Zebra DEVPODCAST hosts Dan Quagliana and Mark Jolley are joined by MicroEJ’s CEO Fred Rivard and VP of US Sales, Robert Diloreto. MicroEJ builds cost-driven solutions for embedded and IoT devices. MicroEJ decided to try and duplicate what has been done for the smart phone industry for printers. With developers moving to develop on the Android platform, MicroEJ saw an opportunity to add app capability to other devices to provide additional value and to future proof them. By building a small application platform to fit into lots of printers and to re-use and scale apps across broader fleet of devices, MicroEJ was able to embed the full standard language of Java to create an on-board service onto a Zebra printer. With growth and rise in mobile phones, and as Android continues as the preferred platform along with Java growth, MicroEJ, alongside Zebra can help developers develop faster and easier with Java applications as they build for printers.

So how much of the Java applications are proprietary to the MicroEJ platform and Zebra functionality?

By opening up the application space to all Java developers (10 Million) rather than limited to printer experts who know ZBI or Link-OS developer can write apps with low-overhead device, from processor perspective. This is opening up a previously restricted embedded device to outside developers so they can treat it almost like a mobile device. But this does raise questions around boundaries and restrictions.

To address the security issues, through high level certification, MicroEJ has built a virtualization sandbox which separates core print from app layer keeping separate apps from each other. Third party apps can often cause security concerns but thanks to the trusted MicroEJ Virtual Execution Environment (MicroEJ VEE) they have created a safe and secure virtual execution environment supported today by more than 8 millions software developers and engineers. The developer community can develop at no risk and they don’t need a printer to build app for one. The platform separates this development from the core competencies keeping it secure as they are obligated to go through the APIs.

While this is not yet available today on commercial Zebra products and MicroEJ and Zebra are partnering to finalize these details. It is expected this will be available on select Link-OS products in the near future. The user will have to pay to enable the feature through Zebra.

As Dan Quagliana points out, Zebra spent many years building out the Link-OS suite of products, building software and solutions to satisfy broad customer needs across various verticals. Similarly, Zebra has a Custom Applications Group that solves custom issues our customers run into. This new solution is now empowering the Zebra partner community to solve more of these issues. Zebra internal developers can take advantage of standard libraries like IoT connectivity protocols like MQTT to streamline the development process. MicroEJ’s platform on Zebra Link-OS printers is a really exciting solution driving new use cases, enabling workflow optimization while extending use cases and printer life-cycles.

Want to learn more? Listen to this podcast or visit Zebra and MicroEJ in person at Google Next 2019 and at Zebra’s APPFORUM in Las Vegas in October 2019.

Building trust with your customers and partners is a key component for success in today’s tech world. In this DEVPODCAST, Zebra’s Dan Quagliana interviews Sameer Parekh, CEO, and Himanshu Srivastava, VP Solutions from Qodenext, a Zebra partner for over 20 years. Qodenext, a software and hardware company, is based in India and specializes in traceability solutions within the manufacturing and T&L industry. They are working with Zebra to expand their business internationally.

Imagine this; you just purchased a nice, white fluffy cotton from your local Target or Walmart. It says its 100% cotton, but can you trust this claim? Well, the cotton was collected in Egypt, where it was picked, tagged and placed in bales and the supply chain of cotton eventually lands in India. There have been use cases where the towel claims its 100%, but was not, and this can damage a business’s credibility. With Qodenext, they are able to attach a QR code to that towel to ensure that lot of cotton that made that towel was truly 100% all cotton, before it hits the shelves. With Zebra’s Savanna platform, Qodenext enhanced their traceability solution even more. It allows them to improve the products, engage Blockchain, and gain global exposure. It’s also ensures that its audit ready. It really is a 100% cotton towel – you can believe this and trust that it is. Blockchain allows them to create this trust.

But do people, customers, understand Blockchain? There is a stirring curiosity about it and how it works. Qodenext, as an early adaptor of Zebra’s Savanna platform, allows them to verify through the scan of a bar code on that towel, its authenticity. This makes for a powerful story for people in supply chain to trust that product.

Join Dan Quagliana as he interviews Doddle’s Gary O’Connor, CTO and Ben Rodway, Head of Technology about becoming an ISV, their takeaways from Zebra’s last APPFORUM and what’s in store for them in 2019 as they are Early Adopter Partners for Zebra’s Savanna data service platform. Doddle is an in-store software technology company focused on retail and logistics and where they come together. This includes parcel online ordering delivery in-store for customer pick up and the reverse of that process, when people return items to stores to ship back out to online vendors or put back into stock.

While the UK market is their primary focus, they have recently expanded to the Netherlands and Australia, with plans to further expand their US market in the coming year.

Doddle began working with Zebra as a customer and followed a development path to become an ISV. With Zebra’s ISV validation process, it increased their visibility and provided credibility with their Zebra validation logo. As an Zebra ISV, its allowed them to further their international expansion, participate in the Global ISV Summit permitting a voice into shaping the program, and to access demo kits and new products through Zebra’s Early Adopter Program.

As a participant in Zebra’s APPFORUM 2017, Doddle learned of Zebra’s Savanna platform and saw firsthand the advantage of participating as a Savanna Early Adopter to expand their market, helping them identify their future business solutions utilizing Zebra tools with RFID technology. For their current use case they’re leveraging Savanna APIs, including the Inventory API. With this enhanced functionality from Savanna, Doddle has been able to streamline their development process and create a solution to track locations of in-store retail items quickly for workers. They are working on a new solution that allows consumers to return items to locations other than the retailer they ordered it from, without having to ship it back. Doddle is looking forward showcasing this solution at the 2019 NRF event with Zebra Technologies.

Discover the advantages of developing and collaborating with Zebra Technologies in this latest podcast.

Listen to Dan Quagliana and Mark Jolley as they dive deep into the IoT world and Zebra’s Savanna data services platform with Brooks Canavesi from Problem Solutions.

Sensing the physical world and bringing it into the digital world is a key movement. The Zebra Savanna platform allows us to collect data across multiple devices, pull it together in central data space and then take actionable insights based on the data. Problem Solutions was part of an early Beta because, as a custom product development shop deploying numerous IoT based solutions, they are often asked to integrate custom or off-the-shelf sensors to ingest a collection of mission critical data and then extract this across the corporate value chain.

Having the Savanna platform allows Problem Solutions to access system level data points on Android Zebra devices and location data and then push updates and important information out across their Enterprise deployments.

Our listeners may want to start thinking about how to get into the IoT world. Listen to Brooks as he shares best practices for development, authentication and security. Discover how it is to work with the Zebra team: having access to new data, receiving the right technical support and feedback on how to enhance solutions.

To discover more about Problem Solutions go to www.problemsolutions.net and for Zebra's Savanna platform, learn more.

Speaking with Brett Cooper from BlueFletch and Brent Grandil from Arrowhead, our hosts Dan Quagliana and Mark Jolley, learn from these Zebra partners about app maintenance and continuous development when developing for the Enterprise. BlueFletch builds Enterprise mobile apps, with a focus on Android rugged devices. Arrowhead creates custom solutions and software applications for enterprise printing like Mobi Print.

Brett and Brent discuss how they balance app deployments across multiple operating systems and operating system versions, partnering with their customers on app and OS updates, and balancing the risks of security versus compatibility. They also discuss their approach to third party library usage, as these are a necessity, yet add additional security and maintenance risks.

Hear how these two developers and business leaders approach Enterprise deployments via App Stores or custom deployment for their Enterprise customers varying in size from single use to tens of thousands. Learn how partnering with Zebra has accelerated and simplified app development, deployment, and sustaining for companies like BlueFletch and Arrowhead.

As enterprises migrate to Android, there seems to be a slower adoption in warehouses. Why is this and what is being done to address the issues? Join our hosts, Dan Quagliana and Mark Jolley as they talk with Joe White, Zebra General Manager, Mobile Computer Division, about this and learn about the challenges customers have faced and how Zebra is helping organizations to move from siloed, closed environment leveraging green screen terminal emulation sessions to a robust, connected cloud, mobile IoT sensing platform for the enterprise through Android.

Zebra has made a significant investment to lead the marketplace in the adoption of purpose built devices such as our TC8000. We are also not just about the devices, but about the application ecosystem that surrounds this making manufacturing, retail, and other vertical businesses more connected.

As an ISV or software developer, the best time to develop is now. The “now economy” today embodies the idea of a connected worker. Digitizing workflows and gaining visibility to those interactions provides new insights and actions for Enterprises to optimize their workflows. Voice collaboration via Workforce Connect streamlines activities even more. It’s a great opportunity for software developers to be thought leaders and drive business growth through development, giving customers the performance edge. Discover the advantages of developing for Zebra in this latest podcast.

Join hosts Dan Quagliana, Head of Zebra's Developer Relations and Mark Jolley, EMEA Sales Engineer, as they share the table with Zebra EMEA CTO James Morley-Smith to learn how you can define user experience and user interface by examining a meal consisting of a banana, a pineapple and a bowl of cereal. The experience and how you eat them each will be very different - much like how one would develop. Think about it this way:

The Banana – It’s fresh, easy to peel and eat, easy to carry around, you know when it's ripe and it’s a smooth, sweet treat.

The Pineapple – How exactly how do you carry a whole pineapple to work for lunch? It’s a bit more prickly than a banana, and it’s not so easy to identify when its ripe. And peeling it could be a challenge when compared to the banana!

As an end user or consumer, you want to have a good, solid effective “experience”. Developers should consider not just the end result, but how their users will experience technology. They are the center of a solid user experience.

What about an effective user interface? Think of it this way - if you have a bowl of cereal, a product, you’ll need to add milk and use a spoon to thoroughly enjoy that product. But what if you have a fork instead of a spoon? That can certainly make the interface challenging! And the experience, well, how do you truly enjoy the milk?

While considering best practices, James takes us through some simple considerations; from the kind of technology tools you, as a developer, should utilize, when you should consider the user research, the environment and when to collaborate. Lots of developers focus on the technical aspects but often neglect the experience the user wants and needs.

To help developers, Zebra created Zebra Design Guidelines, which will be active soon, on design.zebra.com. In the meantime, you can find Zebra Icons here and James also recommends Sketch design tool, Envision app.com, and Zeplin. Developers should develop to design, consider accessibility and how a user will view this from the technical lens.