Popular Mobile Apps Research Articles

Popular Nutrition-Related Mobile Apps: A Feature Assessment.

BackgroundA key challenge in human nutrition is the assessment of usual food intake. This is of particular interest given recent proposals of eHealth personalized interventions. The adoption of mobile phones has created an opportunity for assessing and improving nutrient intake as they can be used for digitalizing dietary assessments and providing feedback. In the last few years, hundreds of nutrition-related mobile apps have been launched and installed by millions of users.ObjectiveThis study aims to analyze the main features of the most popular nutrition apps and to compare their strategies and technologies for dietary assessment and user feedback.MethodsApps were selected from the two largest online stores of the most popular mobile operating systems—the Google Play Store for Android and the iTunes App Store for iOS—based on popularity as measured by the number of installs and reviews. The keywords used in the search were as follows: calorie(s), diet, diet tracker, dietician, dietitian, eating, fit, fitness, food, food diary, food tracker, health, lose weight, nutrition, nutritionist, weight, weight loss, weight management, weight watcher, and ww calculator. The inclusion criteria were as follows: English language, minimum number of installs (1 million for Google Play Store) or reviews (7500 for iTunes App Store), relation to nutrition (ie, diet monitoring or recommendation), and independence from any device (eg, wearable) or subscription.ResultsA total of 13 apps were classified as popular for inclusion in the analysis. Nine apps offered prospective recording of food intake using a food diary feature. Food selection was available via text search or barcode scanner technologies. Portion size selection was only textual (ie, without images or icons). All nine of these apps were also capable of collecting physical activity (PA) information using self-report, the global positioning system (GPS), or wearable integrations. Their outputs focused predominantly on energy balance between dietary intake and PA. None of these nine apps offered features directly related to diet plans and motivational coaching. In contrast, the remaining four of the 13 apps focused on these opportunities, but without food diaries. One app—FatSecret—also had an innovative feature for connecting users with health professionals, and another—S Health—provided a nutrient balance score.ConclusionsThe high number of installs indicates that there is a clear interest and opportunity for diet monitoring and recommendation using mobile apps. All the apps collecting dietary intake used the same nutrition assessment method (ie, food diary record) and technologies for data input (ie, text search and barcode scanner). Emerging technologies, such as image recognition, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence, were not identified. None of the apps had a decision engine capable of providing personalized diet advice.

Next to You: Monitoring Quality of Experience in Cellular Networks From the End-Devices

A quarter of the world population will be using smartphones to access the Internet in the near future. In this context, understanding the quality of experience (QoE) of popular apps in such devices becomes paramount to cellular network operators, who need to offer high-quality levels to reduce the risks of customers churning for quality dissatisfaction. In this paper, we address the problem of QoE provisioning in smartphones from a double perspective, combining the results obtained from subjective laboratory tests with end-device passive measurements and QoE crowd-sourced feedback obtained in operational cellular networks. The study addresses the impact of both access bandwidth and latency on the QoE of five different services and mobile apps: YouTube, Facebook, Web browsing through Chrome, Google Maps, and WhatsApp. We evaluate the influence of both constant and dynamically changing network access conditions, tackling in particular the case of fluctuating downlink bandwidth, which is typical in cellular networks. As a main contribution, we show that the results obtained in the laboratory are highly applicable in the live scenario, as mappings track the QoE provided by users in real networks. We additionally provide hints and bandwidth thresholds for good QoE levels on such apps, as well as discussion on end-device passive measurements and analysis. The results presented in this paper provide a sound basis to better understand the QoE requirements of popular mobile apps, as well as for monitoring the underlying provisioning network. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper providing such a comprehensive analysis of QoE in mobile devices, combining network measurements with users QoE feedback in laboratory tests, and operational networks.

Achieving the EMBaaSABLE

Many of the most popular mobile apps include some combination of access to data from multiple devices, sharing of data among multiple users, push notifications, and social media integration. Conseq...

Latent Relation Analysis based Discovering Fraudulent Ranking Identification on Mobile Web Apps

Objective: The main objective of this work is finding a fraudulent behaviour of mobile apps where mobile app developers may generate fraudulent evidences for providing an top ranking for them. The primary goal of this work is to find out the fraudulent evidences present in the ranked mobile apps. And also this work aims to filter the mobile fraudulent ranking behaviour based on the semantic relation present among the evidences of mobile apps. Method: In the existing work, leading session methodology is introduced to leverage the fraudulent ranking activities. And also the three types of evidences are analysed and aggregated to detect the fraudulent behaviour. However this method cannot consider the relationship among the evidences that are analysed for malicious behaviour detection which will lead to an inefficient detection of fraudulent ranking behaviour. To overcome this problem, in this work latent semantic relationship among the evidences are analysed and based on the relationship exists among them fraudulent ranking behaviour is detected. This is done by constructing the vector of entities which can capture the degree of association present among the concept vectors. Application/Improvements: This proposed research methodology would be more helpful in the mobile app markets where the number of apps developed for the specific purpose has been increased considerably. In this situation, it is required to provide truthful and most popular mobile apps to the users to increase the reputation level. This proposed research methodology provides a way for increasing the reputation level of the mobile owners by detecting and eliminating the fraudulent mobile apps.

Assessing Risk Following a Wireless Emergency Alert: Are 90 Characters Enough?

Abstract In a relatively new initiative, homeland security and other emergency management officials use wireless cell technology to communicate Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) messages to an increasingly mobile public. Severe weather warnings represent one type of WEA message that the public can receive on their cell phone. So far, officials have limited WEA messages to 90 characters of text and therefore have excluded information-rich weather graphics like warning polygons and radar images. The question remains if this lean messaging strategy effectively communicates the risk and severity of the storm. In the current study, the researchers created prototype WEA tornado warning messages equivalent to both popular mobile weather apps on the market and the National Weather Service’s iNWS service to compare to typical WEA text-only warnings. The study therefore investigates WEA weather warning message effectiveness across one of four conditions: (1) WEA (text-only) alert; (2) WEA text+NWS warning polygon; (3) WEA text+radar image; and (4) WEA text+warning polygon+radar image. Participants were told they were driving through an unknown region of the US. The researchers asked participants to assess the perceived risk, perceived severity, and likelihood to contact a loved one for each message. The results indicate the decisions did not differ as a function of warning type. Also, the participants’ times to make the three decisions were equivalent across all four types of messages.

Cannabis Mobile Apps: A Content Analysis.

BackgroundMobile technology is pervasive and widely used to obtain information about drugs such as cannabis, especially in a climate of rapidly changing cannabis policy; yet the content of available cannabis apps is largely unknown. Understanding the resources available to those searching for cannabis apps will clarify how this technology is being used to reflect and influence cannabis use behavior.ObjectiveWe investigated the content of 59 cannabis-related mobile apps for Apple and Android devices as of November 26, 2014.MethodsThe Apple and Google Play app stores were searched using the terms “cannabis” and “marijuana.” Three trained coders classified the top 20 apps for each term and each store, using a coding guide. Apps were examined for the presence of 20 content codes derived by the researchers.ResultsTotal apps available for each search term were 124 for cannabis and 218 for marijuana in the Apple App Store, and 250 each for cannabis and marijuana on Google Play. The top 20 apps in each category in each store were coded for 59 independent apps (30 Apple, 29 Google Play). The three most common content areas were cannabis strain classification (33.9%), facts about cannabis (20.3%), and games (20.3%). In the Apple App Store, most apps were free (77%), all were rated “17+” years, and the average user rating was 3.9/5 stars. The most popular apps provided cannabis strain classifications (50%), dispensary information (27%), or general facts about cannabis (27%). Only one app (3%) provided information or resources related to cannabis abuse, addiction, or treatment. On Google Play, most apps were free (93%), rated “high maturity” (79%), and the average user rating was 4.1/5. The most popular app types offered games (28%), phone utilities (eg, wallpaper, clock; 21%) and cannabis food recipes (21%); no apps addressed abuse, addiction, or treatment.ConclusionsCannabis apps are generally free and highly rated. Apps were most often informational (facts, strain classification), or recreational (games), likely reflecting and influencing the growing acceptance of cannabis for medical and recreational purposes. Apps addressing addiction or cessation were underrepresented in the most popular cannabis mobile apps. Differences among apps for Apple and Android platforms likely reflect differences in the population of users, developer choice, and platform regulations.

Low Quality of Free Coaching Apps With Respect to the American College of Sports Medicine Guidelines: A Review of Current Mobile Apps.

BackgroundLow physical activity level is a significant contributor to chronic disease, weight dysregulation, and mortality. Nearly 70% of the American population is overweight, and 35% is obese. Obesity costs an estimated US$ 147 billion annually in health care, and as many as 95 million years of life. Although poor nutritional habits remain the major culprit, lack of physical activity significantly contributes to the obesity epidemic and related lifestyle diseases.ObjectiveOver the past 10 years, mobile devices have become ubiquitous, and there is an ever-increasing number of mobile apps that are being developed to facilitate physical activity, particularly for active people. However, no systematic assessment has been performed about their quality with respect to following the parameters of sound fitness principles and scientific evidence, or suitability for a variety of fitness levels. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap and assess the quality of mobile coaching apps on iOS mobile devices.MethodsA set of 30 popular mobile apps pertaining to physical activity programming was identified and reviewed on an iPhone device. These apps met the inclusion criteria and provided specific prescriptive fitness and exercise programming content. The content of these apps was compared against the current guidelines and fitness principles established by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). A weighted scoring method based on the recommendations of the ACSM was developed to generate subscores for quality of programming content for aerobic (0-6 scale), resistance (0-6 scale), and flexibility (0-2 scale) components using the frequency, intensity, time, and type (FITT) principle. An overall score (0-14 scale) was generated from the subscores to represent the overall quality of a fitness coaching app.ResultsOnly 3 apps scored above 50% on the aerobic component (mean 0.7514, SD 1.2150, maximum 4.1636), 4 scored above 50% on the resistance/strength component (mean 1.4525, SD 1.2101, maximum 4.1094), and no app scored above 50% on the flexibility component (mean 0.1118, SD 0.2679, maximum 0.9816). Finally, only 1 app had an overall score (64.3%) above 50% (mean 2.3158, SD 1.911, maximum 9.0072).ConclusionsThere are over 100,000 health-related apps. When looking at popular free apps related to physical activity, we observe that very few of them are evidence based, and respect the guidelines for aerobic activity, strength/resistance training, and flexibility, set forth by the ACSM. Users should exercise caution when adopting a new app for physical activity purposes. This study also clearly identifies a gap in evidence-based apps that can be used safely and effectively to start a physical routine program, develop fitness, and lose weight. App developers have an exciting opportunity to improve mobile coaching app quality by addressing these gaps.

Issues of Using Information Communication Technologies in Higher Education

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are examples of information communication technologies (ICTs) that have been widely adopted by students, and could potentially be useful as a resource for teaching and learning in further and higher educational institutions. Facebook tops the charts in social networking space, but when it comes to social messaging on mobiles WhatsApp walks away as the winner (Spohr, 2013). Facebook have recently purchased the popular social mobile app (Tech2, 2013). However, the use of social media has brought about numerous logistical issues and ethical issues relating to interactions with students. For example, the use of some tools in educational institutions is rather informal raising problems of accessibility and inclusion. Based on this phenomenon, we will conduct research to explore the usage of social networking sites and mobile social apps within further and higher education. We will use the survey method to ask students and staff their views on the use of this technology for learning and communication purposes. In this way we hope to compare the views of students in higher education on courses in Music Business and Psychology. While self-report methods are inherently subjective, we believe it is important to explore how both staff and students both use and view different features of these technological tools. Using focus groups, we hope to identify the main themes concerning the use of educational technology for staff and student groups. A larger sample will be obtained using a questionnaire to garner opinions on the main concerns raised. Analysing this data may help in providing recommendations for educational institutions, keeping in mind the important logistical and ethical issues some are unaware of.

Temporal Pattern of Communication

With the emergence of mobile Internet and social media, human relationship has evolved into a new form due to the much broader reach and more efficient communications enabled by information technology. This paper examines the communication pattern and impact on social group in the context of a Chinese popular mobile social media app. It analyzes a dataset that comprised of the information about sending and receiving messages by 10,000 users over one month period. It found a strong temporal pattern of a significant difference between Monday and other days: the least frequent usages on Monday among the week. The average number of friends a user has messaging contacts with is about 2, far less than the number of friends a user has in total, which can reflect the attributes of users maintaining their social network and friendship.

Modernism Meets Digital Humanities

This essay traces some of the ways modernism and digital humanities have converged of late. It covers some of the key modes in which that convergence has so far found expression: popular websites and mobile apps, issues of copyright, the production of digital scholarly editions, the practice of versioning, questions of scale, and geospatial techniques. We cite examples of productive convergences of modernist studies and digital humanities, and articulate the issues listed above with specific research and teaching projects. Our overview advances the basic argument that there are special affinities between modernism and digital humanities and that digital approaches afford some of the most promising lines of development for the ongoing expansion of the “new modernist studies.”

Assessing the privacy policies in mobile personal health records.

The huge increase in the number and use of smartphones and tablets has led health service providers to take an interest in mHealth. Popular mobile app markets like Apple App Store or Google Play contain thousands of health applications. Although mobile personal health records (mPHRs) have a number of benefits, important challenges appear in the form of adoption barriers. Security and privacy have been identified as part of these barriers and should be addressed. This paper analyzes and assesses a total of 24 free mPHRs for Android and iOS. Characteristics regarding privacy and security were extracted from the HIPAA. The results show important differences in both the mPHRs and the characteristics analyzed. A questionnaire containing six questions concerning privacy policies was defined. Our questionnaire may assist developers and stakeholders to evaluate the security and privacy of their mPHRs.

Multi-objective mobile app recommendation: A system-level collaboration approach

The tremendous increase of mobile apps has given rise to the significant challenge of app discovery. To alleviate such a challenge, recommender systems are employed. However, the development of recommender systems for mobile apps is at a slow pace. One main reason is that a general framework for efficient development is still missing. Meanwhile, most existing systems mainly focus on single objective recommendations, which only reflect monotonous app needs of users. For such reasons, we initially present a general framework for developing mobile app recommender systems, which leverages the multi-objective approach and the system-level collaboration strategy. Our framework thus can satisfy ranges of app needs of users by integrating the strengths of various recommender systems. To implement the framework, we originally introduce the method of swarm intelligence to the recommendation of mobile apps. To be detailed, we firstly present a new set based optimization problem which is originated from the collaborative app recommendation. We then propose a novel set based Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, namely, the Cylinder Filling Set based PSO, to address such a problem. Furthermore, we implement the algorithm based on three popular mobile app recommender systems and conduct evaluations. Results verify that our framework and algorithm are with promising performance from both the effectiveness and efficiency.

IPad Apps for Orthopedic Surgeons

The development and distribution of mobile applications, or apps, designed for medical professionals and patients is quickly expanding, and within this group are apps designed specifically for orthopedic use. Currently, the most popular mobile apps are sponsored by private companies and focus on delivering device-specific information. If this trend toward the use of privately funded educational materials continues, regulations may need to be established to ensure that the information provided is accurate, honest, and supported by peer-reviewed literature. It will likely be the responsibility of the orthopedic community to ensure that the development and use of these apps has appropriate oversight and validation as they are incorporated into clinical practice and training.

The Effectiveness of Branded Mobile Phone Apps

Mobile phone applications (“apps”) have generated substantial interest among marketers, primarily because of their high level of user engagement and the positive impact this presumably has on a user's attitude toward the sponsoring brand. This study utilized a pre-test/post-test experimental design to determine whether using popular mobile phone apps affects brand attitude and brand purchase intention. The results show that using these apps has a positive persuasive impact, increasing interest in the brand and also the brand's product category. The relevance of the product category makes no difference, but apps with an informational/user-centered style were more effective at shifting purchase intention, most likely because this style focuses attention on the user, and therefore encourages making personal connections with the brand. Experiential game-like apps were less successful, because they focus attention on the phone. These results suggest that understanding how to maximize the impact of mobile phone apps will be a key topic for future research.