People appreciate mobile apps that feel as though they were designed expressly for the device. For example, when an app fits well on the device screen and responds to the gestures that people know, it provides much of the experience people are looking for. And, although people might not be aware of human interface design principles, such as direct manipulation or consistency, they can tell when apps follow them and when they don’t.

The Blessing. Fragmentation allows users to take their pick from thousands of devices. You can choose from phones with 3D screens, projectors, CDMA, GSM, or even CDMA & GSM. You may not care that Tag Heuer has made an Android phone but at least one person does (and they use OpenSignalMaps). It's a triumph for Android that as a single OS it can target so many markets.

The Curse. The proliferation of devices with their associated screen sizes, internal hardware and custom ROMs creates some difficulties. We spend a lot of time making the app presentable (or at less functional) on exotic devices - this is the most common request we get from app users.

The Study. Over the past 6 months we've been logging the new devices that download OpenSignalMaps, we've based this study on 681,900 of these devices. We've looked at model, brand, API level (i.e. the version of Android) and screen size and we've tried to present this in the clearest form we can.

RT @whatterz: It exists! MIT creates tech for moving files across devices with a swipe #mobile #MIT

RT @KaraBoney: 5 Lightweight jQuery Alternatives for Mobile Development via @Tutorialzine

As I was waiting for a table at a local restaurant the other day, I flipped through a couple of the free classified papers. I was shocked to realize how dependent I’ve grown on three simple features that just aren’t available in the analog world: search, sort and filter.

While the task of designing Web applications and sites for multiple devices can be daunting, two techniques can make the process more manageable: classifying device experiences and designing/building responsively. Here's how these two approaches can work together to optimize interface designs across a wide range of connected devices.

For a mobile phone user, the most familiar design patterns are the ones in their own phone. As such, developers should follow the target platform's design guidelines when creating apps.

As more organizations realize they need to invest heavily in multi-device Web designs, the inevitable question of “how” comes up. Responsive Web design, separate sites, or something in between? Here’s how I’ve tried to simplify this decision:

Top and left navigations are typical on large screens, but lack of screen real estate on small screens makes for an interesting challenge. As responsive design becomes more popular, it’s worth looking at the various ways of handling navigation for small screen sizes. Mobile web navigation must strike a balance between quick access to a site’s information and unobtrusiveness.

RT @thedigitalmix: From RWW: Hybrid HTML5 Apps Are Less Costly to Develop Than Native

RT @cameronmoll: "Nearly 7% of all online purchases were made using iPads" and other holiday shopping stats:

RT @whatterz: Responsive web design templates and frameworks #responsive #design

'mobile internet usage to overtake desktop usage by 2015 in US' why you should be planning for mobile

#N9 UX guidelines. Really nicely done.

RT @adactio: Liveblogging a very exciting unveiling from @beep at @AnEventApart.

PhoneGap is an HTML5 app platform that allows you to author native applications with web technologies and get access to APIs and app stores

RT @Folletto: Excellent examples of CSS media queries:
/via @adactio

@thetalldesigner it was Ethan Marcotte or @beep