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Opera's latest version gives any web page a dark mode
Tech companies and device manufacturers have long touted ways to reduce a screen's dreaded blue glare -- the light that disturbs the natural circadian rhythms of the body and affects sleep. Now, Opera is rolling out a revamped night mode function that promises even dimmer night-time scrolling.
Karlie Kloss' coding camp covers more cities and languages this year
Kode with Klossy, Karlie Kloss' coding camp for girls, is expanding this year. Last year, the program offered 15 camps in 12 cities, but this summer, it's running 50 camps in 25 cities and will teach 1,000 young women between the ages of 13 and 18 about coding. Founded by Kloss in 2015, the free, two-week camp instructs attendees on front-end and back-end software engineering and covers Ruby, Javascript, HTML and CSS coding languages. This year, the camp is also adding Swift to its curriculum. "This year, we've also got a really exciting new track on Swift, so the girls at our camps not only learn the ABCs of code, but real-world examples of tech that touches our lives today," Kloss told Mashable. "They're learning what a loop is or how to interpolate using concepts or ideas that touch their lives, like Instagram, Twitter or Postmates."
Reddit is stripping away some of its personality
Reddit's default design is a throwback to simpler times on the internet. However, moderators on the site's numerous subreddits put a bunch of work into making sure their communities stand out from each other by employing CSS (cascading style sheets) to change everything from banner images, fonts, icons and other aspects of the user interface. Reddit's CEO Steve Huffman said that's going to change, as the massive discussion board is undergoing an overhaul.
'Operator' is a font designed to make coding easier
While many of us bristle at the sight of Comic Sans (this writer included), coders have an altogether different view of typefaces and how they're presented. Thus, Operator Mono, the new font from one of the highest-regarded typeface-creators that was forged to make life easier for the folks who build the websites you visit. "In developing Operator, we found ourselves talking about Javascript and CSS," founder Jonathan Hoefler writes. While the blog post about typography and font faces can come off as a bit pretentious, it's clear that the team paid attention to how the likes of brackets, commas and semicolons are spaced and how they appear in back-end coding environments.
Breach is a completely modular, hackable and open source web browser
When it comes to surfing the web, our options are limited: the market is dominated by three or four mainstream web browsers, all of which share major similarities in design and function. Unless you want to build your own browsing program, you're stuck with their modern browsing paradigms. For San Francisco programmer Stanislas Polu, that wasn't good enough, so, he created Breach -- an open source modular web browser designed to allow anybody to tweak and modify it on a whim.
Google's new Chrome experiment lets you remix the Rubik's Cube
Sure, you could spend a while trying to solve the Rubik's Cube in Google's new Doodle, but that may get a little dry. Google was clearly prepared for that eventuality, though: it has just launched the Cube Lab, a Chrome experiment that lets you build your own internet-based puzzle. So long as you're good with modern web code, you can produce a unique Rubik's Cube with its own artwork, effects and even logic. The 808 Cube is all about music-making, for instance. Even if you're not a programmer, it's worth checking out the ready-made Lab examples to have some fun. We just wish we'd had this when we were kids -- it would have kept us playing with Rubik's Cubes long after the original got buried in the closet.
Nintendo's Wii U Web Framework now allows for eShop purchases like DLC
Nintendo's Web Framework for Wii U now includes eCommerce support, manager of developer relations Martin Buchholz revealed at GDC Europe. When using the updated framework, developers can monetize their games after launch with items such as DLC. The Nintendo Web Framework allows developers to craft and prototype apps for the console using HTML5, JavaScript and CSS. The framework was announced at GDC in March, along with Unity support for Wii U.
Kickfolio puts iOS apps on the web for hands-on interaction
Developers working on iOS applications have had a bit of a dilemma regarding app demos and beta testing. Getting a prerelease or ad-hoc version of an app out to testers' devices can be complicated, expensive or both -- although services like Testflight and Hockeyapp can streamline the process if needed. For marketing, many devs have used a short video to try to get across the key points of an app, while others use the freemium model to let users give the app a try before purchasing full functionality through an in-app purchase. They could also choose to not create a demo and use word of mouth and a good website to explain their app. Kickfolio, launched in December, is an innovative idea for developers who want testers to poke and prod or potential purchasers to try before they buy -- a fully functioning version of their app available in streaming fashion over the web. Kickfolio's service is quite reasonably priced. Developers get a private testing page for their apps, and for public access they pay by the number of embed sessions that are required -- in other words, how many times an app is accessed through a site other than Kickfolio. Prices start at US$9 per month for an unlimited number of apps and 500 embed sessions, on up to $69 monthly for unlimited apps and 5000 embed sessions. Enterprise plans with no cap on the number of embed sessions are also available upon request. To get the app online, the developer simply uploads the binary to his or her Kickfolio account. The embed is immediately available on the testing page, and can be dropped into any website in seconds. For customers visiting the website, the iOS app shows up onscreen with an "interactive demo" badge encouraging the user to touch or click on the demo app. From that point, the user is essentially working with a live version of the app. A small cloud icon provides the user with a way to share the app's iTunes App Store address via email or text message. The embed uses HTML5 and CSS, keeping Flash completely out of the picture. The resulting embed can be viewed and used in any modern browser, and response time is excellent -- a test of the RunKeeper app on the Kickfolio website was quite usable over an LTE connection on an iPad or iPhone. For developers, Kickfolio is a wonderful way to let potential purchasers or beta testers try an app. Thanks Derek!
Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, others to launch new Web standards resource
Apple is just one of quite a few big tech companies signed on to help support the Worldwide Web Consortium (known as the W3C) in developing a brand new web standards resource called WebPlatform.org. The new site is simply designed to get all available information about how to code for the various web standards out there (from HTML and CSS to newer tech like the Canvas API and various Audio plugins) all together in one clean, easy-to-find place. If you do coding for the web, the site is probably a valuable resource already, and all of the companies involved are trying to convince content creators to help them grow it by contributing to the forums, docs and tutorials currently available on the site. Apple's got lots of reason to support a movement like this, especially as its various Macs and iDevices claim more and more of the web's browsing audience. So it's no surprise that Cupertino is contributing to make a resource like this available. [via TheNextWeb]
Adobe Edge swells to include Tools & Services, streamlines the designer web
Adobe really wants web designers to kick things up a notch. Not satisfied with where Edge has gone so far, it just released a full-fledged Edge Tools & Services suite to cover the bases for polished desktop and mobile pages on most any modern platform. Motion tool Edge Animate (formerly Edge Preview), automated previewing tool Edge Inspect (formerly Shadow) and mobile app packager PhoneGap Build have all arrived in the suite as version 1.0 releases, and come with both Edge Web Fonts as well as TypeKit to spruce up text. A pair of pre-release utilities, Edge Code (Brackets) and Edge Reflow, are also joining the group to tackle the nitty-gritty of editing web code and layouts. Any of the apps will readily cooperate with third-party software, although they won't always be cheap: while most of the Edge suite is free to use in at least a basic form as long as you have a Creative Cloud membership at any level, Edge Animate is only free during its initial run and should eventually cost either $15 per month or $499 in a one-time sale. For pros that want to burnish their corner of the web to a shine, the result just might be worth the expense.
Microsoft advises nuking Windows Gadgets after security hole discovery, we mourn our stock widgets
Whether you see Windows Vista and Windows 7 Gadgets as handy tools or a blight upon a pristine desktop, you might want to shut them off for safety's sake. Mickey Shkatov and Toby Kohlenberg have found that the desktop widgets' web-based code have flaws that would allow malicious Gadgets, or even hijacked legitimate Gadgets, to compromise a PC without having to go through the usual avenues of attack. Microsoft's short-term answer to the vulnerability is a drastic one, though: a stopgap patch disables Gadgets entirely, leaving just a barren desktop in its wake. There's no word on a Gadget-friendly solution arriving before Kohlenberg and Shkatov present at the Black Hat Conference on July 26th, but we suspect Microsoft's ultimate answer is to move everyone to Windows 8, where Gadgets aren't even an option. We understand the importance of preventing breaches, of course -- we're just disappointed that we'll have to forgo miniature stock tickers and weather forecasts a little sooner than expected.
Coda 2 for Mac, Diet Coda for iPad available May 24
Coda is Panic's legendary Mac app for editing HTML and other web files, and today Panic has announced the followup to Coda, called (surprise) Coda 2. As you might expect, the hugemongous feature list over on the Coda site has web developers frothed up into a frenzy of anticipation. In addition to the usual suspects like a better editor, UI improvements, and compatibility with FTP, iCloud, and other services, Coda 2 will also include a built-in MySQL editor, code-folding to get code you don't need to see out of the way, and an active path bar to let you find any file you need right away. It looks like the premiere tool for working with web code -- Coda 2 -- will be available on May 24. And that's not all. Panic is also releasing Diet Coda for the iPad on the App Store that day as well. Diet Coda is a version of the editor engineered for the iPad itself, and not only brings the best of Coda's features to Apple's tablet, but also works with a Coda 2 installation for "AirPreview": Make changes in Coda 2, see them live on your iPad right away. Diet Coda will be $9.99.
BlackBerry 10 developer toolkit released in beta, adds Native and WebWorks SDKs for app-building flexibility
Will BlackBerry 10 be the hallowed OS that heals Waterloo's recent wounds or yet another RIM-shot to highlight its foibles? Only the fickle tide of consumer interest will certainly tell. But while the success and awareness of that new platform undoubtedly rests on the company's shoulders, a great deal of it also hinges upon crucial developer support. To spur things along in that latter department, RIM's released its developer toolkit in beta today. The tools, launched ahead of forthcoming BB 10 devices and the nascent ecosystem that they'll depend upon, are designed for flexibility, allowing third parties to choose between the Native SDK with its OS-specific APIs or the WebWorks SDK for HTML5 and CSS. The company's even gotten a head-start and partnered with the likes of Gameloft, which has already committed to optimizing 11 of its software titles for use on the platform. There's still a long road to US recovery ahead for the ailing BlackBerry brand, so let's hope this latest call-to-arms isn't lost on the dev community. Click on past the break for the official PR.
Kaleidescape DVD servers granted a temporary stay
Things have been looking bleak for Kaleidescape's DVD servers since a Judge ruled against them on appeal, and earlier this month issued an injunction that was to have taken effect on April 8th. We say was because CEO Michael Malcolm is now saying the California 6th District Court of Appeal has issued a temporary stay of that injunction. The court is still deciding whether or not to stay the injunction during the entire process, a decision Malcolm says could affect whether or not the company survives or has to lay people off. While the current case does not affect Kaleidescape's tethered Blu-ray servers, it's tiring to hear about all this from the DVD CCA over a DRM scheme that was cracked wide open so long ago, and a case that had appeared to be over.
Mozilla Labs Apps set to allow developer submissions for Mozilla Marketplace at MWC
Been keeping up with Mozilla Labs' Apps project? Today the company's focused on developers, with pleasing news if you've been looking to get your app's feet wet in it. In the coming weeks at Mobile World Congress, the Firefox maker will finally open its self-titled Marketplace's doors for app submissions. If you're unfamiliar, Mozilla's been working to create an "operating system- and device-independent market," which will rely on the likes of HTML5, CSS and other open source materials -- Mozilla also plans to introduce its own APIs for apps, pending W3C approval. The end result will be the ability to use said apps without being locked down by your devices and their respective app stores. The store is set to open up for consumer consumption later in the year, so now's your chance to reserve your software's spot and name on the list. More details await in press release after the break and at source link below, while you get your code ready.
Latest Kaleidescape tentative judgement could mean the end of untethered disc servers
The thing about the American civil court system is you can almost never stop looking over your shoulder, even when you thought you won. Things get appealed and what was a favorable ruling can become your worst nightmare five years later. That's what the folks at Kaleidescape are facing if the latest tentative judgement in its case vs the DVD Copy Control Association, which licenses DVD's defunct copy protection, CSS. Last time around Kaleidescape was on the other side of the ruling with the Judge agreeing that there was no violation of any terms of service. This time around? Not so much. It would mean a shift in legal DVD servers, but we'd imagine Blu-ray takes up most of the market by now anyway. Currently Kaleidescape's Blu-ray products authenticate the disc is in the vault before playing, and its CEO has testified modifications could be made to the DVD products within a few months. So with Managed Copy being DOA and UltraViolet being anything but disappointing to anyone, days without keeping track of discs to watch the movies you own seems like a fairy tale -- legally anyways.
Firefox 10 out now: full screen apps, fewer crashes, disappearing forward button
The tenth iteration of Mozilla's browser is rolling out from today and we're sat here waiting for our own go signal. As the biggest UI tweaks will arrive in v12, the majority of changes are under the hood: except that the "forward" button now only appears once you've pressed "back." New APIs provide for full-screen viewing of web apps, Anti-aliased WebGL graphics and an "extended support release" that enables enterprise customers to only download security updates. CSS 3D Transitions are now supported alongside a new CSS inspector for those digging deep into the fabric of the universe internet. Java applet and moving bookmarks crashes should be a thing of the past, but it's not all plain sailing: no new release ever is, after all. On the "to be fixed" list includes herky-jerky scrolling in Gmail, Silverlight videos not working in OS X and vertical scrolling is broken on some touch-pads. Let's hope they get the former fixed quickly, our inbox is already overflowing 'round these parts.Update: The Mozilla blog has posted a quick demo video of how the new tools can help developers, check it out after the break.
PhoneGap v1.3 brings better cross-platform app coding to Windows Phone
Nitobi's PhoneGap project helps app developers to code for multiple mobile OSs simultaneously, thanks to the open standard wonders of HTML5, JavaScript and CSS. It's supported Windows Phone since the beginning, but v1.3 builds on that friendliness by opening up the API's full feature set and hence every limb and organ of a Mango handset, from the compass right through to storage and notifications. New plug-ins yield extra goodies, like Live Tile updates, BingMaps Search and social networking integration. Plus, in the interests of fairness, the full list of improvements (at the source link) contains some nuggets for Android, iOS and BlackBerry coders too.
Amazon's new e-book format brings HTML5 support to your Kindle library
"Great looking books." That's what Amazon is promising to deliver with Kindle Format 8 (KF8) -- a new, HTML5-based file format for Kindle books. According to the company, KF8 will allow publishers to produce picture books, comics and graphic novels with greater ease, thanks to the platform's rich formatting capabilities and design elements. In fact, this format brings more than 150 new formatting tools to the table, including fixed layouts, nested tables, sidebars and Scalable Vector Graphics, among others. It should be noted, however, that audio and video are not included on the list of supported HTML tags and CSS elements. At first, content creators will only be able to use KF8 for the Kindle Fire tablet, though Amazon says it'll gradually expand to its entire lineup of devices and apps "in the coming months." No word yet on when KF8 will become available as an update to Amazon's Kindle Publisher Tools suite, but you can find more details at the source link, below.
A vacation worth a cool million: five days in the CSS space hotel
Boarding the Soyuz rocket, seven hotel patrons will be asked to fork over £500,000 ($825,000) for the flight and another £100,000 ($165,000) for a five-night stay -- who needs family road trips when you can vacation in space? Russian company Orbital Technologies announced plans to construct a Commercial Space Station (CSS) by 2016, offering guests an unforgettable vacation and kick-ass view of Earth below. Way more fashionable than the ISS 62 miles away, customers can lounge in horizontal or vertical beds, enjoy some astronaut ice cream or chill with this guy.
