Samsung Hosts Bada 2.0 Power App Race

Samsung Electronics is calling on all developers globally to develop their best app for its newly announced bada 2.0 Power App Race, which gives developers the chance of winning up to USD100 000 for creative app development. Now in its second year, the bada Power App Race competition will formally launch bada 2.0 to mobile applications developers, inspiring them to create innovative new applications using the bada 2.0 SDK. A total of 10 applications - including five game applications, and five non-game applications - will be selected and rewarded with prize money totalling USD1 million. Furthermore, winning applications will receive the "Power App" mark at Samsung Apps, exclusive marketing and promotion benefits.

The MDS Tribute to Steve Jobs

Mobile Developer Summit (MDS) 2011 will pay rich tributes to Steve through passionate discourses from real professionals and developers who have been touched by Steve's passion and creativity. They will provide their interpretation of how Steve did what he did, and most importantly how we can all learn to unleash our inner Steve.

Adobe Unveils AIR and Flash Player Incubator Program

Adobe has introduced the Adobe AIR and Flash Player Incubator program. Under this program, the Adobe Flash Runtimes team will share with developers features that are under development or experimental in order to get early participation, testing and feedback from the community.

Google's Tablet-Geared Android Software Inches Closer with Honeycomb

Google Inc. is inching closer to releasing a version of the Android software meant for tablet computers with the release of its new tablet operating system, Honeycomb, which is now available for developers to tinker with. In a post Wednesday on Google's Android Developers blog, Xavier Ducrohet, the Android SDK tech lead, has suggested that a final version of the kit will be available "in the weeks ahead." This final version is expected to enable developers publish Honeycomb applications to Google's Android Market app store. Consumer tablets running Android 3.0 (aka Honeycomb) is still months away.

Decision Making In Software Teams

Alistair Cockburn has described software development as a game in which we choose among three moves: invent, decide, and communicate. Most of our time at technology conferences is spent learning how to be better at inventing. Beyond that, we understand the importance of good communication, and take steps to improve in that capacity. Rarely, however, do we acknowledge the role of decision making in the life of software teams, what can cause it to go wrong, and how to improve it.

Developers are Key to Success of Windows Phone 7

When Apple launched the iPhone, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer ridiculed the lack of a keyboard. Little did he know this gadget would become the best selling phone in a league of its own. In an attempt to stay on top of the game, Microsoft released a Windows phone that disappeared just as soon as it had arrived. With the new Windows 7, due out in October, Microsoft is looking forward to redeem itself and reinforce the company’s standing in the technology space. What gives Windows 7 an edge is its ability to run on a wide range of devices unlike the iPhone.

Adobe Flash 10.1 Speeds Up Mac and Shows Love

In the midst of the Apple vs. Adobe war, a phoenix seems to have risen from the ashes. Enter Flash 10.1 on Mac OS X. After years of poor performance and the long raging Apple and Adobe battle, hardware acceleration for Adobe Flash finally got the green signal. The Adobe team seems to have really heard out the developer community this season. With the 10.1 release they have aimed to correct several of the previous Flash glitches. Adobe says developers can look forward to no more bogging down of browsers, CPU utilization reduction (up to two-thirds when GPU hardware acceleration is active) and eliminating the iPhone it runs on a gamut of handheld devices.

Google Coming to your Idiot Box?

Google is set to invade your living room as the company puts its finishing touches on technology that lets software developers build applications for televisions in much the same way as they do for smartphones. Google is planning to unveil an Android-based 'Google TV' at the Google I/O conference, which open in May, San Francisco. Intel and Sony are also involved in the platform, which is rumoured to be open source, in keeping with the Android operating system. "(Google) hopes the move will spur the same outpouring of creativity that consumers have seen in applications for cellphones."

Symbian to Fully Endorse HTML 5

Symbian has released a set of web application development tools for the recently open-sourced Symbian platform. These tools aim to aid the development, distribution and installation of web applications on Symbian devices, using technologies such as HTML, JavaScript and CSS. "Symbian Foundation is fully embracing HTML5. Symbian^4 will take a big step forward and we’re encouraging our contributors to move as fast as possible. Check this out for a snapshot of the progress," says the Development Tools Manager at Symbian Foundation.

SugarCRM Now on Windows Azure

Microsoft and SugarCRM began working together in 2006 to deliver Sugar applications on top of Microsoft technology. SugarCRM supports IIS as well as Active Directory, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server. The two companies have continued to collaborate as part of the Interop Vendor Alliance. In August, SugarCRM announced Sugar Community Edition on the Microsoft Web Platform, a framework for developing, deploying and hosting Web applications.

RIM Updates for Java and Web Tools Make Blackberry App Development Easier

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(R) Java SDK v5.0, which includes more than 20,000 APIs, provide unparalleled access to BlackBerry(R) smartphone hardware features, native BlackBerry software applications and other unique system capabilities of the BlackBerry Application Platform.