Mobile applications stores such as Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market revolutionized the distribution of applications for mobile devices. However, with thousands of application submissions, limited testing resources and the lack of an effective filtering mechanism, application stores suffer from information overload and a risk of releasing poor quality applications that could create confusion to consumers and may seriously affect the App store markets. Thus concern has been raised whether applications have been developed according to the need and interest of consumers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was mainly to identify and get insight into the main factors that mobile application consumer takes into consideration when purchasing mobile applications from the desktop iTunes App Store and the mobile App Store on the iOS devices: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. In this study both qualitative and quantitative case study approach was used. Accordingly twelve participants were selected from Stockholm and Uppsala area and their behaviour in the Apple’s App Store from the desktop iTunes and the mobile App Store on iOS devices was observed and recorded. Additionally questionnaires were administered to all participants in order to gather the necessary information. Consumers on the App Store behave differently depending on the unit they are using. This is because applications on the App Store are presented differently in the desktop iTunes App Store and the mobile App Store on the iOS devices. The study shows that young consumers with lower income purchase apps more frequently than the consumers with higher income. It also shows that consumers often consider the description, the screenshots, and the ratings when they are interested in buying applications. Furthermore consumers take a look more on ratings in the list on the iPhone and iPad App Store because the ratings are not shown in the list on the iTunes App Store. Similarly consumers tend to read the customer reviews more on the iTunes and iPad App Store as the customer reviews on the iPhone App Store is displayed in another page. Consumers were found to be more attracted by visual elements that they are already familiarized with, apps with famous logos and known fonts and styles but also to coherent and descriptive app names and strong colors (i.e. red, green, yellow, black and blue, respectively). The majority of the participants found the iTunes App Store messy and cumbersome to use. They preferred using the iPad App Store because they found it to be a good mixture of both iTunes and iPhone App Store but also because it has more options to consider. Although consumers behave differently depending on the unit they are using, the visual element of the apps, prior knowledge of consumers about the name of the apps, ratings, easy accessibility of screenshots and customer reviews of the apps were found to be the main factors to be considered by consumers when they visit app stores for purchase. Thus application developers and digital magazine publishers should consider these consumer behaviours in order to influence more downloads and successfully sell apps on the app stores.

This report describes PlaceMe, a client side, mobile application built on the Android platform that provides personal location-based services such as location reminders, bookmarking, mapping and search nearby. The reminder system allows creating location based reminders, and alerts the user what he needs to do, when he is in the right place to do them. Bookmarking allows the user to virtually “save” places of interest while he is on the move and obtain driving directions. Mapping enables the user to visualize his relative geographic location in real time, and map the location reminders and bookmarks. Finally, search nearby exploits Google’s powerful local search engine to allow finding and bookmarking nearby places such as gas stations, restaurants, etc, and retrieving map-based directions. We first discuss the requirements and use-cases for PlaceMe, followed an introduction to the Android software stack. Next, we describe our design architecture, implementation model, test strategy and key performance enhancements. Then, we evaluate and compare the performance of the Android platform across a set of standard micro-benchmarks. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of future development ideas and present our thoughts on prospects of app-based mobile computing. / text

Smartphones are becoming increasingly popular, with the result that customers prefer to carry out at least some customer services using an app on a mobile device. Among app users, smooth transfer to a live agent is seen as an important feature and this means that the company contact center need a solution to handle this as well as increasing numbers of interactions. The question this thesis tries to answer is "how can smartphone end user apps be included in the context of the company contact center"? To answer this question research was conducted regarding the possibilities of an Android smartphone, with the results of this research being used to define a use case, a state flow diagram and create a demonstration app. The thesis showed that it is possible to have an app as an online channel for customer service interactions. New possibilities in comparison to traditional telephony include that customer data such as topic, authentication, location and multimedia can be sent to the contact center before an actual interaction is started.

abstract: The purpose of this study was to gather qualitative data on different and novel methods used to self-monitor diet and exercise during a weight loss study. Participants who used either a traditional paper and pencil method or a smart phone weight loss app for diet and exercise tracking were recruited for focus groups. Focus group discussions centered on the liked and disliked aspects of recording, perceived behavior changes, and suggestions for improved self-monitoring. Focus groups were organized based on the method of self-monitoring. The app group tracked calorie intake and expenditure via the "Lose It" app on their smart phones. The paper & pencil group recorded exercise and food intake in a journal and self-regulated diet based on recommended servings from each food group (or exchange lists). Focus group sessions were audio-recorded, transcribed and coded by the researcher and an independent coder. Results indicated that app participants liked the convenience, affordability, and user-friendly features, but wanted more nutrition advice. App participants liked self-managing their diet, not restricting certain foods or food groups and allowing for indulgences by balancing calories and exercise. Also, they desired an accurate estimation of energy expenditure from an app, based on individual characteristics (i.e., gender and age). Participants who recorded on paper liked the size for a visual layout of food entries, but desired a technology-enhanced method with an auto-calculation of calorie intake and expenditure. They also suggested increased accountability and opportunities for social support would enhance self-monitoring. Overall, an ideal technology-assisted self-monitoring app or program would be free and include an auto-calculation of calorie intake, a gender- and age- specific estimation of calories expended, easy entry of foods from a large database, the ability to enter whole recipes, nutrition information and recommendations, and be available via phone, tablet or computer (based on personal preference). / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Nutrition 2012

The thesis identifies a multiplicity of existing challenges and dilemmas in the hospice care field, such as the increasing demands, limited access, difficulties caused from people with life-limiting conditions living at home and other concerns. The thesis proposes a way of combining the advantages of Serious Games and mobile apps to possibly solve some challenges, namely, a digital app designed for patients from a Serious Game perspective, which could be a complement of current hospice care services and assist in remote hospice care. The analysis of existing resources exposes a lack of hospice care apps containing game elements and designed for patients. The thesis therefore formulates two criteria and conducts a review of apps in health & fitness category in the Swedish App Store. Criterion 1 is for identifying the apps and functions that meet the needs of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Criterion 2 is for making sure the functions selected containing game elements. The thesis identifies and lists 85 eligible functions and provides brief summaries and analyses. These outcomes can be considered as Reference functions for improving existing hospice care apps and inspiring future researchers and designers.

Integration has always been an important and tricky task for IT-businesses. There are several products available for solving integration issues, one of them is the long developed platform BizTalk from Microsoft. As cloud computing has grown in recent years, Microsoft has been putting more focus towards the cloud. With their cloud, named Azure, expanding a new integration platform have been released, the iPaaS (integration Platform as a Service) Logic Apps. This report aims to evaluate the integration platforms Logic Apps and BizTalk with the purpose of finding out if the new Logic Apps can replace the long developed BizTalk. The evaluation is performed by implementing an application in both platforms, then evaluating selected parameters by giving each a score to concretize our assessment on quantify whether Logic Apps can replace BizTalk.

This diploma work deals with a product and service comparison of office suites accessible through a web browser. The author will also compare the advantages and disadvantages of using the desktop and on-line versions. The main benefit of this work is the introduction of cloud-based services and the research results, which could be used by managers of IT departments. This work should help on deciding the right solution in the sphere of cooperation and facilitation of work. Last but not least is the comparison of financial solutions.

Current resource policies for mobile phone apps are based on permissions that unconditionally grant or deny access to a resource like private data, sensors and services. In reality, the legitimacy of an access may be context-dependent - for example, depending on how often a resource is accessed and in which situation. This thesis presents research into providing bounds on the access of JavaScript apps to security and privacy-relevant resources on mobile devices. The investigated bounds are quantitative and interaction-dependent: for example, permitting one access each time the user presses a specified button. Two novel systems are presented with different approaches to providing these bounds. The system PhoneWrap injects a quantitative policy into an app and enforces the bound dynamically during runtime by monitoring the resource consumption and the user interaction. If the injected bound is exceeded, the resource request is replaced by a deny action. This way, PhoneWrap restricts the unwanted behaviour while the expected functionality can be performed. Policies for this system describe the UI elements which trigger the expected resource consumption and the number of resource units consumed for each interaction. The enforcement of the policies is achieved via wrapping the critical APIs using JavaScript internal features. The injection of a policy can be performed automatically. PhoneWrap is the first system using the lightweight wrapping method to inject policies directly into mobile apps and the first to combine quantitative policies with interaction-dependencies. The second system AmorJiSe statically analyses the resource consumption of a given JavaScript program. This system automatically infers amortised annotations on top of given JavaScript data types. The amortised annotations symbolise reserved resource units stored in the data structures. This way the amount of resource units available to the app is expressed dependent on the size of the data structures. The resulting function types of the UI handlers can be used to extract interaction-dependent bounds. The correctness of these bounds is proven in relation to a resource-aware operational semantics. AmorJiSe extends the known amortised type paradigm to JavaScript with its dynamic object structures and applies this paradigm to the novel domain of mobile resources. Although, the two systems are based on similar resource models and produce similar resource bounds, they use different methods with different properties which are presented in this dissertation.

Urinary incontinence (UI) is a condition commonly experienced by women worldwide. Many women suffer in silence as they refrain from or delay seeking help. Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercises (PFME) have proven to be effective and are recommended as the first line of treatment. Regular exercise of the pelvic floor muscles can prevent symptoms developing. However, there is evidence of lack of motivation and poor adherence to exercises. The use of mobile phone applications have been suggested as an effective resource for health behaviour interventions, especially for sensitive or embarrassing conditions. A mixed methodology was used to gather evidence about the experience of community dwelling women in the North of Scotland over a three month period. Of the twenty three participants who completed a three month explanatory randomised controlled trial, fifteen participants exercised at least daily on average by the end of the trial. Of the fifteen who exercised at least daily, five continued average exercise of at least daily at the twelve month follow-up. Taking part in the study helped women to focus on the exercises and this had a positive impact on their adherence. Eleven out of the fifteen participants with incontinence experienced an improvement in their symptoms after twelve weeks. This had a positive impact on their quality of life. Of those who experienced UI, the women who had the biggest increase in level of exercise also had the biggest improvement in symptoms. Participants in the intervention group of the trial were provided with apps for PFME. Six out of the ten of intervention group participants who completed the trial reported that the apps were not useful and of the four who found them useful, their level of use was varied. The data from this study suggests that simply being provided with apps or equipment to use the apps cannot be linked to improved levels of participation in the study. This suggests that the provision of technology is insufficient in itself to engage with individuals in health behaviour change and has important implications for future service provision in continence promotion and mHealth.

abstract: Widespread adoption of smartphone based Mobile Medical Apps (MMAs) is opening new avenues for innovation, bringing MMAs to the forefront of low cost healthcare delivery. These apps often control human physiology and work on sensitive data. Thus it is necessary to have evidences of their trustworthiness i.e. maintaining privacy of health data, long term operation of wearable sensors and ensuring no harm to the user before actual marketing. Traditionally, clinical studies are used to validate the trustworthiness of medical systems. However, they can take long time and could potentially harm the user. Such evidences can be generated using simulations and mathematical analysis. These methods involve estimating the MMA interactions with human physiology. However, the nonlinear nature of human physiology makes the estimation challenging. This research analyzes and develops MMA software while considering its interactions with human physiology to assure trustworthiness. A novel app development methodology is used to objectively evaluate trustworthiness of a MMA by generating evidences using automatic techniques. It involves developing the Health-Dev β tool to generate a) evidences of trustworthiness of MMAs and b) requirements assured code generation for vulnerable components of the MMA without hindering the app development process. In this method, all requests from MMAs pass through a trustworthy entity, Trustworthy Data Manager which checks if the app request satisfies the MMA requirements. This method is intended to expedite the design to marketing process of MMAs. The objectives of this research is to develop models, tools and theory for evidence generation and can be divided into the following themes: • Sustainable design configuration estimation of MMAs: Developing an optimization framework which can generate sustainable and safe sensor configuration while considering interactions of the MMA with the environment. • Evidence generation using simulation and formal methods: Developing models and tools to verify safety properties of the MMA design to ensure no harm to the human physiology. • Automatic code generation for MMAs: Investigating methods for automatically • Performance analysis of trustworthy data manager: Evaluating response time generating trustworthy software for vulnerable components of a MMA and evidences.performance of trustworthy data manager under interactions from non-MMA smartphone apps. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Computer Science 2015