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Tag: SDK

  • Apple Rejecting Apps that Use Fingerprinting SDKs

    Apple Rejecting Apps that Use Fingerprinting SDKs

    Apple has begun rejecting apps that use software development kits (SDKs) that engage in fingerprinting.

    Fingerprinting is a method of collecting data and tracking users, creating a unique device fingerprint that can be tracked across services. As part of iOS 14’s improved privacy, Apple is now rejecting app submissions that use SDKs known to engage in this behavior.

    According to AppleInsider, a number of developers have already been notified of rejections.

    “Our app just got rejected by Apple’s app reviewer, blaming the MMP SDK for building a fingerprint ID,” wrote Heetch‘s Aude Boscher, in an industry Slack channel. “I saw other people complaining … so it might soon come up for you as well!”

    Apple’s notification message clearly says what the problem is:

    Your app uses algorithmically converted device and usage data to create a unique identifier in order to track the user. The device information collected by your app may include some of the following: NSLocaleAlternateQuotationBeginDelimiterKey, NSTimeZone, NSLocaleGroupingSeparator, NSLocaleDecimalSeparator …

    Adjust makes one of the offending SDKs, used by some 50,000 apps. The company has released an update that removes the offending code, however, providing a path forward for the apps using it.

    While the change is no doubt inconvenient for developers, kudos to Apple for cracking down on one of the more insidious methods of tracking users.

  • Facebook Issue Took Down High-Profile iOS Apps

    Facebook Issue Took Down High-Profile iOS Apps

    An issue with Facebook had far-reaching consequences, taking down some of the biggest names in iOS apps.

    Spotify, Pinterest, TikTok, Tinder and Call of Duty Mobile, along with many others, were all offline beginning Friday morning. The issue was tracked down to the Facebook iOS SDK that all of these apps rely on. The Facebook SDK helps integrate Facebook into an iOS app, and provides access to Facebook Analytics, Facebook Login, App Events, Graph API and sharing options.

    Facebook’s developers acknowledged the SDK was the source of the problem, and worked to quickly fix it.

    “We are aware and investigating an increase in errors on the iOS SDK which is causing some apps to crash.”

    Later that morning, Facebook’s developers had identified and fixed the issue.

    “Earlier today, a code change triggered crashes for some iOS apps using the Facebook SDK. We identified the issue quickly and resolved it. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

  • Zoom Removes Facebook SDK From iOS Client

    Zoom Removes Facebook SDK From iOS Client

    The latest Zoom update removes the Facebook SDK responsible for the app sharing data with Facebook, even if a user did not have a Facebook account.

    The data sharing was originally discovered by Motherboard, and involved the Zoom app sharing a disturbing amount of data with Facebook, regardless of whether a user had a Facebook account or not. This didn’t sit well with many users, especially as the app has achieved near-default status as the videoconferencing tool of choice as millions of individuals work from home.

    Zoom has since released an update removing the offending SDK, as well as offering an explanation of what happened:

    “We originally implemented the ‘Login with Facebook’ feature using the Facebook SDK for iOS (Software Development Kit) in order to provide our users with another convenient way to access our platform. However, we were made aware on Wednesday, March 25, 2020, that the Facebook SDK was collecting device information unnecessary for us to provide our services. The information collected by the Facebook SDK did not include information and activities related to meetings such as attendees, names, notes, etc., but rather included information about devices such as the mobile OS type and version, the device time zone, device OS, device model and carrier, screen size, processor cores, and disk space.

    “Our customers’ privacy is incredibly important to us, and therefore we decided to remove the Facebook SDK in our iOS client and have reconfigured the feature so that users will still be able to log in with Facebook via their browser. Users will need to update to the latest version of our application that’s already available at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time on Friday, March 27, 2020, in order for these changes to take hold, and we strongly encourage them to do so.”

    This change is good news for everyone concerned with privacy. Given Facebook’s abysmal track record, there’s simply no reason to be sending the company data unless absolutely necessary—which in this case it was not.

  • Microsoft Shows How Dual-Screen Apps Should Look

    Microsoft Shows How Dual-Screen Apps Should Look

    Microsoft unveiled two dual-screen devices in October: the Windows-powered Surface Neo and the Android-powered Surface Duo. Although the devices won’t be available until “Holiday 2020,” the company has released SDKs and guidelines on how apps for the two devices should look and function.

    Microsoft made the announcement in a company blog post:

    “We are happy to announce the availability of the preview SDK for Microsoft Surface Duo, and availability in the coming weeks for the preview SDK for Windows 10. We are also excited to announce new web standards proposals to enable dual-screen experiences for websites and PWAs on both Android and Windows 10X. These new web standards proposals will provide you with the capabilities and tools you need for dual-screen devices.”

    Image Source: Microsoft - The Android Emulator with a preview Surface Duo image
    Image Source: Microsoft – The Android Emulator with a preview Surface Duo image

     

    With the announcement, it’s clear Microsoft is going all-in on dual-screens devices. The company is working to make sure its own apps, such as the Edge web browser, offer an experience that takes full advantage of the dual-screen form factor.

    The company hopes developers will work hard to do the same.

    “Dual-screen devices creates an opportunity for your apps to delight people in a new and innovative way. To help you get started, we are providing you with basic support checklists for touch and pen and drag and drop and initial app pattern ideas to ensure your apps work great on dual-screen devices.”

    Image Source: Microsoft - Microsoft Emulator showing Windows 10X
    Image Source: Microsoft – Microsoft Emulator showing Windows 10X

    There’s no doubt that Microsoft has an innovative and refreshing take on foldable devices. Hopefully, armed with these guidelines and SDKs, developers will be able to usher in a whole new generation of mobile productivity.

  • Microsoft Releases Windows Azure SDK 2.0 For .NET

    In its latest earnings report, Microsoft said Windows Azure and related products hit $1 billion in sales. It shows that Microsoft’s cloud platform is starting to really take off. In its efforts to get more developers to use Azure, Microsoft has released some new tools for its Azure SDK.

    Microsoft announced in early May that version 2.0 of its Windows Azure SDK for .NET was finally available to all. The SDK brings with it a number of new features that are sure to delight those who host .NET Web sites on the Azure platform.

  • Web Sites: Visual Studio Tooling updates for Publishing, Management, and for Diagnostics
  • Cloud Services: Support for new high memory VM sizes, Faster Cloud Service publishing & Visual Studio Tooling for configuring and viewing diagnostics data
  • Storage: Storage Client 2.0 is now included in new projects & Visual Studio Server Explorer now supports working with Storage Tables
  • Service Bus: Updated client library with message pump programming model support, support for browsing messages, and auto-deleting idle messaging entities
  • PowerShell Automation: Updated support for PowerShell 3.0, and lots of new PowerShell commands for automating Web Sites, Cloud Services, VMs and more.

    • You should check out the full blog post for more details as Microsoft’s Scott Guthrie explains all of the new features in full detail.

    As for availability, you can grab the Windows Azure SDK 2.0 for .NET over at the Windows Azure .NET Developer Center. It’s also open source so you can poke and prod your way through the code over at GitHub.

  • Don’t Write Your Own File Picker In Your Google Drive App

    You’re building a Google Drive app, and now you want to implement a file picker. You can either build your own or use an existing service. Google argues against the former in its latest Google Drive SDK hangout:

    Writing your own file picker with the Drive API is easy, right? Not so fast! Watch to find out about the hidden complexity that can turn an otherwise easy task into a pain for users. We’ll show you ways to do it right when you have no choice as well as some alternative approaches that are quick and easy to implement.

    Check out more Google Drive news and tutorials here.

  • Learn How To Use The Application Data Folder In The Google Drive SDK

    The Google Drive SDK has received a lot of love over the past few weeks, especially with the launch of the Realtime API. Google has also been releasing more tutorial videos to help developers get the most out of the cloud service.

    Google’s latest Drive SDK video will show developers how to use the Application Data folder:

    During this session we’ll build up on the Android quickstart application and show how to create configuration files in the cloud that can be seamlessly synced across devices using the Application Data folder and custom file properties.

  • Learn How To Use Google Drive’s New Features

    On Thursday, Google launched two new ways for web apps to interact with Google Drive. The first – app data folders – stores critical app data in its own private folder to avoid accidental movement or deletion from users. The second – custom properties – allows users to “create searchable fields that are private to your app or shared across apps.”

    To help developers fully grasp these new features, Google has thrown together a quick Google Developers Live session that addresses these features. Check it out:

  • Facebook Releases SDK Updates For Android And iOS

    Facebook has recently updated its Android and iOS updates to include a number of useful features for users. To compliment those releases, Facebook is also updating its Android and iOS SDKs to make developers’ lives easier.

    The Facebook SDK for iOS has been updated to version 3.2.1. As the version number suggests, the latest updates is mostly about bug fixes. The update does bring a new feature, however, in the form of support for frictionless requests using the SDK’s FBWebDialogs class. The feature will let your app “use frictionless requests without importing the deprecated headers.” You can download the latest Facebook SDK for iOS here.

    Much like its iOS brother, the Facebook SDK for Android has received a small update pushing its version number to 3.0.1. The update includes a number of enhancements based upon feedback received by developers, as well as the usual bug fixes and improvements. You can grab the latest Facebook SDK for Android here.

    Aside from new Facebook SDKs, the social network is also introducing changes to mobile app bookmarks. On June 5, the company will only display mobile bookmarks for games that can be played across both desktop and mobile. It’s part of an initiative to better support cross-platform Facebook games. Those who relied on mobile app bookmarks will want to “consider alternative ways to reengage users,” like App Center or mobile app install ads. The good news is that this isn’t a breaking change as it requires no code change on the part of developers.

    As for breaking changes, there’s only one that developers should be aware of. Starting April 3, Facebook will be removing the ability to ask questions from the Graph API after removing the same functionality from users late last year.

    Finally, the weekly bug report reveals that Facebook squashed 31 bugs this week. You can check out the full list of fixes at the blog post.

  • Facebook SDK 3.2 For iOS Now Available

    It’s been quite a while since Facebook last updated its iOS SDK. The last update came out around the launch of the iPhone 5 to include support for iOS 6. The latest SDK update doesn’t have a major iOS update to piggyback on, but it includes a number of features that iOS developers will surely appreciate.

    Facebook announced that version 3.2 of its SDK for iOS is now available to developers everywhere. The big update this time around is better mobile analytics so iOS app developers can get a better idea of how well their app’s Facebook integration is working out.

    Mobile analytics now include a number of new metrics and features that will help you get the most out of it:

  • App Usage Metrics: We’ve enabled additional metrics such as iOS 6 native share sheet and built-in native UI controls usage that can now be logged through our SDK. We’ve also added support for showing these metrics on App Insights to help you understand how people are interacting with your app.
  • Ads Optimization: Similar to our current conversion measurement product for websites, we are currently working on a solution for native iOS apps. Integrating with our SDK will let you log conversion events from your apps. Conversion measurement helps businesses measure and optimize the return on investment of their Facebook Ads by reporting on the actions people take after viewing those ads.
  • Purchase Events (Beta): We’re previewing support for logging in-app purchase events with select partners.

    • Aside from additions to analytics, the new SDK features enhanced error handling. In short, all classes of error responses will now receive SDK support and documentation. Facebook says that the “SDK will now automatically categorize errors by common application handling behavior and provide helpers to simplify some common error response cases.” Version 3.2 will also handle a larger number error cases, including those introduced in iOS 6.

    Version 3.2 also adds improved Web dialog support and improvements to the API. For Web dialog improvements, the SDK now integrates Web, Feed and Requests dialogs without invoking deprecated headers. As for API improvements, Facebook is adding a new FBAccessTokenData type that should make it easier to open a session from token data.

    Facebook SDK 3.2 for iOS is fully backwards compatible, and is open to your feedback at Facebook’s StackOverflow page. You can grab version 3.2 of the iOS SDK here.

  • Google Drive SDK Team Answers Your Questions

    Are you one of the many developers that create apps for Google Drive? If so, you’re in luck. The development team behind the SDK recently held a hangout to answer the questions that developers have posed to them on Google+.

    If your question didn’t get answered, you can pose it again in the new Google Drive developers community on Google+. The team at Google is keeping an eye on the community and the moderators are already answering questions.

    You can check out the original Google+ post below.

    Steven Bazyl

    Steven Bazyl3 days ago

    For Thursday's GDL, we'll be answering questions or discussing topics posted here.

    – If you have a question or topic you'd like us to talk about, let us know by commenting on this post.
    – If you like somebody else's question, +1 it.

    We'll take the most popular & relevant comments and discuss them on Thursday!

      2    7 Powered by socialditto

  • Facebook SDK 3.0 Beta For Android Now Available

    Late last month, Facebook released the Facebook SDK for iOS 3.1 to developers everywhere. It was to help get them ready for the launch of iOS 6 and the Facebook integration the platform brought with it. Understandably, Android developers might have felt a little left out. Well, not anymore as Facebook has finally released a new SDK for the platform.

    The Facebook SDK 3.0 Beta for Android is now available to all Android developers who want to incorporate Facebook into their apps. The update is similar to the 3.1 update that hit iOS last month as it includes new native UI controls, better API support and other much needed updates.

    First and foremost, the new SDK includes the revamped native UI controls that iOS developers have been enjoying for about a month now. This new feature make it easy for developers to drop Facebook controls into mobile apps without much work. Here’s the list of controls available to developers:

  • Friend Picker lets people tag friends in an Open Graph action or find other people who installed your app.
  • Places Picker shows nearby places with customizable locations.
  • Profile Picture control shows the profile picture for any Facebook object, including people, places and things.
  • Login controls simplify how you manage user identity and app permissions.

    • Aside from the new controls, Android developers can look forward to simplified session management in the new SDK. The new tools should “simplify authentication and authorization.” Another nice addition is better Facebook API support which includes batch SDK requests for API calls. Facebook JSON data can also be manipulated with strong-type fonts to prevent coding errors.

    All of these additions are nice, but there’s one major reason developers should get the new SDK – mobile app install ads. The new ad type allows developers to advertise their apps directly to mobile users’ feeds. A link in the feed will then take a user to that app’s Google Play page. Developers must use the Facebook SDK 3.0 for Android to take advantage of this new feature.

    Facebook has a ton of resources for the aspiring Android developer. You can read up on documentation here and get a basic tutorial on SDK integration here. Before any of that, however, you’ll want to grab the new SDK Beta here. We’ll let you know when the SDK exits out of beta. It’s sure to have some nice new features at that point.

  • Bing Maps SDK Now Available For Windows Store Apps

    Let’s say your building a Windows Store app. You want to be on Windows 8 as soon as it launches later this month. Your app features a lot of map interactivity, or it just pulls info from one of the various map programs out there. What are you going to use? The simple answer is Google Maps, but Microsoft thinks you’ll want to use Bing Maps now that they have released an SDK.

    Microsoft announced today that the Bing Maps SDK is now available for Windows Store apps. Those building Windows Store apps will now be able to leverage the power of Bing Maps for their own applications. The possibilities are endless unless you’re wanting to create an app about Area 51. It unfortunately doesn’t show up in Bing Maps.

    It should be noted that Microsoft has released two versions of the Bing Maps SDK. The first is Bing Maps for JavaScript. Those who already have a Web-based Bing Maps app should be able to easily port to the Windows Store. Microsoft says the process should be familiar to those who use their AJAX Web control.

    For those who want to build native apps, Microsoft has also released the Bing Maps SDK for C#, C++ and Visual Basic. The first release will only provide basic functionality to get Bing Maps inside your app. That basic functionality includes pushpins, polylines, polygons, landmarks, venue maps, traffic, and Synth view map style. The SDK has been designed to take advantage of x86, x64 and ARM platforms.

    Those interested in building a Bing Maps app will need a new key called “Windows Store app.” You’ll be able to grab one over at the Bing Maps Account Center. Those who already created a Bing Maps app using a Metro style app trial key will have their key expire on January 15. Those who created a non-trial Metro style app will have their key automatically converted.

    If you’re interesting in creating a Windows Store app, check out these useful links for JavaScript and Native development.

  • Facebook SDK For iOS Updated With iOS 6 Support

    Facebook released Facebook SDK 3.1 for iOS last month to help developers get the most out of Facebook integration. Unfortunately, it didn’t have support for iOS 6’s Facebook integration due to it being in beta at the time. Apple made iOS 6 available to everyone last week, and Facebook is following suit with an updated SDK.

    Facebook announced yesterday evening that the Facebook SDK 3.1 for iOS is now available to developers worldwide. The major feature is that it adds support for native Facebook integration into iOS 6. Developers can now easily add Facebook login, Open Graph, and other sharing functionality directly into their app through iOS 6.

    The new Facebook SDK for iOS also allows developers to integrate the social network deeply into their apps, even when the user is not on iOS 6. In fact, all of the advanced sharing features of the SDK are available on iOS 4.0 and above. Here’s some of the features developers can take advantage of in their iOS apps:

  • Friend Picker to help apps easily pick friends.
  • Places Picker so apps can easily integrate with Facebook places.
  • Profile Picture control so your app can easily show the profile picture of a user, their friends, places, or other kinds of Facebook objects.
  • Login controls for easily building Login and Logout experiences.

    • The SDK also features a number a new API and better support for pre-existing APIs to make Facebook integration easier than ever. First up, the SDK introduces the FBSession API. It manages, stores, and refreshes user tokens. It also overrides default behaviors so developers can integrate advanced features. The SDK also features improved API support that minimizes the code needed to call Facebook Graph, FQL, and other APIs.

    Developers can grab Facebook SDK 3.1 for iOS right now. Those interested in getting into iOS development and Facebook integration can check out Facebook’s exhaustive documentation right here.

  • Facebook Working On SDK For iOS Update

    Facebook Working On SDK For iOS Update

    Apple made headlines yesterday with the reveal of the iPhone 5. They didn’t make mention of it during the conference, but the company also released the final version of iOS 6 to developers. Facebook is now tirelessly working away to provide an updated SDK for all iOS 6 developers.

    Facebook released an updated SDK for iOS last month that included a lot of the new features including integration of Facebook into everything iOS. The company is now working on an update for the SDK to include iOS 6 integration. A major selling point of iOS 6 is its integration with Facebook and developers will want to get in on that as soon as possible. There is no timetable for when the updated SDK will be ready, but Facebook says to stay tuned for the announcement.

    Outside of iOS development, Facebook announced a few other goodies for developers as part of today’s Operation Developer Love post. The first update is an option to suppress Like notifications via Open Graph. They realized that notifications between duplicated between apps and Facebook proper might get annoying. Developers can now suppress one of the Like notifications so that a user only gets notified once. Check out the documentation for more details.

    Facebook also announced an update to their ever-evolving privacy policy. Today’s update makes it mandatory for developers who use Facebook to link to their app’s privacy policy in app marketplace listings. You can read the updated privacy policy requirements here.

    Facebook capped off the week with 234 bug reports. Out of those, 118 bugs were accepted and 27 were fixed. You can check out the list of fixes at the blog post.

  • Facebook Improves Their Android SDK

    Facebook has recently updated their iOS app and the iOS SDK to improve the performance of both. By all accounts, it seems to be working fine now. Now it’s time for Facebook to fix their Android app and that starts with fixing the Android SDK for developers.

    As part of the weekly Operation Developer Love update, Facebook announced that they’re bringing improvements to the Android SDK. The update includes the usual stability improvements, but they’re also adding support for their new mobile ads for apps program. Facebook claims that these ads drive millions of people to apps so Android developers may want to start taking advantage of the new program.

    Alongside the improvements to the Android SDK, Facebook is working on an issue that affects their iOS developers. They found that their iOS app changes the Facebook login URL to a question mark instead of a pound symbol. Apps that utilize the new Facebook SDK for iOS aren’t affected, but it may mess up apps that don’t use the SDK.

    Facebook has also published an update to the ever-evolving Graph API. Developers no longer need an app access token to publish scores and achievements for users playing their games. Instead, developers will just need a user access token and a server to host the open graph objects for achievements.

    On a final note, Facebook has opened subscriptions up to test users. Developers have already been implementing subscriptions into their apps, but new developers can now test their subscriptions before opening them up to all players. It’s suggested that you either go with subscriptions or in-app purchases. Mixing them may only serve to anger players.

    Like always, Facebook has released the bug report for the week. There were 175 bugs reported this week with 51 of them being fixed. You can see the full bug list at the blog post.

  • Facebook SDK 3.0 For iOS Now Available

    Apple made waves when they announced that Facebook would be deeply integrated into iOS 6. To compliment the newfound integration, Facebook announced that they were working on a new SDK for iOS developers. It would improve upon the current SDK while allowing room for iOS 6 improvements as they are made available. After a successful beta period, the SDK is ready for action.

    Facebook announced yesterday afternoon that Facebook SDK 3.0 for iOS is now available for all to use. If you develop apps for iOS and are already using the new features in iOS 6 beta 4, then you owe it to yourself to get familiarized with the new Facebook SDK.

    Unfortunately, support for iOS 6 is not included in the final release because iOS 6 is still in beta. If you want to start testing the Facebook SDK for iOS 6, you can grab the beta right now. Facebook will hopefully have a full release up by the time iOS 6 launches.

    If you’ve been using the Facebook SDK 3.0 beta, you’re also in for a few surprises. The release version includes a number of new features including “ready-to-use native UI controls, better session management, improved support for calling Facebook APIs, and support for modern Objective-C language features.”

    Alongside those features, the Facebook SDK aims to make your life as a developer much easier by providing pre-built UI components for functions like Login, Friend Picker and Place Picker. You are more than welcome to build your own custom UI components for these features, but it’s a nice gesture for those apps that don’t have the resources or the knowhow to build their own custom Login screen.

    At this point in time, Facebook will be maintaining two versions of the new iOS SDK. The current release version is the master version. The other is the aforementioned iOS 6 beta. It’s assumed that Facebook will merge the two SDKs once the iOS 6 version leaves beta.

    For now, you can download the new Facebook SDK for iOS at GitHub. If you need help with development, check out all the great tutorials and documentation over at the Facebook developer’s site.

  • Facebook Finally Gives Us An Update On Its New iOS SDK

    If you recall, Facebook teased us a few weeks back about the new iOS SDK. The tease was only a paragraph long and contained no details whatsoever. It seemed kind of pointless, but all that waiting has finally paid off with the real announcement of SDK 3.0 beta for iOS.

    The Facebook development team wants to stress that the latest SDK is more of a “natural extension of Apple’s iOS environment.” The hope is that it will “make your development cycle more efficient by eliminating the need to develop and manage common tasks.” This is all made possible through the recently announced Facebook integration into iOS 6.

    So what can developers look forward to in the SDK 3.0 beta for iOS? The Facebook team has four major improvements in store from user sessions to improved API support. There’s sure to be something for everyone in the latest release.

    First up is better user session management as the team concedes that “managing auths, user sessions and tokens was hard.” Their first step was to make it as easy as possible with the introduction of FBSession. The new tool manages, stores and refreshes user tokens with overridable default behaviors.

    To help developers on the design side of things, the new SDK also includes some pre-built user interface components so you don’t have to waste time and resources building them from scratch. The three UIs available now are for displaying a user’s profile picture, Facebook places and friend select dialog box.

    The move to iOS integration has also expanded Facebook’s Objective-C repertoire. The new SDK supports Automatic Reference Counting, support for blocks, idiomatic API naming and KVO. These features should help speed up the process of developing apps that support both Facebook and iOS 6.

    Finally, the Facebook APIs have received some tender care with developers now being able to batch SDK requests to reduce Facebook API call latency. All of this makes it easier to publish Open Graph actions to timelines.

    The most exciting news is that the SDK will automatically use the native Facebook login across all of iOS when iOS 6 launches next month. In even more interesting news, the new SDK will allow apps to work seamlessly across all versions of iOS dating back to version 4.0.

    If you want to get started with developing for Facebook on iOS 6, hit up the download here. Here’s some great tips on getting started as well which includes tutorials and documentation.

  • Want To Build Google Drive Apps? Watch This Video

    Among all the product announcements and app updates from Google I/O, it’s easy to forget the developers. The people at Google I/O are there to learn. Those who couldn’t afford tickets or just weren’t fast enough to grab some will have to settle for YouTube videos.

    Google Drive is one of the more exciting products that Google is building up now. We already saw some of the new features that Drive will be bringing to the cloud-based productivity market. It’s a major hit among businesses for that very reason according to Google since it allows real-time cooperation.

    Now, your business or group may use Google Drive and they have tasked you to start building apps for Google Drive so that workers can get more stuff done together. The only problem is that you know nothing about building something for Google Drive. That’s why Google I/O exists so that you can learn all the new tips and tricks available to Google Drive SDK developers.

    If you are interested in Google Drive development or even have been involved with development in the past, you really should check out the below video. It contains a lot of great information on building Google Drive apps as well some new features coming to the SDK for those who have already been building for Google Drive in the past.

    If Google Drive is good enough for 50 million businesses worldwide, it’s good enough for you. Now get to learning so you can really impress us with some fantastic apps.

  • Microsoft Developers Can Now Access the SmartGlass SDK

    Microsoft’s new SmartGlass technology was met with a collective “meh” at the company’s big E3 press conference. The technology is what Microsoft hopes will make the Xbox the heart of customers’ media center. It works to display relevant information on smartphones and tablets about what is on the TV screen. The best use of the technology that has been shown so far is a nifty map of Westeros that shows where the characters in HBO’s Game of Thrones series are located.

    While neat, Microsoft’s demonstrations of SmartGlass are not the revolutionary interactive experiences the company is touting them as. To get truly creative apps and content, third-party developers are going to have to come to the rescue. Microsoft knows this, and today has released the Xbox SmartGlass Software Development Kit (SDK). The SDK is available for free to developers who have agreements with Microsoft for Xbox 360 development. The Kit contains the Xbox SmartGlass JavaScript library that includes device APIs, a bit of sample code, and the Xbox SmartGlass Studio, where developers can build their SmartGlass “Activities.” Developers can log into the SDK through developer.xboxlive.com.

    Microsoft is hoping to release SmartGlass to Xbox 360s this fall, alongside Windows 8, its Surface tablets, and Windows Phone 8 (all of which will, presumably, be able to interact through SmartGlass). Hopefully that will be enough time for developers to create some truly innovative applications for the SmartGlass technology. If Microsoft can manage to pull all of its new devices and software together successfully using SmartGlass, this holiday season just might be remembered as the moment Microsoft made its big comeback.

  • Apple Announcement: Apple TV Absent From WWDC 2012

    Apple announcement today included a ton of cool stuff, including a brand new line of MacBooks, a host of snazzy new features in iOS 6, and the integration of Siri with certain automobiles. What it didn’t include, much to the horror of fans across the entire planet, was the iPhone 5. Another gadget that didn’t make it onto the stage this morning was the Apple TV, which many believed would be a part of a major announcement at WWDC 2012.

    Depending on who you talked to, lots of individuals seemed to think that Apple would allow third-party developers to create apps for the Apple TV. Others would have you believe that the company would unveil a full-blown TV set, one that would incorporate a number of nifty features into its design. Unfortunately, much like those who were disappointed by the absence of the iPhone5, fans of Apple TV will have to bide their time.

    What Apple TV fans did get was something called “AirPlay Mirroring”, which allows Mac users to transmit 1080p video to their televisions or projectors. Additionally, users can also stream audio to the device, as well. iPhone and iPad users have been able to stream video to their Apple TVs for a while now, though never at such high resolutions.

    Janko Roettgers at Gigaom suggests that the reason Apple didn’t give third-party developers access to the SDK is because of the numbers. Since the iPad currently outsells the Apple TV by leaps and bounds, the company wants them to focus on the device that brings in the most money. Sure, Apple TV has sold 2.7 million units, but that’s nothing when compared to the 40.5 million iPads that were picked up by tech-hungry consumers in 2011.

    So is Apple cooking up something bigger? Is a full-blown Apple TV with all the bells and whistles coming down the proverbial pipeline in the near future? Right now, it’s all just speculation. Considering how many people thought we’d get something at WWDC 2012, your guess, at this stage, is honestly as good as mine.