[ Developer] Since its launch, developers have needed to submit apps to the Amazon Appstore through a developer portal that has remained largely unchanged through the years. Change is sweet, however, and Amazon is approaching its developer portal with a transformation-centric mindset going into 2014. Amazon revealed this morning that it has completely redesigned its developer portal to make it easier for developers to submit apps, find documentation and more. The retailer says that its new developer portal was designed with the subsequent in mind: Get Started: When you’ve got an Android app, that you may simply drop your APK in our updated testing widget to get Appstore compatibility test leads to just seconds. Once your app is in a position, you’re able to create a free developer account and submit it using the Developer Console. Access the newest Amazon APIs: Download the free Amazon Mobile App SDK for access to APIs and services which may enhance your apps and games, enable you to monetize... Read More »

[ Developer] The JPEG was around for greater than twenty years now. When technology gets that old, you either take it out back or teach it some new tricks. Mozilla is determining the latter whilst it prepares for a future where the previous is a reality. Mozilla announced Wednesday that it’s engaged on a brand new project called mozjpeg so one can improve JPEG compression without breaking browsers. The non-profit says it’s doing this since the modern Web uses pictures greater than ever before and this could really decelerate a page’s loading time. With new compression techniques, they could decrease the time it takes Firefox to load a page filled with images. Even though its building mozjpeg, Mozilla doesn’t see JPEG remaining the dominant image format on the internet. For sure, moving to a brand new image format brings with its own unique challenges so mozjpeg is being built to aid improve JPEG encoding even while the internet moves to a brand new format. Production... Read More »

[ Developer] IBM announced on Monday that it has entered into an agreement to obtain database-as-a-organization Cloudant. Cloudant, which IBM will use to expand its big data/analytics, cloud computing and mobile offerings, lets developers create next-gen mobile and web apps “easily and quickly.” It’s already in use by various companies in gaming, financial services, online learning, retail, healthcare, and mobile device manufacturing. “IBM is leading the charge in helping its clients make the most of big data, cloud and mobile,” said Sean Poulley, VP, Databases & Data Warehousing at IBM. “Cloudant sits squarely on the nexus of those three key transformational areas and enables clients to rapidly deliver a completely new level of innovative, engaging and information-rich apps to the marketplace.” Cloudant co-founder and CTO Adam Kocoloski added, “IBM has a rich history within the field of information management, and one which will truly differentiate Cloudant’s technology that you can purchase. Joining IBM allows Cloudant to innovate faster than ever before, and IBM’s track record... Read More »

[ Developer] Every month, TIOBE Software releases an index of the most well-liked programming languages based upon quite a lot of factors. Most months, the recognition of those languages don’t change much way to developers sticking to what they know. As we head into 2014, that also continues to be the case. The first TIOBE Index report of 2014 has gone live and it confirms what you might have expected all along – the C programming language family continues to be going strong. Within the first month report, C, Objective-C, C++ and C# are all within the top five. The only real non-C programming language inside the top five is Java due to Android development. Here are the tip 20 programming languages in keeping with TIOBE: While much of the pinnacle five list is all about mobile development, the conversation shifts to Web development as you progress down the list. TIOBE notes that there’s not much changing on that front despite the large push to... Read More »

[ Developer] Roughly four years ago, XML co-inventor Tim Bray announced (in spectacular iPhone-hating fashion) that he had joined Google, mostly due to Android. He’s been serving as developer advocate. Now, Bray has announced that he’s leaving the corporate effective March 17th, for a lot less interesting reasons. He simply doesn’t wish to move to California, and Google will not allow him to work remotely (he lives in Vancouver). “I’ll miss the possibility to make use of the Google fulcrum which, applied intelligently, has enough leverage to go the total Internet,” he writes in a blog post. “Also, quite a lot of really cool people work there; I’ll miss them most. And the pay is sweet.” He says he’s not mad on the company, and the separation is amicable. He says he doesn’t think Google is really evil (now that he could say so if he wanted), though he adds that he knows “all types of non-public information” that he’s promised to maintain non-public. Bray... Read More »