Jonathan James Trevor

Doing the Mobile Mash

Pipes lets both novice and expert developers grab Web data sources from multiple formats, manipulate that data, mash it up with other data sources or services using a visual editor, and host the results on its Web page. Once a Pipe is built, anyone can use its data output however they want, wherever they want. Mobile application development continues to be challenging given the enormous number of devices and capabilities. Services like Pipes enable developers to focus on one of the keystones of such applications: getting the right data. They also make list- and map-based visualizations easy to both build and consume. A current shortcoming of many mobile Pipes is the lack of an automatic way to provide user location.