HTC Mazaa’s awarded in dev contest, winners promptly splay (and auction) them to world

What would you do if you’d won an unannounced smartphone that sported Windows Phone Mango? Naturally, we hope you’d first send us the dirt, but what if you were a college student and knew the weekend was rapidly approaching? Undergrad winners of Microsoft’s WPAppitUp competition are facing this smartphone / cheap beer conundrum, as they’re now holding HTC Mazaas as prizes, yet many are selling them for cash instead.

If you’d like to adopt an orphan, the phones come with Qualcomm’s MSM8655 SoC — the same as the Thunderbolt and Droid Incredible 2 — which supports (but may not feature) dual mode GSM / CDMA for world roaming. A 1GHz Scorpion CPU and the Adreno 205 GPU are in the mix, and while the over-sized earpiece seems to indicate that this is the same 12-megapixel monster previously shown off by Eldar Murtazin, one of the contest winners, Heedeok Lee, informed us that the camera is actually of 5 megapixel resolution only. Frankly, it’s unclear whether the Mazaa is heading for retail shelves at all, but if you’re wanting an early taste of Mango, you should consider befriending a thirsty student developer.

Gallery: HTC Mazaa

HTC Mazaa’s awarded in dev contest, winners promptly splay (and auction) them to world originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 06:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Windows Phone Sauce  |  sourcexda-developers, @heedeok (Twitter)  | Email this | Comments

HTC Developer site goes live: OpenSense SDK and kernel source offered aplenty

HTC’s flipped the switch on its development website, which was designed to be a “one-stop shop” for a wide variety of SDKs and other resources for developers. As promised, the manufacturer’s OpenSense SDK — which includes a S3D SDK for HTC’s 3D stereoscopic interface and pen SDK for its Scribe feature — is now available for download; there’s also plenty of kernel source codes to peruse and access. Finally, the Bootloader Unlock web tool, one of the most highly anticipated pieces of software that the company’s promised to unleash, only shows as “coming soon” on the site. There hasn’t been any official word on when it’ll go live, but we’re expecting it to happen later this month as the EVO 3D and the Sensation both get adorned with their unlocks. It’s great to see the company follow through completely on one of its promises, eh?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

HTC Developer site goes live: OpenSense SDK and kernel source offered aplenty originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo 3DS Panda dev model hits Canadian eBay, reminds US how little the dollar is worth

Have $1,929 Canadian dollars to spare? You can swap those loonies for 2,000 all-American greenbacks, or the current bid on a Nintendo 3DS Panda development model, rounding out its final 24 hours on eBay’s Canadian auction site. This “like new” device won’t be playing retail 3DS or DS cartridges, but it will grant you access to a variety of development functions. The $2,000 current bid is more than a hair higher than the dev hardware’s unconfirmed original price of $324, but if you’re desperate to rank among the few gamers that rock 3DS dev hardware, logic probably won’t reign supreme when it comes time to hit that bid now button.

[Thanks, Julien]

Nintendo 3DS Panda dev model hits Canadian eBay, reminds US how little the dollar is worth originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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appMobi XDK delivers free cross-platform dev environment to Chrome Web Store

The Chrome Web Store welcomed a new arrival today, and it goes by the name of appMobi XDK. While the addition is targeted squarely at developers, it’s entirely free and packs quite a doozy — cross-platform HTML5 software development from within the web browser. As you might expect, the tool is perfect for making applications to run within Google Chrome, but get this… it’s also capable of creating native apps for submission to Apple’s App Store and the Android Market. Like any competent development environment, it features a full set of debugging tools, along with the ability to test your apps via on-screen emulation and directly from your target device. Hardware integration is accomplished with JavaScript hardware abstraction, which enables access to the camera, GPS, accelerometer and the like. Further, the platform boasts full compatibility with PhoneGap, which means you can easily transition if you’ve got a project in the works. If you’re already hooked, be sure to check out the PR after the break, which describes such goodies as in-app purchasing and secure user authentication, which are made possible with appMobi’s cloud services.

Continue reading appMobi XDK delivers free cross-platform dev environment to Chrome Web Store

appMobi XDK delivers free cross-platform dev environment to Chrome Web Store originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 01:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple offers Find My Mac for beta testing, wants to play Cops and Robbers

Ever misplaced your hard earned MacBook Air or had an entire project vanish at the hands of a dirty thief, only to be gone forever? Well friends, the time is coming soon for the Find My Mac feature to provide a highly sought after sigh of relief, Find My iPhone-style. Apple has released the software into the wild for registered iOS devs, with the only other requirements being OS X Lion and an iCloud subscription. Using WiFi networks to locate your missing appendage via a web browser or iOS device, the location tool offers you a number of anti-theft options — send a threatening message, lock down the machine remotely, or even wipe the machine’s drive clean. Perhaps we will see this security detail launch with iCloud in fall, which was also released in beta form earlier this week.

Apple offers Find My Mac for beta testing, wants to play Cops and Robbers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Aug 2011 23:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TUAW  |  sourceMacRumors  | Email this | Comments

PhoneGap 1.0 lets devs write apps for seven platforms (video)

Until now, mobile app developers have followed a pretty predictable MO: develop for iOS first, Android second, and everyone else after that. Since last year, many of you code monkeys out there have been tapping into Nitobi’s PhoneGap, a project that makes it easier to churn out apps for almost every OS, all at once. It’s been picking up steam, with about 40,000 downloads per month, 600,000 in total, and a steady stream of donations. That all culminated this weekend with the release of PhoneGap 1.0, which lets devs use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to write and deploy apps for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, webOS, Bada, and Symbian. That’s a long list indeed, but we see one glaring omission: Windows Phone 7. Hit the source link to download it for free and check out the promo video below for an oh-so quick overview.

Update: Oops! Looks like WP7 is included! Our apologies, and feel free to celebrate accordingly.

Continue reading PhoneGap 1.0 lets devs write apps for seven platforms (video)

PhoneGap 1.0 lets devs write apps for seven platforms (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TheNextWeb  |  sourcePhoneGap  | Email this | Comments

HTC Desire Gingerbread update available, excludes US and comes with long list of caveats

First off, if you own the North American variant of this handset then you’re out of luck. Likewise, Japanese, South Korean and some German handsets are also excluded. Still here? Okay then, but you might not like what comes next. We already knew that either the Sense UI or some pre-installed apps would be cleared out to make room in the Gingerbread house, but now it seems the update is so unstable that HTC is only prepared to release it as a ROM via its developer site. That means a factory reset of your device, a bunch of worries about SMS and MMS not working properly, and a cold disclaimer in the event of things going wrong. Still, at least HTC gave (some of) us the choice. Visit the source link below for deliberately spooky instructions.

[Thanks to everybody who sent this in]

HTC Desire Gingerbread update available, excludes US and comes with long list of caveats originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 06:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft crowns 20 winners in Mango app contest, losers go home fruitless

Microsoft crowns 20 winners in Mango app contest, losers go home fruitlessWe thought Mango’s nectar was already pretty damn sweet, but a group of young developers recently took up the challenge to make the next generation Windows Phone 7 experience even more delicious. Following up on last year’s ‘Rockstar’ competition, Microsoft asked students to submit Mango app prototypes via Twitter, with the promise of developers phones for the top entries. Among the top 20 #WPAppItUp submissions are a program that helps the colorblind figure out what shade of puce they’re peeping, and a sadistic alarm clock that requires users to solve puzzles before hitting the snooze button. Apparently, Microsoft still has 30 Windows Phones to give away, and is looking for young devs to offer up America’s next top Mango app. Submission guidelines can be found at the source link below.

[Thanks, E-Dan]

Microsoft crowns 20 winners in Mango app contest, losers go home fruitless originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jul 2011 15:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP tells developers to start submitting apps for Pre 3, still on track for summer launch?

Summer’s whittling away folks, and with it the promised window for Palm’s HP’s Pre 3. Last we heard, the flagship device would miss its launch window, but a new directive from the company suggests its release isn’t too far off. Registered webOS developers received an email about an updated emulator and deets regarding the App Catalog’s newfound acceptance of Pre 3 submissions. Speaking of digital storefronts, the company also noted the latter’s expansion into the following territories: Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. Get this far? Hop on past the break and read the full communiqué yourself.

Continue reading HP tells developers to start submitting apps for Pre 3, still on track for summer launch?

HP tells developers to start submitting apps for Pre 3, still on track for summer launch? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 08:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lodsys adds Rovio, Atari, EA and others to patent suit, makes birds even angrier

Lodsys vs. Angry Birds

If you thought Lodsys was done making a spectacle of itself and dragging app developers to court, you were sorely mistaken. The king of the patent trolls has amended its original complaint against mobile devs, removing one company, but adding five new ones — all of them big names. Rovio, Electronic Arts, Square Enix, Atari, and Take-Two Interactive have been added to the list of defendants in the suit filed back in May. Vietnamese company Wulven Games has been dropped from the complaint, but Lodsys has more than made up for it by directly targeting possibly the largest mobile title out there — Angry Birds. You can find the completely amended filing at the source link and, if you’re in the mood for a bit of a refresher, check out the more coverage link.

Lodsys adds Rovio, Atari, EA and others to patent suit, makes birds even angrier originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink FOSS Patents  |  sourceLodsys Amended Complaint (Sribd)  | Email this | Comments