News

Chrome OS - Now A Real Alternative?   Wednesday 11 April

Although the Chrome browser gets most of the headlines, it is worth keeping an eye on its near relation the Chrome OS. This has the potential to change everything and the latest version adds a window manager, Aura, that makes it look much more like a real OS.

Amazon In-App Purchasing Officially Launched   Wednesday 11 April

Amazon has announced the availability of its In-App Purchasing API to its developer community. As this opens up the opportunity to monetize apps it has to be worth looking into.

To Bed - To Work or Sleep Soundly?   Wednesday 11 April

Using their laptops and mobiles, a surprisingly high proportion of people admit to working from their beds. Meanwhile a professor of psychology has devised an app to promote sweet dreams.

SQL Server 2012 and Second Preview for Hadoop for Azure   Tuesday 10 April

Microsoft has released SQL Server 2012 alongside the next step to a Hadoop service for Azure.

Jack Tramiel Founder of Commodore   Tuesday 10 April

Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore, the company that brought us both the PET and the Commodore 64, died on April 8, 2012 at the age of 83. 

MintChip Challenge Offers Gold Rewards   Tuesday 10 April

The Royal Canadian Mint is inviting developers to create innovative digital payment apps using its MintChip digital currency technology. The winners will be paid in gold!

Amazon Trialling In-App Purchasing   Monday 09 April

Amazon is following the trend set by Apple for supporting in-app purchases and subscription billing. In common with Apple and Google, Amazon will take a 30% commission, handing over 70% of revenue to developers.

MorpHex - The Amazing Rolling Robot   Monday 09 April

If you have never seen the amazing MorpHex hexapod robot in action then you need to see this video. If you have seen it then look again because now MorpHex can transform itself into a ball that rolls under its own power.

Robotics Week and RoboGames   Monday 09 April

This week is National Robotics Week in the United States and there's less than two weeks to go until the annual RoboGames.

Google Glass - The Microsoft Version   Sunday 08 April

What would the Google Glass project look like if Microsoft got its hands on it? A new video shows exactly what it would be like.

Cartoon - The Turing Test   Sunday 08 April

This week's selected xkcd cartoon lampoons, ever so gently, the Turing Test.  So what is the Turing Test and why has it been reduced to a laughing matter?

Build New Games Launch   Sunday 08 April

A new Microsoft sponsored website that aims to help developers who want to build and release cross browser and cross device Open Web games was launched at JSConf 2012.

A Kinect Musical Sculpture   Saturday 07 April

Take three Kinects, a dancer and a 3D physics engine and what you have is, without question, an art form. Is it modern ballet, kinetic art or perhaps Kinect art? It's an amazing creation that you have to see.

A Short History of Hacking   Saturday 07 April

If you thought hacking was a recent phenomenon think again. As this infographic reveals, a form of phone hacking was in used 40 years ago.

Google Glass - How it Could Be   Friday 06 April

Google's project Glass - which seems to be a pair of AR specs - is making a lot of waves at the moment. Could this be the way Augmented Reality finally makes good. Perhaps you should watch this video and be careful what you wish for..

Four Language Videos - Lang.NEXT 2012   Friday 06 April

Lang.NEXT 2012 is that rare thing - a reasonably advanced conference on programming language that is relevant and understandable. If you couldn't make the actual real time conference then the good news is you can catch up with the videos.

Projects Selected For Kinect Accelerator   Friday 06 April

Eleven finalists have been chosen from over 500 applicants for the Kinect Accelerator, the incubator project being run by Microsoft and TechStars.

Google Maps Weather Layer API   Friday 06 April

The weather layer launched on Google Maps about 9 months ago and it has been irritating not to be able to access it via the usual Mapping API. Now an intern working with the Google Maps team in Sydney has extended the API to let you control the weather - layer, that is.

IBM DB2 10 Aims to Tame the Data Deluge   Thursday 05 April

 A new version of IBM DB2 10 has been released aimed at ‘taming the data deluge’. According to IBM, the new release continuously accesses, compresses, and analyzes data, freeing up IT staff to work on higher value tasks such as big data and business analytics.

Programming Raspberry Pi   Thursday 05 April

Nearly all of the fuss about the low-cost Raspberry Pi computer's hardware has died down and we finally have some details of its software that is easy enough for the rest of us to follow. So what can you do with it out of the box?

The $10 Million Computer-Assisted Programming Project   Thursday 05 April

No you didn't read the headline incorrectly. Programming gets very little help from the computers we program. Now there is a big project to see what can be achieved.

Professional Programmer

The Functional View of the New Languages   Monday 09 April

The War At Microsoft - Managed v Unmanaged   Friday 06 April

Microsoft's language universe is moving toward C++ and away from C#. What is the justification for this? Speed and efficiency obviously, but is this enough? The quiet war going on between managed and unmanaged code is complicated.

eBooks

Getting Started With Metro JavaScript   Wednesday 11 April

Windows 8 brings JavaScript into the mainstream of development languages. You can now use HTML5 and JavaScript to create Metro applications. However, even if you already know JavaScript and HTML5, you might find the additions and the development style of Metro JavaScript a little different. In this first chapter of our new ebook we take a look at getting started with Metro JavaScript development.