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Apple opens Siri up to third-party apps
During its WWDC keynote today, Apple announced that the forthcoming iOS 10 will allow developers to access Siri. This means that third-party apps will be able to add functionality to the voice-based assistant, such as WeChat and Uber. Rather than having to touch your display and open an app, you can simply bark a command and have your phone do the work for you. So, should you want to a hail a ride from Uber, Lyft or Didi, then you'll be able to do so by asking your smartphone to get you somewhere. Apple executive Craig Federighi even mentioned that payments would work in the same way, although we imagine the potential for muggers to demand you hand them money simply by talking.
Create Facebook profile videos with Vine, Boomerang and more
Facebook flipped the switch on profile videos last fall, and now its allowing you to upload those short clips from third-party apps. The social network announced the Facebook Profile Expression Kit at F8, an SDK that will allow app developers to build in tools that allow users to set video creations as a moving profile image. There's already a handful of apps that support the profile videos during the initial beta phase, including MSQRD, Boomerang from Instagram and Vine. Once you make your video, you'll now have the option of setting it as your main Facebook profile visual with just a few taps.
Google wants developers making crazy Android experiments
Last year, Google launched a site promoting innovative Android experiments on phones, tablets and smartwatches. Anything was game, provided it ran on top of Android or Android Wear. Now, with less than two months to go before its next I/O developer conference, Google is putting the call out for some new, equally brain-melting ideas. The kicker is that the best three submissions will get I/O tickets in order to show off their projects to attendees. A further five runner-ups will get a Nexus 6P.
Google is helping developers make more accessible apps
Designing apps is hard, especially when you're trying to cram a new feature into an already crowded interface. Even the most popular apps can become cluttered, making them difficult to use for people with poor eyesight or hand-eye coordination. To help, Google has developed an Android app called Accessibility Scanner, which can analyse any screen and pull out elements that should be improved. Recommendations can include larger text and "touch targets" -- buttons, menus and anything else required for navigation -- different colour choices and stronger contrast.
Oculus begins shipping the finished Rift to developers
Oculus has announced that it's shipping "early builds" of its Rift VR headset to developers, along with the developer kit SDK 1.0. According to the company's blog, "the Rift SDK 1.0 and runtime include features tied to the consumer product, so we've currently limited the release to developers putting final touches on launch titles." Companies now getting the much-anticipated headset are technically not the first to have received it, since Oculus has already delivered engineering samples to privileged developers. It promised to ship more developer headsets "every week in the run up to the launch."
Apple makes its Swift programming language open source
Earlier this year, Apple said it would be making its programming language Swift open source. And now the company's making good on that promise to developers, specifically those who want to make apps for OS X, iOS and watchOS. Swift, which Apple describes as powerful and easy to use, will be open source under the Apache License, giving devs access to a full set of tools to create anything from 3D games to social networking apps.More importantly, Swift was built to play nice with Objective-C, allowing developers to create projects that blend existing code with Apple's new programming language. If you're interested in playing around with it, Apple's Swift.org site has more information -- although it appears to be down right now.
Future PS4 games will have more power to play with
It seems the PlayStation 4 is now just a little more powerful than before. At least for game developers, anyway. None of the console's components have changed -- instead it's being reported that a seventh core has been "unlocked" in the CPU. Until now, six of the PlayStation 4's eight-core CPU have been dedicated to games, while the remaining two handle the operating system. In all likelihood, this was a conservative setup to ensure consoles ran smoothly at launch. It also gave Sony some wiggle-room if they needed to make any system changes or optimizations. Now, however, it seems the company is happy with the console's performance and willing to give developers a tad extra power.
You can now try Firefox OS on your Android phone
Mozilla has dropped the latest version of Firefox OS into everybody's lap, and there's a special treat tucked inside for brave Android users. A new developer preview of the software can be downloaded and tried as an alternative home screen on your phone that, thankfully, doesn't require you to wipe your device beforehand. Just install the APK and it'll appear as an app that, with a single press of your device, will transform the handset into a Firefox OS phone. Naturally, in order to play nice with Android, there's a few futzes and workarounds tucked inside, but it's hoped that the move will enable more people -- and developers -- to engage with the burgeoning operating system.
Developers can test Android Auto apps without buying a Bentley
Android Auto developers now have way to try out their apps without spending lots on an actual head unit or entire car. The Android Auto Desktop Unit (DHU) runs on your Windows, OS X or Linux desktop and works in conjunction with the companion app on Android 5.0 (Lollipop) or higher. Installing it is a bit of a rigmarole and you'll need to connect your Android device via a USB cable, but you probably already know that if you're a developer. Once you've compiled and installed your app, it'll "behave as if it's connected to a car," according to Google.
Google can spot friends nearby and tell if you're glad to see them
Are you happy that Google's new Play Services software for Android developers is out? If not, one of the new features may tell you to turn that frown upside down. Google's latest APIs for Android apps include "Mobile Vision" face detection and "Nearby Messages" notifications. Mobile Vision works with video or still images to detect faces at any angle or orientation and determine if a person is smiling or has their eyes closed (see the video, below). Google points out, however, you won't be able to go all Enemy of the State, because it's not a facial recognition app.
Oculus offers $10 million to help indie developers make VR games
Oculus' top brass showed a slew of new VR games at a special event today -- including a closer look at the badass-looking EVE Valkyrie -- but they need more than big-name developers if they want the Rift to be a hit. That's why the company is earmarking $10 million to fund indie game makers who want to build the new big thing in virtual reality content. Coders, you'd better get crackin'.
Apple's WatchOS 2 update brings native apps, new features
When Apple's Watch first arrived, we couldn't help but notice that the first third-party apps on it were a tad sluggish. But that's because they were running on an iPhone and not natively on the Watch, as Apple's own health tracker and other apps do. That's about to change now, however, as Tim Cook just unveiled a new WatchKit SDK at Apple's WWDC 2015 event that opens up all the wearable's functionality to developers in advance of the Watch OS2 release this fall. That means app-makers will be able to tap the Digital Crown, health and orientation sensors, "taptic" feedback feature and more.
More than half of Android devices use Jelly Bean or KitKat
Google's big developer conference is done for another year, which means that the company is ready to dish out some hot statistics regarding the state of Android's union. Thankfully, the search engine can boast that Gingerbread no longer runs on a substantial portion of its devices, since it's only running on 5.6 percent of all hardware. In fact, more than half of the ecosystem now runs Jelly Bean or KitKat, with Ice Cream Sandwich similarly dumped into the footnotes. The company also dug into the figures to reveal that almost half of all Android devices have a screen with a resolution of 240dpi, with only 20 percent of users rocking a weaker display. The TL;DR version of all that is simple: Google's finally escaping its past, and almost everyone is rocking a device that won't embarrass you in the playground/office/golf club.
Microsoft invites Android and iOS apps to join Windows 10
Microsoft's Terry Myerson confirmed onstage at Build what many of us suspected in the hours leading up to the event -- the company's going to make it easier for developers to bring Android apps into the Windows Store. To make this possible, Myers said, Windows phones "will include an Android subsystem" meant to play nice with the Java and C++ code developers have already crafted to run on a rival's operating system. Turns out, that's not the only dev-friendly coup we're seeing today: iOS developers can compile their Objective C code right from Microsoft's Visual Studio, and turn it into a full-fledged Windows 10 app. This, frankly, is huge. With one announcement, drawn out of the course of a few minutes, Microsoft may have just changed its mobile trajectory completely.
Pebble will pay you to design 'smart straps' for its new watch
Unlike many Android Wear watches and Apple's Watch, Pebble Time -- which smashed every Kickstarter record out there -- isn't equipped with a heart-rate monitor and other sensors. The company said that "rather than trying to shove every sensor and doohickey" into the $179 device, it would instead let developers add them via its "smart strap" option. To aid them in that endeavor, Pebble has kicked in $1 million to back the best smart strap related projects. To give you an idea of what's out there, it has revealed a couple of the most interesting concepts so far.
Softbank prices its Pepper robot out of some developers' pockets
Softbank's adorable robot may be short and cute, but it'll still cost the price of a secondhand car to bring one into your home. The Japanese network has revealed that the first Pepper devices on the market will cost just over nine grand to buy. Similar to Google's Glass Explorer project, Softbank will sell the first proper production run of 300 units to developers in the hope that they'll build apps for the automaton.
Xbox One SDK leak opens the door for homebrew apps
Want to build an Xbox One game without registering as a developer? You may soon be able to, thanks to a leak of the Xbox One developer SDK by a hacking group called H4LT. It cites noble reasons for posting the software, namely to allow greater "creativity and research... towards homebrew applications" on the console. The leak, however, doesn't mean you can start cooking up official Xbox One apps, because you'd need to be accepted into Microsoft's ID@Xbox publishing program and clear other hurdles. Still, it'll let curious types poke around the SDK or possibly check for weaknesses, giving Microsoft another holiday headache.
Google's new YouTube show reaches out to iOS developers
Despite the ongoing battle between Android and iOS, the truth is you're likely loading up Google services on it either way. Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Drive -- take your pick, as Homescreen.is shows (generated based on the most popular apps among @Engadget Twitter followers), they're popular. Now Google has a new webseries devoted just to iOS developers (to go along with its community efforts for everyone busy making Android apps) but as the first entry demonstrates, getting the dialogue started can be a little awkward on the Mountain View campus. Google has its reasons for pulling iOS developers deeper into the fold including cross platform gaming and wireless file sharing, so we won't hold our breath expecting to see a similar move from Apple any time soon.
Chinese devs can now sell their Android apps on the Play Store
Chinese developers can finally sell their Android apps through the Google Play Store, possibly foreshadowing a local launch of the marketplace. The move gives devs the ability to sell their apps to Android users in over 130 countries around the world, with one major exception: China, where the Play Store is not available -- for now.
iOS 8's privacy notification not sitting well with some developers
Along with the more headline-grabbing feature additions to iOS 8, Apple tweaked a few smaller items such as the way users are alerted to each app's use of location data. That change isn't going over well with some developers who feel that the alerts can create anxiety and shake the trust of the user without reason. When an app that uses location data needs to keep its information up to date in the background, a new notification alerts the user to this fact, asking if background location tracking is ok or not. "It sounds like a confusing and almost nefarious thing," Runkeeper's Max Freiert explained to The Information, suggesting that the wording and timing of the pop-up might cause unnecessary alarm. In the end, it's up to the user to know what is happening on their device, and in an age where privacy and personal security is everyone's top priority, it's a good thing that users are alerted to an app tracking their location. However, with so few words to work with in a relatively small notification window, I can certainly see how the message could be misconstrued and feel more like a dire warning than a simple reminder. Many apps already include their own pop-ups that explain why the phone is about to ask for a permission before it actually does, allowing the developer a chance to put the user's mind at ease ahead of time. That may be the best solution in this case, as privacy alerts are certainly not going to be going away any time soon.
