Software Application Development Monitor

Google launches App Inventor for Android

2010-07-12T16:22:00.000-07:00

An excerpt from Google's offical blog: "App Inventor is a new tool in Google Labs that makes it easy for anyone—programmers and non-programmers, professionals and students—to create mobile applications for Android-powered devices. And today, we’re extending invitations to the general public. For many people, their mobile phone—and access to the Internet—is always within reach. App Inventor for Android gives everyone, regardless of programming experience, the opportunity to control and reshape their communication experience. We’ve observed people take pride in becoming creators of mobile technology and not just consumers of it. For the past year, we’ve been testing App Inventor in classrooms around the United States, and we’ve found that it opens up the world of computer programming to students in new and powerful ways. David Wolber, professor of computer science at the University of San Francisco and part of the initial pilot program, says “students traditionally intimidated by technology are motivated and excited to program with App Inventor.” One student from Professor Wolber’s class told us: “I used to think that no one could program except CS people. Now, I've made dozens of applications for the Android phone!” Another student, who struggles with dyslexia, was inspired by App Inventor to take more computer science classes and is now learning Python. Check out this video to hear more about App Inventor for Android at University of San Francisco."

Global Developers Share Their Views on the Mobile Market in the Mobile Development Survey 2010

2010-07-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

Research and Markets announced the addition of the "Mobile Development Survey 2010, v1" report to their offering. This survey captures a transitional period, where there is great expansion of new delivery channels and shifting developer focus on new platforms. Previously titled the Wireless Development Survey, this report will now be referred to as the Mobile Development Survey which better describes the intent of the research and analysis.This is the 20th volume of our Mobile Development Survey series, the most comprehensive existing research series focusing exclusively on mobile development. This detailed report consists of extensive in-depth interviews with 385+ developers worldwide active in mobile development. Includes sections on mobile platforms, device development and deployment, app stores and the business of mobile development, adoption of content formats and technologies, types of apps being developed, porting between platforms, location and map based development, as well as issues and requirements important to mobile developers. Collaboration tools, followed by enterprise instant messaging, and logistical tools were cited by global developers as the most important enterprise applications for mobile devices according to Evans Data's newly released Mobile Development Survey, 2010. Mobile developers saw these as much more important than social networking tools and blogging features.

"With the emergence of new mobile platforms, the proliferation of more complex mobile devices in the workplace and the rapid growth of mobile applications, the enterprise is under pressure to support the business benefits of mobility directly." said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data. "Mobile platforms are already much more than just an adjunct in the enterprise development arena." The Mobile Development Survey 2010 is the latest release from Evans Data's mobile series in which global developers share their views on the mobile market. This worldwide survey of over 400 mobile developers is published twice a year. Read the abstract or order this report via the Research and Markets portal

Xtern Software Offers Free Personal Version of Code Barrel a Private, Hosted Code Snippet Repository

2010-06-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

Xtern Software announced today that it is offering a free Personal version of their new Code Barrel product. This new version will allow a single user to keep up to 25 code snippets in his or her own personal, private hosted code snippet repository at no cost. As part of this new offering, they have decided to eliminate the 30-day Trial version.

“We want our users to be able to experience all the benefits of Code Barrel and recognize that the best way to do that is by offering a free version without any time limitations, “ said Keir Davis, President of Xtern Software.We want our users to be able to experience all the benefits of Code Barrel and recognize that the best way to do that is by offering a free version without any time limitations. Keir Davis, President, Xtern Software. Code Barrel is the first private, hosted code snippet repository that supports any programming language. It offers users advanced search, tagging, and simple copy & paste functionality to easily find and reuse code snippets. The product will also track snippet revisions, supports commenting, and will email team members when a snippet has changed. Because it is hosted, all product updates are automatically provided to all users. A free, Visual Studio plug-in for Code Barrel makes it very easy to incorporate it into a programmer's workflow. An Eclipse plug-in is currently under development and will be available soon. The Professional version pricing starts at $9.95 per month. To sign up for the free Personal version, go http://signup.codebarrel.com

WiseTrend unveils a powerful multilingual cloud-based Online OCR API for Mobile Developers

2010-06-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

WiseTrend announced the release of its newest cloud-based OCR Web API, code-named “OCR Cloud 2.0”. With an ongoing improvement in picture quality of today’s mobile cameras, such as in iPhone 4, Droid X and EVO 4G, now is a great time to use these hand-held resources together with this Web OCR API for new and creative apps. The platform ties together world’s best high-quality OCR technologies, partners with a powerful Web API management through WebServius, and benefits from years of integration and hosted services experience. The API opens access for Developers with any background to most powerful image and picture cleanup tools, optical character recognition (OCR) in over 180 Latin and Cyrillic languages, enhanced control over text extraction, and a wide selection of output formats. The new Web OCR API is free to sign up and use for development, and low cost to operate in production.

WiseTrend OCR Cloud 2.0 platform provides access to some of the most powerful OCR capabilities to-date through multiple channels – via API using a POST request, e-mail, FTP or direct media. Developers can sign up for a free development account and start integration into their applications immediately. It takes no more than a few lines of code to start processing images form any Web-enabled computer or mobile device. Full documentation and comprehensive samples are provided. See more information and additional documentation at: www.wisetrend.com/wisetrend_ocr_cloud.shtml.

KickApps Launches Industry’s First Drag-and-Drop Facebook App Development Suite

2010-06-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

KickApps announced the immediate availability of a new development suite for the KickApps App Studio, which radically simplifies the Facebook social application development process for marketers, brand managers and developers. The KickApps App Studio now allows anyone – including non-programmers – to create one version of rich social media applications for multi-platform distribution, completing a “viral loop” of traffic between a brand’s own domain and Facebook. The solution simplifies the development process by eliminating the need to develop multiple versions of applications for various channels, and by providing unified access to a wealth of marketing data previously locked in specific platforms. “The KickApps App Studio offers tremendous opportunity for brand marketers to easily create custom media players or applications that can be embedded at their sites in the context of a brand message, used as a Facebook fan page or custom tab, or shared virally across the Web,” said Alex Blum, CEO of KickApps. “Because a data-integrated experience can easily deploy to multiple environments, our solution invites a ‘viral loop’ of traffic to and from our customers’ websites. By providing an easy-to-use interface, the user simply drags applications or components onto the canvas to customize every aspect of their appearance or functionality.”

“Our fans and sponsors have come to expect the richest social experience possible when interacting with the Redskins’ brand, and it's something we're committed to providing,” said Shripal Shah, senior vice president, digital strategy for the Washington Redskins. “But as social platforms proliferate, providing an integrated experience has become a real challenge. The KickApps App Studio allows us to quickly create new social applications – or easily retool existing ones – that offer multiple opportunities to effectively reach our fans in different environments.”

Instantiations Updates Java Products to Synchronize with Eclipse 3.6 and Helios Release Train

2010-06-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

Instantiations®, Inc. announced that its entire Eclipse-based product line has been updated in conjunction with the annual Eclipse release, Helios. With the increased enterprise adoption of Eclipse worldwide, it benefits all those that rely on Eclipse to have product updates in sync with the Eclipse release train, like Instantiations has done Helios consists of the simultaneous release of 39 different Eclipse projects and 33 million lines of code developed by about 500 Eclipse.org committers from 44 companies. The coordinated release allows Eclipse users and adopters to take advantage of the innovations and new features created by the different Eclipse projects and provide a transparent and predictable development cycle. In addition to supporting the new Eclipse 3.6 Helios release, Instantiations products continue to support prior versions of Eclipse and the IDEs built upon Eclipse to meet customer needs.

“With the increased enterprise adoption of Eclipse worldwide, it benefits all those that rely on Eclipse to have product updates in sync with the Eclipse release train, like Instantiations has done,” said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. “This gives companies a predictable and comprehensive upgrade to plan for each year.” An important new capability is the Eclipse Marketplace, which offers the Eclipse community a convenient portal to help users find open source and commercial Eclipse-related offerings. The new Marketplace client makes it easier for users to download and install tools from Instantiations and others.

Global Software Testing Services Market 2009-2013 Report

2010-06-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

Research and Markets announced the addition of the "Global Software Testing Services Market 2009-2013" report to their offering. A Software Testing Service refers to the testing process for a developed software by an IT company. A company offering testing services can either be an independent company, a product development company or a system integration services company. It tests software for its quality, completeness, accuracy, and security. In addition, it executes a program or application for identifying errors, and compares the actual output with the expected one, by feeding a set of test values. These services also include test improvement services; such as training courses, transformation test reviews, etc

Software testing refers to observing the execution of software system, to validate whether it behaves as intended or not. Earlier studies had concluded that testing can consume almost half of the total software development costs. However, from recent studies, it has been found that software bugs (part of code that do not work properly if not corrected during development) have impacted the US in a greater way in the recent years. Testing helps remove such bugs. Thus, cost savings, business process improvements, the need for quality, and meeting both functional & non-functional testing requirements is driving this market globally. Cloud based applications are becoming the trend of the software market. As a result, the testing market has also become Cloud-based. For instance, companies like IBM, CSS Corp, etc. have started Cloud based testing, which is likely to reduce the cost and timing of testing the application. Further, companies are investing significantly in building competence in various specialized testing services; such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) testing, web-based application testing, Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) testing, Software-as-a-Service (SAAS) testing, Wireless and Mobile technologies testing, etc. As the domain of software application development is increasing significantly, so is the need for testing the specialized applications. Read the abstract or order this report via the Research and Markets portal

APPCON Mobile App Developer Conference - Preview (August 24-26 in Las Vegas)

2010-06-12T14:44:00.000-07:00

APPCON will feature over 40 educational sessions that cover the most important mobile App technologies in a practical, and deeply technical level. Speakers are experts in their fields and provide the knowledge you need to move your App development to the next level. APPCON is the premier developer conference and expo dedicated solely to mobile Apps. Take a deep dive into the technology and tools used in development and deployment of mobile Apps across all the major platforms and carriers in a fun and exciting environment. Meet the thought leaders, platform providers, and businesses that matter the most to mobile App developers.

APPCON has partnered with fun hardware manufacturers to create a contest open to all registered attendees during the conference. We have to keep the details of the contest a secret for now but let's just say, this is a developer's conference (so be ready to code), there will be tons of awesome prizes, and the contest will let you play with some pretty awesome gear. The Fast Pitch will feature dinner, and as many 6 minute demos. The Hello World session is available as an additional option to the standard conference package. Training materials, developer tools DVD, and lunch is included with the session. Developers must bring their own laptops compatible with their platform's developer tools to participate in the coding exercises. Mobile devices are recommended but not provided and simulators can be used. Visit the APPCON portal for complete speaker, agenda and registration details

HP Launches Applications Threat Analysis for Sftware Development Lifecycle

2010-06-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

HP's Comprehensive Applications Threat Analysis, available worldwide, is the industry’s first early life cycle security assessment service that increases security assurance by addressing latent defects in applications and architecture. The service provides architectural as well as design guidance alongside recommendations for security controls and best practices. Companies can then implement recommendations from the assessment’s comprehensive findings report to reduce costs associated with vulnerability rework and potential defects while minimizing the need for post-release updates to address security flaws.

As part of the HP Secure Advantage portfolio, the service helps organizations better address security and regulatory needs. It also defends against attacks while reducing the total cost of application ownership. The service is an integral part of the HP Cyber Security portfolio, which helps organizations leverage advances in technology and share information securely while protecting sensitive information and critical infrastructure. “Customers are under increasing pressure from threats that exploit security weaknesses that were either missed or insufficiently addressed during early life cycle phases,” said Chris Whitener, chief security strategist, Secure Advantage, HP. “The HP Comprehensive Applications Threat Analysis service helps organizations reduce hidden weaknesses early in the assessment process and provides recommended mitigation strategies and secure design principles.”

Apple Announces iPhone 4 with FaceTime Video Calling, Retina Display & HD Video Recording

2010-06-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

Apple® presented the new iPhone® 4 featuring FaceTime, which makes the dream of video calling a reality, and Apple’s stunning new Retina display, the highest resolution display ever built into a phone, resulting in super crisp text, images and video. In addition, iPhone 4 features a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, HD video recording, Apple’s A4 processor, a 3-axis gyro and up to 40 percent longer talk time—in a beautiful all-new design of glass and stainless steel that is the thinnest smartphone in the world. iPhone 4 comes with iOS 4, the newest version of the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, which includes over 100 new features and 1500 new APIs for developers. iOS 4 features Multitasking, Folders, enhanced Mail, deeper Enterprise support and Apple’s new iAd mobile advertising platform. iPhone 4 will be available in the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan on June 24, starting in the US at just $199 for qualified buyers with a two year contract.*

“iPhone 4 is the biggest leap since the original iPhone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “FaceTime video calling sets a new standard for mobile communication, and our new Retina display is the highest resolution display ever in a phone, with text looking like it does on a fine printed page. We have been dreaming about both of these breakthroughs for decades.” FaceTime is as mobile as your phone, so you can see your loved ones and friends anywhere there is Wi-Fi. Using FaceTime is as easy as making a regular voice call, with no set-up required, and you can instantly switch to the rear camera to show others what you are seeing with just a tap. Visit Apple's press room for complete details. Will these new features enable Apple to expand its smartphone leadership position over Google, RIM and Palm? Send your thoughts to us at the Software Application Development Monitor

iPhone Programming for Windows with DragonFireSDK

2010-06-04T16:32:00.000-07:00

Zimusoft, Inc. has created a product to build a bridge between Windows and the iPhone:DragonFireSDK.com (SDK: Software Development Kit). For the first time, Windows developers can fully code and debug iPhone Apps without ever leaving Windows. Apple published an SDK for the iPhone, but it only runs on a Mac and it requires programmers to learn a variant of the C/C++ language called Objective-C. Of the 5 million programmers worldwide, over 80% work in Windows and do not know Objective-C. With DragonFireSDK, C/C++ programmers can develop for the iPhone using the Windows computer they already own and the language they already understand.

The DragonFireSDK product consists of a cross-platform Library and an iPhone Simulator. Windows programmers see an on-screen iPhone Simulator running their code. When the App is complete, an App Bundle is prepared that will run on the iPhone and is ready for submission to the Apple iPhone App Store. Games made in Windows with DragonFireSDK are already being shipped. DragonFireSDK costs only $99.95. Many Windows programmers will pick it up and create a small game in a weekend. High schools and colleges are excited about filling "Introduction to Programming" classes that teach how to write a game for the iPhone. The Library of functions will allow programmers to easily create the kind of leisure games iPhone users enjoy while waiting for their coffee at Starbucks. Popular maze games like PacMan as well as side scroll games like Nintendo Mario Bros can be created using DragonFireSDK.

Engine Yard and New Relic Extend Partnership to Provide Rails Cloud Application Management

2010-06-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

New Relic announced that Engine Yard has built New Relic RPM into its Engine Yard AppCloud product, allowing automatic deployment of RPM. Now, through a single console, Engine Yard customers can deploy, manage, and optimize their business-critical Ruby on Rails web applications. Engine Yard AppCloud offers a pre-integrated, pre-tested Ruby on Rails technology stack, including web, application and database servers, built-in monitoring and process management, a Rails-optimized Linux distribution, in-memory caches and more. Engine Yard AppCloud tracks essential storage, CPU, and memory utilization data while providing easy-to-use capacity management features. New Relic RPM is the leading on-demand application performance management solution for both Ruby on Rails and Java web applications. It allows teams to monitor applications in production, proactively identify performance issues, and drill down for root-cause diagnosis. Integration with Engine Yard AppCloud provides Engine Yard customers with automatic access to RPM, which is available to them at a discounted rate. Working together, these solutions allow Ruby on Rails development and deployment teams to create the most robust, superior-performing enterprise-class Rails applications.

"Our end users expect a fast and flawless online experience and it's important that we take advantage of the best tools available to ensure we continue meeting their needs," said Sam Parnell, vice-president of engineering at Bleacher Report, a top online sports news and entertainment publisher that is one of the top 5 fastest growing sites on the web over the last six months according to Quantcast. "Engine Yard AppCloud provides us with a reliable, proven platform to deploy and manage our applications and RPM gives us the visibility we need to monitor and troubleshoot performance issues before they affect our end users. Building RPM into the Engine Yard AppCloud will make it easier to ensure our applications are meeting performance goals and service-level commitments."

Steve Jobs to Kick Off Apple’s WWDC 2010 with Keynote Address on June 7

2010-05-24T13:23:00.000-07:00

Apple® will kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address by CEO Steve Jobs on Monday, June 7 in San Francisco. This year’s WWDC sold out in a record eight days to over 5,000 developers. The five-day event running from June 7 to June 11, is focused on providing advanced content for skilled developers across five key technology tracks: Application Frameworks; Internet & Web; Graphics & Media; Developer Tools; and Core OS. Apple engineers will deliver over 100 solutions-oriented technical sessions and labs. WWDC 2010 gives an incredibly diverse community the opportunity to connect with thousands of fellow iPhone®, iPad™ and Mac® developers from around the world.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices. Visit the Apple WWDC event portal for complete speaker and agenda details

Google I/O Developer Conference - Preview (May 19-20 in San Francisco)

2010-05-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

Google I/O brings together thousands of developers for two days of deep technical content, focused on building the next generation of web, mobile, and enterprise applications with Google and open web technologies such as Android, Google Chrome, Google APIs, Google Web Toolkit, App Engine. The Developer Sandbox, first introduced at I/O 2009, is the demo area at Google I/O where we feature a wide range of developers who have built applications based on technologies and products featured at I/O. Representing large and small companies, individual developers, and a diverse collection of apps, these developers will be participating in the Sandbox to demo their applications, answer questions, and exchange ideas. This year a new event before the conference called I/O BootCamp. Part sessions and part hacking, BootCamp focuses on 101-level content and provides an overview of our major developer platforms. In addition, there'll be hands-on tutorials, community-led discussions, and time to meet new people. It's a great way to get a quick crash course on our products before the main event. visit the event portal for complete speaker and agenda details

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference Kicks Off June 7 in San Francisco

2010-05-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

Apple® will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 7 through June 11 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. The five-day conference includes the first ever iPad™ development sessions and hands-on working labs for iPhone® OS 4, as well as Mac OS® X core technology labs.

“This year’s WWDC offers developers in-depth sessions and hands-on working labs to learn more about iPhone OS 4, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system,” said Scott Forstall, Apple’s senior vice president of iPhone Software. “WWDC provides a unique opportunity for developers to work side-by-side with Apple engineers and interface designers to make their iPhone and iPad apps even better.” WWDC 2010 is focused on providing advanced content for skilled developers across five key technology tracks: Application Frameworks; Internet & Web; Graphics & Media; Developer Tools; and Core OS. Apple engineers will deliver over 100 solutions-oriented technical sessions and labs. WWDC 2010 gives an incredibly diverse community the opportunity to connect with thousands of fellow iPhone, iPad and Mac® developers from around the world.

Zend Server 5.0 Streamlines PHP Web Application Development and Management for IBM i & IBM Power Systems

2010-04-15T16:10:00.000-07:00

Zend Technologies announced that Zend Server, an enterprise-ready solution for running and managing PHP applications, is available for the first time for the IBM i operating environment running on the IBM Power Systems™ platform. With Zend Server for IBM i, enterprises can now use modern PHP Web-based applications to leverage existing business logic and corporate databases efficiently and securely.

“PHP and Zend are a leading platform for rapid development of Web front-ends to RPG and COBOL applications,” said Ian Jarman, Manager, Power Systems Software at IBM. “The commitment of IBM and Zend to technology cooperation has led to a robust, fully supported solution that will help our customers to achieve the performance, reliability and security they have come to expect when running business-critical applications on IBM i.”

“We chose Zend Server for our IBM i platform to create a responsive front-end ordering application for our warehouse distribution system,” said Scott Campbell, Programmer/Analyst at Value Drug Mart of Canada. “This allowed us to provide convenient self-service to hundreds of customers who can now order online, track order fulfillment and request credits without tedious faxing. Automating this process reduces errors and frees up our support staff to focus on higher level tasks.” Visit the Zend product portal for complete feature and performance details

iPadDev Camp NYC - Hosted by CodeFab & Gigapixel Creative (April 16- 18)

2010-04-12T17:22:00.000-07:00

CodeFab and Gigapixel Creative announced the first Apple iPadDev Camp on the East Coast, a think tank, boot camp-style event for developers, sponsored by Barnes & Noble, taking place at AOL headquarters and in New York City April 16 through April 18. iPadDevCamp is a global event where existing iPhone developers, designers and publishers will come together to build and demo new iPad applications, share knowledge, explore and make friends and connections. The NYC iPadDevCamp satellite event will link to the primary event in San Jose, CA and will encourage shared dialogue from over 30 iPad DevCamps across the globe.

iPadDevCamp will kick off Friday night with a party and introductions. Saturday’s schedule features a DevCamp keynote by Alex Cone, CEO of CodeFab, a star studded Publisher Panel on Media in the Age of the iPad featuring Peter Costanzo, Dir. of Online Marketing for Perseus Books Group and Nina DeFrance, VP of Consumer Marketing for Forbes Digital, among others. The panel will be moderated by Michael Prenez-Isbell, Director of Mobile Development at Blueswitch, and tickets can be purchased separately for $10 on the event registration page. The day continues with a freeform collaboration workshop, streaming of the Keynote talk from the San Jose iPadDevCamp and the first half of the DevCamp hack-a-thon.

Vanguard Software Solutions Releases MVC CODEC for 3D Video

2010-04-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

Vanguard Software Solutions, Inc. (VSOFTS) will showcase its latest H.264 technology at NAB 2010 trade show in Las Vegas, NV. “MVC importance for 3D encoding can’t be overstated. 3D TV Manufacturers, 3D Internet, Cable and Satellite Service providers and 3D Movie makers for Theatres and Blu-Ray discs will need our Multi-View AVC coding tools which include MVC and BDA’s 3DBD compliant encoders to deliver content.

"Our AVC-I encoder has very low latency and can support verity of frame rate, bitrate and resolution settings," said Vise President of VSOFTS, Felix Nemirovsky. "While we support AVC-Intra class50 and class100 interoperability, our encoder can be used for any type of High Value Content acquisition, editing and archiving. We are proud to be the first on the market to offer a low latency 1080p60, 10bit encode of up to 300Mbps for real-time editing. VSOFTS’ AVC-I encoder offers an excellent solution for both portable broadcast recording and transmitting high-value content for remote archiving.” "We are a well known and respected h.264 CODEC supplier in the Broadcast industry. The latest innovations and enhancements we’ve made were in response to our Broadcast customer requirements and the overall Market trends. It is our ability to deliver a commercial realization on-time that establishes us as an h.264 CODEC leader,” said VSOFTS President, Dr. Irena Terterov.

iPhone/iPad DevCon - Preview (September 27-29 in San Diego)

2010-04-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

iPhone/iPad DevCon will offer one day of intensive full-day and half-day workshops, followed by two days of technical classes. The conference will include a tabletop exhibit area for companies selling products and services for iPhone developers. More than 300 software developers, marketers and entrepreneurs are projected to attend iPhone/iPad DevCon. The conference is owned, produced and managed by BZ Media LLC, which publishes SD Times, the newspaper for the software development industry. BZ Media also produces SPTechCon: The SharePoint Technology Conference, and ESDC: The Enterprise Software Development Conference.

iPhone/iPad DevCon is an important educational resource for anyone building or selling iPhone apps. The focused, more conference is designed so that all iPhone app developers, marketers and entrepreneurs can attend — and can even bring their entire development and marketing team, thanks to special group discounts. Ted Bahr, President of BZ Media and Conference Director of iPhone/iPad DevCon, said, “The market for the iPhone is exploding. Enterprises are looking to educate their developers about the platform. Commercial software companies are jumping into the market, and startups and entrepreneurs need to get up to speed. The best place to bootstrap or extend your iPhone app effort will be at iPhone/iPad DevCon in San Diego.”

RIM Releases Enhanced Blackberry Platform Java and Web Development Tools

2010-04-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

RIMM released updated Java and Web-based development tools for the BlackBerry® platform. The BlackBerry® Java Plug-In for Eclipse v1.1 and the BlackBerry® Web Plug-in v2.0 offer new capabilities that make it even easier to create feature-rich applications. The BlackBerry® Widget SDK (Software Development Kit) v1.0 and the BlackBerry® Java SDK v5.0, which includes more than 20,000 APIs, provide unparalleled access to BlackBerry® smartphone hardware features, native BlackBerry software applications and other unique system capabilities of the BlackBerry Application Platform.

Using the new tools developers can quickly and easily build web-based BlackBerry Widgets or Java applications that leverage the unique benefits of the BlackBerry Application Platform to seamlessly share information across and interact with core BlackBerry applications or other third party applications. These are personalized and contextualized applications that can integrate with a BlackBerry smartphone's inbox, calendar, address book and other native BlackBerry applications to deliver a highly engaging user experience.

“The BlackBerry Application Platform continues to evolve tremendously and the new tool enhancements make developing applications for BlackBerry smartphones easier and faster than ever,” said Alan Brenner, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Platform at Research In Motion. “We believe these enhanced tools will spur a new level of creativity and innovation as developers find new ways to leverage the unique power and integrated nature of the BlackBerry platform in order to bring useful, intelligent applications to the millions of BlackBerry smartphone users around the world.”

Arxan Expands Security Offerings to Protect Embedded Software

2010-04-01T16:07:00.000-07:00

Arxan Technologies® announced it has expanded its software protection technology to shield embedded and mobile software against reverse-engineering of intellectual property (IP), tampering and unauthorized use. EnsureIT extends to embedded software and platforms similar security as Arxan’s GuardIT®, the proven, award-winning family of products, which primarily secures desktop and server applications. Arxan’s EnsureIT™ delivers to embedded and mobile applications automated embedded software protection that is durable and easy to deploy. It can actively defend, detect, and react to attempted application attacks, including those on mobile applications for the Android™ and iPhone®.

“Embedded software is vital to today’s economy, powering everything from popular gaming systems to mobile platforms, medical equipment or critical infrastructure software such as in telecommunications. Increasingly, it is also the target of hacking and large-scale, organized cyber attacks,” said Paul Roberts, senior analyst at The451 Group. “Rather than layering security in front of the devices running embedded software, solutions like Arxan’s EnsureIT provide software developers with a robust security platform to maintain the integrity of the code, and ultimately the end-user device.”

Skyhook Wireless Announces Local Faves SDK for iPhone Developers

2010-04-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

Skyhook Wireless today announced Local Faves, a SDK that helps developers add location tagging, community and check-in functionality to any iPhone app. Developers traditionally use location in apps that are tied to the physical environment, like navigation, social networking, weather, and search. Local Faves is designed to bring the context of location to digital content-based apps, like music, wine, food, reference, books, and more.

“In mobile we are starting to see location used in brand new ways. Location is no longer confined for use in navigation and social networking apps,” said Kate Imbach, vice president of marketing at Skyhook Wireless. “We built Local Faves to encourage this trend and help developers change the way they think about and use location in their apps.”Local Faves helps developers create engaging communities within apps, driving user loyalty and more opportunities for monetization. In a Local Faves-enabled iPhone wine app, users could check-in to a restaurant via the wine they’re drinking, giving the wine app developer the opportunity to directly broadcast user location. Local Faves features fully customizable content tagging, allowing users to indicate that they loved, hated, ‘favorited’, saw, or read a piece of content within an app, and enables sharing of this content, and exactly where it was experienced, via Facebook and Twitter.

"We have a very large and passionate community of wine lovers who use Drync Wine to research and track wine they enjoy. Local Faves adds social elements to Drync that extend the user experience beyond the individual," said Brad Rosen, CEO of Drync. "With Local Faves, our users can log where they drink and buy wine, and see who's drinking what wines nearby." Visit the Skyhook Wireless solutions portal for complete SDK details

Motally Launches 2-Way Communication Empowering Developers to Make Instant Changes to Apps

2010-03-31T15:11:00.000-07:00

Due to the unpredictable nature of approval systems in appstores, developers struggle to schedule and coordinate even the slightest change to their apps for fear of the lengthy response time from app-saturated appstores approvals staff. Motally addresses that concern by enabling developers to send data to back to apps already live in app stores. With the Motally’s 2-Way Communication, developers can make changes remotely to data values in previously defined fields, all from within the web interface of their Motally account.

“The app submission and resubmission process definitely can hold developers back from bringing updates to market as fast as they would like. With Motally’s 2-Way Communication feature, we are excited about providing on-the-fly adjustments to apps and believe the uninterrupted consumer experience will lead to higher engagement and usage,” says Peter Sankauskas, game developer and Software Engineer at Motally.

Using Motally’s 2-Way Communication, developers can instantly update or modify existing tracking parameters and the conditions under which data is sent. For example a developer can turn on debug tracking remotely to resolve bugs on the fly, without having to go through app stores’ often meticulous and lengthy approval process. Developers can also change the values for custom fields that have been previously defined. For example, a developer can include a discount code field into an application and change the value for that code, based on a particular marketing campaign. In an effort to facilitate app localization, the new feature even allows developers to change the greeting on a text to go from "Hello" to "Hola", depending on which country the game is being accessed.

Appcelerator Titanium 1.0 Releases for General Availability

2010-03-08T16:04:00.000-08:00

Appcelerator® announced today the release of its flagship product, Appcelerator Titanium™ 1.0, for General Availability ("GA"). Titanium 1.0 has been redesigned to achieve performance on par with Apple's iPhone and Google's Android SDKs, and is the first cross-platform solution to achieve this milestone. Appcelerator also introduced a new commercial offering for premium support, training, and analytics, available for purchase beginning today.

Many developers, in particular web development firms, systems integrators and interactive agencies, are turning to Appcelerator to deliver a cross-platform application development solution that gives them a native advantage. These developers require performance on par with Apple and Google's SDK, native user experience capabilities, and native access to the underlying device capabilities (eg: camera, video streaming, maps) on each platform.

"The proliferation of 'smart' devices with multiple operating systems is causing serious platform fragmentation and, as a result, every company needs to reassess their development strategy today," advises Scott Ellison, Vice-President Mobile, IDC. "Appcelerator improves upon the 'write once, deploy anywhere' approach by enabling cross-platform development of applications that leverage the native performance and capabilities of each unique device from a cost effective, web technology-driven code base." Visit the Appcelerator product portal for complete feature and performance details

Hobo, the Rapid Web App Builder for Ruby on Rails, Moves from Beta to Version 1.0

2010-02-26T13:51:00.000-08:00

Hobo, the open source rapid web app builder for Ruby on Rails, has officially reached Version 1.0 after three years of focused development effort by the Hobo community and sponsorship support from Barquin International in Washington, DC. As part of the celebration we're releasing a bunch of new stuff for newcomers and the community to enjoy.

The current version of Hobo has changed a lot since the early days of the beta, and has been grabbing the attention of a growing number of coders across the globe. "I've been involved in systems development for 30 years and Hobo is one of the most impressive tools I have run into", says developer George Treisner, "My partner thinks I'm a genius because of how fast I built the system, how easy it is to modify and how good it looks and works."