Setting up the Samsung Chord SDK

Continuing from the previous posts, I would like to write about setting up the development environment for using the Chord Android SDK and give an overview of the main classes to be used for your first program (to come in a later article).

This is towards aiding android developers in writing apps for the Samsung Android Contest.

1. Download the Samsung Chord SDK available here
2. Download the Samsung Chord SDK emulator also available here (need to accept the license agreement in order to download both)
3. Add the Eclipse plugin for Chord SDK as described in "Chord SDK Emulator Guide ver1.2".
4.    You can download sample apps from the chord sdk link and run it on the emulator.
5. The screen shot shows the basic interface of the sample demo. Of course, this can meaning fully execute only after you start the Chord Relay server in the eclipse environment which shows the console and how the UDP broadcast is happening from the emulator. This allows you to do basic stuff like Starting Chord, Joining and leaving a channel.

While the above shows the basics in terms of getting up the first Samsung chord SDK app to work, we need to understand what the Android SDK gives us and what are the classes we have to use to create our own app.

What are the basic classes and interfaces provided by the Chord Android SDK? All of the fundamental ones are described here:

ChordManager– This forms the core of the SDK. This is used to create a Node and helps in managing which nodes are connected to which channels. If you want to know more about channels and nodes, please refer the previous article.

This is the class that hides all the network complexity from the developer. These are the basic features provided by this class:

1. Tells you the list of available network interfaces like wi-fi or Mobile Access Point etc.
2.  It gives you an option to start and stop chord
3.  It gives you an option to leave or join a channel
4.  Helps you list all the channels the node has joined
5. And also provides a way to hook up a network listener to respond to changes in the network status.

Most of the main service or game or whatever your application is aiming to achieve through node interactions should be through using the Chord Manager. However, your app – the game or service will also have to provide implementation for 3 listeners:

1. INetworkListener-  ChordManagerhas to listen on this listener to understand the changes in the network state – whether connected or disconnected to the network (of choice – wifi, wifi direct etc.)
2.  IChordChannelListener– It is through this listener you will have to implement all actions that need to happen when a node joins the network or leaves a network.  Through this you also need to implement what happens when a file/data is received or sent.
3. IChordManagerListener– is a listener that needs to be implemented when you start your ChordManager. This is required to handle the changes when a ChordManagerstarts. Also, after starting, the ChordManager, if there is an error or a network disconnect, what should the ChordManagerdo – is defined in the implementation of this listener.

The above 4 classes/listeners help in implementing your own service that can be used with all your nodes in the network.

However, while you have the entire above service ready, you need to decide which channels are you interested in interacting with?  It could be the public channel or a private channel with a specific name or even many at a time.

The specific channel implementations are those classes that a developer needs to develop by implementing the IChordChannelInterface.

The interface provides the methods for sending and receiving data.

So, in summary, you have the crux of what you really want to do in your own implementation of the IChordChannel.

However, the ChordManagerhelps you manage connecting and communicating with various nodes in the private or public channels by using 3 listeners.

It is as simple as that. Hope this clarifies the Samsung Chord SDK a bit in order for you to be able to take part in the Samsung Smart App Challenge.

Sponsored by Samsung

Read More..

Cloud mobile supercharged growth for small businesses

Posted by Mohit Pande, Country Manager - India, Google for Work

India’s small businesses aren’t small when it comes to economic impact. They employ over 106 million people, make up almost a quarter of the workforce, and contribute close to half of the nation’s manufacturing output. As the country looks to drive growth, create jobs and increase exports as part of the Digital India initiative, we teamed up with Deloitte to see how cloud and mobile tools could help small businesses support these national goals, and the results are striking.

The new report, “Connected Small Business — Unlocking India’s digital potential” finds that businesses that use cloud and mobile tools are more profitable, more innovative, export more and have happier, more productive staff. Compared to offline businesses, those that use cloud and mobile tools grow 27% annually, are four times more innovative and are 65% more likely to be exporting.

They’re also job creators — 84% said they’re hiring. With employees at these digitally engaged businesses six times more satisfied with their work and nine times more collaborative, it’s clear that technology decisions are impacting more than the bottom line: they also create happier, more productive employees.

As someone who talks with businesses about how Google Apps for Work has helped their businesses grow, go global or connect and collaborate with their employees more easily, these findings put some numbers to the great stories I hear everyday.

Freshdesk employees collaborate on tablets at their Chennai office.

Take software startup Freshdesk for example. Founded in Chennai in 2010 with eight staff, they now employ over 450 people and have over 59 million end users — 90% of which come from outside of India. Google Apps has supercharged their team’s ability to meet this rapid growth. With Google Drive, employees work together on documents in real time from anywhere, on any device. While video conferencing with Google Hangouts helps the team stay in touch regardless of timezone or location.

Or take Bangalore delivery business SpoonJoy: founded in 2014, they now deliver around 3,000 healthy and delicious meals to hungry Bangaloreans everyday. Their team uses Google Apps and estimates that cloud and mobile tools enable them to open their business in a new area in a third of the time it would take without these tools.

It’s not just startups or technology businesses that are reaping these digital dividends. Logistics company Pickingo estimates that having real-time access to delivery information with cloud and mobile tools has increased its orders by around 15%. Manufacturing company EMCO attributes 30% of their business growth to the adoption of digital technology.

Companies that are able to collaborate across teams and even continents are the ones unlocking great ideas that are succeeding in India today. These businesses understand that being digitally engaged goes beyond having a website. They’re enabling their staff to work from anywhere on any device, and are making important business information accessible to them. With India focused on supercharging economic growth and employment, the winning formula could just be the greater adoption of cloud and mobile tools by the countrys small businesses.

Read More..