Hasta La Gadget!

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

Extreme Reality‘s technology revolves around gestures, and its latest effort is to bring that movement to the masses: its Extreme Motion developer kit turns just about any off-the-shelf webcam or built-in camera on common platforms, including Android, iOS and Windows, into an almost Kinect-like system capable of tracking 3D motion. Despite missing depth cameras or other additional sensors, it’s theoretically quite accurate — the software tracks joints across the body in every frame, although it’s not quite so sensitive as to track fingers.

This author had the chance to make a fool of himself in front of a laptop’s camera to see how well Extreme Motion works. In short, reasonably well: while it wasn’t in perfect sync, it recognized with less-than-elegant moves in a Dance Central-style demo title and flagged whether a shimmy was right on target or evidence of two left feet. Of course, this experiment was conducted in a brightly-lit hotel ballroom, where body detection is ideal, so take the experiment with a grain of salt. It’s still adept enough that the developers who will have access to the (currently free) toolkit can produce motion games we’d be sincerely interested in playing.

Michael Gorman contributed to this report.

Filed under: Gaming, Software

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Source: Extreme Reality

Developer kits for the Ouya were given a ship date of December 28th today, alongside news that the system’s software development kit (“ODK”) will be available that same day. In case it wasn’t already clear how small the Android-powered console is, the folks at Ouya included the picture you see above to further illustrate that point — the thing is really small. Ouya expects the dev kits to get into backers’ hands “within a couple days” of the 28th. Final units are still intended to ship some time in March 2013, though no final date is available just yet.

How different are these dev units from the final run, though? Not that different, we’d guess, considering the company’s continued promise that “every Ouya will be a dev console.” The only hint given of their difference is a note in today’s update calling them, “pretty special.” Beyond just getting a jump on game development with the Ouya in mind, dev unit buyers will also be the first to try out Jelly Bean gaming. Of course, if you’re a dev unit-level backer and you’d like to share your thoughts with us, we’re all ears.

Filed under: Gaming, HD

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Source: Kickstarter

After unveiling plans for PlayStation Mobile last summer, opening the storefront and letting its software development kit marinate in beta for roughly a year, Sony has finally given the dev platform the “go” (no, not that one) for launch. Developers eager to create games and apps for PlayStation-certified Android tablets and smartphones — and even the PS Vita — can download the SDK so long as they’re willing to shell out $99 a year for the chance to publish as many titles as they wish. If you’re ready to start slinging code, see the source links below to enroll in the program and download the SDK.

Continue reading Sony’s PlayStation Mobile Developer Program officially kicks off, SDK ready for prime time

Filed under: Gaming, Sony

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Source: PlayStation Blog, PSM Dev Portal

After the introduction of new APIs last year, Microsoft has released SkyDrive SDKs for almost every major platform including Windows 8, JavaScript Web library, Android and iOS. Now the cloud service has opened its doors to more of Microsoft’s own with new SDKs for .NET and of course, Windows Phone 8. To entice even more developers to its side, the team at SkyDrive also integrated with services like IFTTT (If This Then That), which lets you customize action triggers between different web services, DocuSign, an electronic signature site and SoundGecko, a text-to-audio transcription service. It’ll likely take a lot of work for SkyDrive to win over fans of Dropbox and Box.net, but opening up its doors to developers is a step in the right direction.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Microsoft

Microsoft announces SkyDrive SDKs for .NET and Windows Phone 8, highlights web integration originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 07:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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