Development

Software
February 11, 2011
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Xbox Live, Office, enhanced maps coming to Nokia’s Windows Phones; Qt not

By on February 11, 2011 at 5:47 AM.

Xbox Live, Office, enhanced maps coming to Nokia’s Windows Phones; Qt not

At at joint press conference today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop provided specific details about what the newly forged partnership between their two companies will look like. Fans of Nokia hardware and the Windows Phone software can get excited about the prospects of Xbox Live, Office, and enhanced maps (a combination of Ovi Maps and Bing) coming to Nokia WP sets. Fans of Windows Phone in general can get excited about the world’s largest phone manufacturer throwing its weight behind the recently launched mobile OS. But how do Nokia’s developers, the ones who have committed time and resources to Qt, make out in this deal? The future looks bleak.

In a letter to developers, the companies noted that Qt would still be supported for Symbian and MeeGo — Nokia expects to ship 150 million Symbian phones during the transition; there was also mention of the first MeeGo device shipping later this year. The letter was quite clear in saying that Microsoft would “provide tools for application developers,” not Nokia. Translation: No Qt. This transition from Symbian to Windows Phone is going to be an interesting tightrope for Nokia to walk — especially in regards to developers. The aforementioned letter is waiting for you after the break. Have a look and let us know what you think in the comments. More →

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mobile
December 1, 2010
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Microsoft extends olive branch to Windows Phone 7 unlockers

By on December 1, 2010 at 5:28 PM.

Microsoft extends olive branch to Windows Phone 7 unlockers

In an effort to thwart unauthorized efforts to unlock or jailbreak devices running Windows Phone 7, Microsoft took a rather unorthodox approach. Rather than sending idle threats or immediately entering into the endless loop of plugging security holes and watching new ones emerge, the company extended an olive branch to the developers behind ChevronWP7. Microsoft’s Brandon Watson reached out to the ChevronWP7 team, which recently released a Windows Phone 7 unlocking tool, and opened a line of discussion about homebrew app development. As a sign of good faith during the conversations, which could ultimately lead to some kind of homebrew support from Microsoft, ChevronWP7 has agreed to pull its unlocker tool. It seems odd that Microsoft would consider helping developers build apps with capabilities not allowed under Microsoft’s developer terms. Then again, the homebrew community will emerge and grow either way. By working with homebrew developers instead of against them, perhaps Microsoft can maintain some level of control. More →

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Software
November 18, 2010
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Fantasy Football app for BlackBerry Playbook get demoed

By on November 18, 2010 at 5:36 PM.

Fantasy Football app for BlackBerry Playbook get demoed

If you have been waiting to see what a 3rd party developer has in store for RIM’s upcoming Playbook tablet launch, this is the first significant video demo we have found — and it looks great. From Universal Mind, they write on their blog about the development experience:

It was entirely built using Adobe Flash Builder and the BlackBerry SDK. The workflow allowed us to deploy a working tablet application in days with full touch and gesture interactions that you would expect in a tablet device.

The framework SDK is integrated into Flash Builder which made for a very familiar dev environment. Compiling the application and deploying it to the PlayBook Simulator is quick and easy with multiple ways to see your application in a working environment. Without a actual device in hand we relied on the Simulator to test all the interactions, so it was a key piece of the workflow.

Kinetic scrolling with rubber-banding effect is built into the SDK, they note, which makes it easy on developers to concentrate on adding greater functionality and features, as opposed to focusing on little transitional/design elements like they have to in the past with RIM’s previous OS development. All in all, it looks good. A little iPad-ish, but we’d take that any day over regular BlackBerry apps. Question for RIM… are 3rd party QNX apps called super, super apps? Video is after the breakage! More →

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Software
November 15, 2010
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AMD throws its hat into the MeeGo ring

By on November 15, 2010 at 8:10 AM.

AMD throws its hat into the MeeGo ring

It looks like another big-name company will be throwing its weight behind the development of the open-source operating system MeeGo. Today, AMD announced that it will “provide engineering expertise” to the MeeGo project in the hopes of establishing “technical foundations for next-generation mobile platforms and embedded devices.”

“We are glad to provide engineering resources to joint industry efforts like MeeGo and expect that this operating system will help drive our embedded plans and create expanded market opportunities for our forthcoming Accelerated Processing Units,” said Ben Bar-Haim, AMD’s corporate vice president of software development.

Hit the jump for the full press release. More →

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Services
August 5, 2010
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Google puts Wave product out to pasture, discontinuing development

By on August 5, 2010 at 11:59 PM.

Google puts Wave product out to pasture, discontinuing development

Yesterday, Google announced that it would discontinue development of its futuristic real-time communication tool known as Wave. The post reads:

Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects. The central parts of the code, as well as the protocols that have driven many of Wave’s innovations, like drag-and-drop and character-by-character live typing, are already available as open source, so customers and partners can continue the innovation we began. In addition, we will work on tools so that users can easily “liberate” their content from Wave.

The post continues by saying the Wave taught the company quite a bit, and that Google was proud of the Wave team for pushing the limits of computer science and the browser. RIP Google Wave 2009 — 2010. More →

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Exclusive
December 29, 2009
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Google Nexus One sold directly and only by Google, officially supported by T-Mobile

By on December 29, 2009 at 11:13 AM.

Google Nexus One sold directly and only by Google, officially supported by T-Mobile

tmo-google-nexus

Interesting. It looks like Google won’t be entirely shaking up any wireless industries at the present time, but it will be pushing forward with its own “flagship” device by selling it directly to consumers. While our connect’s internal T-Mobile photo is rather small, we’ve broken down the text for you:

Google, with support from T-Mobile, is scheduled to launch a new Android device in early January. The Google Android phone will be sold directly by Google via the Web.

Support for the device including troubleshooting and exchanges will be managed by Google and HTC. T-Mobile will offer service support including billing, coverage, features, and rate plans. Additional details Streamline content regarding the launch of Google’s Android phone will be coming in early January.

So… Google is simply selling the phone directly for now, as rumored, and T-Mobile will “officially” support it, even though they practically do the same for any unlocked handset on their network. Google and HTC will be fielding support calls from users, and I’m not quite sure how I feel about that. Unless this is only the Android Development 3 phone. But it’s not just that. And T-Mobile could possibly subsidize it in or around March. Ok, bye.

163 Comments
BG's Corner
July 21, 2009
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TweetGenius grows up, rolls with the bees

By on July 21, 2009 at 11:28 AM.

TweetGenius grows up, rolls with the bees

You might have heard of a little Twitter client called TweetGenius around these parts… Ok, maybe it’s not so little, but you know what I mean. What started out as a side project just for me (and lucky friends) to use quickly grew into a public software offering. We’ve been so blown away by the feedback and sales that we have been struggling to keep up with our original roadmap and between me and you, our roadmap is intense. Well, what’s the next step to make TweetGenius better, faster, more solid and more feature-rich? Beejive. Probably my favorite software development company for the BlackBerry and iPhone OSes, Beejive’s social messaging vision and service is the perfect partner for TweetGenius going forward.

We’re happy to partner with Beejive on TweetGenius. If you already bought a license, don’t worry — you’ll still get supported and free upgrades like we initially promised. If you haven’t however, TweetGenius is going back into closed beta until we’re ready to re-release it. Trust us, it’s going to be worth the wait. With our innovative UI and upcoming feature-set coupled with Beejive’s experience with instant communication, TweetGenius will continue to be the go to Twitter client for the BlackBerry platform. If Twitter isn’t your thing, that’s alright. You never know what else we might be working on.

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Opinions
June 30, 2009
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What happened to Research In Motion and where are they going?

By on June 30, 2009 at 4:41 PM.

What happened to Research In Motion and where are they going?

I want to start this off by saying I have nothing but love for RIM the company. Probably my favorite tech corporation in the world, they’ve created an incredibly unique product that practically replaces the need for drugs for most people. What’s even more fascinating, however, is how RIM (to the pleasant surprise of a lot of us early users) has managed to take a corporate-focused product and service and blow down doors in the consumer world. From the BlackBerry 7100, the first consumer-oriented device, to the eye-catching BlackBerry Tour (it’s business through and through, yet it will be an incredibly popular consumer phone on Verizon and Sprint), it’s clear that RIM has done everything right to this day.

More →

345 Comments
Software
January 10, 2009
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Developer speaks out on Palm WebOS Mojo SDK

By on January 10, 2009 at 1:48 PM.

Developer speaks out on Palm WebOS Mojo SDK

After seeing the massive amount of buzz Palm generated surrounding the announcement of its Pre and new mobile operating system WebOS, mobile developers are undoubtedly just as excited as everyone else to get in on the action. Good news, mobile coders; an anonymous developer who has spent some time with Palm’s new Mojo SDK has shared some insight as far as when you can expect. Just like WebOS and the Pre itself, it appears as though Palm’s new SDK is a breath of fresh air as well. The shrouded dev essentially called the WebOS development experience the antithesis of iPhone development on several levels. From SDK usability and incorporated technologies to OS integration and even developer relations – it seems as though Palm covered all of its bases when building its savior. Palm has already made it known that it will launch its own on-device App Store, dubbed App Catalog, and this gushing account of the developer experience is yet another check mark in the Palm column. Throw a few more handsets and a few more big carrier deals into the mix and Palm might have to wear shades…

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Software
September 12, 2008
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Samir Back in Action with HandWave; Gesture-based Controls for S60

By on September 12, 2008 at 12:22 PM.

Samir Back in Action with HandWave; Gesture-based Controls for S60

You remember Samir, right? Made popular by his RotateMe application that enables automatic screen rotation in accelerometer-equipped S60 handsets, Samir has become one of the S60 community’s favorite young developers. He now has a pretty great catalog of apps that own the accelerometer so Samir has apparently decided to move on. What will he tackle next? Apparently the front-facing camera! And why not – it should be good for something, right? Samir’s first new project since launching his new AikonLab website is called HandWave and it’s definitely unique to say the least. The video above shows that the app is essentially a very basic gesture control system that makes use of the front camera and allows users to swipe their hand in front of the phone to trigger actions. So far it looks like only right and left d-pad commands are supported but as you can see it’s working quite well. Hopefully we can consider this a proof of concept and future builds will provide some addition movement recognition. If nothing else it will be funny to watch people swipe at their handsets as the flip through images or skip tracks. Efficient? Probably no, but cool none the less. According to Samir’s site, HandWave will be available for download beginning tomorrow.

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