Hasta La Gadget!

If app developers have a pattern of going after the iPhone first and Android second, well, the same is apparently true of the folks who write software for the code monkeys. Novell just announced Mono for Android, the first set of tools that lets devs write .NET and C# apps for Android phones and tablets. Novell already lets developers do the same for Linux, iOS, and Mac OS X and, as always, lets coders continue to use Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 to write applications — if that’s the testing software they’re used to. In addition to the Visual Studio plug-in, you get bindings for native Android APIs and the core Mono runtime. It’s available now, starting at $99 for students (minus the ability to, you know, send finished apps to Android Market) and $399 for everybody else. Already developing for the iPhone? Prove that you own MonoTouch (essentially, the same Novell product for iOS devices) and get 50 percent off an Android tool kit.

Continue reading Novell’s Mono tools let devs create .NET apps for Android devices

Novell’s Mono tools let devs create .NET apps for Android devices originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 09:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What’s this, you ask? The next generation of Xbox 360 development, that’s what. With a shockingly small amount of fanfare, Microsoft has ushered in a striking new Xbox Development Kit, which is purportedly designed to increase efficiency and reduce cost for Xbox 360 dev teams. Aside from boasting an undisclosed uptick in RAM, built-in flash memory, a more capacious hard drive and a slimmer form factor, this XDK will also be sold at a “significantly reduced price from its predecessor.” ‘Course, the folks in Redmond aren’t saying what exactly that sticker will look like, but those interested in taking the plunge regardless will also have the option to license a Sidecar attachment that enables debugging and disc emulation. We’re told that said accessory can be shared among multiple XDK consoles, and in turn, it should lower the overall price to create, test, debug, and release an Xbox 360 or Xbox Live Arcade game. It’s still a guessing game when it comes to an actual launch date, but it’ll become “the standard kit” when new orders are fulfilled in the future. Feel free to peruse the gallery below if you’re interested, and toss out a wild guess as to what that Sidecar will go for on eBay during the next century. Aim high, bub!

Continue reading Xbox Development Kit arrives with ‘significantly reduced price,’ Sidecar attachment

Xbox Development Kit arrives with ‘significantly reduced price,’ Sidecar attachment originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 03:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A storm seems to be brewing over the realm of Android development. Bloomberg’s Businessweek spies have received word from “a dozen executives working at key companies in the Android ecosystem” that Google is actively working to gain control and final say over customizations of its popular mobile OS. That might not sound unreasonable, and indeed Google’s public position on the matter is that it’s seeking to stabilize the platform and ensure quality control, but it does mark a major shift from where Android started — an open source OS that was also open to manufacturers and carriers to customize as they wish. Not so anymore, we’re told, as apparently Mountain View is now demanding that content partnerships and OS tweaks get the blessing of Andy Rubin before proceeding. The alternative, of course, is to not be inside Google’s warm and fuzzy early access program, but then, as evidenced by the company recently withholding the Honeycomb source code, you end up far behind those among your competitors who do dance to Google’s pipe.

Things have gotten so heated, in fact, that complaints have apparently been made to the US Department of Justice. They may have something to do with allegations of Google holding back Verizon handsets with Microsoft’s Bing on board, ostensibly in an effort to trip up its biggest search competitor. Another major dissatisfaction expressed by those working with Android code is that Google needs an advance preview of what is being done in order to give it the green light — which, as noted by a pair of sources familiar with Facebook’s Android customization efforts, isn’t sitting well with people at all. Google and Facebook are direct competitors in the online space and it’s easily apparent how much one stands to gain from knowing the other’s plans early. As to the non-fragmentation clauses in licenses, Andy Rubin has pointed out those have been there from the start, but it’s only now that Google is really seeking to use them to establish control. The future of Android, therefore, looks to be a little less open and a little more Googlish — for better or worse. As Nokia’s Stephen Elop puts it:

“The premise of a true open software platform may be where Android started, but it’s not where Android is going.”

Google tightening control of Android, insisting licensees abide by ‘non-fragmentation clauses’? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 05:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you want better cities, goes the theory herein, you’ll have to start at their very foundations. Steve Lewis, ex-Microsoftie and current CEO of Living PlanIT, has a vision for how to make our cities smarter and more sustainable, and it starts literally at ground level, with the installation of smart sensors into buildings as they’re being built. The appeal of his company’s ideas has already attracted some tech luminaries as partners, Cisco being among them, and now Microsoft has also been signed up — to provide the cloud framework required to keep all those sensors talking with its Azure platform. Paredes, a Portuguese municipality, will play host to one of the first such projects, eventually providing homes for nearly a quarter of a million people and costing a staggering €10 billion ($14.1b) to complete. To understand the synergistic benefits of having your life monitored by an omniscient Urban Operating System sentinel, skip past the break for a press release and explanatory video.

Continue reading Microsoft unites with former exec in building a ‘smart city’ in Portugal

Microsoft unites with former exec in building a ‘smart city’ in Portugal originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Are you a developer seeking the widest and most profitable distribution for your mobile software? The traditional platform for achieving such goals over the past couple of years has been Apple’s iOS, but Android’s rabid ascendancy has recently turned that into a legitimate question. A question that OpenFeint is looking to sway even further in Google’s favor by announcing it will fund the porting of games from “other app stores” to Android with the help of Chinese online game operator The9. The specially selected games will of course get saddled with OpenFeint integration and the whole effort does have the waft of a publicity grab to us, but hey, it’s another few pennies thrown into the bottomless well known as “Android gaming.” Surely something worthy will eventually come out of it, no?

[Thanks, Calvin]

Continue reading OpenFeint and The9 will stimulate devs to port their games to Android with cold hard cash

OpenFeint and The9 will stimulate devs to port their games to Android with cold hard cash originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Mar 2011 08:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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