Sony has decided to release a sequel to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) for Xperia S it began in August of 2012, and took over from Google in November of last year. This time, the Xperia Z is getting its own project, which means that the company’s water resistant flagship phone will get to participate in the kind of Android development work more often reserved for Google-blessed Nexus devices.

Sony’s Xperia S AOSP experiment was well-received, though it was eventually moved away from the AOSP main branch to Sony’s own GitHub, owing to the limitations of what could be done with the hardware. Sony software engineers Johan Redestig and Björn Andersson want to help continue that work with Sony’s latest. The Xperia Z project will help developers and tinkerers interested in making contributions to Android, and to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro platform do so using essentially a vanilla Android OS installation on the device, albeit starting out on Sony’s own GitHub, and not as part of Google’s own main AOSP project.

Before you go thinking that this is a way to turn your every day Xperia Z into a stock Android Nexus device, however, note that use of the AOSP comes with a few big caveats: It can read the SD card, use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, the LED notification light and sensors, but the modem and camera are dependent upon proprietary binaries that Sony can’t release to the public. And still other binaries have been released by Qualcomm and Xperia Z, and are provided by Sony’s developer partners, but can’t technically be part of the AOSP efforts because they aren’t open source code. Sony plans to try to replace at least some of those binaries with source code as the project progresses, however.

While this isn’t quite as exciting as when Google added the Xperia S as a hardware target to its own AOSP main branch, it’s still good news for developers and the development community, and should help broadly with contributions to Android and its evolution as well.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

When Google acquired Nik Software, the development shop behind the popular Snapseed mobile photography app, it wasn’t clear what Google’s plans for Nik’s other products was. Today, Google announced that it has created a $149 bundle that includes all of Nik Software’s six plugins for Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture. This bundle, the Nik Collection by Google, is about 70% cheaper than buying Nik’s old “Complete Collection.” Google will also offer a 15-day free trial.

The bundle includes the HDR photography tool HDR Efex Pro 2, Color Efex Pro 4 for color correction and retouching, Sliver Efex Pro 2 for black-and-white photography, Viveza 2 for selectively adjusting the color and tonality of images, Sharpener Pro 3 and Dfine 2 for noise reduction.

Google’s Vic Gundotra always said Google would continue to offer Nik’s high-end tools and plugins , but today’s announcement will surely come as welcome news to Nik Software’s existing customers, especially given that the Snapseed desktop apps for Mac and Windows got the ax during Google’s latest spring cleaning round. It was never quite clear what Nik Software’s role inside of Google would be, besides likely adding some Snapseed features to the Google+ app, but right after the acquisition, Gundotra assured Nik’s users that Google cared “deeply about their artistry.”

Talking to our own Drew Olanoff after the acquisition, the Snapseed Team noted that the company had launched Snapseed to “ bring sophisticated photo editing and post-processing to the masses, which was clearly what interested Google in the first place.” For Google, the acquisition was about more than just Snapseed, though, and now that the Nik Collection is available, it will be interesting to see how and when the team will update the actual plugins.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

AppDynamics has added a new capability to solve application issues without manual intervention.

Wit the new “Application Run Book Automation” offering, the customer pre-defines the conditions for the service to execute. For example, the user could indicate that if the server’s performance drops below a certain level, a “restart” will automatically occur. Notifications are via email or text.

The service can be set to automatically fix the following:

• Application Run Book Automation can be set to:
• Initiate a thread dump
• Restart a server
• Execute scripts from Chef or Puppet
• Run existing run books or scripts
• Create an incident/ticket in service management consoles such as Jira or ServiceNow
• Trigger PagerDuty workflows

According to AppDynamics, Application Run Book Automation unifies monitoring and management. It provides a way for operations and development teams to resolve problems. For example, issues such as thread dumps can be triggered automatically based on a series of pre-set conditions.

AppDynamics is in the increasingly competitive application performance management space where analytics is a core differentiator. AppDynamics uses byte-code instrumentation to map the topology of an application. This draws a “map” of the application that adjusts automatically with each code release. The effect is to eliminate the “black box” nature of an application and let the user see all dependencies and identify problems quickly.

New Relic uses analytics for its APM service and is expected to extend its capabilities as this sector of the development tool market gets increasingly competitive.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Nike may not be planning to release an Android companion app for its activity-tracking FuelBand, but rival Fitbit is eager to make sure that health-conscious Droid owners are well taken care of. To that end, the company pushed out a new version of its Fitbit Android app that finally brings Bluetooth 4.0 sync support to Samsung’s Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II.

It’s sure to be welcome news for Android-devoted owners of the Fitbit One or Fitbit Zip (the forthcoming Flex wristband is supported too), but let’s face it — wireless sync support for two smartphones may seem a little underwhelming. Still, it’s certainly a step in the right direction, especially considering just how widely those particular Samsung handsets are.

As more than a few people pointed out the other day, Android-powered devices make up a huge chunk of the global smartphone market and basically ignoring all those users like Nike has is a course of action that seems awfully silly.Even so, Fitbit’s slow rollout is rather telling — while the company has said that it will work to bring wireless syncing to more devices in the weeks and months to come, ensuring a smooth and timely sync experience doesn’t really seem to be a one-size-fits-all process.

Even Fitbit representatives acknowledge that this most recent version of the app isn’t exactly perfect. Apparently, the development team still thinks of this release as something of a beta since the sync process still takes a little longer than they would like. Sadly, my Fitbit has disappeared into the wilds of my desk drawer, so I couldn’t see how long it took for me personally, but those of you with all the prerequisite hardware may as well give it a shot.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Apple and Google still represent the bulk of reviewed commits contributing to the ongoing development of WebKit, the open source web browser engine that powers Safari and Chrome, among others. Google accounts for the bulk of commits, having overtaken Apple in that regard back in 2009 (though Apple still does much more with fewer authors actually writing code), but the more interesting story here is that the impact of other parties is steadily growing.

Bitergia, a company that analyses free, libre and open source software projects, gathered data on the development of WebKit in a new report, showing that she share of reviewed commits coming from parties other than Apple and Google is at 25 percent and growing, higher than it has been in the past. Around five companies were actively contributing to WebKit back in 2007, but that number has risen to over 20 today, and the picture of which of those companies is contributing the most tells a story about changing fortunes and goals for companies building products for the web.

Nokia, for instance, was once a significant contributor to Webkit, with its contribution peaking around late 2011 (which is also when the Windows 7-powered Lumia line first appeared, and when MeeGo was still a going concern). Lately, however, Nokia’s contribution has dropped off dramatically, with both its monthly commits and authors working on WebKit taking a steep dive. That may show where Nokia’s priorities lie as it becomes more of a dedicated hardware partner running more or less on software provided by Microsoft.

BlackBerry, in stark contrast, has increased its contributions and authors working on WebKit by almost inverse proportion to Nokia. It’s impact has grown steeply since 2011, which is in keeping with the development of BB OS 10 and its WebKit-based browser, an element of the OS the company placed a lot of emphasis on at launch.

Apple and Google are still the most invested in the development of WebKit, and for good reason, but the changing picture of reviewed commits helping the engine along means we’re seeing a more diverse set of interests represented in the project than ever before, and it’ll be interesting to see where that takes us.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Y Combinator founder Paul Graham tweeted today that the accelerator’s 464 startup graduates (prior to its current batch) have raised an average of $3.18 million in funding each, which means YC’s companies have landed a total of just under $1.5 billion.

The 464 startups Y Combinator funded prior to the current batch raised an average of $3.18 million.

—
Paul Graham (@paulg) February 08, 2013

When Billy covered the incubator’s progress last summer, YC had launched 380 companies, which had raised just over $1 billion in total, with each company averaging about $2.7 million. So, over the course of the last six months (or one batch in YC terms), the accelerator’s startups have raised nearly $500 million and increased their average raise by nearly $500K. Granted, as Billy pointed out at the time, those statistics are skewed by the top alums, like Dropbox and Airbnb, which have raised $257 million and $120 million, respectively, accounting for nearly 30 percent of total funding.

Y Combinator, as many of you may know, launched in 2005 and selects two classes of startups per year into their three month program, during which the expanding team of mentors connects their teams with investors and invests in the companies. Initially, Yuri Milner and Ron Conway’s Start Fund invested $150K in each startup, however, in November, the accelerator created a new fund called YC VC and decreased its investment to $80K per startup in an effort to “become more startup friendly.”

YC VC also aimed to provide more time and involvement from VCs in the development of startups, and Graham has said previously that the partners have been looking to lower the overall size of its startup classes.

Graham explained at the time: “The reason we accepted fewer applications was that in summer 2012 we grew too fast … We had 66 companies in winter 2012, and that was fine, but for some reason more things than usual broke when we jumped from 66 to 84.”

This comes on the heels of YC beginning to accept applications for its Summer 2013 batch, which will begin in April, with applications due by March 29. So, startups can expect that, while the total number of applications for YC has continued to grow as the incubator grows in renown, the next class size won’t continue the current trend. Instead, Graham said that there may be less than 50 companies in the mix this time around.

Applications open for summer 2013 Y Combinator funding: ycombinator.com/apply.html

—
Paul Graham (@paulg) February 08, 2013

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

The team behind the OUYA Android game console clearly paid a lot of attention to its looks — they nabbed Yves Behar to design the thing, after all — but not every component has passed muster with the masses. Thankfully, after hearing some discontent from early backers and developers, OUYA has taken some crucial feedback about the console’s controller seriously and has decided to make some changes.

According to recent post on the official OUYA blog, the console’s controller will no longer sport those flat, disc-like d-pads — they’ve been replaced by a more standard cross-shaped affair that should look familiar to anyone to who’s done so much as glance a console controller in the last 20 years. The controller’s dual analog sticks have undergone a bit of a makeover too, as they now feature a grippier finish for increased precision, and the small touchpad nestled in the center of the controller has had its sensitivity bumped up to boot. Throw in some slightly-shifted left and right triggers and a battery door that isn’t as much of a hassle to open, and you’ve got yourself the makings of a half-decent controller.

Sure, some of these may seem like minor tweaks, but any avid gamer could tell you about the importance of fit, finish, and feel when it comes to a device they’re going to be clutching for hours. And hey, by reacting to feedback early enough in the development process, OUYA (with any luck) doesn’t have to deal with the wide-scale blowback from an underwhelming controller the way Microsoft did with its original, roasted ham-sized Xbox controller. It’s heartening to see that OUYA’s community-first approach to this whole undertaking wasn’t just limited to its means of raising money — hopefully the final product will be just as thoughtful when it starts shipping to the rest of us later this year.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

VictorOps, a stealthy enterprise startup based in Boulder has raised $1.58 million in seed funding led by the Foundry Group with participation from Chris Marks at Tango Investments and the startup’s three co-founders, Todd Vernon, Bryce Ambraziunas and Dan Jones.

The premise of the startup is based on the fact that the best engineered infrastructures, with all the appropriate levels of redundancy, require constant remediation to deliver 24

Facebook today launched the Preferred Marketing Developer Center to serve as a more robust directory of companies, tools and apps for social marketing and advertising.

PMD Center attempts to solve pain points for both developers and marketers. With so many companies offering tools and services for Facebook advertising, analytics, competitive analysis, monitoring, promotions, publishing and more, it is difficult for brands and agencies to sift through and find what’s right for them. A lot of time is spent seeking information and listening to pitches. For PMDs, it can be tough to get the right contacts and leads.

PMD Center introduces expanded company profile pages including case studies, white papers and other links. There’s also an integrated contact form for marketers to reach out to individual PMDs or submit an RFP to multiple vendors. The previous directory did not have these capabilities and was less intuitive to navigate.

The PMD program, launched in April, certifies developers with badges in up to four areas: ads, apps, pages and insights. There’s also a Strategic Preferred Marketing Developer classification, which gives 12 companies access to alpha and beta products, as well as more support from Facebook’s business, product and engineering teams. PMD Center allows marketers to search or browse companies by these categories, as well as more specific services or specialties.

Companies that are not officially qualified as PMDs but build on the Facebook Ads API or sell inventory through the Facebook Exchange are now included in the new directory, giving these companies more opportunities to reach potential clients.

Another significant change is that developers can update their own pages through a self-serve dashboard. This means PMDs can keep their profiles up to date and upload new white papers and case studies as they want, rather than having to request that Facebook make changes to its directory.

As we wrote about last month, PMD Center is one of a number of efforts Facebook is looking to make to help developers and marketers in the coming year. Facebook recently hired a sales liaison to help the internal sales team understand the capabilities of each PMD so representatives can connect brands and agencies with the right vendors. The company also hired a PMD marketing communications manager and has other open positions for a PMD business development manager and a few partner managers.

PMD Center follows in the footsteps of App Center, the improved apps and games directory launched in June. These centers feature more visuals and rotating content to draw users in and help them discover things of interest, even if they’re just browsing. For users who do know what they want, Facebook offers more options for searching and filtering results.

A difference with PMD Center and App Center, however, is that Facebook contracted out the development of PMD Center. UK social media agency Gamaroff Digital built the new directory, so it got a call out in Facebook’s latest developer blog post and appears as a “PMD highlight” on the homepage. This might not sit well with other PMDs.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Tweetie creator and UX prodigy Loren Brichter has just announced a new project, Atebits 2.0. Atebits was the name of his previous company that was bought by Twitter in 2010. He announced as well that his first project will be a game.

In November 2011, Brichter left Twitter to work on other projects. Now we finally know what he has been up to, and it seems to be a return to his previous endeavours.

Brichter invented the pull-to-refresh interaction in iPhone apps as well as other popular UX mechanisms. For example, users could swipe on a tweet in Tweetie 2.0 in order to reveal a series of actions. That interaction became widely popular as well.

Twitter owns a patent for the pull-to-refresh interaction, but the company has stated that it wouldn’t use it defensively thanks to the Innovator’s Patent Agreement. That is why even Apple started implementing pull-to-refresh in iOS 6 Mail’s app.

Brichter was the driving force behind Twitter’s first apps. The first Twitter app on the iPhone was a rebranded version of Tweetie 2. Later, Twitter released its own iPad and OS X apps with most of the development led by Brichter. Yet, Brichter’s work has now disappeared from Twitter’s apps with recent redesigns. The iPhone and iPad apps were redeveloped from the ground up, and the OS X app has been neglected for over a year.

Even though Atebits was acquired by Twitter, Brichter uses the same name once again. It looks like he is legally allowed to do that. Tweetie wasn’t his only app. He has worked on messaging app Textie and on OS X painting app Scribbles.

According to his personal Twitter account, his new game has been in review for 11 days.

Day 11. Waiting for Review.

—
Loren Brichter (@lorenb) October 15, 2012

Here’s the full blog post:

In 2007 I left Apple and started my own company. In 2010 that company was acquired by Twitter. Today I’m giving it another shot. Say hello to atebits 2.0.

My goal is simple. Make things. Fun things, useful things, new things, improved things. Some may be popular, some may be failures. But I love creating, so that’s what I’m going to do.

The first thing will be an app and that app will be a game. Can’t wait to share it with you.

Let’s wish him good luck.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch