Development -- Engadget Mobile

development posts

Palm demos web-based Ares SDK for webOS

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 5th 2009 @ 6:50PM

Currently, mobile entrepreneurs wishing to hawk their wares on the Pre (or Pixi, or unnamed webOS device of the future) use a software development kit from Palm called Mojo, a stack of Java-based tools that must be installed, studied, understood, loved, and respected before serious development can get underway. Palm sees that as a barrier of entry for web-oriented developers who want to make the leap to mobile apps, though, which is why they've crafted a new SDK called Ares that's based entirely on web technologies -- in fact, there's no install at all, apparently. Much of the interface is said to be drag-and-drop with enough JavaScript exposed to make your local .com designer feel right at home, potentially opening the app landscape to a whole new set of folks -- and considering that the App Catalog is tens of thousands of goodies behind the App Store and Android Market, they can use every loyal dev they get.

Symbian Horizon app store launched, dev program detailed

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Oct 28th 2009 @ 9:36AM

Mobile World Congress came and went all those months ago without an app store for Symbian freaks, but you know what? That's OK -- Rome wasn't built in a day, y'know. Besides, all that is changing now that the Symbian Foundation has announced that Horizon, the publishing program / mobile marketplace, is up and running as we speak. Currently the home of fifty award winning downloads (including Bubblewrap!) users can look forward to "thousands of applications in 2010." What are you waiting for? Hit that read link to get started -- but not before you peep the PR to see how you too can begin developing for the platform. It's after the break.

[Via TrustedReviews]

Continue reading Symbian Horizon app store launched, dev program detailed

Motorola quietly takes one step away from LiMo, looks to Android for consolation

by Darren Murph posted Oct 12th 2009 @ 9:33AM

Man, remember LiMo? Amazingly, there are some 40 handsets on the market today based on the platform, but precisely none of them are boasting a profile as high as any one of the Android smartphones also on store shelves. As Motorola scrambles to re-make itself and prove that its CLIQ is a force to be reckoned with in the burgeoning Android phone sector, the company has also decided to remove itself as a "founding member" of the LiMo Foundation. The company recently noted that the outfit was sliding down to "associate member," stating that "at this time it feels that the Android platform gives it a richer, more consistent foundation with strong support for the ecosystem and developer community." That's a pretty damning statement to our ears, but we won't go so far as to call the breakup between Moto and LiMo official; we're guessing "it's complicated" would be entirely more appropriate here.

[Via phonescoop]

Palm launches e-commerce beta for the App Catalog

by Joshua Topolsky posted Aug 18th 2009 @ 9:40AM

Love the Pre? Love code? Love money? Well it's your lucky day. Palm has just announced that it will begin accepting applications for developers interested in producing for-pay apps for the webOS App Catalog. The company says that requests taken now will make devs eligible for inclusion in the mid-September launch of its e-commerce program. Just like Apple and Google, Palm will be splitting profits of paid apps with developers 70 / 30 (the devs get 70 percent, don't worry), and go figure -- credit cards will be accepted. Of course we're pumped about paying $.99 for a to-do app someday soon, but we're hoping this will also herald in a new age of steady releases for the Catalog, which is still looking frighteningly bare to us. Hey, that's what homebrew is for, right? Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Palm launches e-commerce beta for the App Catalog

Samsung launches TouchWiz SDK for cross-platform bliss

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 17th 2009 @ 2:03PM

Now that Samsung's standardized on the TouchWiz interface across its entire touchscreen line -- dumbphone and smartphone alike -- they've created a fertile playground that offers developers the opportunity to reach a good chunk of the world's second largest phone manufacturer's devices. A dedicated software development kit for TouchWiz is now available direct from Samsung, and since your average code monkey doesn't necessarily have access to fifteen different phones running multiple versions of every platform Sammy supports, they're also offering up their Virtual Device Lab that'll let devs test their wares on everything the company has on tap. For distribution, Samsung will have a number of channels available: its Application Store, a new Widget Gallery that'll premiere on Verizon's Omnia II launching later this year, and -- perhaps most tantalizingly for developers -- the possibility of inclusion right in the frickin' ROM if Samsung really loves what you've done. Considering that you're targeting S60, WinMo, and a wealth of proprietary OS devices in one fell swoop, this could end up being a huge distribution channel.

Motorola axing 77 in Windows Mobile development facility

by Darren Murph posted Jan 26th 2009 @ 7:21AM

We'd already heard that Motorola would be focusing on Android alone for its future smartphones, and this here report certainly gives a good bit of credence to that notion. The flagging handset maker has just announced that 77 employees at its Plantation, Florida facility would be axed effective March 27th. Now, we knew thousands in its handset division were being laid off, but this sect is different than most -- with these departures, Moto will reportedly stop conducting new Windows Mobile development at the plant. We can't say we're totally against an all-Android approach, but it's a shame these 77 couldn't have been given new job descriptions with "Google" replacing "Microsoft" in the fine print.

[Via wmpoweruser]

RIM teams with DeviceAnywhere for testing of BlackBerry applications

by Darren Murph posted Oct 23rd 2008 @ 5:25AM

Palm already did the deed by partnering with DeviceAnywhere in opening its Virtual Developer Lab, and now it looks as if RIM's doing the same for its BlackBerry lineup. The Waterloo-based handset maker has joined hands with the aforementioned testing outfit in order to let "outside developers test their applications on a single system that represents 100 BlackBerry models running on 16 networks." We're also told that RIM is currently working with 100,000 developers to "create applications for such uses as gaming and navigation that link customers more tightly to their devices," which shouldn't come as any surprise given the pressure from Apple and Google. There's no word on when the virtual dev facility will open its doors, but we'd bank on it being sometime between "now" and "real soon."

Motorola slashing 20% of its research division

by Darren Murph posted Jun 12th 2008 @ 7:18PM

Another month, another round of layoffs over at Moto. This time, we're seeing 120 out of the 600 positions in Motorola Labs -- the unit responsible for researching pretty much everything ranging from handsets to radio technology -- slashed; another 180 are "being reassigned to work in individual business units." According to the company, the moves from Moto Labs "will help R&D teams work with their business partners to optimize R&D investment and focus on projects that deliver the greatest value for Motorola," though your guess is as good as our as to what that actually means. Granted, we wouldn't normally support hacking off a good part of your innovation department, but considering that it's been stuck in fail mode for far too long, maybe this really is for the best.

iPhone SDK comparison chart

by Nilay Patel posted Mar 6th 2008 @ 2:50PM

So with hardware accelerated 3D graphics, an integrated database API, tightly integrated performance monitoring tools, and a highly specialized version of the Cocoa framework tweaked just for the iPhone and rechristened as Cocoa Touch, the iPhone's just-announced SDK sounds like a winner. But how does it compare to its well-entrenched competitors from Microsoft, Nokia, and the iPhone community itself? Let's have a look.

Continue reading iPhone SDK comparison chart

Android SDK frustrating developers due to bugs, lack of documentation

by Nilay Patel posted Dec 19th 2007 @ 3:47PM

A month after Google launched the Android SDK, it looks like unresolved bugs, poor documentation, and the lack of a public issue-tracking system are causing some developers to say that the platform "isn't ready for prime time." The lack of solid documentation and unorganized feedback mechanism asides however, Ars Technica's Ryan Paul took the SDK for a spin and found that it has a lot of potential, saying "Despite some of the bugs and limitations in the API, it is definitely a viable and effective platform for application development," but that "it doesn't make it easy to create applications that have a really polished look and feel." Given how much bake time Android had before the announcement, it's a little strange that Google let it out the door without at least proper documentation, but there's still plenty of time -- we're not going to see any Android devices for another year, after all.

DeviceAnywhere lets devs play with 500 phones over the net

by Nilay Patel posted Oct 19th 2007 @ 3:24PM

In one of the more impressive Frankenphone installations we've ever seen, a company called Mobile Complete has been operating a remote phone-testing service called DeviceAnywhere that allows mobile phone developers to test out their apps on any of their choice of over 500 different phone models. The phones are opened up and have their circuits wired directly into a server, so devs have access to every part of the device, just as if they were physically present. CEO Faraz Syed says that the networked handsets are "surprisingly reliable and robust, even though they look like we've cut them open and killed them." According to the company, all the major carriers and several large content providers are customers, and only Nokia offers a similar testing suite -- and it's not as robust. Too bad the service starts at $200 and runs from $17 an hour up -- we'd love to spend a couple hours fooling around.

Motorola looking to decrease spending, cuts R&D funding

by Michael Caputo posted Sep 18th 2007 @ 9:44PM

With news of cost cutting tactics traveling down hill, we assume that consecutive quarterly losses and other negative news have caused Motorola, the third largest handset manufacturer in the world, to start trimming the proverbial fat off its business. Moto has announced that it will start by cutting 15 percent of costs from its research and development sector by the end of 2007. Is reinventing the same phone only by adding different colors not the proper business model anymore?

[Via mocoNews]

First third-party "game" app appears for iPhone

by Joshua Topolsky posted Aug 6th 2007 @ 11:59AM

It would seem that the first-ever iPhone game has been written and is available to download to your Jail-broken device, and true to the natural form of the Microsoft vs. Apple debate, it's all based around blowing up Zunes. Jason Merchant, a clever (and possibly very bored) iPhone hacker has coded a small game app for the phone wherein you target floating Zunes with your onscreen mini-iPhone, and then blast away with missiles. The Microsoft-fanboy-incensing shooter was written in objective C, and obviously requires that your device has had Jailbreak run on it to allow for the install. The creator says he's working on an aquarium app which will allow you to drop fish-food to an underwater iPhone, which pretty much makes no sense at all.

[Via Hackint0sh, thanks Boy Genius]

iPhone to receive updates before Leopard launch?

by Darren Murph posted Jul 6th 2007 @ 3:42PM

It's almost a foregone conclusion that Apple will be firing out iPhone updates in the not too distant future to address an array of niggles the general population has with its first foray into the cellphone realm, but based an "informed" poster over at HowardForums, that time could be sooner rather than later. According to a supposed Apple employee who opened his / her trap in a casual coffee meet, the iPhone will eventually support file system access so that users can more easily manipulate the content stored within without having to ask iTunes' permission. Additionally, it was suggested that iChat would be added "before Leopard," less restricted ringtone access was on the way, and there was even a confirmation that Flash support will indeed be added soon. Still, we'd take all of this with a dash of salt (at least for the time being), but hopefully our collective patience will pay off soon enough, eh?

[Thanks, Fabian]

Apple announces third-party software details for iPhone

by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 11th 2007 @ 11:13AM

As expected, Apple used WWDC as the stage to announce a third-party development solution for the iPhone, putting to rest fears that the handset would be a closed (read: non-smartphone) platform. Calling it a "sweet solution" for allowing devs to get their wares onto iPhones across the globe without sacrificing stability or security, Apple is using its full Safari-based browser to let folks code up true, Web 2.0-compatible apps that can be accessed and updated on developers' own servers. Though any apps that third-party developers put together will run under Safari, they'll be totally customizable and maintain the platform's unique look and feel. Better yet, they won't require any special SDK -- Jobs claims that a working knowledge of modern web standards is all we'll need to code up custom iPhone goodies to our hearts' content.