You may also find this interesting. On May 6th we hit 50,000 demos (we are at over 70k now) so to celebrate I created a site that lists libraries in order of their popularity in DevAppsDirect: http://www.inappsquared.com/devappsdirect_library_ranking.ph...
I also booked marked DroidParts. I will see if I can get it added soon
Thanks! It all started with the thought, what would happen if native apps were as easy to try as website? DevAppsDirect is my MVP and I am just getting started.
I have an Android app that lets developers discover Android libraries and run their demos. I have been thinking about adding some Xamarin samples but am unsure if it would be worth my time. I don't have a good feel for how many C# developers there are who want to write mobile apps.
I like how the journalists are going crazy because the update requests a new permission "download files without notification". The articles I read interpret that as "Facebook can update their app and change permissions without telling me!!!!" I wasn't familiar with this permission so I did a quick Google search (something maybe the journalists should have done?) and it is related to the Android download manager added in 4.0 (4.1?). (http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/950273) Way to scare everyone "journalists", I hope you enjoy your pageviews.
I am working on a product that may solve this problem for you. The product is designed for a different purpose but it should work for you as well. The only caveat would be the need to break your app into multiple pieces that run in separate processes. Give me a shout at [email protected] if you are interested.
FYI if you read the book Moonwalking with Einstein the author explains the methods of memorizing a deck of cards. The author learns the techniques himself to participate and win the US World Memory Championship. The author's coach in the book is Ed Cooke who is a co-founder of Memrise.
We are working on 4) Programmatic app submission and developer APIs and 5) Load a native app immediately by hitting a website/URL for Android.
We call it In App App Distribution. It enables any Android app to distribute other Android apps without Side Loading.
This technology can be used to create a browser that does exactly what Vibhu suggests. Some other ideas are an A/B Testing service, subscription service, house ads service, In App App Store or a bug fixing service. We are putting the beta together now. If you are interested please sign up: www.inAppSquared.com
A/B testing on Mobile apps is something I have been thinking about for a long time. However contrary to popular belief it is possible to push out changes to native Android apps. I have developed such a technology. I am taking it in another direction (app discoverability) but if someone is interested in using the tech for A/B testing please drop me a line (kenneth at appprevue.com)
To see the technology in action go to www.AppPrevue.com. There is a link to a technology demo in the Play store. It is a bit crude but it does show it is possible to run a native Android app without installing it. The same technology could be adapted to push out new versions of an app to do A/B testing.
The all or nothing distribution for iOS and Android is something that has bugged me for a long time. It bugged me enough that I developed an "in-app" distribution platform for Android. In a nutshell I wrote an SDK that turns your entire apk into a plugin. A "shell" apk is installed on the phone that can run and update the plugin apk(s). This allows you to change almost anything about the app (not including permissions) and target a single phone, class of phones or all phones for the updates. I licensed the software to a company that needed to tightly manage phones but they have since pivoted away from their previous model.
I am trying to figure out if there is enough of a demand to create a service based on this technology. It seems like web companies have embraced lean startup, A/B testing, etc but I don't see a ton of mobile companies going this direction. This article gives me hope that these ideas are catching on in the mobile world.
If anyone is interested in "in-app" distribution to enable lean style iteration and A/B testing on Android please let me know.
This site looks to be based on the same techniques (Memory Palace AKA Method of Loci) that are described in the book.