News

Apple Revamps Siri, Unveils HomePod and Open Up Home Kit To Developers   Wednesday 14 June

At last week's WWDC, Apple's annual Developer Conference Apple made a number of announcements with regard to Siri, both in the areas of AI/Machine Learning and IoT.

Using Super Seeing To See Photosynthesis   Wednesday 14 June

Super seeing is a technique that enhances video so that you can see things that are present in the video but too small to be noticed by the human eye. In this application the super seeing algorithm is turned on the humble green leaf and guess what - we can see photosynthesis.

Boston Dynamics & Shaft Sold To SoftBank   Wednesday 14 June

SoftBank, the Japanese company which already owns Aldebaran, creators of the Nao humanoid robot, has agreed to buy both Boston Dynamics and Shaft, the two robotics companies owned by Alphabet, Google's parent company. This seems to be the end of Google's foray into robotics. 

MicroPython Demoed Running Bare Metal In Browser   Tuesday 13 June

The developers of MicroPython have developed the ability to run MicroPython "bare metal" in a web browser. MicroPython is an implementation of Python optimised to run on microcontrollers and in constrained environments.

Blockly 1.0 on Android and iOS   Tuesday 13 June

Google has released Version 1.0 of Blockly on Android and iOS, which will allow developers to use Blockly natively in mobile apps.

Updated Rust Improves Documentation   Monday 12 June

There's a new version of the systems programming language Rust with improvements to package handling and rewritten documentation.

InkScape Moves To GitLab   Monday 12 June

The open source vector graphics editor, Inkscape, has moved to GitLab. One reason for the move was because its existing Launchpad code platform and repository system was off putting to new contributors and made working on Inkscape harder for existing developers.

More Machine Learning Applied to Google Sheets   Monday 12 June

Google has just released an update to Sheets, its spreadsheet application, which extends its Explore facility to creating charts for instantly visualizing data.

Silly Sliders - Compete To Create The Silliest Volume Control   Sunday 11 June

Programmers on the Reddit Programmer Humor group have been having fun with volume control sliders. Some of them provide food for thought as well as a chuckle.

MetaLimbs: A Way To Have An Extra Pair Of Arms   Saturday 10 June

Have you ever wanted a second set of arms? Now you can have your wish come true with the help of robotic MetaLimbs.

Pharo 6.0 Moves To 64-Bit   Friday 09 June

Pharo 6.0 has a new code changes management system, and 64-bit versions for Linux and OSX. Pharo is an open-source Smalltalk inspired language and core library.

CrashScope Gets Android Crash Data So You Can Reproduce It   Friday 09 June

One of the standard problems on any platform is reproducing a crash. that a user has reported. The problem is that you don't gather the sort of data before the crash that would help reproduce it. Now there is a program that will provide you with the information you need.

Apple Launches Planet Of The Apps   Thursday 08 June

Apple has launched its new reality TV show, Planet of the Apps.  The show has been described as a mix of Shark Tank and The Voice.

Mozilla Updates and Renames MDN   Thursday 08 June

Mozilla Developer Network, generally referred to as MDN, is preparing for a new brand identity and a new look for its site, along with more content and additional features. Mozilla is inviting feedback from beta testers so if you don't like the proposed logo sign up and have your say.

The Core

The Programmers Guide To Kotlin - The Basics   Monday 12 June

There is renewed interest in Kotlin, the open source Java replacement language pioneered by JetBrains, now that Google has decided to support it as the third official Android development language. What better time could there be to find out what it is and how to use it. 

Babbage's Bag

Binary Arithmetic   Thursday 08 June

What could be simpler than binary arithmetic? It’s just two-fingered counting and, once you know how it works, it seems natural for a computer to use it. But decimal is so built into our hands that it took quite a long time before we realized that two fingers were enough.