iPhone applications are changing how customers interact with their data, documents, files. IPhone opens new opportunities for businesses to interact with their customers. The iPhone has changed how the mobile phone market is viewed. In this article, you will see how the iPhone is the tool that is exposing the potential of Cloud Computing.
By definition, Cloud Services are a set of Internet services providing some solutions at high scale. Browsing the Web was one of the first internet service available. Now you can fully interact with Internet solutions. This is being done daily with services such as Yahoo’s email or Google‘s search. The distinction that Cloud Services provide over traditional desktop or Web solutions is that it enables you to combine both worlds. For instance, you can create a desktop client solution that consumes data hosted in a Cloud Service that can then be accessed from your phone. In this model, a rich client gives you the responsiveness you expect with the rich toolset you need with the reach of the Web. By definition, a mobile phone is always connected. It has to be, otherwise how would you get your calls. The iPhone has three ways in which it keeps the user connected to the Internet: EDGE, 3G, WiFi. These technologies keep the iPhone always connected. At the end of the day the iPhone is not just a phone. It is a computer running a fully functional operating system sitting inside of a piece of hardware that is always connected. Checking email, weather, and stocks is a simple as reaching into your pocket, holding your phone and scanning the data. Services like Internet Radio will deliver the same radio to your iPhone as sent to your PC.
How the iPhone relates to Cloud Services? If you have used an iPhone then you already realize that you would not want to design a PowerPoint presentation on it, or write a lengthy document or any of the labor intensive activities you need a PC for. The sweet spot for the iPhone is in its ability for you to easily review information and make small, byte sized responses. In other words, it is the tool you need when you do not want to boot up your computer. What this means is that the iPhone will not replace your laptop or desktop. It augments it. The challenge this provides is that you now must have your data in two places. This is where Cloud Computing helps. Storing your data in Cloud services allows you to review your day to day activities on your iPhone while you are on the go and when you have the time, boot up your PC to do the heavy lifting work. There are multiple Cloud Storage offers on the market and many people use them. However, due to high volume of data it is often overwhelming to keep your cloud storage up-to-date. Here is the place where Microsoft Azure Connectivity Service comes into game. Using Connectivity Services, you can make your desktop data reachable from your iPhone. Ideally, one would want to keep all data locally on the desktop, because storage is free and hard drives are cheap. At the same time, one would love the ability to make small, byte size, changes on the data from a terminal device always “On” and available in the pocket. The iPhone clearly shows how Cloud Services are important.
However, the iPhone is only one device and there are many new powerful mobile devices being launched. This only increases the need for cloud services. Companies that provide in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of emerging trends in global connectivity are claiming “Apple’s iPhone sparked an explosion in consumer awareness of mobile applications.” However, “Most of today’s applications need hardware with more computing power, limiting their market potential.” To solve this, ABI Research proposes a new architecture based on software running in the cloud. This fact will drastically change the way mobile applications are developed, acquired, and used. In fact, cloud computing could dominate the mobile application market. ABI Research itself admits that the approach does pose some challenges, such as intermittent network availability. A cloud-based mobile service will become inoperable as the device loses its connection.
Still, next generation technologies like HTML 5, which enables data caching on the device, allowing work to continue until the signal is restored. “Cloud computing will bring unprecedented sophistication to mobile applications,” ABI Research notes. “To mention just a few examples, business users will benefit from collaboration and data sharing apps. Personal users will gain from remote access apps allowing them to monitor home security systems, PCs or DVRs, and from social networking mashups that let them share photos and video or incorporate their phone address books and calendars.” Following is a sample how to connect an iPhone application with an RSS feed published by Microsoft Azure .NET Online Services. In order to run the sample you need to download and install Microsoft .NET Services SDK from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/dotnetservices/ After installing, open Samples and go to \Samples\ServiceBus\ExploringFeatures\RelayAuthentication\WebNoAuth\CS35 and open HttpNoAuthenticationSample solution. Set Server project as StartUp Project and run it. The service in this sample creates a simple RSS feed and returns it using the .NET Framework 3.5 RSS/Atom features. The client part of the solution calls the syndication service and writes the feed content to the console. For our example we will not use the client. Instead, we will create an iPhone application that will call our syndication feed and display its content in an iPhone app. This is the simplest sample from .NET Online Services SDK and the simplest RssReader iPhone app created from an app template. Even though it is a simple scenario, it illustrates the potential of Microsoft Cloud infrastructure and unveils a new era of interactions between mobile devices and cloud infrastructures, which will make real a huge set of scenarios that we all can benefit from in our daily life. After you start the service, a console window should display your feed address: Service Address: http://<yoursolutionname>.servicebus.windows.net/services/SyndicationService Press [Enter] to exit Your syndication feed is now live. If you point a browser to this address, you will see an Rss feed published by your service app. Next step is to create a mobile app that will display that feed.
SeattleClouds.com is a website listing a collection of iPhone application templates and makes it easy to build an iPhone application. Go to SeattleClouds.com, select App Templates tab and choose RssReader Template. Click Create Application and switch to Design mode. In the Properties box set the value of Rss Url property to your Service Address. Click Apply button for your changes to take effect. You should see now a web simulation of an iPhone app displaying your feeds. SeattleClouds.com has an online designer, which allows building iPhone applications online, design and customization of iPhone applications. If you are a photographer, blogger, artist or a designer, that is all you need to run your entire business from home using Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure and exposing your work via an Rss feed live to the web and mobile devices.
This is only the beginning. .NET Online Services team is building a rich set of features targeting small businesses, including Access Control and Workflow Services.
Many individuals and companies in the music, publishing industry, sports industry, marketing and travel see opportunities in building their own iPhone applications.
Seattle Clouds Application
In the good old days, only the most common and commercially viable books saw the light of day since publishers carefully pick and choose what they believe the market will digest.