News

AWS Storage Gateway   Wednesday 25 January

Amazon has launched AWS Storage Gateway as an easier way to connect applications running locally on a server to cloud-based storage.

Delay for January Stanford Online Courses   Wednesday 25 January

Online Computer Science classes that have attracted tens of thousands of students have been put back for a couple of weeks. Is this on account of Sebastian Thrun's resignation from Stanford?

Microsoft Cancels MIX 2012   Wednesday 25 January

Microsoft has announced that the MIX Conference that was due to take place in Las Vegas in April 2012 is not going to happen. Instead it will be "merged" with another developer event later in the year.

Date Set for SQL Server 2012 Launch   Tuesday 24 January

The SQL Server 2012 official launch date will be March 7th, and the official launch site now has details of the agenda for the webcast that will go out then.

Value of the Web - a Google Portal   Tuesday 24 January

To coincide with an event today in Brussels, focused on how the Internet is driving economic growth and new jobs across the European Union, Google has launched a website providing insight into the economic impact of the Internet.

Kinect for Windows Near Mode   Tuesday 24 January

The about-to-be-launched Kinect for Windows brings a solution to one of the Kinect's basic problems - shortsightedness - by introducing Near Mode. But does it do enough to be really useful?

Sebastian Thrun Resigns from Stanford to Launch Udacity   Monday 23 January

Professor Sebastian Thrun has given up his Stanford position to start Udacity - an online educational venture. Udacity's first two free courses are Building a Search Engine and Programming a Robotic Car.

Windows 8 App Store - the User Experience   Monday 23 January

The Windows Store will launch next month as part of the Windows 8 beta. To maintain interest while we wait for this to happen, the Store client team has released details of its user experience, including a video. It's all very touch-driven and makes the split between Windows and Metro all the more obvious.

App Inventor Code Released - But Still No Service   Sunday 22 January

The way Google has treated the App Inventor community is probably the biggest negative mark against it in some time and yet few seem to care.

SOPA and PIPA Shelved But Is ACTA Unstoppable?   Sunday 22 January

Last Wednesday's blackout by Wikipedia , Reddit and other sites raised awareness of PIPA and SOPA but there's another threat to the open Internet, ACTA and has already been signed in US and elsewhere.

Cartoon - Color Codes   Sunday 22 January

This week's selected xkcd cartoon of the week is all about working so long that the technology gets its way into your normal non-techie world.

Official Wikipedia Android App Uses PhoneGap   Sunday 22 January

There has been a free Wikipedia iOS app available in the App Store for some time but you can now download an Android version from the Google market.

Windows 8 and Kinect Challenges in Imagine Cup   Saturday 21 January

Two more challenges for students have been included in the Imagine Cup 2012, giving students more chances to show how they would use Microsoft's latest technology to find solutions to tough problems.  

More Casualties of Google's Clearout   Saturday 21 January

Google has issued an update about products that it is letting go of in the coming months. a continuation of its clearout that saw many products vanish during 2011. And there's (unofficial) news that Google Code Search lives on.

A Faster Fourier Transform   Saturday 21 January

A research group at MIT has come up with an improved algorithm that could make it possible to do more with audio and image data with less powerful hardware.

Amazon DynamoDB   Friday 20 January

Amazon has announced the immediate availability of the beta of Amazon DynamoDB, a fully managed NoSQL database service.

Apple Enters the Digital Textbook Market   Friday 20 January

Apple announced its plans to reinvent the textbook at an event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York this week. It has already partnered with three major publishers and its iBooks Author tool is available for new titles. Welcome authors, to the closed world that developers have had to suffer for some time.

When Kinect Isn't Enough - OrcaM 3D Input   Friday 20 January

OrcaM is a 3D scanning machine that can be thought of as a high-precision version of the Kinect. Here's a video that shows it in action.

Visual Studio Achievements Program   Thursday 19 January

Microsoft is introducing gamification into the Visual Studio environment. So, if you want to take up the challenge, you can show off  your expertise with badges. Can they be serious?

C++ Going Native Conference - The Details   Thursday 19 January

Going Native seems to be a Microsoft conference unselfishly devoted to C++11.

The schedule is now out and it looks good.

Ray Tracer in JavaScript   Thursday 19 January

Just when you thought you had seen everything that could impress in JavaScript, along comes another crazy application.. Now we have a ray tracer that creates very realistic 3D scenes right in your browser.

The Core

Mobile Data - How It Works   Wednesday 25 January

What makes a smart phone more like a computer is its ability to connect to the internet and transfer data. For a digital device you might think this was easy but it has been a long and difficult road from 1G to 4G.

Getting started with Microsoft Kinect SDK - The Full Skeleton   Monday 23 January

So far in this series we've covered the visual and depth inputs and started to look at skeletonization. In this part we get down to the bare bones of the skeleton.

Getting Started with Box2D in JavaScript   Friday 20 January

Have you ever wondered what Angry Birds uses to obtain its physically realistic range of motions. The answer is Box2D and here we show how to get started with it in JavaScript.a Ideal for the next blockbuster game in a browser.