Microsoft releases Android developer poaching package for Windows Phone 7
Microsoft’s App Guy has quite a job on his baby-soft hands: to boost Windows Phone 7′s numerically-challenged Marketplace by encouraging developers to port apps across from other platforms. The little fellow helped iPhone devs out a couple of months ago with an API mapping tool to make it easier to translate iPhone APIs to WP7 code. Now he’s extended the mapping tool to work with Android APIs too, and backed it up with a 90-page white paper and a promise to get more involved in developer forums. Will the App Guy’s efforts unleash a flood of new apps for Windows Phone? We don’t know, but we dig his shorts.
Microsoft releases Android developer poaching package for Windows Phone 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 04:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
New ‘StrictMode’ Gingerbread API helps developers write better, faster apps
There’s a lot of new, behind-the-scenes goodness going on in Gingerbread, and not all of it was made with the end user in mind. One of the new APIs, "StrictMode," is built for Android application developers to use as a debugging tool. It monitors code as it’s executed, detecting things that can slow an application down.
It specifically was designed to target disk reads and writes, and network activity, which as Android software engineer Brad Fitzpatrick points out can cause stuttering animation and UI elements that don’t respond to input as fast as we would like. Having an easy to use tool like this means that developers can find spots in their code that might contribute to a bottleneck and take care of the issue before the app goes out for testing.
While the changes that come with Gingerbread don’t appear very big on the surface, all these little things add up. We’ve went over all the "showcase" changes, but these smaller additions are just as important. Gingerbread is shaping up to have great potential, and I can’t wait to get my hands greasy with it. [Android Developers Blog]
New 'StrictMode' Gingerbread API helps developers write better, faster apps posted originally by Android Central
Sponsored by Android Cases and Accessories
Adobe Air SDK (pre-release) for Android now available
Attention application developers, Adobe has made the pre-release SDK for Adobe Air that we reported about back in April available for download. Things are still early in the development process, but new extensions for Flash Pro CS5 and tools for Flash Builder 4 now provide support for publishing applications to the Android platform. Adobe also specifies that developers need to be familiar with command line tools, and that apps generated with the pre-release can not be shared on the Android Market.
Hit the open beta enrollment here and get started developing apps for Froyo. We’re all waiting for some awesome apps for the platform that gives you the choice — Android. Thanks Shaun!
Posted originally at Android Central
Sponsored by www.droidappshowcase.com
Control apps by voice? Ford does (or will in 2011)
Welcome to the future, citizen (pro tip: pass on the soylent green). Ford recently announced that it’s 2011 Fiesta will launch with SYNC AppLink. I’m just going to let you read it in their own words here -
Ford will first offer SYNC® AppLink, a downloadable software program, on the 2011 Fiesta, allowing owners to access and control Android™ and BlackBerry® smartphone apps with voice commands and vehicle controls
Voice control your apps via bluetooth. BOO-YAH.
Pandora, Stitcher and OpenBeak are the first SYNC-enabled apps, but Ford has already set up a developers site (SYNCmyride) so it looks like they mean business. Now who will be the first to develop a dialer app to fill that painful gap for lucky Ford drivers?
Follow the break for the full presser. [via PR Newswire]