NYC

Peter Chou is sharing HTC's graces at Uplinq 2011 with the announcement of OpenSense SDK, where the company hopes to recruit developers willing to create apps specifically for Sense 3.0. With help from the HTCdev community, software designers will receive tools to create a seamless experience between their applications and HTC's user environment (while also rendering their apps incompatible with non-HTC handsets). Beneath the skin, developers will be provided access to proprietary APIs that support 3D displays and tablet pens -- which could make quite the gaming session. There's currently no release date for the SDK, but the company is already taking names for a summer launch. So, if you're comfortable helping HTC build this barrier around Android's "open" mantra, we imagine there's some rather slick apps waiting to be given life. HTCdev

As if showing up in two of the first four reference devices for Windows on ARM wasn't enough of an achievement for NVIDIA's quad-core Kal-El superchip, it decided to visit us in person here at Computex to demonstrate its splendid graphical prowess. Running Android 3.1 on a 10-inch, 1280 x 800 screen, it gave us a first-hand look at the Glow Ball demo that wowed us in video form just a couple of days ago. What we saw on the dev tablet before us was no less impressive; lighting was being rendered in real time and scattered over a multiplicity of surfaces, while the cloth simulation was, to use a terrible pun, silky smooth. NVIDIA also ran us through a sightseeing tour of the Unreal Development Kit and  Lost Planet 2 , noting that the PC game took only a couple of months to port over to work on the Kal-El architecture. Unfortunately, no new details were forthcoming about when Kal-El devices might be coming or what developers we should...

BlackBerry 7 OS is coming soon but, to take advantage of all those fancy features like NFC and the digital compass (ok, some of them aren't  that  fancy), devs are going to need some new APIs -- enter the BlackBerry 7 Java SDK. Creators of BlackBerry apps can go download the beta of the new software development kit at the source link and start whipping up augmented reality browsers and 3D games, thanks to support for OpenGL ES 2.0. There's nothing mind-blowing about RIM's latest update, but we're glad to see the corporate stalwart start to catch up to other smartphone OSes, and it's only a matter of time before  Layar  and  Quake  hit the BlackBerry Bold 9900. BlackBerry

You may recall a little group of Linux-loving chums called Linaro, which was formed almost a year ago in the hopes of speeding up Linux development. Today at Computex, the company's taking one step further with the announcement of the Origen development board. Based on Samsung's beefy Exynos 4210 dual core chipset, the kit packs all the essential ports -- including HDMI, USB 2.0 host, SD slot, etc. -- for keen developers to get their hands dirty on, and its base board is also removable to accommodate future chipsets. Potential buyers are told to keep an eye on Insignal, which will soon be offering the basic Origen package for $199, along with optional parts at an extra cost. Insignal

Yesterday at BlackBerry World 2011 we were fortunate to sit down and chat with Chris Smith, Senior Director of the BlackBerry Developer Platform, along with Rasmus and Karl from The Astonishing Tribe. One of RIM's recent acquisitions, TAT is known for some rather, well... astonishing user interface designs, and for infusing a bit of magic into some of the PlayBook's apps, such as the bundled picture viewer and calculator. We were shown a number of demos, including the downloadable Scrapbook app, a rather nifty contact list, and a location-aware news reader. Over the years, TAT has built an engine and framework that make it easy for developers to create powerful and attractive UIs, and some of this will be making its way into the PlayBook's native software development kit sometime this summer. Along with support for Open GL ES 2.0, SQLite, cURL, and POSIX (amongst others), this NDK will provide API's to control the audio system, the cameras, and the sensors --...

When he first showed off the original iPad, Steve Jobs talked up the "fourth screen." But is four really enough? We mean,  really ? Could the fifth screen really have been on our wrists all along? Sure, we've seen plenty fall flat with smartwatches, including big names like Microsoft and Sony Ericsson, but that hasn't stopped companies from trying. The Meta Watch certainly isn't Fossil's first connected wristwatch -- nor is it the first watch SDK -- but it does have a lot going for it, including a thumbs up from HP. The two models are built on Texas Instruments' CC2560 Bluetooth platform, which allow them to receive push notifications from smartphones and tablets, so you can read e-mail, tweets, or Facebook updates -- assuming the right developers get onboard. And since none of the apps actually live on the watches, they get solid battery life -- seven full days on a charge, according to the company. You can pre-order the watches now, o...

There's one big, table-shaped obstacle to developing apps for Microsoft's Surface: you kind of have to own one. A new Surface 2 SDK, landing this summer, will sidestep that problem with an input simulator so devs can test their code on any Windows 7 PC. You can tap fingers, place tags, or paint "blobs" for your virtual SUR 40 to interact with, and even fake multitouch gestures by "stamping" a finger in one spot then moving a second one. If the Surface you're programming for happens to be movable (though we're not sure who would put a $7,600 computer on hinges) you can also alter the tilt of the display to trigger UI changes. You'll still need access to one of these behemoths to make sure your wares work in the really real world, but at least the preliminary work can be done on any old laptop or desktop. Frankly, this is something we'd have thought would be included from day one -- as they say, better late than never. Microsoft Surface Blog ...

Sure, a lack of first-party tools never kept you from bending the Kinect to your diabolical whim, but Microsoft's taking some time out at MIX 11 to talk about the official Kinect SDK for Windows and show off a few demos. Mind you, all of that's going to happen on stage over the course of the next hour, so we don't have many details for you right now, but Redmond says devs will have access to not only the basic color and infrared depth cameras, but "robust skeletal tracking" of two simultaneous individuals as well, and perhaps most excitingly, full access to the Kinect's array of four microphones for noise canceling and voice recognition complete with API support. Hate to say it, Kinect hackers, but the bar's about to be bumped up. Keep it locked right here and we'll let you know if the Microsofties reveal anything else fun! Update:  Yep, we're getting some Kinect SDK details now -- Microsoft says you'll be able to write Kinect apps for PC in...

We knew it was coming, and today at MIX 11, Microsoft showed off its developer platform for the next version of Windows Phone, which developers will be able to get their hands on for free in May. The new application platform adds: Multitasking for background processing, audio and file transfer, and fast app switching, including background audio playback for HTML5 webpages Deeper integration of apps into the OS, allowing programs to leverage Live Tiles, including push notifications via Live Agents running in the background Raw access to the camera and sensors (gyro and compass) via the Motion Sensor library, letting apps to control device hardware Microsoft hopes this will allow developers to make even more creative and engaging apps. To get our juices flowing, it showed off demos of new app concepts from Skype, Spotify, Layar, Qantas, AmazonShopping, and Kik Messenger. Check out our gallery below and hit the break for the details. Windows Ph...

Microsoft delivered a big batch of mobile happiness at its annual MIX developers' conference this morn, promising a host of major features including multitasking, background audio, push notifications and raw sensor data (not to mention over 1500 new APIs) in the next version of Windows Phone. Of course, it's one thing to tell you how pumped attending developers might be to bite into a nice juicy mango next month and another to see for yourself, so feast your eyes on the best of Windows Phone Next in the video above. Not bad, eh? Sean Hollister contributed to this report.

A report commissioned by the World Bank's infoDev unit has cast fresh light on one of the more fascinating aspects of our brave new interconnected world: the virtual economy. The "third-party gaming services industry" -- where wealthy but impatient players have someone else grind away at online games for them in exchange for monetary reward -- is one of the focal points of the study, chiefly owing to it having generated revenues in the region of $3 billion in 2009 and now serving as the primary source of income for an estimated 100,000 young folks, primarily in countries like China and Vietnam. What's encouraging about these findings is that most of the revenue from such transactions ends up in the country where the virtual value is produced, which contrasts starkly with some of the more traditional international markets, such as that for coffee beans, where the study estimates only $5.5 billion of the $70 billion annual market value ever makes it back t...

If app developers have a pattern of going after the iPhone first and Android second, well, the same is apparently true of the folks who write software for the code monkeys. Novell just announced Mono for Android, the first set of tools that lets devs write .NET and C# apps for Android phones and tablets. Novell already lets developers do the same for Linux, iOS, and Mac OS X and, as always, lets coders continue to use Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 to write applications -- if that's the testing software they're used to. In addition to the Visual Studio plug-in, you get bindings for native Android APIs and the core Mono runtime. It's available now, starting at $99 for students (minus the ability to, you know, send finished apps to Android Market) and $399 for everybody else. Already developing for the iPhone? Prove that you own MonoTouch (essentially, the same Novell product for iOS devices) and get 50 percent off an Android tool kit. Novell First to Enable Develo...

What's this, you ask? The next generation of Xbox 360 development, that's what. With a shockingly small amount of fanfare, Microsoft has ushered in a striking new Xbox Development Kit, which is purportedly designed to increase efficiency and reduce cost for Xbox 360 dev teams. Aside from boasting an undisclosed uptick in RAM, built-in flash memory, a more capacious hard drive and a slimmer form factor, this XDK will also be sold at a "significantly reduced price from its predecessor." 'Course, the folks in Redmond aren't saying what exactly that sticker will look like, but those interested in taking the plunge regardless will also have the option to license a Sidecar attachment that enables debugging and disc emulation. We're told that said accessory can be shared among multiple XDK consoles, and in turn, it should lower the overall price to create, test, debug, and release an Xbox 360 or Xbox Live Arcade game. It's still a guessing game w...

It'd be too easy to simply describe BlueStack's suddenly titillating software as Android's Parallels for Windows, but really -- why try to complicate things? Currently available only in test form, the program is designed to run a virtualized copy of Android atop a not-at-all-virtualized copy of Windows, and the implications could be far-reaching. According to a hands-on demonstration given to the folks at Slashgear , BlueStack's software enables Android and Windows to share utilities and drivers; in other words, you can print something within Android via your Windows print driver, or make a call in Android's Skype application via Microsoft's VoIP drivers. We're told that multitasking was smooth and succinct, and while there's no access to the Android Market, test builds are including Amazon's Appstore as an alternative. If all goes well, the company should let the code loose "later this year," but it's hard to say what kind...