Final Post

My entrepreneurial idea is one for an app that would run on both Apple and Android products, particularly smartphones, ipads and tablets.  The app, called “Connected” is one that allows you to stay in touch with your friends easily no matter where you are.  Using Apple and Android integrated software, this app automatically shows the location of your closest friends via GPS right on your mobile device.  You will never lose your friends again!

What started out as a simple idea of an app to help friends and family “Connect” from wherever they are has become a full-fledged possibility for a business startup.  When I first thought of Connected, I thought it would be great to have an app similar to Find My Friends except one that everyone could and would use, including android users.  My friend and I use Find My Friends often, but some improvements would make the app much more useful.

Connected began using integration of android and apple iOS to create an app that would work more automatically among users.  Instead of having to signup and manually add new friends, a user could connect with friends via their phone’s address book/contacts.  The issue of privacy quickly arose with this automatic pairing, as it is not ethical to be able to track anyone at any time.  A sense of privacy was lacking.  Based on comments from peers and revision of the app, I came up with a system that allows users to accept other to follow them also using the automatic integration with contacts.  The app would automatically notify the other user (via text/email) that someone wants to follow him or her and give him or her the option to allow or deny.

After looking deeper into competing apps and websites I found that there were other forms of interaction I could incorporate into the app.  Some of these included direct messaging through the app itself and social interaction using twitter and Facebook, which would not only benefit the user, but act as a source of promotion too.  Based on research, I learned that a user-friendly GUI also plays a major role in how well an app does.  Taking the best features from competitors and changing them to my own style, plus added a new layout in Photoshop yielded a very easy to use, yet practical GUI.

In order to actually create this app I would need a team of 2 to work with me.  I would need someone who is very knowledgeable in App design and creating apps to actually make the app interface (GUI) as well as code the app to work with the mobile software as we need to.  I would need another employee to get in touch with Apple and Android to work out specifications on app integration with contact list to make sure this is a possibility. 

I would look to find some possible investors to jumpstart our app production.  Another thing I would need to figure out is whether or not the app would be free.  Should I charge $.99 for the app and have no ads or make the app free to all users and run ads on the app somewhere?  Should I need to run ads, I would need to get my App design employee to help embed ads on the app with a something such as Google Adsense/Adwords.  Needless to say, the production of the app is still very far out, however, the simple idea has expanded greatly and is definitely a possibility

Lecture Post: Malware

My entrepreneurial idea is one for an app that would run on both Apple and Android products, particularly smartphones, iPads and tablets.  The app, called “Connected” is one that allows you to stay in touch with your friends easily no matter where you are.  Using Apple and Android integrated software, this app automatically shows the location of your closest friends via GPS right on your mobile device.  You will never lose your friends again!

Malware, or malicious software, is usually programs that are downloaded by a user onto his/her computer without knowledge that he/she downloaded them.  Malware alters the computer’s operations and include other types of harmful software like spyware.  Malware is a type of virus or Trojan horse usually, but can be classified in multiple different software program attacks. 

A computer or mobile device that is infected with malware can have one or more of many unusual actions.  Some of these include corrupted files, sound distortion, slow or unresponsive OS, unwanted images, system properties alterations, OS failure, and deletion of files.  Malware has a payload that is the damaging event that the malware program intends to deliver to the unfortunate user.  Malware can deliver the payload when a user runs the program, opens an infected file, connects an unprotected computer to a network, or opening an infected email. 

Malware can be easily prevented from attacking your OS with protection software.  Antivirus software usually covers computers against most malware, spyware, viruses and harmful worms.  However, it is the user that must be smart and careful not to download or use sketchy programs.  For my app, Connected, there won’t be too much danger in terms of malware security because malware usually attacks the system itself rather than specific apps.  However, we can build in protection that prevents from information and file codes from being easily accessible to these harmful programs.

Works Cited: 

Shelly, Gary B., and Misty Vermaat. Discovering Computers: Complete. Boston, MA: Course Technology, 2011. Print.

Lecture Post: Operating Systems

My entrepreneurial idea is one for an app that would run on both Apple and Android products, particularly smartphones, iPads and tablets.  The app, called “Connected” is one that allows you to stay in touch with your friends easily no matter where you are.  Using Apple and Android integrated software, this app automatically shows the location of your closest friends via GPS right on your mobile device.  You will never lose your friends again!

There are a multitude of operations systems in today’s market.  However, the major operating systems that the majority of people use are Windows created by Bill Gates, Apple by Steve Jobs and lesser used Unix by Ken Thompson and Linuk by Linus Torvalds. An operating system provides many very critical functions for a computer.  It sits between the hardware and the user.  A GUI or graphical user interface is what really differentiates the look of an OS that users see.  Many people prefer a certain type of GUI over another and therefore will choose that OS. 

An operating system does more than provide a GUI that allows users to easily do commands and functions. An operating system starts up and shuts down the computer, manages programs and memory, monitors system performance, configures input and output devices, establishes internet connection and acts as a security center.  Windows 7 and Mac OSX are both standalone operating systems which most independent PC users use.  Microsoft and Apple also have server operating systems specifically for company servers.  Mobile phones also use operating systems that are usually embedded OS.

An operating system is critical to providing easy access to apps on a phone.  Since our main form of sale is through direct sales of the app itself, it is vital to have an easily accessible app through a mobile OS.  Our target audience is Apple devices such as the iPhone and iPad as well as Android phones and tablets.  These two companies each have their own form of mobile device OS.  Our app will have to be created to comply with each of these operating systems.  We want to have our app work flawlessly with both operating systems to provide a smooth and beneficial experience to our users.  In order to do this we have to learn how exactly each mobile OS works and how to best apply our app to each OS’s strengths.