Copilot X heralds a new era of AI-powered coding

GitHub has unveiled Copilot X, an upgraded version of its AI-powered coding assistance tool.

Copilot X adopts OpenAI’s latest GPT-4 model and now features chat and voice interfaces, support for pull requests, command-line support, and can generate answer questions from documentation:

https://twitter.com/marktenenholtz/status/1638549603753795584

Unlike traditional coding assistance tools that rely on simple code templates or pre-defined snippets, Copilot X uses...

24 March 2023 | Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft intends to launch a mobile app store

Microsoft is planning to launch a mobile app store that will compete against the App Store and Play Store.

According to Microsoft’s Xbox head Phil Spencer, Microsoft will take advantage of an upcoming EU law that will break up the monopoly held by the two major smartphone platform holders.

"We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play," Spencer told the...

21 March 2023 | Android

Developer demos GPT-4’s coding skills

A developer has shown off GPT-4’s prowess in creating mobile apps.

If you’ve been living under a rock, GPT-4 – OpenAI’s latest multimodal large language model – was released earlier this week.

GPT-4 now exhibits “human-level” performance on several benchmarks.

In a simulated law bar exam, GPT-3.5 scored around the bottom 10 percent. GPT-4, however, passed the exam among the top 10 percent.

OpenAI said in a blog post that GPT-4 is "more...

17 March 2023 | Artificial Intelligence

Google offers ML-powered translation for Android apps

Google has announced that it will offer free machine-learning translation for Android apps.

The service will enable developers to bring their apps to as many people as possible, without incurring significant additional costs.

At launch, seven languages are supported:

Chinese (Simplified) French German Indonesian Japanese Portuguese Spanish

Google Translate’s transformer-based language models will be used for accurate translation into...

15 March 2023 | Android

Go re-enters TIOBE’s top 10 programming languages

Programming language Go appears to be making a resurgence as it re-enters TIOBE’s top 10 list.

TIOBE creates its programming language popularity list using search data across 25 different engines. The methodology has been regularly criticised but suffices as a rough guide of the interest in each language.

Go was created by Google and often lingers just outside of the top 10 on the TIOBE Index. The language was last in the top 10 in July 2017.

In the March...

14 March 2023 | Go

Sophos endpoint security upgrades boost cyberthreat defences

Sophos, a specialist in cybersecurity as a service, has unveiled advancements to its portfolio of industry-leading endpoint security offerings.

New adaptive active adversary protection; Linux malware protection enhancements; account health check capabilities; an integrated zero trust network access (ZTNA) agent for Windows and macOS devices; and more improve frontline defences against advanced cyberthreats and streamline endpoint security management.

Raja Patel, senior...

10 March 2023 | Developer

SwaggerHub Explore lets developers instantly analyse RESTful APIs and Apache Kafka services

SmartBear, a provider of software development and visibility tools, is giving developers instant access to RESTful and Apache Kafka endpoints with the new SwaggerHub Explore.

The free API exploration tool has an easy-to-use interface and accelerates the development lifecycle, allowing developers to easily visualise API data in a single place and quickly evaluate functionality before investing valuable time in API integration. This addresses a major developer challenge and speeds...

8 March 2023 | API

Developer shortage remains the top challenge two years in a row

A 'for hire' sign.

Even amidst recent layoffs in the tech industry, recruiting developers with the right skills remains the top challenge for 2023, according to the new Reveal survey of 2,228 software developers and IT professionals released by Infragistics.

More than a third of respondents (37.5%) indicated that they will continue to have trouble finding skilled developers in 2023 with DevOps Engineer, Data Analytics Developer, and IT Security Engineer identified as the hardest jobs to...

6 March 2023 | Developer

Intel unveils Quantum Software Development Kit Version 1.0

After launching its beta version in September 2022, Intel has released version 1.0 of the Intel Quantum Software Development Kit (SDK).

The SDK is a full quantum computer in simulation that can also interface with Intel’s quantum hardware, including Intel’s Horse Ridge II control chip and Intel’s quantum spin qubit chip when it becomes available this year. The kit allows developers to program quantum algorithms in simulation, and it features an intuitive programming...

2 March 2023 | Developer

GSMA’s Open Gateway aims to give developers universal operator network access

The GSMA has announced the launch of GSMA Open Gateway, a framework of universal network APIs to provide universal access to operator networks for developers – with names including Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) on board.

The industry body has traditionally pursued the interests of telcos and mobile operators, and continues to do so here, with 21 mobile network operators on board for the initial push. Yet the GSMA is keen to stress that the ‘whole mobile ecosystem...

1 March 2023 | API