Hasta La Gadget!

I’m a big fan of Philips Hue LED bulbs. In fact, I’ve got two rooms of my house outfitted with the bulbs, and continue to add more. There’s something just so cool about walking into my home theater, pulling out my iPhone, and changing the colors in the room to set the mood for a movie or video game session.

But while the hardware is extraordinary, if there’s one complaint about the Hue, it’s the relatively limited smartphone app that Philips provides. Sure, it gets the job done, but opening up the platform to other developers will only result in more and better apps. Well, I’m happy to say that’s exactly what Philips has done.

Philips today announced its long-awaited software developer program for the Hue. The developer program provides open APIs, development guides and an iOS SDK, so you can easily make your own smartphone and tablet apps to control the bulbs.

While there’s already a growing community that’s been playing with the bulbs for several months now, it’s great to have officially-supported docs and tools from Philips themselves. Having these tools in hand should enable the creation of applications which can change bulb colors to music, video and other ideas which I haven’t even thought of yet. Heck, with enough Hue bulbs and the right app developer, you could probably make a (ridiculously expensive) video wall using the bulbs.

Developers interested in creating their own applications for the Hue can check out the developer platform at developers.meethue.com.

For those of you who didn’t jump on the Hue bandwagon when it first came out due to availability issues, they’re once again readily available from the Apple Store. The 3-bulb and bridge starter kit sells for $199.95 (USD), and additional bulbs sell for $59. Now that the SDK is available, I’m anxiously awaiting additional hardware from Philips. I’d love to see different lamp sizes and full-color wall dimmers (and lower prices) if you’re listening.

Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox is expected to have its Kinect heavily integrated into the system, but the company is looking past the home console market to have computers rely on it as well.

Microsoft’s TechFest is going on this week and the company is showing an updated version of its SDK which will introduce some new hand-gesture functionality to their programs. The new SDK will allow developers to have the user pinch-to-zoom with their hands and the ability to pan around the screen, all of which is done by waving and clenching their hands. Halfbrick’s Jetpack Joyride was demoed featuring the new Kinect SDK in order to show how games can make use of the new technology. (more…)

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You’ve probably used Gracenote thousands of times and have been none the wiser, but for good reason: the musical metadata service lives in the background of several apps, appearing only momentarily to bring meaning to your favorite tunes. Now, Gracenote is looking to expand its reach by opening its APIs and SDKs to app developers — effectively putting its massive database in the hands of all who seek it. Of course, ripping CDs isn’t quite what it once was, and that’s why Gracenote has also opened its MusicID song recognition service to developers, allowing them to harness the same functionality of apps such as Shazam and SoundHound. The free service is available now, and for extra insight, you’ll find the full PR after the break.

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While we’ve been hearing rumors of Apple releasing an actual television, it looks like the company is also going to release an Apple TV SDK for developers. Apple is said to be holding an event next month that will reveal the new developer program that will allow app developers to make apps for the Apple TV platform.

According to Jefferies analyst Peter Misek, Apple will be releasing the SDK next month, with an event to show off the new kit. While Misek doesn’t think that Apple’s rumored television set will be making an appearance at the event, he does think that they will announce it sometime in September or October, and suggests that Apple might be preparing for the television’s release by introducing this developer program.

Apple has been open to the idea of opening up the Apple TV to developers for a while. The late Steve Jobs even said back in 2010 that an app store for the Apple TV could launch when the time is right, and since the Apple TV runs iOS, the process shouldn’t be all that difficult, and might be able to fit right into the iTunes App Store.

As far as the Apple television set goes, Misek expects that various size options will be between 42- and 55-inches, with prices starting around $1,500, which is right around what we’ve been hearing in the past. The SDK that we could see next month may definitely be a precursor to bigger things, and it’s also possible we could see a refreshed Apple TV STB come to fruition as well.

[via Business Insider]

Apple TV event rumored for March, new SDK tipped is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Microsoft has just released a Windows Phone SDK update for Windows Phone 7.8. It’s basically an optional update that brings two new Windows Phone 7.8 emulator images to the already existing SDK installation. This is good news for developers as the two images should enable them to fully test how their Windows Phone 7.5 app’s Live Tiles will look and behave when they are running on a device running Windows Phone 7.8. (more…)

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