[ Developer] Google announced today that it’s rolling out changes to Google Play, within which it should better differentiate between apps which are designed for tablets and apps which are designed for phones. Regardless of whether you developed your app for one specific sort of device or the opposite, Google will determine your app’s label according to if it meets the factors for being “designed for tablets”. Essentially, if it doesn’t, it could automatically be labeled “designed for phones”. Google announced that the changes were coming a long time back, but now they’re going live. Users who’re browsing Google Play from a tablet will see the “Designed for Tablets” section because the default view from top lists, though they could still switch views to work out all apps and games. “Every day thousands of Android developers are profiting from the tremendous Android tablet opportunity,” Google said in a Google+ post. “The flood of latest users coupled with the increased screen size means new user experiences,... Read More »

[ Developer] Earlier this month, Google upgraded Google Play Services to version 4.1. Among the many big features during this latest upgrade was the inclusion of a Google Drive Android API. Now Google has offered more details on what it says provides developers “a faster, seamless experience that allows your apps to integrate with the Drive backend within minutes.” To start us off, Google says the Drive API will sync app data stored locally with Google Drive storage within the cloud. This occurs automatically so a users locally stored data will always be backed up on Google Drive. If the user happens to be offline when creating new local data, the Google Drive API will sync that data with the cloud the subsequent time they get online. With this being Android, the Google Drive Android API was designed to work on virtually every device. There are three specific features try to be privy to though: There’s reduced impact at the weight of your apps. Because... Read More »

LinkedIn just announced that it’s opening up its company page APIs. This implies developers can enable marketers to publish content to LinkedIn Company Pages, monitor conversations in real time and get analytics from the pages. “Initially available to a select group of partners, including Hootsuite, HubSpot, Spredfast, Adobe, Shoutlet, Percolate, Salesforce, and Sprinklr, the outlet of LinkedIn’s Company Pages API implies that all applications may have access to LinkedIn Company Pages,” a LinkedIn spokesperson tells WebProNews. “This will make it easier for marketers to generate and manage content on LinkedIn and use LinkedIn’s new Sponsored Updates option to extend the reach of that content.” “We wish to enable our clients to administer their content marketing from any tool they’re comfortable using,” says LinkedIn’s Keith Cowing in a blog post. “Opening our Company Page APIs suggests that all applications may have access to LinkedIn Company Pages. This may make it even easier for marketers to generate and manage content on LinkedIn and use our new Sponsored... Read More »

[ Developer] It’s a brand new year and Microsoft’s cloud computing platform has gotten another update, complete with new features that asp.net developers can make the most of. Microsoft Developer VP Scott Guthrie this week detailed all of the latest Windows Azure updates in a brand new blog post. The biggest rollout inside the latest Azure update is support for staged publishing. Developers can now enable the feature for Azure sites, letting them use a staged version in their sites for testing updates before immediately rolling them out to the true site. The feature also allows site managers to roll out their changes without notice, instead of updating files so as. Other updates to Azure include an “Always On” feature, in an effort to regularly ping websites to make certain they may be active, and support for SenchaTouch on Azure Mobile Services. Monitoring for sites and SQL databases has also been improved, with site metrics now updated every minute and alerts expanded further for SQL... Read More »

A recent study from an internet translation firm, determined that almost all applications developed anywhere on the earth are written in English even if the developers aren’t from English speaking countries. 40% of the surveyed translations were general business applications, 30% were games (excluding gambling), and the rest 30% were applications from different categories. App developers generally cater to precise markets, in order that they translate their applications into the most languages in their target audience. To illustrate, developers targeting the South American market (about 40% of the translated applications) translate their applications into Latin America Spanish and to Brazilian Portuguese. Developers targeting the ecu market (35% of the translated applications) translate their applications into German, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish and Russian. Applications targeted at East Asian markets (about 20% of the applications) are translated into Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, and Hindi. Finally, about 15% of applications are translated into Scandinavian languages including Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish. Other markets, equivalent to the massive market... Read More »