Could the app economy be the cure for United States’ employment doldrums? A new report suggests that the nascent app economy spurred on by iOS, Android and Facebook apps has generated 466,000 jobs in the U.S. economy since 2007. Read More »
Tech
Forrester CEO George Colony reignited a minor firestorm recently by saying “the web is dead” and the app ecosystem is replacing it. Others, however, argue that the open web has benefits that apps do not have, and that losing these features would have serious consequences. Read More »
Twilio, a cloud communication platform powering a wide array of apps, is capping off a huge year of growth with $17 million in Series funding from existing investors Union Square Ventures and Bessemer Ventures. The new money will be used to continue Twilio’s worldwide expansion. Read More »
Amazon’s Kindle Fire has only been on the market for a few weeks but developers saying it’s providing a very significant lift in app sales because of its easy buying process. It’s giving Android tablet developers reason for a lot of optimism. Read More »
Spotify is opening up its service to developers to create free applications inside its desktop app. The company is now enabling much more robust integration of apps inside its desktop client, allowing developers to tap into Spotify’s 15 million songs and fast growing user base. Read More »
The Kindle Fire isn’t just getting attention from consumers. Developer interest is on the rise, making Amazon’s new device the top Android tablet developers want to code for in North America, just a few points behind where the iPad debuted, according to a new developer… Read More »
Apkudo, a start-up, is about to unveil a new free testing service for Android developers that allows them to see how their apps will perform on almost 300 actual Android devices. It should be a help for developers frustrated with testing apps for Android. Read More »
Many newspapers still think of themselves as delivering content in a specific format, but some forward-thinking outlets — including USA Today and The Guardian in Britain — are thinking of themselves more as platforms, and opening up their content for use by others via their APIs. Read More »
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social-reading apps the network launched with The Washington Post and other outlets would change the “way the news industry works,” but it feels more like those outlets have signed over a big part of their destiny to an AOL-style portal. Read More »
A new study from the University of Maryland’s business school claims that Facebook’s “app economy” has created almost a quarter of a million new jobs and over $15 billion in spinoff benefits for the U.S. economy. But do those estimates really stand up to scrutiny? Read More »
Diffbot is trying help developers build apps that read the web like humans. The company’s technology uses visual learning robotics and artificial intelligence to view web content visually, helping apps analyze web data like humans. The company is releasing its first APIs to developers today. Read More »
Skype is helping introduce its third-party apps to consumers with a new app directory that lets people browse and access apps that are built on Skype’s API. The directory features dozens of free and paid apps that are available on both Windows and Mac. Read More »