Wednesday
Mar302016

Microsoft: Windows Phone isn't our focus this year

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Microsoft unloaded a heady mix of exciting announcements, new technologies and developer news at its first Build 2016 conference keynote today. The company is pushing productivity and creativity, putting the Pen front and centre of the experience and getting ready to make Windows 10 even more universal.

One thing that seemed to be missing was any mention of moribund Windows Phone. The company, who kept mentioning Android and iOS in its demos, is apparently putting mobile on hold. The Verge's Tom Warren quizzed Windows and devices head Terry Myerson about this and the response doesn't sound good.

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Wednesday
Mar302016

Waze now warns you if you go over the speed limit

Adding more functionality to an already useful app, Waze is letting its users know if you're driving over the speed limit. If you use the app to navigate it will use the same visuals as the photo above to let you know if you've exceeded the speed limit. You can automatically set audio warnings if you've hit the limit or you're over it by 5, 10, or 15 percent. As everything else, the speed limit of a particular area is being sourced from its community. The feature is currently available in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Czech Republic, El Salvador, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad, Tobago, and Uruguay but Waze promises it will be available in other areas soon.

Source: 9to5Mac

Wednesday
Mar302016

Google brings Cardboard SDK to iOS

As the rumours have suggested, Google is bringing its Cardboard SDK to iOS developers. This means, developers of iPhone apps can create apps that will work with Google's virtual reality viewer. The Google Cardboard is a low-cost viewer that lets you slot in your smartphone into the front of the viewer to bring both virtual and augmented reality experiences to you via apps.

Aside from launching the SDK for iOS, Google's also introduced VR view, a feature to let developers include immersive content within apps and websites. It can turn images and videos into 360-degree VR images and videos that can be viewed on the desktop or with a phone attached to a Cardboard viewer. Both the SDK and the tools needed to create VR views are available starting today.

Source: MacRumors

Wednesday
Mar302016

Apple's Safari Technology Preview released for developers to test and tweak new functions

Apple announced the Safari Technology Preview for developers is available today which focuses on new functionalities to the Safari browser. Available today, Safari Technology Preview brings the latest layout technologies, visual effects, and developer tools that provide input on how they are implemented and deliver an even better user experience across Apple devices.

Apple says Safari beats Chrome and Firefox in benchmarks, performing 1.15x faster in Jetstream, 2.2x faster in Speedometer and 6.0x faster in JSBench. Safari can browse the web up to two hours longer than Chrome and Firefox, it can also watch Netflix videos up to four hours longer.

In Safari Technology Preview developers can get the latest web technologies, including HTML, JavaScript and CSS and WebKit. They can get access to the latest versions of Web Inspector and Responsive Design Mode to modify, debug, and optimize their websites. Apple is making this available so devs can integrate into their websites for improved compatibility. A Bug Reporter is also available to send feedback directly to Apple about issues and enhancement requests.