Hooked Media turns in an entirely new take on app recommendation — one that Apple can’t kill

May 23, 2013 2:55 PM John Koetsier

App recommendation engines are getting booted from Apple's app store because they suck, according to a new player in the app-finding business. But Hooked Media has come up with an entirely new take on app recommendation that has two unique qualities.

Facebook’s newly acquired mobile tool welcomes all developers, even those who hate Facebook

May 23, 2013 1:51 PM Dylan Tweney

Dylan Tweney

Just days after landing on Facebook's campus, the founder of Parse says there will be no changes to his business -- and that means Facebook is increasingly a multiplatform development tool.

Google reduces App Engine cloud costs by up to 25% (Amazon, next move is yours)

May 23, 2013 9:24 AM John Koetsier

John Koetsier

All that's missing are the streamers, balloons, and cheesy Best Price Ev-ah signs. Because the price competition between Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Rackspace is heating up so fast, the cloud market could be a massive virtual used car lot.

Marissa Mayer and Yahoo are on fire, acquiring gaming company PlayerScale

May 23, 2013 8:31 AM John Koetsier

John Koetsier

If I can paraphrase a popular Alicia Keys song, this woman is on fire. Marissa Mayer is clearly moving Yahoo back into the center of the Silicon Valley tech conversation.

Developers say open standards will win in the native v. web war

May 23, 2013 5:00 AM Jolie O'Dell

Jolie O'Dell

Clearly, everyone and their dog is thinking mobile first these days. But what's more interesting in the survey is that the majority of developers aren't looking to iOS or Android to do so.

3-D printed trachea splint saves baby’s life

May 22, 2013 9:22 PM John Koetsier

John Koetsier

A Michigan baby's life was saved by the insertion of a 3-D printed trachea at two months old.

No!! Father of Graphics Interchange Format says it’s pronounced JIF, not GIF

May 22, 2013 3:47 PM John Koetsier

John Koetsier

Worlds are shaking as the father of the Graphics Interchange Format, ye trusty old bitmap image standby for animated images on Cheezburger and Reddit and every where geeks wanna have fun, says it's pronounced JIF, not GIF.

Adobe acquires Behance iOS app maker Thumb Labs

May 22, 2013 12:56 PM Jolie O'Dell

Jolie O'Dell

Behance (and Thumb Labs) represent Adobe's best attempt to be social and give designers and developers more and better tools for showcasing their work.

Avoiding sucking: How to make an app people actually want to use

May 21, 2013 2:42 PM Derek Henninger

Guest Post Ultimately, the world is witnessing a fundamental phase shift in the way applications are built and designed. Keeping these new basics in mind will let you create and deploy robust apps that people actually want to use -- and can use, crash-free.

Twitter granted pull-to-refresh patent that everyone already uses (and sort of gives it away)

May 21, 2013 2:28 PM John Koetsier

John Koetsier

The developer of pull-to-refresh was so concerned about how Twitter would use his patent that he asked Twitter to agree with him -- as part of the terms of the sale of his company -- that it would never use the patent offensively.

Who needs databases? Orchestrate closes massive $3M seed round to turn NoSQL into NoDB

May 21, 2013 4:31 AM John Koetsier

John Koetsier

Who needs SQL? In fact, who needs databases?

Leap Motion shows off Windows 8 ‘touch free’ computing (and it’s awesome)

May 20, 2013 4:32 PM John Koetsier

John Koetsier

"We want our users to have a magical experience, with easy and natural movements in the air leading to amazing interactions," co-founder David Holz said. "Leap Motion's mission is to break down the barriers between people and technology."

Busted: Microsoft intercepts, decrypts, and reads your Skype messages

May 20, 2013 4:02 PM John Koetsier

John Koetsier

Skype used to be what you would use to send secure, encrypted, and untraceable messages to friends, family, and business associates all over the world. Not any more.

Health care developers who build on Box get HIPAA compliance for free

May 20, 2013 12:03 PM Meghan Kelly

Meghan Kelly

Developers may be hesitant to build apps based on health data because of security compliance roadblocks, but it seems there's a workaround way to get HIPAA on your side.

The Jolla ‘Other Half’ is the Nokia version of an Android smartphone. Sort of

May 20, 2013 9:04 AM John Koetsier

John Koetsier

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a Finish mobile company was working on a ground-breaking game-changing world-shaking new smartphone operating system based on Linux rising from the ashes of Intel's Moblin and its own Maemo projects.