Alpha Software Announces Alpha Anywhere V4: Rapid Mobile App Development Without Limits

BURLINGTON, MA. April 25, 2016 – Alpha Software Corporation, accelerating how developers build and deploy mobile and web business apps, today announced the availability of Alpha Anywhere V4. This release adds powerful capabilities to the Alpha Anywhere mobile and web application development and deployment environment, including the ability to access all mobile device features and a new mobile optimized forms capability that fundamentally streamlines data capture on mobile devices. The release was extensively tested by thousands of Alpha Software customers during a six-month beta. 

"Although there are other web and mobile RAD tools out there, they can be very expensive and, the easier companies try to make them, the less flexible and powerful they tend to be," said Tim Bochard, vice president of information technology, Glacier Water Services, and Alpha Anywhere V4 beta tester. "At Glacier, we want a tool that is not only fast and easy, but has no limits - Alpha Anywhere V4 has the horsepower to make it easy for us." 

At the start of this year, Alpha Anywhere became the only mobile app development technology awarded an InfoWorld 2016 Technology of the Year Award and last month, Alpha Anywhere debuted on the Gartner Peer Insights website as the only mobile app development vendor given a perfect score by IT professionals. The software's low-code/coding optional approach empowers both seasoned developers and business professionals without development experience to create sophisticated mobile business applications with full access to mobile hardware and native-quality user experiences in days or weeks. 

"Companies are scrambling to mobilize hundreds of business processes and applications. The demand for mobile applications to speed the pace of business, is, paradoxically, slowing businesses down as they try to keep up with explosive demand for mobile apps," said Alpha Software Corporation CEO, Richard Rabins. "We created Alpha Anywhere to provide total confidence to developers, that no matter what challenges a business faces in app development, problems can be solved while still remaining highly productive because of Alpha Anywhere's coding optional/low code approach." 

New capabilities in Alpha Anywhere V4 include:

• Mobile optimized forms made possible through the new FormView Control and enhanced Adobe® PhoneGap™ Build integration. This exclusive technology allows users to finally make replacing paper and clipboards a reality with mobile apps that can speed data capture in the field with rich media capabilities, annotation, custom keyboards made for one-handed use and context-aware data capture. In addition, each field can be enhanced with custom controls such as checklist swipes and stopwatches for speed and accuracy.
• Digital ink and image annotation allowing users to capture handwritten notes, sketch and draw (with a finger, stylus or a mouse) on pictures or images, or add signatures in mobile apps.
• Audio capture via a mobile device for dictating notes, equipment sounds, or recording customers' comments at field locations within mobile apps with audio recorder controls.
• Seamless access to device hardware including cameras, scanners, specialized hardware add-ons, recording, GPS, and video, to give developers the capability to utilize full mobile device features for automatic or rich data capture within their business apps.
• Industry-leading offline capabilities, including client-side data caching, which allows mobile app users to store large amounts of data (GB) or rich media files when they don't have a connection.
• Support for OData Web Services to connect Alpha Anywhere desktop, web or mobile apps to a wide range of corporate data sources and systems of record.
• Support for NoSQL (MongoDB), SQLite, and Amazon S3 Cloud Storage, giving developers the ability to leverage some of the most popular technologies in use today.
• Access to web sockets for direct messaging, which allows developers to push data instantly to applications in the field, such as auction sites, instant messaging and worker location tracking.
• Performance and speed enhancements that speed throughput, enable UX components to load up to five times faster, and power Ajax callbacks on large UX components up to five times faster.

In total, Alpha Anywhere V4 includes more than 100 new features. Other improved areas include security, data integration, and user interface. For full details, visit the Alpha Anywhere V4 product page. 

"In order to be successful, enterprise mobile apps must meet critical user requirements, including intuitive use, the ability to leverage mobile hardware device features, such as geo-location, video, audio, and camera, and the ability to work with large amounts of read/write data – even when working offline," said Dan Bricklin, CTO of Alpha Software. "These functions are no longer optional in enterprise mobility - they are critical requirements for mobile app development and success. Alpha Anywhere V4 was developed with the horsepower to quickly meet these requirements with little to no coding." 

Alpha Anywhere V4 is now available. The upgrade is available for free to current subscribers. Users new to Alpha Anywhere can get a free trial of Alpha Anywhere V4, as well as mentoring, training and service offerings at: www.alphasoftware.com. Alpha Software is also set to release its first mobile optimized forms sample app for customers to quickly understand how to incorporate new features such as customized keyboards, digital ink and large media file storage into their Alpha Anywhere business apps. Alpha Software has seen greater than 50 percent increase in Q1 2016 sales in comparison to 2015, and with this release, the company expects this growth to continue.