Items tagged with developers
Waiting for an app to update is not the end of the world, but it can certainly be very irritating. There soon may be a way to work around this annoyance; Google recently announced at the Android Dev Summit that users will be able to continue to use an app during less serious updates. Google’s latest "In-app Updates API" was released in response to the concerns of Android developers. Many devs were worried that users have not been updating their apps because it can be a disruptive process. Devs now have two options with the new API. First, devs can display a full message screen to let users know that an urgent update is available. The user can postpone the update if it is inconvenient...
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Valve has announced that it has made some major changes to its Knuckles EV 1.3 controller. It has been sending out Knuckles EV 1.3 developer kits to game devs over the past year to test and that it has been listening to the feedback from these devs along the way. The result of that feedback is a brand-new version of the Knuckles EV controller called Knuckles EV2. According to Valve, very little of the EV 1.3 controller was left untouched. The EV2 version is still recognizable as Knuckles but has lots of changes: Improved industrial design and ergonomics Updated input set and layout Improved strap fit and feel for more hand sizes New sensors, enabling new interactions Improved battery life, USB-C...
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It was a record breaking year for Apple app developers, who collectively pocketed more than $10 billion in revenue in 2014, helped in part by a 50 percent rise in billings. Riding on that momentum, Apple today announced that the first week of January set a new record for billings as well, with customers around the globe spending almost $500 million on apps and in-app purchases. For whatever reason, New Year's Day 2015 proved especially popular for app purchases -- customers set a single day record in App Store sales history, though Apple stopped short of attaching any numbers to the record breaking day. "This year is off to a tremendous start after a record-breaking year for the App Store and...
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Google’s Chromecast streaming device struck a chord with consumers this summer when it debuted, with the company selling out of the $35 device within days. The company is about to turn things up a notch by soon releasing the official Chromecast SDK (called the “Google Cast SDK”). According to some developers who have shared their invitations, Google is hosting a two-day hackathon at the Googleplex on December 7-8 so developers can “test-drive the upcoming release of the Google Cast SDK”. Google engineers will be there to show off changes to the developer preview and discuss best practices. Although Chromecast apps are more of a feature to add rather than standalone...
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After three weeks of downtime, Apple finally finished restoring its Developer website. Apple was forced to unplug its Developer portal back in July after it was discovered the site had suffered a security breach by an "intruder" who attempted to secure personal information from registered developers. At the time, Apple ensured that sensitive personal information was encrypted and couldn't be accessed, but was unable to rule out the possibility of stolen names, physical mailing addresses, and email addresses. After shutting down the site, Apple began work overhauling its developer system by updating its server software and rebuilding its entire database, hence why it's taken so long to restore....
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Lisa Su, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Global Business Units, opened up this year’s AMD Fusion Developers Summit by reiterating AMD’s commitment to heterogeneous computing. She began her talk by saying that AMD is firmly committed to heterogeneous computing because the company has literally bet its future on the technology. Perhaps that's a bold move on AMD's part or just an alignment with what the future computing model is evolving towards inevitably. Our AMD Fusion Developers Summit Day 1 Keynote Coverage is here......
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Lisa Su, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Global Business Units, opened up this year’s AMD Fusion Developers Summit by reiterating AMD’s commitment to heterogeneous computing. She began her talk by saying that AMD is firmly committed to heterogeneous computing because the company has literally bet its future on the technology. Lisa Su, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Global Business Units on stage at AFDS '12 She continued by talking about the ongoing shift in computing to lower power and mobile form factors, convergence, and how AMD is focused on aligning with the current market trends. She also talked about how AMD plans on advancing its products...
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Over the past 10 days, we've discussed the question of used games and how revenue is divided. One of the few points that both GameStop and game developers agree on is that buying a used game doesn't directly benefit the publisher or developer in any way, though there's reason to think that a strong secondary market boosts gaming sales in general. Given how often people quote wanting to help developers as a reason to buy a title new, you might think the lesson is clear. Evidence suggests it isn't. Blogger and game developer Simon Roth recently published a list of nearly 150 games published by now-defunct studios. Roth says this list is merely representative of the hundreds of additional titles...
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Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) is a big step for the platform, and Google is clearly interested in maintaining some level of uniformity across the ICS-based products created by developers. In a blog post, the Android User Experience Team announced a new site called Android Design, which is chock full of practical advice and guides for anyone developing for ICS. The idea is to make apps simple and beautiful. The post, written by head of the Android visual design group Christian Robertson states: To help you in that mission, we’re introducing Android Design: the place to learn about principles, building blocks, and patterns for creating world-class Android user interfaces. Whether you’re...
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Microsoft Kicks Off Competition for Developers Who “Dare to Dream Different”Contest provides developers with opportunity to create simple yet powerful embedded devices based on the .NET Micro Framework. REDMOND, Wash. - Microsoft Corp. today announced a call for entries for the Microsoft Dare to Dream Different challenge, a skills-based competition for software developers to design and build innovative devices on the Microsoft .NET Micro Framework, Microsoft’s smallest embedded platform for resource-constrained devices. The Microsoft Dare to Dream Different competition is designed to recognize the many unique and creative ways that developers can use the .NET Micro Framework to spur the innovation...
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If you are an Apple iPhone or iPod touch owner, you've likely noticed that nearly every time you check out the App Store, there are several updates available for applications you've downloaded. At first, this makes sense, as the iPhone/iPod touch is still a relatively new platform for developers, which puts them still early on the learning curve--bugs needs to be squashed and new features added. But many users are finding that these "updated apps" neither fix bugs nor add new features. So then what is the purpose of the updates? As TouchMeme developer, Krishna Vegesna, points out in his blog, developers have been "gaming the system" in order to get their apps to show up as "new applications":...
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While Bill Gates claims that Vista is selling well, the big question is how many customers out there are requesting software with Vista specific technology. The answer came in a recent survey of developers claimed that less than 1 in 12 developers were actively developing software that was Vista-specific.Is the continued existence of XP causing this? Or is it something deeper? The answer probably has a lot to do with both."None of our customers are saying, 'G******it, we need those WPF controls now!'" said Julian Bucknall, CTO for Windows programming tools maker Developer Express Inc. , referring to one of Vista's most highly-touted features, its new graphical subsystem, Windows Presentation...
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Not only did Id Games announce today that it is hard at work on the next installment of the first-person shooter DOOM series, DOOM 4, but the company is looking to hire designers, artists, animators, and programmers to develop the new title."DOOM is part of the id Software DNA and demands the greatest talent and brightest minds in the industry to bring the next installment of our flagship franchise to Earth," said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. "It's critical for id Software to have the best creative minds in-house to develop games that meet the standards synonymous with our titles."No less than 15 positions were listed on the Id Software job listings page at the time of this news post....
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Sometimes it pays to keep a low profile. Navy and Air Force pilots refer to it as flying under the radar, but IT people refer to the concept as security via obscurity. No matter what you call it, the idea is simple: if you don't draw attention to yourself, you should end up with less problems.In the world of malware this more or less means that it's not worth a developer's time to attack anything but Windows operating systems because of the research/development time versus the potential installed base. Now that Mac OS X is picking up popularity, it seems that it is finally a blip on some radars.“In some cases, attackers will seek to exploit vulnerabilities such as currently...
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New Intel Tools Help Developers Create, Debug And Tune Applications For Windows Vista And Latest Multi-Core Processors SANTA CLARA, Calif., Apr. 16, 2007 – Intel Corporation today announced the availability of new versions of its Intel Thread Checker, Intel Thread Profiler, Intel VTune Performance Analyzer and Intel Threading Building Blocks. These software development products enable developers to create more reliable, scalable applications, and have now been enhanced for the latest multi-core processors – Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 and Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 – and newest operating systems - Microsoft Vista, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise, Red Hat Enterprise Linux*...
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AGEIA Empowers Professional Software Developers to Create Even More PhysX Applications Royalty Free New End User License Agreement Terms Brings Every Developer the Power of PhysX MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - November 22, 2006 - AGEIA Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, today announced that it has implemented a new End User License Agreement (EULA) that allows the PhysX SDK to be used and its runtime components distributed in all commercial and non-commercial PC projects - completely royalty free. The new EULA allows game developers of any size to harness the power of the physics in their titles with a simple, no-fee license. READ MORE......
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With the millions of people arguing over the XBOX 360 vs the Playstation 3, it's always interesting to get a game developers take on the issue. One of the major points of argument, is that even though the PS3 has better hardware specs on paper, its lack of programming flexibility will hamper its performance. While the anonymous interviewee seems to agree with this point, there's no way to know what we'll see a few years down the road. "Graphics: The XBOX 360 is a clear winner. The GPU is more powerful. It has more powerful fillrate, and far more pixel and vertex processing horsepower. Part of the reason is their choice of memory, and architecture of pixel and vertex procesing. I can't...
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VarBusiness is reporting that IBM is "quietly" laying off approximately 400 engineers from their Bladecenter development group. The move comes as IBM is trying to restructure and cut cost due to a lower than expected 2nd quarter earnings in the Systems and Technology Group. The job cuts are expected to affect engineers in several locations around the country. Each engineer has been given an opportunity to find another job within the company within 30 days or face termination. If employees decide to leave and or cannot locate another position within that period, then they will receive 1 weeks pay for every 6 months of service with the company. No word has...
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Paul Otellini, Intel's president and CEO, kicked off this season's IDF by coining the phrase "It's what's inside that counts", and spoke about why processing power matters again. A few years ago, he noted, PC Magazine declared that consumers couldn't use all the processing power at their disposal, but thanks to changes with software and with the industry in general, that situation has changed. Next generation gaming, more powerful desktop search engines, photo and video editing, and more powerful operating systems like Vista and OSX are driving the need for more powerful processors again. Paul cited YouTube...
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The folks over at OCModShop.com have some good tips for Bethesda's latest RPG. The tips aren't anything amazing, but there are some good ones, such as dodging enemy arrows and then picking them off the ground for an almost infinite(and free) supply of them. "If you feel like starting a new character, but you want to get him or her off the ground more quickly, head to the Arena after escaping the character generation sewer. The entire arena quest line will take you a few hours to beat if you've sharpened your fighting skills. In the process your character will probably gain several levels, and a good bit of gold to move around on some...
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