Back in the Saddle
Vacation and travel is over and I'm happy to say things are moving again. I'm feeling refreshed and I have a lot to share with you in 2012; starting with the new book I'm writing for O'Reilly! Read on, MacDuff.
The Book
I've been working on a new book for O'Reilly, tentatively titled Building Mobile Apps in Java. I mentioned it briefly on Twitter but haven't gone into the details before. It will show you how to use GWT and PhoneGap to build mobile apps. With these two open source technologies you can code in Java but target pretty much any mobile platform such as iOS, Android, and webOS.
The book will cover the technical aspects of using GWT & PhoneGap. It will also dive into how to design for mobile. Navigation and performance varies greatly across devices, so it's an important topic. Oh, and the last chapter will show you how to make a mobile platform game with real physics. Tons of fun.
Building Mobile Apps in Java will be an eBook about 60 pages long, available every where O'Reilly publishes their ebooks. Look for it in February or early March.
Open Source and Speaking
For 2012 I want to spend some time doing more actual design work. I'm planning a new hand built wordpress theme for my blog, including proper phone and tablet support. I also have a few art side projects that you'll get to see later in the year.
And speaking of design, I have new significant releases of Amino and Leonardo Sketch coming. If you are in the Portland area come to the January PDX-UX meeting. I will be presenting how to do wire framing with Leonardo Sketch. I'll give a brief overview of Leo and show off some of the great export and collaboration features.
I will also be doing a 5 minute Ignite talk in Portland on February 9th about the future of ebooks and what a Hogwarts Textbook would look like.
Onward!
Finally, I plan to post both more and less on this blog. I used to do short posts on small topics or collections of links. I found social networks better for that thing so I'll do that on Twitter and Google Plus from now on. From now on I want to use the blog for more long form content such as my well read HTML Canvas Deep dive. Look for more long essays on canvas, app stores, and technology trends this year.
2012 is finally here!