Hasta La Gadget!

There’s nothing worse than that “womp womp” moment for Windows Phone users when they find out a favorite website doesn’t have an optimized mobile app. Seriously. It’s proven. Now, however, WordPress aficionados can spread the love with the Windows Phone Starter Kit — a package that promises quick and easy development for Microsoft’s mobile marktplace. With the included skeleton code, admins only need to replace one line, insert the blog URL and tweak some settings in the CMS until presto — the app’s finito. Like other WordPress dev kits, this one allows users to view posts and moderate comments. Hopefully, the promise of a super simple platform will be enough to entice developers to sit at Ballmer’s table and fatten up the app store, particularly with Mango positioned as the next course.

Windows Phone Starter Kit for WordPress hopes to lure developers, beef up marketplace offerings originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink WP Central, Nanopho  |  MSDN  | Email this | Comments

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.

Permalink   |  Chrome Web Store  | Email this | Comments

Windows Phone developers are getting one step closer to the fresh, fruity tang of Mango’s RTM build with a newly released SDK update. The one month-in-the-making “Beta 2 Refresh” tweaks the previously issued Windows Phone SDK 7.1 and is available now for download, packing an improved profiler, locked application platform APIs, an emulator-based screen cap feature for your apps and a “peek at the Marketplace Test Kit.” Microsoft’s also thrown devs an extra bonus and will be pushing an OS update, Build 7712, to manually upgraded Mango phones. Sounds sweet, but it’s too bad this hot number won’t be ready in time for your app-building, beta hands.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in.]

Microsoft releases Mango SDK Beta update for developers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Windows Team Blog  | Email this | Comments

The Is have been dotted, the Ts have been crossed with a flourish, and pretty soon Nokia will have very little indeed to do with its formerly beloved Symbian OS. Oh sure, the company promises to keep it going with such standout devices as the Oro, but responsibility for developing and supporting Symbian is being wholly handed over to Accenture, along with 2,800 employees. When announced back in April, the deal called for 3,000 Nokia worker bees to make the jump over, so we suspect a few more (hopefully voluntary) redundancies are making up the difference with the new number. Now that everything’s been finalized, you can expect the switchover to take place in “the early part of October.” Accenture promises to care for its ailing patient through 2016, after which point even the most die-hard of fans will have to make the switch to a mobile OS from the 21st century. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Nokia and Accenture seal Symbian handover deal

Nokia and Accenture seal Symbian handover deal originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 02:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Well, Linux users, say goodbye to Air. Adobe has announced that version 2.7 will be your last official release and, going forward, you’ll have to rely on kind-hearted souls willing to fire up the Linux porting kit the company will be providing. Development teams will instead be focusing on the growing realm of mobile and improving Air support on iOS and Android, and likely bringing the browser-plus-flash app environment to webOS. With the world’s favorite open-source operating system holding steady at roughly one-percent of the desktop market it’s hard to take issue with the choice. Of course, it probably doesn’t help that Adobe has had trouble getting it to play nice with *nix — especially the 64-bit flavors. Besides, with Tweetdeck prepping a proper web-app, what do you need Air for anyway?

Adobe Air bids adieu to Linux, shifts focus to mobile originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Electronista  |  Adobe  | Email this | Comments