At Mobile World Congress, Spotify debuted in its first cars appearing in Ford’s already music-loaded Sync AppLink platform. Ford CTO Paul Mascarenas also told us that its graduate its first apps from its developer program. Read more »
Ford has lots of developer programs up its sleeve. After opening up Sync to developers this week, it announced Thursday OpenXC, an open-source software and hardware program that exposes the internal workings of the vehicle to a future generation of apps and devices. Read more »
Thanks to the rise of online business, companies must now get their products and services to market as fast as they can, and releasing software now means small releases that occur very frequently. Enter devops, which is disrupting traditional assumptions about the roles of development and operations. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Error reporting is turning into a lucrative business for Exceptional Software, which runs two services Airbrake.io and Exceptional.io. Exceptional now boasts 100,000 customers like Square, Groupon, Skype and others and is profitable without taking outside funding. Read more »
CES and Macworld are hogging the event spotlight right now, but what about events for developers? Last year’s WWDC sold out quick, and this year’s probably will too, so you may want to plan on alternate conference and training opportunities in 2012. Here’s a list. Read more »
If your company has a cloud application with a predictable audience size or one that is costing you more than $25,000 a month to host, you may want to consider maintaining a private cloud. This paper provides an overview of the factors that decision makers who are developing a public-to-private cloud-migration strategy should consider, recognizing that public versus private cloud strategy is not an all-or-nothing proposition. It also details pitfalls that must be avoided along the way and provides a case study of Zynga, a company that has found a way to use both the private and public clouds to create a hybrid solution. Companies mentioned in this report include Akamai, Foursquare, Nimbula and ARM. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Few things impress people about the Apple TV in demonstration more than AirPlay mirroring, which is available on both the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. And that’s exactly why developers should focus on delivering unique and creative AirPlay solutions to help their apps stand out. Read more »
Developers looking to beta test their iOS apps have a number of options for finding and communicating with beta testers, but few are as slick and easy to use as TestFlight. Now it’s even better, thanks to a new SDK that made its official debut Monday. Read more »
If you’re creating an app or promoting one for a friend or client, nothing quite makes the software pop like showing off screens on actual iOS devices. A new Mac App Store title lets you create pro-level iPhone and iPad mockups in a matter of seconds. Read more »
How do you make amends with a development community after taking away some of their tools and rendering at least a few of their products unusable? Try offering them the keys to a much bigger kingdom, for starters: namely, the sizeable pool of iOS device owners. Read more »
Subscription streaming music service Spotify launched an API on Wednesday that allows third-party iOS developers to integrate Spotify into their apps. Called libspotify, the new resource should allow for some fairly innovative uses of Spotify services, like game and AR integration. Read more »
When you pick up your iPad, where do you poke first? I tend to hit Reeder first, and read quite a few articles before moving on to my local newspaper app. It looks like I’m not alone, according to new engagement statistics released Tuesday. Read more »
IOS platform competitors take note: Indie iOS dev Chris Eidhof has posted a list of the main reasons why a new developer finds Apple’s mobile OS such an attractive prospect. It’s a nice snapshot of what attracts new dev talent to iOS in the first place. Read more »
Apple is winning the smartphone race and climbing the ranks of overall cell phone makers, according to new numbers released Thursday. But now that Apple has passed Nokia to become the No. 1 smartphone maker worldwide, what benefits does that honor bring to its customers? Read more »
Apple has included facial recognition technology in iOS 5, 9to5Mac discovered earlier this week. It’s not something Apple is advertising with the software update yet, but as it develops, it could become on of the most significant additions ever introduced to Apple’s mobile operating system. Read more »
If you’re curious about the technology behind Google+, you’re in luck. The project’s technical lead, Google engineer Joseph Smarr, is currently hosting an online question and answer session about the service, sharing details about the social platform’s development, technology, and plans for the future. Read more »
Lodsys wants more time to address the request by Apple to intervene in its court proceedings against seven small app developers, in the ongoing saga of in-app purchasing patents. Also, Samsung doesn’t get early access to Apple gear, a judge has ruled. Read more »
Steve Jobs said at the WWDC keynote this week that “the truth is in the cloud.” He wasn’t just being hyperbolic when he said this, though. It’s actually a clever reference to how iCloud will work behind the scenes, and how it will make apps better. Read more »
Apple filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit against seven small app developers started by patent holder Lodsys on June 9 related to the use of in-app purchases. If granted, Apple would be added to the Lodsys suit as a defendant and counterclaim plaintiff. Read more »
With WWDC well underway, you might have heard a few words related to computer programming that even Mac experts have trouble understanding, but it happens to the best of us. Here’s a quick glossary of the programming terms that are probably most likely to confuse. Read more »
Patent holder Lodsys is busy suing small developers making apps for Apple’s platform, but it now also faces an incoming complaint of its own. A Michigan analytics firm has filed a declaratory judgment action against Lodsys that could eventually lead to the invalidation of its patents. Read more »
One of the many traditions of Apple’s WWDC is the presentation of Apple Design Awards (ADA) for “excellence in iOS and Mac OS X app design and development.” This year, the winners include some familiar names, as well as some you probably won’t recognize. Read more »
WWDC 2011 revealed a number of enhancements to OS X, iOS, and iCloud. I polled several independent developers ranging from long-time Mac mainstays, one-man shops, and large shops that cover both Mac and iOS development to get their reactions to the many changes. Read more »
We’ll be providing coverage of WWDC today for those who couldn’t be there. And If you couldn’t make it to the conference, the next best thing might be to attend one or more of the other iPhone and Mac development conferences in the U.S. and abroad. Read more »
It’s Monday, and that means it’s the day of Apple’s keynote address at the annual Worldwide Developer Conference. Festivities begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT, and we’ll have live coverage of the event, but here’s our best guess of what you can expect to go down. Read more »
iCloud is mostly being looked at as a potentially ground-breaking consumer cloud service suite. But Apple is introducing it at WWDC, where it shows off new tools for developers to use in their apps. iCloud, then, could be a huge deal for developers, too. Read more »
There’s nothing quite like attending Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco at the Moscone Center. Hearing first-hand about new tech from the engineers that built it is amazing. Here’s what lucky attendees should do to make the most of next week. Read more »
Phone app The Heist has been sitting pretty at the top of the App Store charts basically since its release last week. In that time, it’s seen over 500,000 downloads, and racked up $300,000 in revenue for its developers, making it a blockbuster by any measure. Read more »
In response to Apple’s letter claiming that the license it holds for using technology ostensibly patented by Lodsys, the patent holding firm has filed suit against a number of App Store developers Tuesday. The firm claims Apple’s license does not in fact extend to developers. Read more »
iPad users aren’t stingy with their devices, according to a new usability report by the Nielsen Norman Group focusing on Apple’s tablet. iPad owners tend to share with their household, and they also have very particular tastes about what they do and don’t like in apps. Read more »
MacHeist and tap tap tap Tuesday released The Heist, an iPhone puzzle app that provides a real-world reward. The app is a huge success so far, topping the U.S. paid charts. So how did the app come about, and why is it doing so well? Read more »
Taking ideas in your head and making them in to working iPhone apps is a daunting process even for those with coding knowledge. A new Mac app called Prototypes is making it easier for non-developers to share their ideas quickly and easily in concrete form. Read more »
The best course of action for iOS developers faced with patent infringement suit threats issued by patent holding firm Lodsys earlier this month might be to play nice with licensing requests, according to one intellectual property researcher. It might be the only affordable course of action. Read more »
Lodsys, the patent holding company going after iOS developers, is little more than a “patent troll” according to the EFF. But Apple takes a nearly equal share of the blame for the situation in a new blog post by the Foundation posted Friday. Read more »
Apple is “actively investigating” the claims of patent infringement made by Lodsys against App Store developers, according to The Guardian. Lodsys, a patent holding firm, has been sending notices to independent developers giving them 21 days to secure a license for technology used in in-app purchases. Read more »
Last year, I wrote about how the iPhone was still the best development platform. A lot can change in a year, especially in tech, but here’s why iOS still the best platform for smartphone development, even as Android passes it in terms of activations. Read more »
Lodsys, the company suing iOS developers for patent infringement over in-app purchases, has created a blog in response to the situation. The blog posts reveal a very good grasp of patent law, but likely won’t satisfy developers or keep Apple from trying to stop Lodsys. Read more »
There are definitely some great tools for the iPad to help solidify your app concept from a more abstract point of view. Looking at the more tangible side of visual design, I’ve found the following tools available in the Mac App Store to be quite helpful. Read more »
In the latest earnings call, Apple COO Tim Cook reiterated that the Mac-maker has paid out over $2 billion to developers. That’s an impressive number, but how much of that app revenue is actually making its way to the average developer? Read more »
Anyone can have a good idea for a new app. For both developers and non-developers alike, the App Store has a selection of design tools for the iPad that each play a unique role in the process of evolving a good idea into a great one. Read more »
