Hasta La Gadget!

Remember when Facebook acquired face.com last month? Face.com reported at the time that it planned to continue to support its developer community. I think most of those developers suspected that wasn’t an accurate statement when it was made, and that inaccuracy has now been confirmed.

API support for face.com’s face detection software is going to be ended in early August. The official face.com Kilk app has already been removed from the App Store as well. There are sure to be some angry developers after face.com said about a month ago it would continue to support its developer community only to announce that support is officially ending.

Some developers are calling for boycotts, and others are saying that have wasted months of work with the API now been canceled. However, there is one report of a member of the face.com developer community saying he was granted an API extension through October. At least that would give the developer time to figure out an alternative rather than simply scrapping the app.

[via Engadget]

Face.com shutters API support is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

For all of Google’s emphasis on integrating its own services across Android, playing YouTube videos outside of the official YouTube app has usually required losing some piece of the experience, whether it’s backwards compatibility, mobile optimization or just keeping viewers in the same app where they started. As it turns out, Google was well aware of this problem during Google I/O this year and teased a solution while everyone else was still recovering from their Nexus 7-induced fevers. A new YouTube Android Player API will let third parties integrate a full YouTube player into their Android apps with adaptive streaming, orientation and other special tricks intact. Any Android 2.2 or later device (including Google TV boxes) can come along for the ride, and views will count towards producers getting paid. Full details are only coming in the next few months, but app developers who’ve been craving a chance to slip in some viral videos can get an early look at the API near the start of the session video below — or just load the Google I/O 2012 app, which has the code baked in.

Continue reading Google slips out YouTube Android Player API, third-party apps get full Nyan Cat experience (video)

Google slips out YouTube Android Player API, third-party apps get full Nyan Cat experience (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 13:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Dolphin browser has earned quite a following, by offering a healthy mix of speed and features. Now the company is opening up its offerings to further expansion though an open API service called Garage. The new portal opens up 150 APIs to third party developers who might want to build upon Dolphin’s solid browser base, or integrate their web apps. As part of the launch of the Garage, four new add-ons have been added to the Dolphin repository. Dropbox, Evernote, Pocket and Wikipedia all now tie directly in to the browser’s UI, exposing all the important features of those services. For more, check out the PR after the break and the Garage portal at the source.

Continue reading Dolphin unveils Garage, API access for add-ons and web apps

Dolphin unveils Garage, API access for add-ons and web apps originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 14:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen SoC exclusive app stores and games in the past thanks to NVIDIA’s Tegra Zone, but now Qualcomm is hoping to to leverage its own hardware with a new SDK. The Snapdragon SDK for Android allows developers to tap into various features available on the hardware platform that were previously unavailable thanks to new APIs. The first release is only available for the Snapdragon S4 8960 processor, but Qualcomm say more will be added over time.

Developers will be able to tap into several Snapdragon APIs as part of the SDK, such as facial processing which includes smile and blink detection and a burst capture mode that will take photos in rapid succession, a feature seen on phones such as the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S III. Audio in video recordings can also be improved thanks to a surround sound recording mode, which will make use of the multiple microphones found on devices.

In addition, hardware echo cancellation can be tapped into, and sensor gestures can also be utilized. That would allow developers to develop new gesture based interfaces, such as tilting the phone or placing it face up/face down. Some location based services are onboard as well, such as a low power “always on” mode for geofencing tasks, and indoor location capabilities that will give accurate location data.

Qualcomm say developers can learn more about the new SDK by heading over to the Developer Network or by keeping an eye on the @Qualcomm_Dev Twitter account.

Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon SDK for Android is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.