Unity, the hugely popular cross-platform development tool, has made its mobile tools free for small and independent studios.
This will help spur a new generation of developers, who may not have previously afforded the tools to do so, to try their hand at game development.
Previously, Unity’s tools would have cost $800 to release on both iOS and Android, although deploying to PC, Mac, and the Web was free...
Dell’s recently announced Project Ophelia is a dongle-sized device which wants your displays from July; taking them over with a custom version of Android through any HDMI port and implementing the company’s Wyse PocketCloud for a multitude of cloud-based needs.
PocketCloud allows access to any of your documents or files via any of the supported devices across Web, desktop, iOS, and Android.
This makes way for a productive lifestyle; having secure access on-the-move...
Microsoft’s latest Windows OS launched to a lot of criticisms, many of which both developers and consumers alike are hoping to see resolved in the first major “Blue” update, so let’s take a look at what we know so far.
The final update is likely to be released at Build 2013 in June, but four leaked builds have made their way online already giving us a glimpse at what to expect.
Build “9364”
Freemium is damaging the games, but do you know quite how much? Recently I had the fantastic opportunity to sit down with a group of game developers who spoke passionately about their development, the industry, and how freemium is hurting their creative ideas and real game innovation.
The term is thrown around a lot lately; the act of releasing a game for free then charging for “premium” features later on in order to monetise...
Many games have had to switch to this new model, as is the case with Star Wars: The...
At this year’s IBM Impact 2013 conference in Las Vegas; the second largest employer in the US unveiled an API Management Platform to extend the company’s huge software presence.
IBM offers software-orientated architecture (SOA) of which this latest platform is a part of; alongside delivering a MessageSight middleware appliance based on the company’s Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol.
Mike Riegel of IBM says about the MQTT...
Just the other day, I sat in a meeting where several developers told me their favourite Android development tool is the ‘Intellij’ IDE. Clearly Google has also seen the benefits as they’ve released ‘Android Studio’ which is based upon it!
Studio’s most impressive feature is writing code whilst displaying how it will look on a whole variety of different devices in real-time; helping counter Android’s...
Probably Mountain View’s most well-known, well-loved product (perhaps after that search engine thing), Google Maps, has had a complete overhaul in user interface alongside brand-new APIs for you developers to play with! Let’s take a look.
The new UI removes most of just that, the UI, leaving only a full-sized map to do the talking.
A single search box now serves as your destination for most of Maps features; along with clicking on the map itself which presents a variety of new options.
Most of the...
Heading into Mountain View’s biggest conference of the year, Sundar Pichai, head of Android at Google, warned the public the annual keynote would focus on developers rather than consumers. Whilst true, there is plenty coming this year for both sides to enjoy.
Vic Gundotra opened the conference saying: “We hope that the things you see at this conference will continue to inspire you and we will continue to earn your trust."
Trust in services is important to gain hearts and minds of individuals; Google’s...
Whilst in-app purchases become ever more popular, mainly from the rise of the “freemium” model, PayPal wants to get a slice of the pie on Android.
Announced on Monday, a new SDK from the payment service is to be released first to US developers on May 15.
This follows a release of the iOS version of the SDK which was debuted just over two months ago,...
Last year Dekko had big plans to turn the real-world into an Operating System, full of applications which blend reality with technology, a Google glass without the glasses.
The company hasn’t dropped its plans; instead refocusing on smaller steps to eventually meet their overall goal of augmented reality world domination.
Dekko has developed technology to map the world in 3D using a smartphone camera or tablet which is represented as “digital...
“Dear gamers; have you ever dreamt of the perfect cross-platform gaming experience?
Dear developers; have you ever dreamt of creating games with first-party matchmaking and achievements/leaderboards?
We hereby present ‘Play Games’.
Kind regards, Google.”
Okay, this letter may have been fictional, but this is exactly how I’d pitch ‘Play Games’ at I/O if I were Google (disclaimer: I’m not.)
Play Games isn’t even confirmed yet, but
It’s only a week away! Google’s annual developer conference I/O will be here to (hopefully) display some of the best advancements from Mountain View over the year to come.
Evangelists will hope to see new updates to Android, Chrome OS, and the whole host of web apps in-between.
So what can we expect? Starting with Android it sounds many will be fairly disappointed, latest logs found on web servers are showing a ‘JWR23B’ build (see that...
Along with Facebook’s latest SDK update, developers can now target users who perform specific actions in-app through a new targeting field which seeks out your existing customers from their ‘App User ID’ to further help reach the people desired.
For example, anyone who purchased a specific item within your app can be displayed real-world items they may wish to purchase.
Game developers could target users...
Although many fellow British journalists cannot wait to get their hands on the eyewear augmenting information in our lives courtesy of Google and partners, not everyone appears to share the same amount of enthusiasm – and the cause appears to be lack of style.
The research comes from VoucherCodesPro who polled 1,512 adults on their opinions due to a huge rise in web searches regarding Google Glass.
Firstly, participants were asked “Would you be interested in owning Google Glass once it’s...
As a console, PlayStation has had tremendous success. Even the first mobile foray with the original PSP (PlayStation Portable) was a landmark moment for Sony, but ever since support has waned.
Sony launched “PlayStation Mobile” in November 2012 allowing indie developers to publish games on PlayStation Vita and PlayStation-certified devices (includes their Xperia smartphone range) for a $99/annual license fee, which has now been dropped.
Directly from the announcement
The biggest problem with Google’s open-source software, has always been that it’s open-source.
Fantastic for customisability, adding new features, but ends up on hundreds of variations of hardware devices. Different screen sizes, different processors... It’s exhausting enough to write about, let alone develop!
However, considering Android has a 70% worldwide smartphone shipment rate (according to IDC in Q4 2012) it’s important that...
The gaming industry has been witnessing a shift towards the “freemium” model lately; clearly it’s working and worth considering after EA announced profits for Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) have doubled since making the free switch.
Freemium is the act of releasing an app for, well, free. This looks extremely appealing for customers, but of course everyone needs to fund their development and earn a profit from the time invested, so these apps make money through advertising or in-app...
A new Linux kernel 3.4 has been released, according to a post from Linux fellow Linus Torvalds.
Often a huge barrier for aficionados of both Tux and Android; they now play nicely as Linux kernel brings support for development on Google’s OS along with SSD caching and other Jelly Bean-sweet improvements.
For Android development, the Goldfish VDE has been the choice inclusion allowing developers to start an instance of Google’s software on a kernel...
Codassium, an online code platform by Wreally Studios, allows for two parties to conduct a coding session using Mozilla’s “Ace” editor alongside live video chat for increased collaboration.
The platform uses the WebRTC standard currently being proposed by W3C who is hoping to use it to provide a web-based suite of tools to share data, audio, and video all in real-time across multiple devices.
Moving beyond collaborative work, this platform could potentially be used to conduct live interviews...
Many developers rely on in-app advertising to fund development; from initial release through to expansion. Windows 8 developers have been wondering, where has their ad revenue has gone?
The advertisements provided in both Windows 8 and mobile OS equivalent Windows Phone 8 is provided by pubCenter.
Since March 31 however, these ads are just not being displayed. Potentially apps which should be getting millions of impressions aren’t converting into cash.
So what’s happening? Despite many posts on...