No shortage of requests from Android devs at Google team's 'fireside chat'

While Wednesday's release of Android 4.1 -- better known as Jelly Bean -- introduced a host of improvements to Google's mobile platform, a "fireside chat" that evening demonstrated that the developer community is far from completely satisfied with the state of their environment.

Google open source engineering manager Chris DiBona moderated the session, which featured key leaders on the Android team on stage, flanked by large projections of a burning fireplace. (DiBona said that the source was a YouTube video titled "98 minutes of fire.") Developers asked questions both online and in person from the event floor.

MORE GOOGLE I/O COVERAGE: First look -- Google's new Nexus 7 tablet

Particularly in response to questions about future plans, the team was relatively cagey, frequently avoiding overly specific answers. Nevertheless, plenty of illuminating details were provided.

The Google Play store dominated much of the discussion, with the team fielding questions over everything from support for overseas Android merchant accounts to music APIs for the cloud-based Play music service.

The latter issue sparked some debate -- while the team confirmed that there aren't any public APIs available for music stored in the cloud, such a feature wasn't ruled out for the future.

"Having streaming music is really neat and important ... but I don't think [its absence] means the end to all on-device files and on-device music players," said DiBona. Team member Dan Morrill clarified that such an API might still exist in the future.

Another developer described his struggles to track download numbers for his apps.

"I've been keeping a spreadsheet by hand, every day, of the number of downloads. I still have to do that, even with all the stuff you guys have added," he said.

"I don't have a schedule to announce, but I agree with you, that seems like important information," responded the team's Ficus Kirkpatrick.

The longstanding strike against Android was discussed as well, with one questioner remarking on how difficult the wide range of hardware and software configurations possible under Android made it for game developers in particular.

Google's Dave Sparks replied that "we're working directly with all the chipset vendors" on standardization projects aimed at ensuring easy cross-functionality. It's still a problem, however, because many vendors use proprietary texture formats, complicating such efforts.

The green android that serves as Android's mascot has no official name, but Dan Morrill revealed that, amongst themselves, the team refers to it as "the bugdroid." Kirkpatrick also said that Android market gift cards are under consideration.

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.

Read more about software in Network World's Software section.

Network World is an InfoWorld affiliate.


Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/no-shortage-of-requests-android-devs-google-teams-fireside-chat-196723

iOS Maps Goes On Location With Yelp

Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) upcoming, self-made Maps app for iOS will include a check-in feature that ties in with review site Yelp, further integrating social networking and location-based services into iOS 6, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The new integration will allow iPhone users to check in right on Apple's Maps screen rather than access the site via Yelp's separate app.

Yelp provides user reviews of restaurants, bars and other businesses. In 2010, it launched a check-in feature on its mobile app. Sites such as FourSquare and Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) offer similar services. Locations such as hair salons or restaurants can offer rewards and special deals to users who check in to the location, thereby providing the business with more exposure.

A partnership between Yelp and iOS 6 could help Yelp compete in location-based service.

The feature is reportedly included in screenshots in an Apple developer kit given to programmers earlier this month.

Apple Breathing New Life Into Maps

Apple unveiled its new Maps app at its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, breaking its ties with Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Maps, its previous default map service. The new, in-house Apple Maps will feature 3D and flyover map views. And The new features will also have additional Yelp integration - Siri, the iPhone's voice-activated personal assistant, will provide restaurant recommendations based on locations that contain Yelp reviews.

 

Apple's main focus on Maps is to go local, Larry Orman, executive director at GreenInfo Network, told MacNewsWorld. That is the key focus in Web mapping innovation now, he said. A smartphone can be a great tool to connect to the rest of the world, but the biggest use -- and the biggest focus for mobile advertisers -- is within a user's small physical radius.

"Web mapping for mobile is a big deal and getting bigger," he said. "Over time, smartphones will extend a user's geographic awareness far beyond what it is now, enabling users to 'see through' the physical space around them. This will mostly be in immediate areas -- a block, a quarter mile, etc." 

Location-Based Services on the Rise

Integrating with websites that can tie in a mobile phone user to the commercial spaces around them can be a potential moneymaker going forward, Matt Sheehan, principal & senior geospatial developer at WebMapSolutions, told MacNewsWorld.

"I think the interesting part of this announcement is that Apple are potentially going to shake up the consumer-focused location-based services sector," he said. "That's clearly their focus. "

That focus on taking mobile maps to the next level is one way that the new services will be able to compete with main maps competitor Google, said Sheehan, a company that has provided both consumer and business app geo-tools. But whether or not checking into Yelp via a map will become the next social networking phenomenon remains to be seen, said Sheehan, since competitors other than Google are also clamoring to get into the space.

"Time will tell," he said. "No doubt the location-based services market is where we are seeing money focused. FourSquare were early into the game. Now we are seeing a flood of small companies entering the location-based services space. A few with great ideas, but too many resembling what became dot-com busts during the dot-com bubble burst."

With Apple's iOS 6 infrastructure already in place, though, even if the service doesn't catch on right away, it is still positive movement forward within the Web mapping industry, Sheehan said.

"Their targeting of the location-based sector, with announcements like today's, will raise the bar on the quality of services provided and will inject a healthy dose of new innovation," said Sheehan.

Neither Apple nor Yelp returned our requests for comment.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/75473.html

Eclipse Juno Release Makes Java Developers Smarter

The Eclipse Foundation is aiming to make Java developers smarter, more productive and better equipped to build mobile applications and apps that leverage the “Internet of Things” with its latest release train known as Juno.

For the ninth year in a row the Eclipse Foundation has issued an annual release train of simultaneous projects. This year’s release, available as of June 27, is the largest ever—with 72 projects being released representing 55 million lines of code coming from 445 open-source committers. By comparison, last year’s Indigo release had 62 projects and 46 million lines of code.

The Eclipse release train has become something of a phenomenon in the open-source software industry and a tradition for the end of June. More than 40 Eclipse member companies contributed to the Juno release, which makes the Eclipse platform more stable while delivering greater productivity for developers.

Perhaps the biggest change with Juno is that it is based on the Eclipse 4.x platform, which the foundation has been working on for the last few years. Eclipse 4.2 in now the mainstream platform for the Eclipse community.  The existing Eclipse 3.x code stream is being put into maintenance mode.  Eclipse 4.2 includes a compatibility layer that allows existing Eclipse plug-ins and Rich Client Platform (RCP) applications to work on the new platform. Essentially, Eclipse 4 changes the way plug-in access services by implementing a dependency injection model.

“Each year the commitment and dedication of the Eclipse committers demonstrate that Eclipse is a great example of open source distributed development that ships on a predictable schedule, and scales to tens of millions of lines of code,” said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, in a statement. “I am especially happy Juno is based on the Eclipse 4.2 platform, thus providing a stable platform for continued innovation in the Eclipse community.”

In a blog post on Eclipse 4, Jonas Helming, general manager of EclipseSource, a maker of Eclipse components and productivity tools, said, “In Eclipse 4, the application model defines the workbench, including views, menu contributions and key bindings. The model doesn’t require that you first implement the single components. For example, you can work with the model without implementing a view.”

“From a feature function perspective, with Juno we’re switching over to the 4.x platform,” Ian Skerrett, vice president of marketing and ecosystem at the Eclipse Foundation, told eWEEK. “We’ve been working on the 4.x series for a few years. One thing we’ve been working on is the compatibility layer, and we expect a smooth transition.”


Source: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Eclipse-Juno-Release-Makes-Java-Developers-Smarter-258417/

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