Bring Your Apps to Life with Tiles and Notifications
• Building Windows 8 Apps that leverage Modern Hardware

Space might be limited therefore, REGISTER TODAY!

Do you need an app that is truly cross platform? Not one that works both on android and iOS, but looks the same and functions the same? In this session, I will show you how using Titanium and some advanced techniques you will be able to have the same design and functionality on both devices.

See how to build your first Windows 8 app. We will use what I learned when creating the app: .NET Gurus Can Cook, which contains recipes from famous folks in the software industry such as Scott Hanselman and Mary Jo Foley. Join ComponentOne Developer Evangelist and former Microsoft Developer Evangelist, Russ Fustino in this session and learn the new programming paradigm for creating Windows 8 style apps. You will see how to build an application that incorporates many of the key characteristics of a great Windows 8 style app, including: • A modern UI user experience that leverages the signature Windows 8 controls such as GridView, ListView, FlipView, AppBar, Semantic Zoom and other Windows 8 controls. • A user experience that scales across large and small displays and provides proper handling of snapping and different orientations • Integration with Windows 8 charms through the settings, search, and share contracts • Handling of lifecycle and application-model events to properly save and restore state and roam settings so the users can seamless transition across tasks and even devices • Secondary tile pinning, notifications and badges to keep your application’s content alive ever-present to the end-user

In this session, you'll get a technical look at many of the new features and technologies that are packed into the new Windows Phone platform.

Continuous Integration (CI) can be a boost to your project. It can make your dev life easier. You may know this from having used a Continuous Integration server on Java, .NET or Ruby projects - it's pretty common, and for good reason. But CI for iOS is still too rare. This talk will discuss how to get started with CI for your iPhone and iPad projects. We'll cover compiling your code, running tests and deploying your app. We'll also survey other tools you can add to your CI environment to get more done while you sleep.

Because of Android's open nature, it makes it much easier for Android phone and tablets to connect to external devices via USB, Bluetooth and RS-232 serial interfaces. In this class, we show how to connect an Android tablet to different hardware, such as a barcode reader and a credit card reader via an Arduino board. We'll look at the tools and techniques you can employ to make connecting to external devices and what pitfalls you may encounter along the way. We'll also write an Android app to read the barcode information and display the data on an Android tablet.

Windows 8 brings a cool new platform for developing games and making some money. This session will talk about the fundamentals of creating casual games and present the varied options that are now available on this platform. We will also discuss how to make money from the games you have created. It has been an exciting ride creating Windows Phone 7 apps and the excitement continues with Windows 8 RT apps.

This intermediate level session will help you get more out of debugging with Xcode. It will start with the basics, like logging, breakpoints and variables, and move to more advanced topics like conditional breakpoints, watching memory and location debugging.

Smartphones and tablets continue to find their way into American homes and businesses, and every one of those devices is running multiple mobile applications. While this explosive growth has opened new worlds to end users, it has also garnered the attention of technically sophisticated criminals. This presentation is designed to provide mobile app developers with an understanding of mobile devices and applications from an attacker's perspective. Once that foundation has been laid, it goes on to equip developers with the knowledge and tools they need to build a secure application, one that functions as the developer intended and not as the attacker desires.

A lot of things need to happen to create a great product, including getting different types of people to learn to work together. How many times have you worked on something that never saw the light of day? Or looked a little different from what you expected when it launched? More often than not, this is due to a lack of shared goals and collaboration. Additionally, technology is advancing at the speed of light. We have the challenge of keeping up with these advances while also keeping our eye on the bigger picture -- the opportunity for our clients and customers. It's an exciting time where technology can deliver amazing, new experiences. But, this can only happen with a tight collaboration between everyone that is a part of the product creation process. Using examples from the colliding worlds of designers and developers trying to work together, we will look at some suggestions for how to improve collaboration, which, ultimately, creates better products.

Mobile apps are the hottest trend in tech right now, leaving many companies struggling to create a mobile strategy for their products or services. When defining this strategy, the question of do I really need a mobile app is the first barrier that needs to be crossed. Deciding whether a mobile app is truly necessary is the first, and perhaps the most important decision. In this session, I will discuss why a company might truly need a custom mobile application, and when updating a portion of an existing web site to be mobile device-friendly may be the more appropriate solution.

With so many tools available today to make applications run across multiple platforms, it's easy to think that a user experience can translate well to all platforms. The fact of the matter is, users on different platforms have different expectations. What works on Android might not work on iOS, and what works on iOS probably won't transfer well to Windows Phone 7. Apps should make use of features and UI elements specific to their platform, and make the user feel right at home on every possible device. Together, we can examine the design metaphors of each platform and determine the best way to provide a consistent and elegant user experience.

As a great software developer, you learned early in your development career that duplication of code was not a good idea. With development patterns such as SOLID, developers are trained early that code duplication is evil. To help battle code duplication, and allow parts of Android applications to be reusable, the Android platform has recently introduced library projects to add to your development arsenal. In this session, we will explore Android library projects and the benefit they can provide to your application.

Recently iOS 6 has been all the rage in mobile circles, and we even got a glimpse of it in action in June at WWDC 2012. But what it really offers and how to make the best use of new features in an efficient manner is what matters to developers. In this talk we will learn how to make our apps more interactive with the use of iOS6 and third party libraries. Along the way we will discover techniques to make apps even more engaging and cool. By looking at App Store stats one can easily tell what makes a good app; it is not just “What it can do” but “How you achieve that goal” without making your app boring or dull. Learn how to make your own design guidelines to better serve your users and step outside of basic interactions.

Adding a Map to an App and recording a User’s location as they use the App has become a common must have feature in may of todays popular applications. This presentation will go over the APIs for accomplishing such tasks including map annotations, dragging and dropping custom pins as well as delve into some of the finer aspects of the required location based calculations one needs to consider to find the center of the map or the distance between two points. Additionally the presentation will go over techniques to update a MapView with a moving object as well as positioning the image for the object properly along its heading. This will be a straight forward hands on development presentation with plenty of code examples.

This is the M3Conf Panel you've been waiting on! We bring together three awesome experts from iOS, Windows Phone & Android and let them fight it out! Come learn about what's next on the horizon for all three platform & how they measure up to each other. Interactive audience participation expected during panel discussion! Panelists: Jeff Blankenburg - Windows Phone Leon Gersing - iOS Ben Von Handorf - Android Samidip Basu - Anchor

This session will go over a simple tutorial on how to make simple, responsive web applications using Node.JS frameworks. The main focus will be on developing web applications (and native since node runs on ARM) for mobile and tablet devices. Some of the frameworks used will be ExpressJS, Stylus, Jade, MongoDB, and Nock. Come join us and see how simple opensource cross-device application development can be!

Before jumping into application design and development, make sure that you fully map out the enterprise environment and the value your mobile investments will create for your company or client. Bob Kennedy will take you through an overview of Compuware’s Mobile Visioning process – where technology requirements, business objectives and user needs are fully mapped at the onset of a mobile program. Once these fundamental needs are detailed, the Mobile Visioning process serves as a platform for delivering innovation and differentiation to enterprises that provide real competitive advantages.
The session is valuable for business and marketing leads who want to ensure they are driving value and results from their mobile investments. The session is also valuable for developers who want to ensure their efforts are driving real business results.
Key topics will include:

• Overview of Mobile Visioning process and key components
• Articulating business goals and objectives around mobile solutions
• Using a design process to detail user needs and personas
• Outlining an initial development and design approach
• Constructing initial phased mobile roadmaps

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a set of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distance of 4cm or less to initiate a connection. NFC allows you to share small payloads of data between an NFC tag and an Android-powered device, or between two Android-powered devices. NFC technology could also be used to bootstrap more capable wireless connections like Bluetooth. NFC has various uses in industries like Banking and Finance, Security, Transpiration, Commerce, Entertainment etc. This session will cover getting started with NFC application development using Android 4.x NFC API's and NFC application demo.

Good UX is simple, clean and makes users’ lives easier. As a designer, if I do my job right, people don’t notice. But making design simple and effective requires effort. I’ll talk about how to: 1. Start with interface guidelines 2. Look for design patterns 3. Take away and strengthen 4. Test with users 5. Iterate Reviewing stories from the trenches, I’ll give you insight into making simple, effective apps that users love. Whether you’re the lone UX person on your project or you’re on a UX team, you’ll come away with concrete ideas and inspiration to make your next app shine.

So you've used HTML5 + Responsive Design to create a flexible mobile application. PhoneGap 2.0 and PhoneGap Build allow you to easily wrap and deploy your app to common mobile devices. We'll look at some PhoneGap basics and then step through typical development and deployment processes, with an eye on developing a single codebase that is as portable as possible. With a well-designed HTML codebase, PhoneGap allows you to easily reuse the same code for Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android tablet devices, which makes it an incredibly powerful tool. We'll examine the common capabilities of these devices, and techniques to ensure that our code is 100% reusable, and also look at some other not-so-common devices and outlets that you may have overlooked. We'll get an overview of the new Chrome Web Store, among other destinations, and consider the additional effort involved in targeting them, as well as the things you'll want to think about up front. It'll be a fun 50 minutes, and you might even discover a new destination for your existing app.

You don't need to be an expert to create an iOS app from a RSS feed. Our journey will begin by creating a RSS parser class and NSLogging output to test it out. Once that milestone is complete, we will then use that class to create an iPhone app to display the top 100 movies from Netflix. Work along and/or use github for the code later. We will use a storyboard and the Master-Detail template to build the app. If time permits, we can explore building the same app with xib files.

This presentation will take on the perspective of the independent developer and what needs to be considered prior to releasing an App onto Apple’s App Store. While the information shared will be useful to larger companies and corporations, the assumed actor will be an individual one person does it all perspective (as larger companies would need to involve communications, marketing and legal representation for many of the steps to a successful launch). The presentation will include such topics as setting up a relationship with Apple, preparing for a web presence, and how to handle user feedback and suggestions. It will also go into device provisioning, pricing, and the use of promo codes when getting people to use your App for the first time.

Due to the design of the Java Virtual Machine or JVM it is relatively trivial to reverse engineer Java code from Java jar and class files. While this hasn't been an issue in the past since most Java files are hidden on the server, it is an issue on Android phones where the client side Android apk files are easily obtained and just as easy to decompile back into source. In this session Godfrey Nolan, author of Decompiling Java, and the soon to be published Decompiling Android will explain how and why this is possible by unraveling the apk into dex files and the tools that are currently available to decompile your apk's back into Java or Javascript source code with the right click of a mouse. We'll show some of the security issues that this raises, such as inadvertently allowing people gain access to credit card information or backend systems, when someone has complete access to your source. We'll also look at open source and commercial obfuscation tools and other techniques you should be using, such as C++ coding, watermarking etc. to stop people gaining access to your Android code. While we don't expect any previous knowledge of decompilation or obfuscation techniques before the session, we can promise that at the end of session you will be armed with enough information to safeguard your intellectual property from what is a very significant but little understood issue.

As mobile applications and interactions become more complex, designers need tools to validate their designs, facilitate usability tests, and communicate complex interactions to business owners and development partners. From hand-drawn sketches and paper stencils, to fully interactive UIs, Scott will cover various mobile prototyping techniques to meet a variety of the most common use cases mobile designers encounter. Session attendees will learn about a number of prototyping tools (including Keynotopia and Proto.io), and discuss which tools to use when.

RWD: Experience vs. Resolution. Why Resolution isn't enough. The Resource tech and creative team of Jay Karr and Todd Yuzwa will talk about what's beyond Responsive Web Design (RWD), one of the hottest topics in the design and tech communities right now. Is RWD a passing fad or a true web revolution of transcending fixed canvas design? The reality is that your visitors don't care if an experience is responsive. They care if it's easy to use, fast and relevant. We will will demonstrate why resolution independence isn't enough, and show how we can deliver better, smarter web and mobile experiences now.

As mobile device usage continues to expand, the variety of screen sizes, resolutions, and capabilities of mobile phones and tablets is becoming more and more diverse. It's possible, and important, to ensure your site provides an optimal experience for whatever device your audience is using. Responsive web design allows your site to seamlessly adjust and fit the screen its viewed on, and can easily be implemented in most major CMS systems. Learn how to design and plan your responsive site, develop your layouts with a fluid grid, and test to ensure your site looks great on tons of devices!

In this session, Andrew Heaton, author of Purposely Irregular and Chief Chemist of Experience at Brilliant Chemistry will discuss how expected human behavior can be used to determine direction, create features and influence the design of a mobile app. He will describe Situational Opportunity: the reason users reach for a mobile device and the factors that cause them to consider an app for its intended purpose. Heaton will illustrate practical uses for this technique on new and existing apps and how it can be used as part of the development process. This session is intended for designers of any level.

It can't be done! Android is a unique environment and there is no way to test drive it. This view is all too prevalent in the Android community. Join Cheezy and Levi as they dispel this myth. Watch this live coding presentation in which the dynamic duo test drives and Android application before your eyes. Watch as Cheezy keeps an outer loop of acceptance tests going to inform Levi to build the inner loop of unit tests that drive out the implementation. Besides, it's live coding folks - what could possibly go wrong? This is one presentation you won't want to miss.

Building a robust, modern mobile application often requires a developer to not only focus on the front end user experience, but also backend services such as data storage, user authentication, and often push notification services. This is often the tedious, less enjoyable aspect of building an application for many mobile application developers. Windows Azure Mobile Services provides a scalable and easy-to-use “backend-as-a-service” for mobile applications. In this session we’ll use Windows Azure Mobile Services to power a new Windows 8 application. We’ll see how in just a few minutes we can have a ready-to-go application and service that provides scalable data storage, user authentication, and push notification support.

During the all day iOS hands-on tutorial, we will do soup to nuts iOS development. We will start with how to use XCode and build a universal application for iPhone and iPad using a variety of common APIs. We will finish up talking about and demoing how to prepare and deploy to the app store.
The app we build will allow us to experiment with a bunch of APIs including Core Data, Camera, and more.


Requirements

This session is a workshop. Please come prepared.
Minimum:
- Mac
- Snow Leopard or greater
- Xcode 4.2
- iOS 5.0 or greater
- Free Apple developer account
Preferred:
- Lion
- Xcode 4.3.2
- iOS 5.1
- Device (iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad)
Please come prepared with the software downloaded and install as they are very large downloads.

This session will focus on most of the valuable tools you'll need to build Windows Phone 7.5 applications, with a look towards the future of the platform.  You'll need to bring a machine running Visual Studio 2010 with the SDK and tools installed for Windows Phone development to get the most out of this opportunity.

Join Brad Isbell and Dan Shultz for an afternoon of  PhoneGap 101. We'll start off by getting our environments set up, then take a lap around PhoneGap 2.0 and some of the common API calls.  After that, we'll walk through creating our very own custom app together, using a template appropriate for the season. Then, we'll look at some more advanced calls, and maybe even do some katas and have a friendly competition. Time permitting, we'll also look at other potential outlets for your PhoneGap code, and each of their caveats. It should be fun and educational for everyone, and you'll come away with a good understanding of what you can do with PhoneGap.

Prerequisites:

(Minimum)

Your Laptop/Development device

HTML/JS/CSS Editor of choice

SmartPhone

Install Git (https://help.github.com/articles/set-up-git) and knowledge of GitHub (We’ll help you too J)

Dropbox account

(Advanced/Optional)

QR code scanner app

Paint.Net or Photoshop or any tool to create transparent .pngs

Environment specific to your smartphone - Eclipse+PhoneGap for Android, XCode for iPhone, Visual Studio + WinPhone7 template for WinPhone 7

…also, please bring any extra smartphones, tablets, ipod touches, cords, and any other mobile development tools you may have. (we’ll be in a secure room).

Responsive website development with HTML5

Responsive Web Design is the little black dress of the web. No matter what the occasion is, it will always look great. This workshop will cover Responsive Development with HTML5 with an in-depth look at responsive development techniques and resources while building a sample site using CSS3 and HTML5. Fine Citizens creative team, including owner, Phil Wilson, resident development guru, Eric Basti, development junky, Mike Miller and production keeper, Fumi Ariga will share their 25+ years of experience to provide a better understanding of Responsive Web Design and how it may affect your business.


If time allows, a portfolio review will follow the discussion. Please submit entries to info@finecitizens.com before October 22nd; subject line: M3 Portfolio Review


Pre-Requisites Attendees should have knowledge of HTML and CSS.

Come and put Sharpie to paper for an experience in immediate design for mobile devices.

Immediate Design is a practice created by Andrew Heaton, Chief Chemist of Experience at Brilliant Chemistry, a startup incubator and ideation studio; and author of Purposely Irregular (Zen, Punk Rock and Ruthlessness in Experience Design).

It assumes design to be a state of concept, at some level, we are all designers.  It believes the beginning thought is as important as a finished product.  Immediate Design puts thought into an iterative practice of "design and refine."

The Small Screen / Big Design workshop teaches mobile UX and design concepts, sharpens skills and opens up thinking around mobile design practices.  It  focuses on moving big thinking to a small device, users' interaction with their mobile devices, current trends in design and development and defined GUI practices from Apple and Google.

Participants will be given a mobile concept, move directly into interaction design and create conceptual documents, user flows and interfaces for the app in either phone or tablet form.

Who this workshop is for:
If you've never designed for mobile: now is your opportunity to jump in, learn with your peers, receive special guidance, and end with valuable experience and inspiration.

If you're an experienced mobile designer: come show off your chops, team up with new designers and get inspired.

If you're a developer: come and learn some useful design techniques and skills to make your projects and products better.

What to Bring:
If you have a favorite pen or notebook, bring it. Otherwise, paper and Sharpies will be available.

Leave your computers behind for this one. We're going to talk about the design principles for Windows 8 applications, as well as some hands-on exercises to help broaden your toolbox of skills. You will not want to miss this one. 

You've probably been to many mobile coference sessions on topics like coding on a popular mobile platform, creating the right user experience and mobile design that have both excited and enticed. But, if you're like me, your first enthralling foray into building a mobile app for an enterprise was or will be a sobering experience. There's a whole lot more to any enterprise app than just design and programming. Any complexity in the app itself pales in comparison to collaborating with vendors and integrating the app into your existing systems. This talk will draw on my intimate experience with building my company's first mobile app to help attendees who are poised to build their company's first app. I will survey the true amount of work that can go into building an app that exposes company data. I'll also openly layout concerns about collaborating both with internal teams and external consultants and vendors as well as issues related to integrating multiple in-house and third-party systems into a multi-platform, customer-facing app.