News

Microsoft Courses On edX   Wednesday 11 March

Microsoft has become the first corporate partner of MOOC provider edX. Enrollment is now open for seven courses taught by Microsoft experts that will start in the next few weeks.

Arduino Zero Pro Released Amid Legal Dispute   Wednesday 11 March

There are now two websites using the distinctive Arduino logo and style. This reflects a split among the original founders and has resulted in a dispute that has gone to court. Meanwhile a version of the Arduino Zero has gone on sale.

How Alive Is That Project?   Wednesday 11 March

It is perhaps more difficult to tell when an open source project is dead than a commercial one, but perhaps it matters less. Is It Maintained is a new website that will help you measure the vitality of a project, but only if it is on GitHub.

JavaScript For Native Apps   Tuesday 10 March

NativeScript is a system that allows you to write native apps for Android, iOS and Windows Phone using JavaScript - and no this isn't a wrapper for an HTML app.

Angular Partners With TypeScript   Tuesday 10 March

Google's Angular team revealed at ng-conf that it has been working closely with Microsoft's TypeScript team to bring new features to Angular 2.0.

No More New Chrome For Ice Cream Sandwich   Monday 09 March

Chrome 42 will be the final version of the browser to support Android 4.0. Users of ICS devices will still be able to use Chrome but won’t get further updates.

Udacity Launches iOS Developer Nanodegree   Monday 09 March

Enrollment for the inaugural cohort of the iOS Developer Nanodegree, Udacity's latest industry-led, career-oriented certification programs is now open. But hurry it closes on March 10th. 

Susan Kare Archive At MOMA   Sunday 08 March

Susan Kare is the artist responsible for many of the classic Mac icons that are universally recognized. Now her impact as a pioneering and influential computer iconographer has been recognized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Darpa Robotics Challenge Grows   Saturday 07 March

The DARPA robotics challenge (DRC) is expected to be a watershed in rescue robots. In a surprise move, DARPA has just announced that the field has been widened to include 14 new robot teams, making a total of 25.

Roads API For A Smooth Accurate Track   Friday 06 March

The Google Maps Roads API addresses the problem of wiggles in the tracks recorded by mobile phones by providing a snap-to-road facility.

Intel IoT Dev Kit Reaches v1.0   Friday 06 March

Intel finally manages to get Version 1 of its IoT Dev Kit out of the door and it is well worth having. However, it can't return  the time wasted by developers who struggled with the less-than-perfect beta. 

Google Open Sources C/C++ MapReduce Framework   Friday 06 March

MapReduce Framework for C (MR4C) will let you run native code in Hadoop, allowing you to use image processing libraries developed in C and C++ on data held in Hadoop.

IPython 3.0 Released   Thursday 05 March

Game Engines For Free   Thursday 05 March

This week's Game Developers Conference has seen announcements by the three big game developers that you can have their game engines for free - or at least with minimal strings attached. The big question is why and what does this change?

The Core

Just JavaScript - Life Without Type - Constructor And InstanceOf   Thursday 05 March

JavaScript is a subtle and sophisticated language that deserves to be treated in its own right and not as a poor copy of other object-oriented language. In this chapter (Chapter 8) Ian Elliot explores how to live without Type in JavaScript.

Projects

Getting To Know WPF   Tuesday 10 March

WPF was Microsoft's killer UI construction kit - a second generation GUI. Then it looked as if it was on the way out but with Windows Forms in maintenance mode and a new interest in WPF it is still a good choice for your desktop projects. 

This article is a short introduction to WPF - not only using it but a little of how it works and the philosophy behind it.