It’s a return to form here at Google I/O 2013, with none other than Google’s own Vice President of Android Product Management Hugo Barra letting us know that he’d personally fought hard for a more developer-focused single keynote address. As past years had been notably more consumer and product-focused than 2013, it’s not a flash-bang
Tag Archives: developer’s
Google I/O 2013 on-site Wrap-up: Glass, Developers, and Services on tap
Posted by Gsurface
on May 17, 2013
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Google woos developers as software gains importance
Posted by Gsurface
on May 17, 2013
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Google did its best to court developers at this year's I/O conference with a much-needed integrated developer environment, API for better games and the ability to more easily translate apps.
Computerworld News
Google Glass developers make Mirror API simple with Cat Facts
Posted by Gsurface
on May 16, 2013
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Google’s 2013 developer conference this year didn’t give immediate attention to Glass, at least not at its one and only keynote address – but behind the scenes, development ran deep. Speaking together at a developer chat session centered on “Building Glassware” with what the company calls its Google Mirror API, Jenny Murphy and Alain Vongsouvanh
How European Startups Are Battling Labor Laws For Developers and Programmers
Posted by Gsurface
on May 15, 2013
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Nerval’s Lobster writes “The United States with its H-1B controversy isn’t the only country going through that sort of immigration upheaval. As the cult of entrepreneurship spirals upward in Europe, the intricate vagaries of immigration policy on the continent are being newly scrutinized by our company-building classes. Freshly venture-backed European Internet companies want talent, and they are going to remarkable lengths to get it — but not always legally. Milo Yiannopoulos talked to whole bunch of entrepreneurs and investors in Europe about the fudges, shortcuts, workarounds and, in some cases, ‘strategic decision-making’ are — just about — getting their companies the talent they need. For example, one well-known Parisian venture capitalist told Milo that he knows of ‘at least nine’ startups in France employing developers illegally, keeping them off the books not only to avoid France’s notoriously onerous labor laws but also because it would have been impossible, or simply too expensive, to import them officially.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Treading Carefully, Google Encourages Developers to Hack Glass
Posted by Gsurface
on May 15, 2013
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Breaking its own restrictions, Google will show developers how to build any kind of app for Google Glass.
Google has set plenty of restrictions on the functionality of apps for Glass, the head-mounted display it is now shipping out to early adopters. At the company’s annual developer conference, I/O, which kicks off today, it will show app creators how to break those rules.
PayPal Unveils New Android SDK, Available To US Developers May 15
Posted by Gsurface
on May 13, 2013
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An anonymous reader writes “PayPal on Monday announced a new Android SDK that tries to make it easier for developers to accept in-app payments on Google’s mobile platform. The company says the software development kit will be available for US developers on May 15. The Android debut comes just over two months after the mobile SDK for iOS, which supports iOS 5+ on all varieties of iPhone and iPad screen sizes and resolutions. At the time, PayPal said an Android flavor was coming, and now it has delivered: its SDK will support version 2.2, meaning Froyo (released in May 2010), and above.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Mozilla offers developers phones to write Firefox OS apps
Posted by Gsurface
on May 11, 2013
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The open-source browser maker is trying to coax programmers into writing software for the Firefox Marketplace by offering them free phones. [Read more]
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Half-Life 2 picks up official Oculus Rift support, beta gets shipped to developers
Posted by Gsurface
on May 10, 2013
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Gordon Freeman, in your head. Well, that’s the plan, with Oculus now offering official beta support for a headset-based Half-Life 2. There’s a few known issues to iron out already, including an overly-dim UI and issues with the zoom, though it appears to lack any gameplay deal-breakers, unlike what we’ve seen on some unofficial Oculus ports. As mentioned by Valve’s Joe Ludwig on the Oculus developer forums, however, the current build is a bit rougher around the edges compared to the Team Fortress 2 beta that launched earlier this year. Developers with the necessary Rift hardware can pick up the files on Steam or follow the developments on Oculus’ own forums — but no comments about headcrab hats and wearables, okay?
Filed under: Gaming, Wearables
Via: Ubergizmo, Oculus3D (Twitter)
Source: Oculus VR developer forums
Ubuntu Touch Developers Aim for Daily Phone Usability Before June
Posted by Gsurface
on May 10, 2013
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colinneagle writes with the latest Ubuntu Touch news. From the article: “The team behind Ubuntu Touch (aka ‘Ubuntu for Phones’) have committed to pushing forward to a ready-to-use version of the OS, one that the group will use to ‘eat their own dog food,’ by the end of May. What that means: Over the next few weeks, the team behind Ubuntu Touch is going to be attempting to implement enough functionality to make it possible to use Ubuntu on your phone (such as the Nexus 4) on a day-to-day basis. At which point their development team will be doing exactly that.” The developers are aiming just to have basic functionality working by the end of the month: calls, sms, data over wifi and cellular, a working address book, and preservation of user data across OS flashes.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Localytics Adds Features To Complete The Picture For Mobile App Developers And Marketers
Posted by Gsurface
on May 8, 2013
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Boston-based Localytics is fleshing out its mobile app analytics and marketing platform in a major way today with a variety of new features to help not just with customer acquisition, but also with monitoring and maintaining customer relationships over the lifetime of an app. The three big new areas Localytics now addresses with its platform are Lifetime Value Tracking, Customer Acquisition Management and Real-Time Funnel Management, all of which serve to help determine long-term engagement value.
TechCrunch
Yahoo recruiting iOS developers to 'radically improve' Flickr
Posted by Gsurface
on May 7, 2013
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Yahoo's Flickr mobile app may be getting a completely new look in the months to come, as the company seeks to hire multiple iOS engineers to "radically improve" the photo-sharing site's app and attract new users, the company said in a recent job notice.
Computerworld News
Designers Rejoice, Froont Wants To Keep Developers Out Of The Responsive Web Design Process
Posted by Gsurface
on May 6, 2013
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Inventure-backed Froont has launched in public beta today with a web-based tool that aims to make it easy for designers to create, prototype and share responsive website designs, without the need to code. Using a visual, largely drag ‘n’ drop interface that creates responsive CSS/HTML on the fly, it aims to replace the somewhat arcane process where a designer hands off a Photoshop mockup for a developer to interpret. In fact, Froont offers the potential to leave developers out of the design (and even prototyping) process altogether, which in some cases may be a very good thing.
TechCrunch
Android 4.3 software boosts “leaked” by HTC developers [UPDATE]
Posted by Gsurface
on May 5, 2013
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This weekend a couple new Android source updates have been inadvertently leaked by some HTC developers aiming at getting some teaching done before their next main event at Google I/O 2013. In a post by the San Francisco Android Group this week, an event has been planned for May 16th, 2013 – that being right
Facebook Sees Increase In Parse Signups, Tells Developers “No Plans To Change How App Data Is Used”
Posted by Gsurface
on April 27, 2013
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Despite developers grumbling that they would ditch Parse’s mobile app backend service now that it’s been bought by Facebook, Parse CEO Illya Suhkar tells me signups spiked 9.4x and fewer clients are leaving than before. Meanwhile, to calm fears about Facebook spying on Parse app data, the company issued the statement “We currently have no plans to make any changes to how Parse app data is used.”
TechCrunch
Google releases Glass kernel GPL source, lets developers have at it
Posted by Gsurface
on April 27, 2013
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While our own Tim Stevens is currently adapting to life through Google Glass, developers are going beyond scratching the surface to fiddle with what’s inside. Hot on the heels of Jay Freeman rooting Glass, devs will be pleased to know Google’s throwing ‘em a bone to by publicly releasing the kernel source. Interestingly, Karthik’s Geek Center spotted info within the file that points to Glass potentially being equipped for NFC support. If you’re up for tinkering, you’ll find the temporary location of the tar.zx file itself at the source link.
Filed under: Misc, Robots, Wearables, Software, Google
Source: Google
Developers gain root access on Google Glass, not yet sure what to do with it
Posted by Gsurface
on April 27, 2013
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Access to Google’s Glass headsets is still limited to a lucky few, but that’s more than enough to include several curious coders. Some have had success identifying the hardware contained within, but others are focusing on the software. Cydia founder Jay Freeman posted the above image on Twitter this afternoon to show that he had gained root access on his unit, telling Forbes he relied upon a well-known Android 4.0.4 exploit to take control of its OS. The bad news? He hasn’t been able to use it much yet, since the Explorer edition isn’t quite ready for prescription glasses wearers. For now, the question of whether the same technique will work on eventual retail versions remains unanswered, as well as what it’s actually going to be useful for. Steven Troughton-Smith suggests developers can use it to try out more complicated apps than Google currently allows, including always-on heads-up displays or camera apps. Overcoming any remote deactivation Google may try to enforce or loading your own unauthorized apps are also definite possibilities, though we’re sure others will surface soon.
Filed under: Wearables, Google
Source: Jay Freeman (Twitter), Forbes, 9to5Google
StackMob Builds Parse App Importer For Refugee Developers Fleeing Facebook’s New Acquisition
Posted by Gsurface
on April 27, 2013
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Some developers got very angry and threatened to leave mobile app backend platform Parse when it was bought by Facebook yesterday. Hoping to capitalize, competitor StackMob has since released a Parse migration tool that makes it easy for devs to import their Parse apps. It’s a cutthroat game, this game of tech. When the Parse acquisition was announced, disgruntled developers flocked to Twitter, Hacker News, and our comments reel. Facebook pledged not to screw up the beloved development platform. While it won’t operate independently like Instagram, Facebook’s hands-off approach to the photo sharing app it bought a year ago should instill some confidence. Facebook’s director of product management Doug Purdy said in his statement about the acquisition that “We’ve worked closely with the Parse team and have seen first-hand how important their solutions and platform are to developers. We don’t intend to change this.” On the phone with me he reiterated that Facebook doesn’t intend to mess with a good thing. Still, developers’ complaints I read centered on two fears: 1. That Facebook would degrade the Parse service, potentially by promoting its own social integrations and app install ads too hard, and 2. That Facebook would spy on data coming into Parse, including what types of content people chose not to post to the social network. Wasting little time, Stackmob launched an auto-importer for developers looking to move their apps elsewhere and published a blog post touting its advantages over Parse. StackMob CEO Ty Amell tells me the company had already been tinkering with a Parse importer, but when the acquisition was announced, it finished it up and made it accessible yesterday alongside a step-by-step guide. Then today the company began offering a Python script that turns the multi-step process into a single step. Amell explained to me, “Over the last few months we’ve seen an increase in people coming over from Parse. Once we heard they’d been acquired, we knew there was going to be a lot of backlash and uncertainty from mobile developers. Facebook has a history of monetizing other people’s users, and charging through ads and other ways to access users. Parse not being independent any more is a pretty large concern for developers.” He says developers had two main questions about the acquisition. 1. Do developers still own their data? 2. What rights to privacy do developers have, and how will Facebook use their data? Amell says “Facebook has some pretty
TechCrunch
For Developers, Google Glass Looks To Be A Fascinating But Slightly Limited Platform
Posted by Gsurface
on April 22, 2013
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Last week, Google finally released the developer guides and other necessary documents that will allow developers to write apps for Glass. In some respects, the so-called Mirror API may have been a disappointment to developers who were expecting to run full-blown augmented reality apps, but even in its current form, I’m pretty sure it will allow developers to create new experiences for their new and existing apps that just weren’t possible before. One thing many developers may not have realized before Google published these documents is that the API is essentially an old-school RESTful service. The only way to interact with Glass is through the cloud. The only apps you can build – at least for now – are web-based and despite the fact that Glass runs Android, you can’t run any services directly on the hardware. Google may have made this choice for a number of reasons. It ensures that Glass’ battery life is reasonable (Google says it should last a full day, assuming you don’t record a lot of video), but this also means that if a service goes haywire and sends out a fresh cat picture to users every second, it can intervene and cut that service’s access off. Depending on how you look at this, that’s either a good or a bad thing, but Google is clearly interested in keeping some control over what’s happening on Glass for now. The way the API works, however, also means there are things you can’t quite do with Glass yet that are possible on any modern smartphone. You can’t write a real augmented reality app, for example. It also doesn’t look as if you could easily stream audio or video from the device to your own services (though you can obviously use Hangouts on Glass). Because the platform is essentially web-based, you are also limited to HTML and CSS when it comes to styling your apps and Google would prefer it if you didn’t write any custom CSS and just stuck with its own templates. For the most part, though, developers will be able to approximate the experience Google shared in its first Glass demo video last year. Assuming the user has an Android phone, you will be able to create location-enabled apps. Users can send images to your service (so you could build a service that manipulates or analyzes these images in the cloud and then sends the
TechCrunch
Google Play to display tablet-optimized screenshots, once developers do their part
Posted by Gsurface
on April 17, 2013
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Tired of accidentally downloading apps to your Android tablet that look best on a smartphone? If so, it appears that Google has heard your cries. The company recently updated its developer console to accept app screenshots that are specific to 7-inch and 10-inch tablets. While it’s not the most monumental change, once developers fulfill their end of the bargain, you’ll be treated to UI images that best suit your device. Until then, you’ll still have to endure a few more games of app roulette.
Filed under: Google
Source: Android Developers Blog
Google releases Mirror API guide for Glass developers
Posted by Gsurface
on April 16, 2013
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Preview of the cloud-based API includes quick start guides for Java and Python, developer guides, and best practices outlines. [Read more]
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Google: ‘Glassware’ developers can’t display any ads
Posted by Gsurface
on April 16, 2013
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Google releases its policies for third-party Google Glass developers. In the fine print: they can’t display ads or charge for the software. [Read more]
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Google Glass Explorer Edition to ship to developers next month
Posted by Gsurface
on April 11, 2013
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Developers will be getting their hands on their Google Glass Explorer Edition really soon. At the Google Ventures event today, Google stated that its going to be shipping Google Glasses to developers within the next month. It’s hoping to get the gadgets into the hands of developers before its major event of the year, Google
Hiring Developers? Codassium Mashes Up A Collaborative Code Editor With Real-time Video Chat
Posted by Gsurface
on April 10, 2013
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Hiring good developers is one helluva process.
First you’ve gotta find the rare developer who isn’t already drowning in job offers. Then you’ve gotta sit down and chat ‘em up to make sure they’ll be a good fit for your team. Then you’ve gotta make sure they can actually, you know, code.
By combining a collaborative code editor with live video chat, Codassium makes the process a bit less painful.
TechCrunch
YC-Backed Backlift Launches A Back-End Service For Front-End Developers
Posted by Gsurface
on April 10, 2013
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Backlift, a Y Combinator-backed startup that’s launching today, describes itself as a back-end service for front-end developers. The service takes all of the work of setting up a server environment out of the equation and just lets front-end developers focus on their work. All a user needs is a Dropbox account – Backlift uses Dropbox as a file syncing service – and a text editor. With Backlift, a developer doesn’t need to know how to set up Rails, Django or node.js to get started. As Backlift founder Cole Krumbholz told me last week, the idea behind the service is to allow developers to jump right into working on their front-end code. For many people, he said, front-end tools can be a bit daunting and he wants Backlift to be a great learning tool, but he also aims to make it a platform for prototyping and, in the long run, a platform for hosting applications. To get started, users simply sign in with their Dropbox account, create a new app from based on a number of templates, including numerous backbone.js sample apps, a Google Maps API-based site, and basic Bootstrap-based sites. You can also use other popular technologies like AngularJS, CoffeeScript and Handlebars. Backlift then creates a new folder in your Dropbox account (and hence on your desktop, too) and you can start editing it with your favorite text editor. Every time you save an edit, Dropbox will sync with Backlift and you can immediately see the changes on your site (syncing starts less than a second after you have saved your changes). Given that most applications need to work with at least some data, Backlift also offers a basic API for working with data, as well as an admin dashboard for adding users and browsing, importing and exporting the data in your database. One of the companies that has been using Backlift extensively during the beta phase is Automatic.com – the YC-backed company that recently launched its hardware for turning any car into a connected car. “We have our own Amazon S3 servers, however Backlift is a much easier, faster, and secure way of working on the site as we got it ready for launch and showed investors,” Automatic.com’s visual and interactive designer Gabriel Valdivia told me. The service, Krumbholz told me, will evolve constantly and the team plans to launch quite a few new features in the near future
TechCrunch
Developers finally unlocked bootloaders for many Motorola phones
Posted by Gsurface
on April 8, 2013
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The time has come. Motorola owners can rejoice because developers have finally unlocked the bootloaders to a good number of Motorola’s devices. So far, it’s been confirmed that the DROID RAZR HD, DROID RAZR MAXX HD, DROID RAZR M, and Atrix HD are all able to have their bootloaders unlocked. It was Dan Rosenberg who
Latam Local Services Marketplace Startup GetNinjas Raises $3M Series A To Get More Nimble By Getting More Developers
Posted by Gsurface
on April 6, 2013
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GetNinjas, a local services marketplace startup based in São Paulo, Brazil has closed a $ 3 million Series A round backed by new investor Otto Ventures, with existing investors Monashees and KaszeK Ventures also participating. The latter both invested in GetNinjas’ 2011 seed round, which raised a total of $ 700,000.
TechCrunch
Jolla Adds Sailfish SDK Installers For Windows, OS X, Linux To Push More Developers To Build Native Apps For Its MeeGo Platform
Posted by Gsurface
on April 5, 2013
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Jolla, the Finnish startup that carried the MeeGo torch out of Nokia in order to light a fire under its own smartphone OS: Sailfish, has taken the next step in its platform play, launching SDK installers to encourage developers to get building native Sailfish apps. It’s offering graphical installers for Windows, OS X and Linux (in 32 bit and 64 bit flavours).
TechCrunch
Indies the Biggest Stars At Game Developers Conference
Posted by Gsurface
on April 1, 2013
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RougeFemme writes “Indies beat out mainstream studios for most of the Game Developers Choice Awards. FTL: Faster Than Light, an independent game financed by a Kickstarter campaign, won the award for Best Debut. Because of the growing success of the indies, Eric Zimmerman, game designer and instructor at the NYU Game Center, is canceling the Game Design Challenge that he’s held at the conference for the last 10 years. ‘The idea of doing strange, bizarre, experimental games is no longer strange, bizarre or experimental.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google pledges not to sue open-source users or developers over specified patents
Posted by Gsurface
on March 28, 2013
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Google will not sue any user, distributor or developer of open-source software on specified patents, unless first attacked, the company said on Thursday.
Computerworld News
Malware abuses Chromium Embedded Framework, developers fight back
Posted by Gsurface
on March 26, 2013
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A new version of the TDL rootkit-type malware program downloads and abuses an open-source library called the Chromium Embedded Framework that allows developers to embed the Chromium Web rendering engine inside their own applications, according to security researchers from antivirus vendor Symantec.
Computerworld News
Stripe Partners With Parse To Integrate Mobile Payments For App Developers
Posted by Gsurface
on March 21, 2013
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Payments startup Stripe is announcing a new partnership with Parse, a mobile app development platform. The company is also revealing that its payments platform is being used by Lyft, Exec, SideCar, OrderAhead, Sesame and Postmates to enable payments in their mobile applications.
TechCrunch
Amazon Launches ‘Send to Kindle’ Button For Web Developers & WordPress Blogs
Posted by Gsurface
on March 20, 2013
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Amazon just launched the Send to Kindle button, which clips Web content and saves it to Kindle readers and apps, for Web developers and WordPress bloggers. The button is also now available on The Washington Post, TIME, and Boing Boing.
TechCrunch
Friskies Hackathon offers big money for cat game developers
Posted by Gsurface
on March 18, 2013
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If you’re a cat person, you’ll think this is great and if you aren’t, you’ll probably think this is really weird. Purina Friskies cat food has issued a challenge for game developers to create the next great game for cats. Seriously, Purina is looking for developers to build game apps specifically aimed at cats. There
ESRI Takes Its Deep Mapping Software Online To Help Developers Become More Like Geographers
Posted by Gsurface
on March 18, 2013
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Out beyond the edge of SXSW last week, the ESRI team camped out in an old brick firehouse with the veneer of an old boot factory and the interior of an Italian palace. It felt like the home of an eccentric Texas aristocrat, alone in his mansion, dripping with rich fabrics, chandeliers and the odd sense of a New York loft.
TechCrunch
Smartwatch Developers Rejoice! Pebble Will Release Proof-Of-Concept Watchface SDK In Early April
Posted by Gsurface
on March 16, 2013
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After much fanfare the Pebble smartwatch made the leap from fanciful concept to full-fledged product earlier this year, but now that units have started to ship and people have started to wear them, what’s Pebble’s next step?
Why, enticing developers, of course. Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky noted in a backer update video released earlier this morning that an early version of the smartwatch’s watchface SDK would be made available to would-be Pebble developers during the second week of April.
Netflix challenges developers to improve cloud computing, offers $100,000
Posted by Gsurface
on March 15, 2013
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Netflix is looking to boost the reality of cloud computing via its OSS, taking it to the next level and helping it realize its potential. How is it doing this? Via its Netflix Cloud Prize competition, which it is using to challenge developers across the world to come up with improvements in secure, reliable, and
Google gives developers a look at Glass Mirror API and apps at SXSW
Posted by Gsurface
on March 12, 2013
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Earlier at SXSW, Google showed off Glass, giving a demonstration of the device in use and providing developers with their first glimpse of the Mirror API. The demonstration showed the device being used to perform searches, take a photo, view the weather, share with Google+, and more. You can check out a video of the
Developers Begin Hunt For a Killer App For Google Glass
Posted by Gsurface
on March 9, 2013
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holy_calamity writes “Companies large and small are working to create the first “killer app” for Google Glass, the wearable display to go on sale later this year, reports MIT Technology Review. Evernote is among large companies that got early access to prototypes and has been testing ideas for some time, but is staying quiet about its plans. Meanwhile new startups with apps for Glass are being created and funded, although uncertainty about whether consumers will embrace the technology has steered them towards commercial and industrial ideas, such as apps for for doctors and maintenance technicians.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Netflix Stops Issuing API Keys To New Developers, Effectively Ending Its Developer Program
Posted by Gsurface
on March 9, 2013
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Netflix just used the quiet Friday afternoon to announce that it is effectively ending its public developer program. Netflix will stop issuing API keys immediately and will not accept new API affiliates. The company will no longer offer a test environment for developer and its developer portal is already set to be read-only. Netflix’s OData catalog, which was never updated all that regularly in the first place, will be retired a month from now on April 8. The only good news for developers here is that applications that are currently actively calling the API will remain active, so services like instantwatcher.com, Goodfilms and CanIStream.itm which all either use data from Netflix or offer integration with the service, will likely remain online for the time being. Netflix did not say for how long it plans to support its current public API. The company says these ‘changes,’ as the company calls them, “are designed to allow us to focus our API efforts on supporting the products and features used most by our members.” Its API program, Netflix argues, has “shifted over the past few years” and is now more about supporting all of the devices that are used by its 33 million members to stream shows and movies. Here is a list of all the changes the company announced today: We will no longer issue new public API developer keys. All existing keys that are actively calling the API will remain active. We will no longer accept new API affiliates. There will be no impact to existing and active affiliates. We will no longer offer test environments. The test tools have been unavailable for a while and we won’t bring them back. We will set the forums in the developer portal to read-only. We encourage developers to continue their conversations at StackOverflow with the tag “netflixapi”. The existing forum posts will remain on the site for now in the form of an archive. We will retire the OData catalog, effective on April 8, 2013.
TechCrunch
Embedded Developers Prefer Linux, Love Android
Posted by Gsurface
on March 3, 2013
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DeviceGuru writes “In a recent EE Times 2013 Embedded Market study, Android was the OS of choice for future embedded projects among 16 percent of the survey’s participants, second only to ‘in-house/custom’ (at 28 percent). But if a spectrum of disparate approaches can be lumped together as a single option, why not aggregate the various shades of Linux to see how they compare? Parsing the EE Times data that way makes it abundantly clear that Linux truly dominates the embedded market.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
55% of developers currently making games for mobile devices
Posted by Gsurface
on March 2, 2013
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Smartphones and tablets are currently the most popular devices for game developers to release games on. It shouldn’t be surprising given how many people own smartphones and/or tablets, and want mobile games to play in order to pass the time. The Game Developers Conference polled over 2,500 North American game developers and asked them which
China’s Largest Search Engine Baidu Launches English Site For Developers
Posted by Gsurface
on February 28, 2013
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Baidu, the search behemoth often referred to as “China’s Google,” launched its new English-language Web site for developers today. While the site is still in its infancy–right now there just a few intros up and no documentation–but it promises to grow up into a valuable resource for developers who want to take a crack at the Chinese market.
TechCrunch
Google cozies up to developers with Google+ Sign-In
Posted by Gsurface
on February 26, 2013
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Google is making it easier for app developers to connect with users on its social network through Google+ Sign-In, a new feature that allows people to sign into third-party apps using their Google+ credentials.
Computerworld News
With Series A Funding From SoftBank Ventures Korea, SmarTots Helps Educational App Developers Localize For China
Posted by Gsurface
on February 26, 2013
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China is now the world’s largest smartphone marketplace, with Flurry estimating that there will be 246 million smart devices in China by the end of this month. It’s a potentially lucrative market for app developers, but almost impossible to crack without the necessary language or cultural understanding to reach Chinese users. Educational app makers, however, have SmarTots to help. Founded in December 2010 by Jesper Lodahl, a former Nokia developer, SmarTots localizes apps and markets them on China’s iTunes. While the company’s current focus is iOS, Lodahl says SmarTots will also tackle a “very aggressive Android expansion” this year and already has a shortlist of carriers, hardware providers, and developers it plans to work with. SmarTots announced earlier this month that it has received an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from SoftBank Ventures Korea that will allow it to bring more children’s educational apps from U.S. developers to China. The company previously raised about $ 1 million in its seed round and its investors include SoftBank’s Pan-Asia Fund, Xu Xiaoping, co-founder of New Oriental Education & Technology Group, AngelVest, ChinaRock Capital Management and SOSVentures. Since its launch, the SmarTots library has grown to 30 apps and the company says it hit one million downloads in January. SmarTots currently works with a roster of 13 developers from around the world, localizing images, graphics, text and audio for Chinese kids and writing descriptions for China’s iTunes store. Most apps are for children aged three to five, though SmarTots’ target age range is as wide as two to seven. Before founding SmarTots with chief product officer Victor Wong, Lodahl spent seven years working for Nokia, where he developed four phones (Lodahl holds two patents for technology that have been implemented in more than 1 billion mobile handsets) before taking a position with Nokia China for two years. This is Lodahl’s second startup in China–his first was a Chinese social network called Club Beautiful. Lodahl decided to found SmarTots with Wong two years ago after noticing how much children loved playing with the then-recently launched iPad. Instead of having the technology isolate individual family members absorbed in their own devices, Lodahl envisioned SmarTots as a way for families to learn together. “The whole idea came to us after we saw the disconnect, kids geting sucked into the iPad while parents were on their BlackBerries checking emails all day with no one really connecting,” says Lodahl. With that goal in
TechCrunch
Developers Lead When It Comes To The Future Of iOS User Interface Design
Posted by Gsurface
on February 25, 2013
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Apple hasn’t done much to change the way iOS works at its core, in terms of navigating within and between apps and the home screen. In fact, iOS is maybe the mobile OS that has remained the most fundamentally the same since its introduction, at least among those that are still in active use.
But while Apple hasn’t been making huge changes to the basic iOS user interface, third-party developers have been pushing the boundaries and creating great examples of how things could be better for a next-generation version of Apple’s mobile OS.
TechCrunch
Facebook Hacks Points To Much Bigger Threat For Mobile Developers
Posted by Gsurface
on February 18, 2013
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DavidGilbert99 writes “Facebook admitted last weekend that it was hacked but assured everyone that no data was compromised. However following some investigation by security firm F-Secure, it seems this could be just the tip of the iceberg and that thousands of mobile app developers without the dedicated security team Facebook has in place could already be compromised. The vector for the attack was a mobile developer’s website, and the malware used likely targeted Apple’s Mac OS X rather than Windows.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Gracenote unleashes its vast musical knowhow to developers
Posted by Gsurface
on February 16, 2013
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You’ve probably used Gracenote thousands of times and have been none the wiser, but for good reason: the musical metadata service lives in the background of several apps, appearing only momentarily to bring meaning to your favorite tunes. Now, Gracenote is looking to expand its reach by opening its APIs and SDKs to app developers — effectively putting its massive database in the hands of all who seek it. Of course, ripping CDs isn’t quite what it once was, and that’s why Gracenote has also opened its MusicID song recognition service to developers, allowing them to harness the same functionality of apps such as Shazam and SoundHound. The free service is available now, and for extra insight, you’ll find the full PR after the break.
Google Store Sends User Information To App Developers
Posted by Gsurface
on February 14, 2013
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Several readers have passed on news of a privacy hole in the Google app store. Reader Strudelkugel writes with the news.com.au version, excerpting: “Every time you purchase an app on Google Play, your name, address and email is passed on to the developer, it has been revealed today. The ‘flaw’ — which appears to be by design — was discovered this morning by Sydney app developer Dan Nolan who told news.com.au that he was uncomfortable being the custodian of this information and that there was no reason for any developer to have this information at their finger tips.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Analyst: Apple Could Finally Be Opening Up Apple TV To Developers At An Event In March
Posted by Gsurface
on February 13, 2013
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The Apple TV could finally be getting a developer SDK that would allow third-party apps to appear on the platform, according to an analyst note from Jefferies analyst Peter Misek today. The note cites channel checks as the source of the info that Apple will hold an Apple TV-related event in March, at which time it may introduce an SDK for “iTV” development.
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