Articles about Developer Tool

Size isn't everything when selecting an enterprise content management (ECM) solution, according to independent global analysts Ovum. Companies also need to consider vendors in terms of market share, profitability, and capability to support the deployment along with the enterprise’s own business requirements through its lifetime.

In its latest Ovum Decision Matrix, which is focused on the selection of ECM solutions, the analysts reveal that file sync and share is becoming the next must-have feature as organizations demand secure ways of sharing information outside the corporate firewall. In addition, end users are demanding empowerment through the use of social media in a business context, as well as increased support across various mobile platforms.

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Looking at the the biggest stories on BetaNews from August, 18 - 24, 2013. Perhaps the biggest news from the last seven days -- at least in part because it came as such a surprise to most people -- was the announcement that Steve Ballmer intends to resign from Microsoft within the year. The CEO is planning to step down as soon as a suitable replacement is found, but there has been speculation that Ballmer may have been pushed rather than opting to jump.

Getting my hands on a Surface Pro for the first time gave me an opportunity to try out Windows 8 as a touchscreen operating system. Despite loving the Surface in general, I pondered whether the use of the same version of Windows 8 as on desktop machine may have been what's stopping Microsoft’s convertible devices from becoming more popular. At the same time, Brian fell in love with the Lenovo Yoga, citing Windows 8 as one of the computer’s strengths.

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Becoming a developer for platforms such as iOS and Android is relatively simple, but the same has not always been true for anyone looking to break into the world of serious gaming. Microsoft is keen to help out, and the new Independent Developers @ Xbox (ID@Xbox) program aims to make it possible for small-scale devs to work in the same arena as the big players.

At Gamescon, Microsoft today unveils details of the program and Director of ID@Xbox, Chris Charla, is keen to welcome the next generation of developers who will usher in a new breed of games. The scheme will enable developers to publish their own games on Xbox One and gain access to the same development kits and resources that are already available to leaders in the market.

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The SaaS alert and incident tracking company PagerDuty has announced the addition of webhooks to its software to streamline integration with other tools.

Development teams will be able to improve collaboration and incident response by customizing their web applications. This allows improved reporting and alerting so that, for example, any changes to the status of a logged entry will cause messages to be sent automatically.

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California-based Ravello Systems has released its Cloud Application Hypervisor. It may have a name straight out of sci-fi, but this product allows enterprises to use public cloud platforms to test their in-house applications.

Differences in storage, networking and virtualization techniques have previously prevented the use of the cloud as a practical test platform. Ravello's software makes any public cloud look and feel exactly like the enterprise data center from an application's perspective.

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On Tuesday AnandTech published a report that suggested some sort of "trickery" was being used by Samsung to boost device performance when benchmarks are run. The Korean electronics manufacturer responded to the claims today, and while it does not deny that performance is adjusted when benchmarking tools are running, it refutes the suggestion that changes to the frequency of the Galaxy S4's GPU during benchmarking are "intended to improve [these] results".

Investigations started after a post on the Beyond3D forum claimed that the GPU speed was usually limited to 480MHz but increased to 532MHz when certain whitelisted apps were running. Benchmarks using older testing apps gave worse performance results than newer ones for user frogblast.

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Development company FatFractal has launched its new Cloud-in-a-Box solution to make it easier for enterprises to deploy software in public or private clouds or in traditional data centers.

The company's Platform as a Service (Paas) and Backend as a Service (BaaS) products allow developers to create tailored solutions without the need for repetitive steps. FatFractal CEO, Kevin Nickels says, "We've hit the right balance between out-of-the-box services like security, scalability and performance without limiting the developer’s ability to do whatever they want".

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Day two's keynote at the Microsoft Build 2013 developer conference focused on the company's commitment to the Windows Azure mobile development program.

Azure Mobile Services and Azure Web Sites move from preview to general availability status. Mobile Services makes it easier for developers to build connected, scalable apps for Windows, Android and iOS, whilst Web Sites makes it simple to create and run webpages. There were also previews of new Azure technologies including Auto Scale, offering the ability to adjust capacity according to customers' needs. Plus a preview of enhancements for Azure Active Directory.

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Developers, developers, developers! No Microsoft did not forget you today during the kickoff of Build. Windows 8.1 may have been the headline, but those behind the real development were not left out from the proceedings. Microsoft today rolls out the 2013 edition of Visual Studio in Preview mode.

The IDE software is used by developers on a daily basis to create console and graphical user interface applications. The software debuted back in 1997 and has progressed ever since.

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Telerik, a company that specializes in development tools and solutions for building cross-platform and mobile applications, today announces the latest evolution of Telerik DevCraft, delivering what it claims is better and faster development of .NET apps for modern devices.

Citing recent research by analyst firm Canalys, Telerik says Microsoft's market share for mobile adoption is forecast to grow from 2.4 percent in 2012 to 12.7 percent in 2017, and its new toolset has been prepared to take advantage of that market growth. The toolset is for both XAML and HTML and is built to provide .NET and HTML5 developers with an array of tools to deliver modern, clean mobile applications, including Calendar, Image and Tile controls.

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Apple events are always preceded by rumours and occasional leaks, so we usually have at least a rough idea of what to expect prior to the keynote. There haven’t been any major leaks ahead of this year’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference which could mean one of two things -- there’s nothing really big coming, or there’s something so big to be announced, security is super tight.

We do know some of what Apple CEO Tim Cook will talk about when he takes to the stage later today, and we have a good idea of what else might be announced, so prepare to get excited for the following…

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Taking center stage at Computex 2013, ARM's Cortex-A12 architecture and Mali-T622 GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) are setting their sights on the mid-range mobile device market.

According to an ARM spokesperson, there will be at least 580 million mid-range mobile devices hitting the competitive mobile space over the next two years -- with the mid-range market projected to exceed the number of high-end smartphones and tablets beginning in 2015. As such, it comes as little surprise that ARM is bolstering its mid-range portfolio, with the UK-based company looking beyond the high-end market which is currently dominated by Apple's wildly popular iPhone and Android handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S4. Both devices are powered by ARM-based silicon.

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Not everyone is a web-coding whizz, or wants to learn the intricacies of HTML, CSS, PHP or other web-based programming languages. Xara Web Designer 9 is aimed squarely at those who prefer to design websites using desktop publishing tools, where what you see on-screen is what you expect to see with the finished design. Over recent years, Web Designer has built into a powerful, user-friendly tool that -- a few quirks aside -- makes designing websites as simple as putting together magazines, newsletters or brochures.

At first glance it looks beginner-friendly: pick a template, import your text and graphics, and build your site page-by-page at a time. But that does Web Designer a disservice, because if you delve deeper, you’ll find it has all the tools you need to design more complex sites that are attractive to look at, easy to navigate and bursting with support for all the latest technologies, from Flash-based animations to interactive widgets.

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Just yesterday, I suggested that Gmail for iOS, which new version links to Google apps rather than Safari, might be a bigger deal. Sure enough, is it ever. The search and information giant is hellbent on co-opting Apple's mobile platform by offering superior apps tightly tied to web services. But the strategy depends on Chrome.

Contrary to popular tech convention, Android isn't the future of Google platforms, neither is Chrome OS, nor is an amalgamation of the two. The browser is the go-forward platform of choice. Android and Chrome stand apart, competing with operating systems like iOS and Windows. Chrome can co-opt them and others. The browser is more natural fit for Google services and anchors them anywhere. This is the lesson from March's corporate shake-up that put Android under Sundar Pichai, who leads Chrome and Apps.

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While many of us upgrade software by simply clicking a link -- frequently found in the Help menu -- many Visual Studio users would prefer other options. In fact, Demand is high for an ISO version of the latest update to the integrated developer environment, which recently moved the 2012 product to update 2.

Microsoft points out that many customers install Visual Studio Updates from the 'toast' pop-up notification or from the Extensions and Updates dialog. In tracking the release feedback, Microsoft also observed a set of users requesting an ISO image as an alternative way to download the update. The primary reasons seen for such requests, the company claims, is familiarity both with the format and with various download management tools.

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