Yes / The use of smartphones has become more prevalent in light of the boom in Internet services and Web 2.0 applications. Mobile stores (e.g., Apple’s App Store and Google Play) have been increasingly used by mobile users worldwide to download or purchase different kinds of applications. This has prompted mobile app practitioners to reconsider their mobile app stores in terms of design, features and functions in order to maintain their customers’ loyalty. Due to the lack of research on this context, this study aims to identify factors that may affect users’ satisfaction and continued intention toward using mobile stores. The proposed model includes various factors derived from information systems literature (i.e., usefulness, ease of use, perceived cost, privacy and security concerns) in addition to the dimensions of mobile interactivity (i.e. active control, mobility, and responsiveness). The study sets out 13 hypotheses that include mediating relationships (e.g., perceived usefulness mediates the influence of ease of use, active control, responsiveness and mobility; perceived ease of use mediates the influence of active control). As well as outlining the proposed research method, the research contributions, limitations and future research recommendations are also addressed.

The research investigated consumers' decision-making process during pre-adoption and consumption stages of consumer-based technologies via the context of mobile apps. In an attempt to integrate consumer resistance in predicting the end-decisions to adopt/not adopt or continue/discontinue the use of a technology, the study presented some interesting findings. Employing the theoretical framework of cognitive appraisal theory, the study integrated the TAM, paradoxes of technology, and coping strategies to propose and empirically validate a process-based model of decision-making.Data were collected via a self-administered web-based survey. Two versions of the questionnaire were used to elicit consumers' responses from adopters and non-adopters of mobile apps. A total of 646 smartphone owners responded to the survey, of which, 375 respondents had downloaded apps in the past and 271 respondents had not downloaded any apps. The proposed hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.Results demonstrated that most part of the TAM3 framework is replicable in a consumer-based setting. Additional findings provided evidence for the strong role of goal relevance in the TAM framework. The study also supported the effect of perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use on different technology paradoxes. The factor structure of the technology paradoxes suggested three distinct dimensions. Consumers' evaluation of control, freedom, newness, assimilation, and fulfillment of need as derived from the use of mobile apps was captured by Perceived Benefits. The construct, Perceived Apprehension, comprised of consumers' assessment of the chaos, enslavement, obsolesce, isolation, and creation of needs as a result of using mobile apps. Finally, the factor, Perceived Obscurity, investigated the confusion and/or ambiguity within individuals by measuring their perceived inefficiency and incompetence in using mobile apps.Most importantly, separate investigations of the pre-adoption and consumption stages highlighted consumers' use of varying degrees of resistance as influenced by their appraisal of the technology. The non-adopters resisted the use of mobile apps by either being indifferent towards it or postponing the decision to adopt. The adopters of mobile apps were also found to reject its use by distancing, abandoning, or neglecting the apps. The role of positive coping investigated the positive behavioral tendencies employed by consumers to overcome the challenges of using mobile apps. Managerial implications are discussed.

The United States is a rapidly aging nation. Older adults have higher rates of falls than any other age group. One in four older adults fall each year. Many of these falls are associated with sedentary lifestyles and decreased muscular strength effecting balance and gait performance. Physical activity (exercise) can reduce the risk of falls among older adults, yet adherence remains low. Exergames can increase adherence to interventions that promote health and physical activity. Social engagement can increase self-efficacy and motivation to exercise. By design, the Bingocize® health promotion mobile application (app) increases social engagement, while providing a multi-factorial fall prevention intervention. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the efficacy of the app to improve gait in community-dwelling older adults (N=38; mean age 72.42 years +12.58). Participants were clustered and randomly assigned to (a) experimental (n=20; using app with bingo game, health education and exercise) or (b) control (n=18; using app with bingo game, health education without exercise) condition. Each group completed a tenweek intervention that consisted of two- 45-60 minute sessions per week. Pre and post gait analysis, at self-selected (SS) and fast-walking speeds, measured using the GAITRite® Electronic Walkway (GWS). Gait analysis included parameters of velocity, cadence, step time, step length and width, and single and double support time. A mixedmodel ANOVA (p < .05) was used for statistical analysis. There were no main effects observed. Significant interactions (group x time) were observed at fast speed and SS speed compared to the control group. Significant interactions were observed at fast speed included velocity (λ = .886, F (1, 36) = 4.61, p = .039, 𝜼𝒑 𝟐 = .114); and step length (λ = .864, F (1, 36) = 5.64, p = .023, 𝜼𝒑 𝟐 = .136); and were observed at SS speed for single support time (λ = .887, F (1, 36) = 4.59, p = .039, 𝜼𝒑 𝟐 = .113). Post hoc analyses using paired and independent samples t-tests were conducted on gait variables with observed significant interactions. The independent samples t-test for Single Support Time (SS) post was significant (t (36) = 2.454, p = .019, two-tailed). None of the remaining post hoc analyses were significant. There was a meaningful detectable change (MDC) in mean velocity (>5 cm/s) over time, for both SS and fast walking speeds, within the experimental condition. MDC in gait speed ranges from 5 cm/s (small) to 10 cm/s (large). As for clinical significance, this should be considered a small, yet meaningful detectable change. It is the conclusion of the investigators, that the app, with the exercise intervention, can effectively produce a meaningful change in gait speed (5 cm/s), which has the potential for reducing the risk of falls in older adults. This investigation was funded by The Retirement Research Foundation.

As our society gets increasingly mobile, it is becoming commonplace for residences to remain vacant for a significant amount of time every day. Unfortunately, emergencies can occur during those time, which may require immediate mitigatory action. This project proposes an approach that allows the resident to be notified of such emergencies and to perform mitigatory actions, even when she is hundreds of miles away. Our infrastructure includes three components: (1) programmable sensor devices to detect emergency situations; (2) a Web service hosted in the resident's home computer to send a notification to the smartphone of the user; and (3) a smartphone app that communicates with this Web service to notify the user, and provides a interface for the user to perform any mitigatory action. We develop a prototype system for detecting fire and intrusion emergencies. Our prototype system uses two sunSPOTs as sensors, an iRobot Create® as a mitigatory device, an Android app for user notification. / text

The mobile application market is becoming increasingly fragmented with the availability of multiple mobile platforms that differ in development procedures. Developers are forced to choose to support only some platforms and specific devices due to limited development resources. To address these challenges, numerous tools have been created to aid developers in building cross-platform applications, however, there is no metric to evaluate the quality of these tools. This thesis introduces a framework for evaluating the features, performance and discuss development experience of existing and future cross-platform development tools. The framework is implemented by benchmarking several tools and the results identify a disparity in the features and performance. This research is carried out in collaboration with industrial partner Desire2Learn, through an NSERC Engage Grant. / NSERC, Desire2Learn

Submitted by Jordan (jordanbiblio@gmail.com) on 2017-03-29T16:01:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_Érika Cassia de Almeida Soares Kurpel Daron.pdf: 3518196 bytes, checksum: 09a72381969eb6058cd3c395a9db18f0 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jordan (jordanbiblio@gmail.com) on 2017-03-29T16:32:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_Érika Cassia de Almeida Soares Kurpel Daron.pdf: 3518196 bytes, checksum: 09a72381969eb6058cd3c395a9db18f0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-29T16:32:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_Érika Cassia de Almeida Soares Kurpel Daron.pdf: 3518196 bytes, checksum: 09a72381969eb6058cd3c395a9db18f0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-10 / Espia lá é um aplicativo que organiza e facilita o acesso a produtos educacionais, um produto desenvolvido no Mestrado Profissional em Ensino de Ciências da Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso. A primeira versão do aplicativo conta com 24 dos 26 produtos educacionais do Banco de Produtos Educacionais do programa no período de 2012 a 2015. Dessa forma, levando para a mão dos professores da educação básica estes produtos, o aplicativo contribuirá para a popularização do conhecimento construído por meio das dissertações defendidas além de se propor a ser uma ferramenta que viabilize outras inclusões de materiais com acesso posterior facilitado, pela não necessidade de internet, uma vez instalado. A metodologia da pesquisa foi desenvolvida por meio das seguintes etapas: 1. Levantamento de dados sobre os Produtos educacionais já produzidos; 2. Catalogação dos Produtos educacionais do período de 2012 a 2015; 3. Construção do Aplicativo; 4. Construção do guia de instalação; 5. Momento de reflexão na Sala do Educador; 6. Construção e aplicação de dois questionários: Aplicado aos professores da Escola Estadual Liceu Cuiabano/Cuiabá-MT; 7. Validação do Aplicativo. O levantamento de dados demonstrou que dos 26 produtos educacionais disponíveis no Banco do Programa, 24 produtos são compatíveis com o aplicativo e que, portanto, podem ser disponibilizados aos professores por meio dele. A caracterização e catalogação de cada um desses produtos ampliaram a potencialidade de acesso, pois os colocou em áreas de forma sistemática. As reflexões na Sala de Educador demonstraram grandes dificuldades relacionadas ao uso das tecnologias. Novos aplicativos já são pensados a partir deste, mostrando que a motivação criadora para o ensino de ciências exerce seu papel na formação continuada por meio de um mestrado profissional e depois dele também. Com base na conclusão das fases operacionais da pesquisa, procedemos à elaboração final do aplicativo, que será divulgado e disponibilizado aos professores da Educação Básica e ao Programa, bem como ao Centro de Formação e Atualização de Profissionais da educação básica (Cefapro/Cuiabá-MT), ao Portal do Professor e na Play Store. / Espia lá is an APP that organizes and facilitates the access to educational products, a product that was developed in the Professional Masters in Natural Science of Federal University of Mato Grosso. The first version of the app has 24 of 26 educational products from the Database of Educational Products from the Master's Program of the period between 2012 to 2015. In this way leading these products to the hands of the teachers from the basic education, the app will contribute to the popularization of the constructive knowledge, through the dissertations already presented, besides of propose to be a tool that enables the inclusion of other materials with the posterior access facilitated, without the need of internet, once installed. The methodology of this research was developed through of the following steps 1. Collection of data about the educational products that already have been produced; 2. Cataloguing of the Educational Products of the period between 2012 to 2015; 3. Development of the app; 4. Construction of the installation guide; 5. Moment of reflection in the Room Educator; 6. Construction and application of two questionnaires: It was applied to the teachers from the Public School Liceu Cuiabano/Cuiabá - MT; 7. Validation of the APP; The collection of data demonstrated that of the 26 available educational products in the Master Programs Database, 24 are compatible to the app and, therefore ,these products can be available to the teachers use it through the app. The characterization and cataloguing of each one of these products did expand the potential of access, due to the organization of each product in different areas, in a systematic way. The reflections in the Room Educator demonstrated a lot of difficult in relation of the use of the technologies. New apps are already being thinking based on this app, showing that the creative motivation for the science teaching affects continuing education by means of a professional master's and after it also. Based on the conclusions of the operational phases of this research, we proceed the final elaboration of the app, which will it be released and available to the teachers of the basic education and to the Master's Program, as well the Center of Centre for Training and Upgrading of basic education Professionals (Cefapro / Cuiaba-MT), the Teacher Portal and in the Play Store.

Entrepreneurship educations in developing countries have not yet been able to take advantage of digital tools. The Ugandian non-profit YoungDrive has 60 coaches teaching entrepreneurship to 12 000 youth in rural areas. The coaches have a problem during and after their education with assessing and improving their abilities to learn and teach entrepreneurship. The purpose of this study was to investigate how an app can be designed to address this issue. Methods within service design, agile development and interaction design has been used and combined to construct and analyse interviews, workshops, question sets, and app tests with the coaches in Uganda and Zambia. In total, three months were spent testing and iterating on low-detailed and high-detailed prototypes. The result is a launched hybrid app for Android, iOS and web. A formative test shows coaches are more reliably correct using an improved design of multiple-choice questions than a standard multiple-choice design. Interviews shows the coaches has become more aware of what they know and do not know, and feels more confidence before their youth lesson with an increased quiz result. Further research should evaluate that the actual quality of the youth lesson improves. Increasingly well-constructed multiple-choice questions with thoughtful feedback could stimulate creativity and problem-solving, deemed important by entrepreneurship education research. After overcoming usability issues, the final app could reach both low and high-order learning objectives within entrepreneurship. The app did seemingly improve the quality of entrepreneurship education for the coaches in this specific developing world context. Further research should also investigate the design and implications of a digital-only entrepreneurship education for the coaches, having in mind that the teacher is believed the main factor of entrepreneurship education. As of now, the app is an effective compliment and assistance to the physical training.

With the popularization of mobile technology and the explosion of apps, Chinese college students can use mobile apps to improve their English ability. While there is considerable enthusiasm for using apps to support learning with their multimedia capabilities, portability, connectivity, and flexibility, there is a paucity of research evidence about whether such approach can facilitate English learning for college students and what students’ attitudes are towards the new approach. Besides, there is a lack of research about which apps are good and suitable for them in specific aspects of English studies, such as spoken English, reading comprehension, listening or writing.In order to figure out them, the semi-interview survey and experiment are used in our study. The interviewees were 5 college students studying at USST or SDTU, China. They talked about their attitudes towards using apps to study on their own. In the experiment, the subjects were 15 exchange students, now studying at the University of Borås. The experiment examined the effect that college students use mobile devices to learn English by themselves.The finding suggests that the new learning approach is effective and helpful for college students to improve English by using their mobile devices, as well as undergraduates are willing to use apps to learn English with self-regulated learning approach instead of traditional learning approach. Some apps well suited for college students are presented. Based on the findings, we provide useful instructional strategies for college students to learn English by themselves in the end.

Many desktop applications have moved away from heavy client-side programs tolighter web-based solutions served from the cloud. Mobile applications have also beentraditionally client-based in the form of native applications. With the use of HTML5,however, there is a growing shift towards web apps as opposed to native. HTML5technologies are enabling mobile apps to run in the browser with some native appfunctionality. HTML5 has received a great deal of attention since its release in 2009,there are numerous articles and discussions on the Internet. Some developers are verynegative and some are very positive towards the idea that it is a serious contender inmobile application development. This report presents research carried out to get theviews of developers as to their current use of HTML5 and how much they expect tobe developing mobile apps using HTML5 in the future. Judging by the level ofresponse gained and comments given, this is a very hot topic right now. The researchshows that HTML5 is a viable alternative to native app development but it has somelimitations and has some way to go before it could begin to replace native appdevelopment altogether.

There has been an enormous growth in the usage of smartphones in recent times. Smartphones are not limited to communication purposes. It has various applications designed as per the daily requirements of humans such as web-searching, online shopping, bank transactions, games, etc. With the increase in the usage of the smartphone, the more useful information is captured and stored by it, which raises the question of security. The goal of this research is to develop two android applications. One is a sensor detector application and the second is a screen lock application. The first application will help the user to identify all the hidden sensors and working sensors on the mobile phone. This application even describes the features and usage of every sensor in detail. Using a graphical description of each sensor which depicts the behaviour of each sensor as per environment/movement. The second application is designed using a combination of two sensors. Screen lock applications contain two main factors. One is to work properly in all cases and efficiently do the functions that are required to do. The second is to maintain a smooth inner system interaction because in addition to locking the screen this application should make sure to hide the display of all the other applications without closing the process of these applications. With the increase in the usage of the smartphone, it becomes difficult for older generations to memorize the security pattern techniques and use them. This thesis develops a simple technique in the mobile authentication android application. The thesis is developed on the Android studio platform. The background functionality of the app is coded in java using android SDK tool and frontend of the application is designed using XML files. The GENYMOTION emulator and a mobile phone are used to test the output.