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‘developers’ Stories

Apple digital magazine templates could fast-track iPad pubs

Chris Davies, Mar 15th 2011 Discuss [1]

Apple is reportedly readying a digital magazine template for inclusion in a future Xcode release, offering content providers a straightforward way to create iPad publications. The template would ensure more UI consistency between digital magazines distributed through the App Store, according to Gadget Daily News' sources, as well as streamlining the implementation of in-app purchases. Read The Full Story

Unreal Development Kit Demo, “Samaritan”

Kevin Fubar, Mar 9th 2011 Discuss [5]

What do a scene of urban decay, a blowtorch on a piece of chain, a half smoked cigarette, rain falling down a stubble clad cheek and muzzle flashes have in common? They're all images featured in "Samaritan", a technology demo from Epic Games showcasing all of the new features included in the UDK. Epic just released the UDK Beta this month. They dropped this beautiful little piece of eye-candy at GDC last week. Epic's demonstration video is a showcase of the newest of the new in graphics rendering tech. It's also a great little scene that's fun to watch in it's own right, even if you're not a rendering-geek like me. Read The Full Story

Android game trounces iOS for in-app purchases and ad appeal

Chris Davies, Mar 9th 2011 Discuss [2]

Android's "smaller pond" for developers has led to big rewards for some developers, able to convert greater user interest into more in-app payments. Computerworld reports on Spacetime Studios, the team behind Pocket Legends - a 3D MMO available on both Android and iOS - and which has "just been blown away" by Android users' involvement with the game, according to CEO Gary Gattis. Read The Full Story

Windows Phone 7 App Marketplace Growing

Samia Perkins, Mar 8th 2011 Discuss [13]

Microsoft says that its Windows Phone App marketplace is growing, and that it is adding 100 new apps a day. Microsoft's selection of apps, at 9,000, is still tiny compared to Apple's or Android's. Apple, for example, has over 350,000 apps, and there are more than 100,000 apps in the Android marketplace. But according to the Windows Phone Developer blog, there are 32,000 registered developers working on apps right now. Read The Full Story

Nokia offloads Qt licensing/services to Digia as part of Windows Phone focus

Chris Davies, Mar 7th 2011 Discuss [0]

Nokia has sold the Qt commercial licensing and services business to Digia, further distancing itself from the development framework. According to the terms of the deal - expected to be closed by the end of this month - Digia will gain "around 3,500 desktop and embedded customer companies from various industries"; Nokia has said it will continue to invest in Qt. Read The Full Story

Fragments released to Android smartphone devs for tablet-friendly apps

Chris Davies, Mar 4th 2011 Discuss [4]

Google has enabled its Fragments API for non-Honeycomb versions of Android, allowing developers to code apps with layouts that work both on smartphones and tablets. The new Android Compatibility package is available through the SDK Updater, and works with Android 1.6 and above. Fragments basically allows developers to create panelled UI layouts that can be separated or combined depending on how much screen real-estate is on offer. Read The Full Story

Blackberry Analytics SDK 0.9 Beta Release

Kevin Fubar, Feb 28th 2011 Discuss [0]

Research In Motion just dropped a Beta version of an Analytics package for Blackberry Developers. This new SDK is going to add a number of features, behind-the-scenes. Developers can now analyze how users are actually using their apps statistically. This system allows developers to tailor their apps to their userbase over time based on a range of information collected. The SDK includes a web portal to help developers organize and view the information so they can make their design decisions with the actual user data in mind. Read The Full Story

Microsoft boosts free Windows Phone app submission allowance to 100

Chris Davies, Feb 25th 2011 Discuss [3]

Microsoft continues to lavish developers with freebies in the hope of boosting Windows Phone development, with the latest tidbit a dramatic increase in the number of free app submissions they can make to the Windows Phone Marketplace. As first revealed by ChevronWP7 developer Rafael Rivera, and later confirmed in the Windows Phone Marketplace Developer Newsletter, Microsoft has boosted free submissions from five to 100. Read The Full Story

Featured

Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview Released

Chris Davies, Feb 24th 2011 Discuss [2]

While the new MacBook Pro line-up delivers the Sandy bridge update consumers have been clamoring for, Apple has something for developers too. The new developer preview of Mac OS X Lion has been released, adding full-screen app support, pinch and double-tap zoom in Safari – some of the multitouch gestures borrowed from OS X – a document saving system called Versions (which automatically saves successive versions of documents as you work on them) and AirDrop, a wireless file transfer system for drag & drop moving of documents between Macs.

Read The Full Story

Finalized Honeycomb SDK released for Android 3.0 developers

Chris Davies, Feb 23rd 2011 Discuss [0]

The Android 3.0 Honeycomb SDK has been finalized, with Google pushing out the polished version on the eve of the Motorola XOOM's retail debut. Accompanied by an updated set of developer tools - that includes more accurate previews of how final apps will look on-device - the new SDK has the finalized 3.0 APIs. Read The Full Story

Steve Jobs says subscriptions are “for publishing apps” but confusion remains

Chris Davies, Feb 22nd 2011 Discuss [8]

Steve Jobs has weighed in on the ongoing in-app subscription debate, claiming that only publishers will be subject to the new restrictions. The Apple CEO's comments - sent as a traditionally terse reply to a developer email - follow complaints by the developers of app Readability who found they had been rejected from the App Store for not handing over the 30-percent tithe. Readability argues it's software-as-a-service (SaaS), not a publishing app, which Jobs' has confirmed will not be affected. Read The Full Story