developer

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Bill Gates will grant you $100,000 to invent a next-gen condom.

- "Now That's What I Call Music" documentary coming soon.

- Dongle jokes and a tweet lead to firings, threats, DDoS attacks.

- And of course, a silver lining: http://forkmydongle.com.

Bathroom break video: NHL celebrates 20-year anniversary of NHL '94 in awesome throwback fashion.… Read more

Alongside its decree to have developers phase out a retired device-tracking technology in their apps, Apple yesterday also set down a rule that requires developers to support its latest devices.

In a notice on its developer site, Apple set a May 1 deadline that will require all new apps and app updates to support the Retina Display and taller, 4-inch display found on the iPhone 5 and latest iPod Touch.

These devices have only been out since September and October, though developers could continue to submit apps designed only for the older, 3.5-inch displays.

The move is the latest … Read more

Nike has awarded 10 startups $20,000 each to build applications for its Nike+ products. The giant sporting goods company is striving to turn its digital gadget success into a technical platform.

In December, Nike announced a program, in partnership with TechStars -- a startup mentoring and investment organization -- to offer money and mentoring to companies interested in creating health- and fitness-related applications that use the Nike+ technology. The idea is to seed app development for products, such as Nike+ FuelBand, to create a platform in much the same way that Apple has created a platform with iTunes and … Read more

Users in search of ad-blocking apps on Google Play won't have any luck as of today. Google has reportedly launched a campaign to remove apps that interfere with advertising from its app store.

Several app developers for apps such as AdBlock, AdAway, and AdFree received notices from Google today saying that their apps had been taken down, according to Phandroid. Apparently, these apps were in violation of Google Play's Developer Distribution Agreement.

This agreement says that developers must agree not to "engage in any activity with the market, including the development or distribution of products, that interferes … Read more

If you live in America and are passionate about HTC smartphones, the company has a treat in store. HTC just announced via its official blog a special Developer Edition of its hotly anticipated HTC One flagship handset. The device costs an unsubsidized $649 and will ship only to buyers with U.S. ZIP codes. … Read more

Facebook has revealed details about Mobile DevCon 2013, a trio of events this spring, in three of the largest cities on the planet, that's intended to connect Facebook engineers, product managers, and "like-minded mobile developers."

The Mobile Developer Conference series will kick off in New York City on April 18, followed by a stop in London on May 2, and then concluding in Seoul on May 7.

Noting that there are more than 680 million active users on mobile, Facebook reasserted that it has been focused on improving mobile offerings over the last year, citing improvements across … Read more

Microsoft is continuing a push to turn its Kinect motion-sensing game controller into a natural user-interface device for PCs, by sharing samples of the Kinect for Windows code under an open source license.

The idea is to give developers the opportunity to reuse the code and help Microsoft figure out how to improve it, Ben Lower, Kinect for Windows developer community manager, wrote in a blog post last week.

The company has posted 22 samples -- including code for face tracking, its skeletal viewer, and slideshow gestures -- in C#, C++, and Visual Basic. The code is available under an … Read more

Consumers may be thrown by all the different mobile devices on the market. But app developers face an even thornier problem.

Creating software for the mobile landscape has become harder as the sheer number of different devices has grown.

The number of major operating systems might be limited -- Apple's iOS, Google's Android, Microsoft's Windows Phone, BlackBerry. But each OS can be home to dozens or hundreds of different phones and tablets, especially in the Android arena.

Developers who want to write for 90 percent of all active devices would need to support 331 different models, according … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- A what, where, and why primer on the Game Developer's Conference from guests Meggan Scavio and Simon Carless.

- The 15th annual Independent Games Festival opens its Audience Award voting window, now through March 1.

- Nominations open for 2013 Game Developers Choice Awards.

- Unity Engine coming to BlackBerry 10 smartphones, BlackBerry PlayBook.… Read more