[This was my ninth most popular X.com item last year.]
Mobile phones, aka cell phones or hand phones in certain parts of the world, are unique among the “three screens” because they are always with us and always on. (Well, almost always with us and on: Hopefully you do turn yours off or set it aside once in awhile.) Because they are always available, our mobiles present a tremendous opportunity for information gathering and search, gaming and relaxation, and of course communication and sharing.
But the ever present nature of mobiles also means that they can be a great mechanism for customer interaction and commerce, too. If you have a smartphone with fast enough wireless access, you have probably researched an item you were considering purchasing, perhaps reading through user reviews and comparing prices, while standing in a physical store inspecting the item. You may have even used your phone’s built-in camera to snap a picture of the item, its price tag, or its bar code and then used an application to pull up more information on the item right then-and-there. There is no doubt that mobile phones are one of the smart shopper’s best friends.
Merchants want to harness the power of mobile to connect to customers wherever and whenever they are ready to buy. In turn, PayPal has developed a range of their own applications as well as mobile programming APIs for third party developers. You can read my previous blog post “A quick sprint through PayPal Mobile” for an overview of all the options for consumers and developers.
The remainder of this article will focus on the mobile web API and native smartphone libraries for developers. Read on to learn about the problems that the PayPal X mobile development technologies solve and how to start using them to mobilize your PayPal based applications and services.
Click to read the complete article on the PayPal X Developer Network.
[I’m revisiting my top ten posts and articles from 2010 one last time. This was my tenth most popular X.com item last year.]
I was recently speaking with PayPal Developer Evangelist Praveen Alavilli about an overview of the PayPal X Platform and APIs that I wrote for X.com and the subject of what specifically is meant by “PayPal X” came up. His response was concise and to the point and I thought it might benefit others if I shared it.
Click to read Praveen’s response and the complete blog post on the PayPal X Developer Network.
I’ve made a few New Years changes to how I’m announcing articles & blog posts and also how I’m archiving notes from my Twitter stream @billday.
For articles published elsewhere and blog posts that I make offsite (for example, on the PayPal X DevZone blog), I will now be announcing them via an excerpt on BillDay.com. This excerpt will contain a short intro snippet followed by a link to jump to the full article or post on the source site. Here’s an example for a blog post I made earlier today: My excerpt “How to grow your business” which links to the full article on the DevZone blog.
I’ve previously been rolling up notes from my Twitter stream into a daily blog post. This leads to a large percentage of my posts being tweet archive posts, rather than blog content proper. Therefore I’ve decided to try a weekly tweet roll-up instead.
Hopefully these two changes taken together will make my content easier to find and follow for you, with less clutter to get in your way. Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. Thanks, and best wishes for success throughout 2011!
In my last X.com post I looked back at 2010 and which blog and article topics you found most interesting based upon number of hits. I also drew general conclusions about the importance of mobility, third party APIs, and pay-per-view content in the coming year.
Now I want to encourage you to take what you learned last year and use it to achieve success in 2011 and beyond. Ask yourself how you can build upon previous technology expertise and business while opening up entirely new lines of thinking, development, and income.
Click here to read the complete article on the PayPal X Developer Network.
- How we celebrated the New Year http://bit.ly/ewUEFT (there were cupcakes http://bit.ly/hpPjXG ) & a first alarm clock http://bit.ly/dUL5Z9 #
- Download @RunKeeper Pro for iPhone and Android FREE through the month of January! http://bit.ly/gPNy4U #
- My cold worsened last week and I decided to take a few days off to recuperate. I'm finally starting to feel better … http://bit.ly/fmntPS #
- What to expect from my @PayPalX content in 2011 http://bit.ly/dOYqu2 (cheat sheet: mobile, social, & local APIs, PPV content, and more) #
- Android @PayPalX Mobile Payments Library 1.1 now available http://bit.ly/i1l1t3 #
- Trying out the Google Reader PostRank extension http://bit.ly/fssMD1 (value add, maybe?) #
- Note the rise of JSON: API predictions for 2011 http://bit.ly/guVGak from @shanley of @apigee via @gigaom #
- Books for mobile app developers http://bit.ly/fbZ22g from @freelancesw #
- Why @Netflix chose the @AWScloud http://bit.ly/feEcoi and lessons they've learned http://bit.ly/gAuEyE #
- Another trail running to do: Marin and Mt Tam runs http://bit.ly/dWEMMj via @iRunFar #
- Mobile QR code generators http://bit.ly/dON3rp for iPhone and Android from @PayPalX DevZone blog #
- Here's a bit.ly bundle of my August to December 2010 @PayPalX development articles and blog posts http://bit.ly/ihb2lj #
- Two of my wife's recent fun @GeekMomBlog posts: Rudolph cupcakes http://bit.ly/h8RUpp and Star Wars+Princess Bride http://bit.ly/i5Uj2f #
- More @GeekMomBlog: Star Wars snowflakes http://bit.ly/eBMXfm Christmas fitness http://bit.ly/gl547S and LEGO http://bit.ly/gh9Vwx #
- Issues with developers trying out @PayPalX Embedded Payments http://bit.ly/d8FN4x (read comments at bottom) #
- 2010 rocked, by 2011 will be even better http://bit.ly/g8pXH5 says @travisro on the @PayPalX DevZone http://bit.ly/dykrvk #
- Predictions on the value of Data http://oreil.ly/gZvn8s from @timoreilly by @macslocum on @radar #
- Great tips for shortening your Android development cycle http://bit.ly/fzspBO from Ethan Winograd on @PayPalX DevZone #
- Recommended if you need to read up on jQuery http://bit.ly/h9U3wA goodness: "jQuery: Novice to Ninja" (review http://bit.ly/fiboto ) #
- Another book for the dev reading list: "Digging into WordPress" http://bit.ly/hTzArZ #
- Another read to consider: "Smashing CSS" http://bit.ly/fDXOoe (thanks @amberweinberg for the suggestions!) #
BillDay.com 