It’s a great day when Internet giant Google open sources the programs it uses to build well-known favourites such as GMail, Docs and Google Maps. It announced on its blog that it will be making a lot of it’s own development software available to developers all over the world. This release comes as Google are undoubtedly upgrading their own tools especially with the upcoming launch of Google Wave.
The first of the three tools they released is called Closure Compiler which helps developers trim down code and optimize it for better performance. There is also a plug-in for Firefox released alongside this so they can view heir Java Script code in the browser.
The second one is called Library which is a tool to help build Java Script Apps. Here is what Google said on their official blog about the program:
The Closure Library is a JavaScript library that provides many features that are useful for building web applications across browsers. It helps to abstract browser differences and provides clean class and function interfaces for common tasks. Besides DOM interaction and UI tools, the library includes tools for arrays, objects, string manipulation and much more. The library also implements a name spacing and import standard, which helps keep scripts small and load fast when used with the Closure Compiler.
The third and final release until further notice was Templates. This is an app that is for creating HTML elements that can be used within Java Script.
Closure Templates simplify the task of dynamically creating HTML and have an easy-to-read syntax. They allow you to write templates for reusable HTML and UI elements that can be used within JavaScript or on the server side in Java. They also have excellent run-time performance because they are never parsed on the client side.
Over the next month or so there is undoubtedly going to be a big rush of new Java apps and programs onto the market thanks to the Google outsourcing. Be sure to stay in touch with Crenk to stay informed!
The iTunes app store is reportedly worth $2.5 billion and this is bringing more and more developers to the platform. If your a develop the first thing you do is sit down and sketch out your idea.
Introducing the iPhone Design Template Sketchbook:
Now available in “most countries” for $16,99 at appsketchbook.com.
Alternatively take a look at how the people at CulturedCode solved this ‘problem’:
So you want an app, where do you go? The Apple App Store of Course. It’s been running now for a little over a year and there has already been over 50,000 apps added with over one billion downloads. Without any shred of doubt, it’s the market leader in the app world. However, now, Verizon have announced that they too will be launching an App store in the fourth quarter of this year to compete with Apple.
They, in the past, have been criticized for blocking certain apps and having limited selections for their phones. They have indeed seen the error of their ways. Speaking at their first ever developers conference in San Jose, California.
“It’s a new day (in wireless),” McAdam, Verizon CEO said in the opening address of the developer conference which was also Webcast. “And our future success is no longer in the walled-garden. Our success is tied to you (developers).
This would make for a nice touch to the current Verizon services. By giving users an app store you’re giving them one more reason to stay with you rather than search for greener pastures. I can’t see there being as many apps as the Apple App Store simply because Verizon don’t have the same kind of image that Apple has –sleek, cool and ultra-modern. However, their users will most certainly be impressed. Let’s hope us critics are too when it launches. Keep checking Crenk for updates on this story.
Disclaimer: These books are available to download for a short period of time, so you better hurry!
Microsoft Press guys are celebrating their 25th anniversary by giving away free e-books every month. This time the books that you can download completely free are:
For the IT guys, Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services Resource Kit.
And for those geek programmers, a nice “best-practices” book: The Practical Guide to Defect Prevention.
There’s no catch to get the PDF file, just click on the links and sign-up with a Passport account.
Enjoy!
There are so many alternative search engines in the market today. I came across a new alternative search engine that might be work bookmarking, ErrorKey. ErrorKey is a new search engine dedicated to provide results for any error you encounter. Developed in a way that it crawls across the web to search for information associated to various errors plus builds itself up from contribution by users and other developers alike, it just requires you to type in an error and get information about it. It also has pre-defined tags that contain search results associated to various devices, programs etc (HTTP to Cars). It’s neat and pretty useful if you are looking for errors alone.
Source: Startupmeme
It has been reported around the web yesterday evening that Meebo has partnered with Joost to provide Chat solutions.
Joost has chosen Meebo as the provider of chat solution on its IPTV service, but I really dont see the point and how this is going to enhance the user experience on Joost. When users log onto IPTV services they do so for the one reason of watch TV shows Free, not to chat to their friends. If they did use the service to chat to their friends how are they going to see what is on the TV, because although it is transparent to some degree, it is still going to be annoying. Thus if you wanted to run both at the same time why not just minimise the Joost service and run Meebo or another chat client in another window. Overlays just dont work!
It’s a great day when Internet giant Google open sources the programs it uses to build well-known favourites such as GMail, Docs and Google Maps. It announced on its blog that it will be making a lot of it’s own development software available to developers all over the world. This release comes as Google are undoubtedly upgrading their own tools especially with the upcoming launch of Google Wave.
