Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Radar v.1.1 Shows How To Come Back

Monday, October 24th, 2011

At present mobile phone application development is conquering new heights. Now you can find any possible app for your iPhones, Androids, smartphones, iPads, etc. Such mobile apps cover practically all spheres of our life – from business to entertainment.

The Russian start-up Sibity that specializes on mobile software programming has informed about the release of the new mobile application – Radar v.1.1 – for Windows Phone 7 smartphones that allows finding your way back to any chosen point without connecting to the Internet or to Google Maps.

The Radar application will help a user not to be lost and feel confident in an unknown place, especially when going out of the city or to the forest. Now, in order to find the way back you just have to set the coordinates of your current location using the built-in GPS and then you can start your journey. If you need to return back, just open the application and follow the direction showed on the radar screen. Additionally you can find out the distance to the chosen place and the time. The application will be very useful for tourists, motorists, hunters and simply for absent –minded people who often have to find way in unknown places.

Microsoft Released Guidelines for Porting Symbian Apps on Windows Phone 7

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

Microsoft and Nokia joined their efforts for developing the new set of tools that will help Nokia application developers to prepare for moving to the Windows Phone platform. The most significant among the announced guidelines is adding the Symbian Qt to the list of platforms supported by the Windows Phone API Mapping Tool.

symbian nokiaAt present the Windows Phone API Mapping Tool already supports the iOS and Android platforms and performs the function of a translator between Windows Phone and other mobile operating systems. Using it, software developers for Symbian will be able to capture API- requests of their own applications and study equivalent classes, methods and notifications of the events accepted on the new mobile platform from Microsoft.

It should be noted that the offered product can’t be the means of porting and will not substitute the programmer’s work. However, software developers who deal with moving their own applications on the new platform will be able to refer to it regularly as a useful manual. The main libraries of the Qt 4.7 for Symbian (QtCore, QtGui, QtLocation, QtNetwork, QtSensors, QtSql, QtXml, QtWebKit, QML Elements and QML Components) are included in the set.

The specialists from Microsoft and Nokia have prepared a 100-page manual which can be called the practical guidance for mobile application developers for Symbian who are interested in learning the Windows Phone platform. In eight chapters one can find detailed information on the leading principles of writing programs for Windows Phone, C# programming, the application life cycle, porting procedures and other useful information.

Nowadays Symbian can’t be called a dead or neglected platform. The large-scale update released last month can be a good proof of this. However, the Nokia management has already announced about gradual abandonment from the outdated platform in favor of Windows Phone. Moreover, the first Windows smartphone from Nokia will be released this year.

Microsoft Released Robotics Developer Studio 4 beta

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

robot

The updated version of the program will simplify the process of developing applications for robotized platforms. Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio is a Windows oriented environment for controlling robots and their simulation. The program is designed for academical, amateur or commercial development and supports various hardware for robots.

This version of Robotics Developer Studio 4 includes the support of the Kinect and 3D-simulation sensors as well as the Microsoft Visual Programming Language for creating and debugging applications. The updated modeling tools will allow software applications development companies develop robots based on the Kinect technology without using any hardware.

RDS4 beta supports Microsoft .NET Framework 4, XNA Game Studio 4.0, and Visual Studio 2010. Software developers can download the new version of the program from the official site of Microsoft.

Mirai Sanzo: Android Based Domestic Robot

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

Japan has always been famous for its unusual technical innovations. Software development companies work hard to create something new and exciting. And now it has presented another amazing gadget, Mirai Sanzo, based on the Android operating system. Mirai Sanzo is a type of a domestic robot that can connect to the computer, heating and cooling systems, the alarm system, mobile devices, electronic locks, water and light regulators by means of wireless communication.

The new gadget is equipped with a sensor screen and a Wi-Fi module. It is capable of understanding voice commands and can also execute the instructions sent from the mobile phone.

Unfortunately, Mirai Sanzo can understand only the Japanese language, but in future mobile developers are planning to add some other languages. The price of the gadget hasn’t been informed but if you want someone to prepare a bath for you, send an e-mail, and in case of danger call the police, Mirai Sanzo is what you need.

Belarusian Pupils Won First Prizes At International Olympiad In Informatics

Friday, August 5th, 2011

XXIII International Olympiad in Informatics IOI 2011 was held in Thailand on July 22-29. On July 26 the competitive part of the Olympiad was over. This year 308 pupils from 78 countries took part in this competition. The Olympiad was supported by many well-known IT companies such as HP, IBM, Cisco and Microsoft.166785

According to the rules, every country-participant had a chance to send to the Olympiad a team of four pupils. In two five-hour rounds of the competition the participants were offered three tasks – developing the program code in accordance with the given requirements. The developed source code is evaluated during the Olympiad automatically by means of test cases inputted into the program. The solutions sent or testing are evaluated by the number of test cases which were processed by the program correctly.

In comparison with the previous year, the Belarusian team has considerably improved its result: last year in Canada they had one gold medal and two bronze medals and now in Thailand the team won one gold medal and three silver ones.

It means that Belarus has a great potential and can be considered a good school for future software developers. It’s not a secret that many companies from the world outsource their work to Belarusian software development companies since they can ensure high quality of the end product.

Microsoft presented the new version Windows Phone 7

Sunday, May 29th, 2011

Microsoft Corporation presented the biggest update Mango for its mobile operation system Windows Phone 7 (the popular mobile phone application development system). The update has added more than 500 new functions, reported the head of Microsoft Steve Ballmer. Among them – multitasking, IE9 with the HTML5 support, the extended integration with social media networks, voice input, document synchronization via SkyDrive as well as mail collection from various services into one single box.

The update will be distributed among the users, mostly mobile developmentweeknews.net_windows-phone-7.5-mango-update companies, for free. Microsoft will start distributing it in autumn 2011.

Microsoft also announced that Windows Phone 7 based smartphones will be produced by Asus, HTC, Dell, Samsung and LG and also by Acer, Fujitsu Limited and ZTE Corp. The first smartphone Nokia based on Windows Phone 7 will also function under Mango, informed Nokia in its official blog.

The previous big update for Windows Phone 7 (NoDo) was released in the second half of March. It added the copy and paste options in the operation system. The operating system Windows Phone 7 was presented in October 2010. According to Gartner, in the first quarter of 2011 its market share was 3.6%.

Google presented its new Android version for mobile devices

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

At the I/O conference Google announced its new version of Android operating system. The version got the name ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’.

According to CNET News, Ice Cream Sandwich will be released in the fourth quarter of 2011. Various mobile devices including smartphones and tablets can work on this platform. The new Android version will inherit many features of the Honeycomb version intended only for tablets.google_predstavila_android_ice_cream_sandwich_i_obnovlenie_3_1_intro

The update for Honeycomb 3.1 was also presented at the conference. It can be installed by the owners of Motorola Xoom tablets and Google TV. Among the innovations one can mention the following ones: the updated user’s interface, scalable widgets and a possibility of connecting USB peripherals including keyboards and joysticks.

The representatives of Google also informed that the number of activated Android devices in the world had exceeded a hundred million. Android based devices are produced by 35 manufacturers. According to the company, about 200,000 android applications are available at the Android Market.

The I/O conference is held by Google every year. During the conference Google carries out seminars and trainings for Android application developers as well as announce present innovations.

Creator of Elite designed a flash-drive size computer

Friday, May 6th, 2011

The British game designer David Braben has presented the prototype of the computer whose size is equal to a USB card reader, informs BBC.

The basis of the device is the ARM chip with the clock rate of 700 MHz. Braben’s computer possesses 128 Mb of RAM and is equipped with a standard 2.0 USB port, HDMI output for connecting to a TV or monitor and a slot for SD cards. The computer runs on Ubuntu, one of the distributives of the Linux operating system with the open source code.

Within a year Braben is going to launch the mass production of his computer. According to the preliminary calculations, the production of one device will cost about 15 pounds or 25 dollars. The computer will be distributed among schools in the developing countries where it will be used for teaching computer science.

The similar aims have been put forward by the project ‘One Laptop per Child’ (OLPC). The members of OLPC want to provide every child with a personal laptop whose price won’t be more than 100 dollars. Now every software development company is thinking about creating new interesting applications for kids and schoolchildren.

By the way, now the App Store has many iPad software applications for children and most of them are free or practically free.

Corporate software market in 2010

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

According to the Gartner analytic company, in 2010 the world’s volume of the corporate software market increased by 8.5% and was equal to $245 bln. It is much more than the results of the year 2009 when the profit decreased by 2.5% up to $226 bln. Gartner says partially the growth was caused by big sales of software in Latin America and Asian countries.

The biggest market share (22%) belongs to Microsoft which received $57.5 bln from selling corporate software last year. Then goes IBM with the market share of 10.4% and the profit of $25.4 bln.

Among the five biggest software development companies and business software providers, Oracle showed the largest growth having increased its market share from 8.9% in 2009 to 9.9% in 2010. The profit from selling corporate software was $23.9 bln.

SAP with its market share of 5.3% and the profit of $13 bln follows Oracle. Then you can find Symantec: 2.3% and $5.7 bln.

The market share of other software developers is about 49.8% or $122 bln of sales. The most active players in this sphere are VMware, Adobe and Salesforce.com.

Qwiki: new app in the App Store

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

iPad application developers have created a new application for iPad and presented it in the App Store. It is intended to change the people’s attitude towards getting encyclopedic knowledge. Qwiki, a sort of visual Wikipedia, provides a user with an easy and interactive way of exploring the world via media presentations and using interactive maps.

The application in many cases repeats the website of the project offering users to get acquainted with the biographies of famous people, monumenqikits, and wonders of the world or exotic animals. All the information is connected with hundreds of places on the map of the world and is presented in the form of presentations with excellent photo and video materials.

After viewing, you can share your favorite information with your friends by e-mail, Twitter or Facebook. The presentation material at Qwiki contains links to other resources related to the given topic as well as additional information and images in Wikipedia, Google, Fotopedia and YouTube. All it makes Qwiki much higher than other Wikipedia resources.

Soon we’ll see similar Android application development and iPhone applications.