development

Apple has sent a stern warning to developers who try to inflate their App Store rankings.

"Once you build a great app, you want everyone to know about it," the company announced to developers last night. "However, when you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts. Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership."

App Store rankings are … Read more

Microsoft has already cooked up a special Bing page tempting users to check out its upcoming Windows 8 "Consumer Preview."

The first clue is the video of a betta fish swimming from one edge of the screen to the other. Thought of as Microsoft's mascot for beta versions of new operating systems, that particular fish swam its way onto the desktop of the beta for Windows 7 in 2009.

But other more obvious clues are the hot spots and links scattered across the screen that refer specifically to Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Since the page is still … Read more

Smartphone users champing at the bit for the next iPhone could get a taste of it by June.

The latest rumors about Apple's flagship phone suggest that the iPhone 5 could be announced in June at Apple's next Worldwide Developers Conference. This latest report comes from analysts at Daiwa Securities as reported by the Chinese newspaper Commercial Times.

The folks at 9to5Mac are predicting that WWDC will be held from June 10 to 15 this year.

The new scuttlebut follows a recent report from 9to5Mac also pointing to a summer release for the next iPhone. Citing a "… Read more

Since Jeff can't attend the 26th annual Game Developers Conference on March 5 in San Francisco, we're doing the next best thing and bringing part of the show to him!

General Manager Meggan Scavio is our guest today and we're getting all the details on the upcoming show, like the split among console, PC, and mobile gaming, the rise of independent game developers, and sequelmania! We'll also rant about 3D games and the convergence of the film and gaming industries.

She'll also join us in the second half of the podcast where we'll run … Read more

CBSSports.com announced today it is opening its fantasy sports platform to third-party developers, allowing them to create free and premium league-specific apps.

Among the first half-dozen partners in the "Fantasy Platform" are MLB.com and Bloomberg Sports, CBS said in an announcement today at the 2012 Fantasy Sports Trade Association Winter Business Conference in Las Vegas. (CBSSports.com is part of CBS Interactive, which also operates CNET.) Advanced Sports Media, Rotowire, StatSheet, and Ziguana will also be partners in the platform.

Jason Kint, senior vice president of CBSSports.com, said the Fantasy Platform is designed to offer … Read more

LAS VEGAS--While the Consumer Electronics Show is a must-see event for anyone in the technology business, AT&T has quietly made its developer summit, a stone's throw away from the actual show, a pretty important destination for itself.

While the company has long had a developer program, which previously focused on the enterprise market, it began holding an annual summit six years ago to further drum up developer interest just as the consumer app market was beginning to emerge.

Four years ago, when the summit was still in its infancy, 250 developers packed into a ballroom at the … Read more

OnStar is giving the green light to third-party app developers.

The General Motors in-vehicle concierge announced this evening at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that it's making its proprietary application program interface open for third-party app developers, giving them access to the OnStar ATOMS cloud server. (See CNET's live blog of the OnStar event.)

The first third-party app will be RelayRides, a peer-to-peer service in which users rent out their personal cars to other drivers in the area. A demo of the app showed it helping users find, reserve, and unlock OnStar enabled cars using the … Read more

Google updated its popular platform version chart this week, giving a current snapshot of the popularity of the various Android releases.

As expected, Gingerbread (Android 2.3x) leads the way with a combined 55.5 percent share of the market, followed by Froyo at 30.4 percent and 2-year-old Eclair at 8.5 percent. Trailing behind are Honeycomb (3.3 percent) and very marginal showings for Donut (version 1.6), Cupcake (version 1.5), and Ice Cream Sandwich (version 4).

The latest chart marks the first time we've seen Ice Cream Sandwich make an impact, even if it is … Read more

After investing a considerable amount of time and effort on the Android 4.0 user interface (UI), Google is taking steps to ensure that it remains a key component of devices.

Writing on the developer blog yesterday, Android Framework engineer Adam Powell outlined the new compatibility standard for the Holo theme first introduced in 3.0 Honeycomb.

Going forward, devices running Ice Cream Sandwich with official access to the Android Market will offer the Holo themes as they were initially created. So in other words, developers will have a standard set of UI elements to work with, ultimately resulting in … Read more