Hasta La Gadget!

If weren’t aware, the popular Vine video-sharing app is the work of just three developers. However, the New York-based team is looking to expand by hiring six new developers and engineers to help out with the new app. Specifically, though, the service is looking for an Android developer, which could mean that a Vine Android app is coming very soon.

Vine co-founder Colin Kroll tweeted that the team was looking to expand, and heading on over to Vine’s jobs webpage will give you a glimpse as to what they’re looking for. They’re mostly looking for product and software enginners, as well as an iOS developer. However, a listing for an “Android engineer” is particularly interesting.

The Vine app initially released only for iOS last month with great fanfare. However, it was hit with a pornography controversy shortly after its release, requiring the app to instill a 17+ age rating and blocking most of the porn from the app. During the fiasco, Vine was eventually removed from the Editors’ Choice section of the iTunes App Store.

However, all that is behind us now, and it seems Vine is now focusing their efforts on improving the app, and bringing in more team members to help possibly introduce more features, as well as release an Android version that we know many of its users are dying to start using. Hopefully we’ll see it relatively soon.

Vine hiring Android developer, Android app most likely in the works is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

One of the biggest roadblocks to Android app development is just coming to grips with the tool set: asking developers weaned on Visual Studio to drop it for the likes of Eclipse is tossing them in the deep end of the pool. NVIDIA is offering a slightly gentler swimming lesson through the launch of Nsight Tegra 1.1 Visual Studio Edition. The kit brings the needed framework for native Android apps into Visual Studio 2010 so that programmers can work with the debugging and other features they’ve come to know. Although Nsight Tegra isn’t the same as building in Google’s preferred environment, it’s also free for registered Tegra developers — no doubt in the hopes that there will be more apps built around NVIDIA’s chips.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, NVIDIA

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Via: NVIDIA

Source: NVIDIA Developer Zone

Disney fans have quite a bit to look forward to, but it doesn’t seem that a new game from Junction Point will be one of them. Disney shut down the Epic Mickey developer today, after sales of Epic Mickey 2 ultimately disappointed. At one point in the day, rumors claiming the game only sold 270,000 copies were making the rounds, but Joystiq has confirmed that Epic Mickey 2 sold 529,000 copies between its November 18th release date and the end of the year.

Though 529,000 copies is better than what was originally claimed, it still isn’t great. Unfortunately, the game received mixed reviews upon release, which we can’t imagine is something that helped slow sales. Officially, Disney says it shut down Junction Point as “part of our ongoing effort to address the fast-evolving gaming platforms and marketplace and to align resources against our key priorities.”

It wasn’t too long ago that Disney also shut down Black Rock Studios, so Junction Point is just the latest developer to be closed by the company. The fact that Disney has shut down two studios doesn’t mean that it will leave the console space, though, as it recently announced Disney Infinity. With Infinity, Disney will try to tackle the market for Activision‘s Skylanders series, which has blown up into a massive franchise over the years.

Just as well, Disney announced the acquisition of Lucasfilm last year, meaning it now owns the Star Wars license. There’s a rich history of Star Wars video games, but Disney says it will probably focus more on social and mobile games based on the property. For now, all attention will stay on Disney Infinity, and you can bet more details are coming soon. Stay tuned.

[via Forbes]

Disney shuts down Junction Point after Epic Mickey 2 sales fall short is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft just announced today’s release of the Windows Phone 7.8 SDK, which should be a wee bit helpful for developers wanting to test their apps and Live Tiles with the revised OS. The new SDK includes two software images (build 8858), one that simulates devices with 512MB of RAM and another for 256MB handsets. The primary purpose of this release is to let developers test their Live Tiles with Windows Phone 7.8, which supports resizable Live Tiles. While it’s not much of a surprise, the new SDK includes no new APIs over the Windows Phone 7.5 SDK, which further reinforces the impression of Windows Phone 7.8 as a largely cosmetic update. On the plus side, legacy support is alive and kicking, as Microsoft promises the SDK update won’t alter existing Windows Phone 7.1 emulator images. For more details of this release, be sure to hit up the source link.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Microsoft

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Source: Windows Phone Developer Blog

Mozilla said it won’t be launching its own hardware to run the in-development Firefox OS when it’s finished, but the company has just announced a “Developer Preview Phone” for putting the OS through its paces. It’s not quite the same as the mystery device we saw sporting Firefox OS at CES, but its specs seem almost as basic. The handset will feature a 3.5-inch HVGA touchscreen and 3-megapixel camera on the outside, with a 1GHz Snapdragon S1 CPU, half a gig of RAM, 4GB of microSD-expandable storage and WiFi, 2G and 3G antennae inside. Sure, that processor isn’t a beast, but an 800MHz S1 does just fine in the Lumia 610. A 1580mAh battery will keep the carrier-unlocked phone running, and Mozilla is promising OTA updates to Firefox OS to keep devs, well, up to date. At the moment, we have no idea how much the phone will cost, but the first units are expected to be available next month.

The developer handset is called the Keon, according to creator Geekphone’s website, and while not mentioned in the Mozilla Hacks blog post, it appears to have a more powerful cousin called the Peak. It’s got a 4.3-inch qHD screen, 8-megapixel back-facing camera (with flash) and 2-megapixel shooter round the front. A 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 CPU and larger 1800mAh battery are within, but storage, RAM and connectivity specs are the same as the smaller Keon. Mozilla may not be formally promoting this as its own dev handset, but it was still included in the picture which accompanied the announcement (see above: the Keon is in orange, the Peak in white). We’re getting in contact with Mozilla to clarify, and will update you when we hear back.

Update: Mozilla has confirmed that both the Keon and Peak are official developer devices.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: Mozilla, Geeksphone