Today, the SabiNila application was launched in the Android Marketplace. 

The event culminates a joint project between teams from Vinta, UP College of Engineering, Computer Science Department, and UP College of Fine Arts.  The three institutions are collaborating to extend the current mobile application "SabiNila" to Andriod powered mobile devices. The goal of the project is to provide students with applicable experience in industry, at the same time learn to work with different institutions within the University.

SabiNila is a news aggregation application similar to its iPhone counterpart. It is a free service to the public.  The application collects and presents the top rated news articles, refreshed live from the major Philippine news sources.  The content is optimized in format, and delivery for mobile users and their devices. User base for the application is targeted for Filipinos, in and out of the country, who follow Philippine news across multiple major publication sources.

The launching was done through the Andoir Marketplace, an online source for applications for the Android operating system (a mobile platform created by Google, gaining a lot of traction with phone manufacturers).  The marketplace was launched by Google in 2008 to provide Android with a medium through which developers can get their creations to consumers. The site is accessible globally.

The collaboration between the Computer Science and Fine Arts domains are ideal for the mobile application space, because of the need for high impact, low footprint interfaces which characterize software built for phones (and readers, like the iPad).  There is very little real estate to work with, so the balance between function and form needs to be planned carefully - making sure that graphical representation aligns with the features provide to the end use.

Students operate within a formal structure that would be expected of them in their professional work. Experience with intellectual property rights - contracts, and management; are explained and taught to prepare the students for situations that would arise after they leave the academic institution and start dealing with commercial institutions.

The students involved in the project are:

The following professors are acknowledge for their forward thinking and willingness to allow their students to participate in the project: