Uptodown: An alternative to Google Play
Wednesday, June 2, 2021 by Richard Harris
The Uptodown app market has more than 130 million active users per month, and more than 450 monthly downloads of their more than 4 million APKs available. The company operates worldwide and it is localized to 15 different languages. The Spanish-based company was born in 2020 in Málaga and founded as a University Project in 2002. Recently we intervi...
Android Studio 2.0 Now Available
Monday, April 11, 2016 by Stuart Parkerson
Android Studio 2.0 has been released allowing developers to build apps for the Android platform, including phones and tablets, Android Auto, Android Wear, and Android TV. It is the official IDE from Google including a code editor, code analysis tools, emulators and more. Android Studio 2.0 includes the following new features for Android developers:- Instant Run: De...
Google Play Services 8.4 SDK is Now Available
Thursday, December 24, 2015 by Richard Harris
Google has released the Google Play services version 8.4. Here is a quick rundown of the enhancements with the release:Custom Email App InvitesGoogle has made it easer to use App Invites to allow users to share apps with people they know through email. Prior to the update, you could create a custom email that contained user defined text and an image. Now there is the ab...
Google Play 8.1 Release Supports Android M Permissions Model
Monday, September 28, 2015 by Stuart Parkerson
Google has released Google Play services 8.1 offering a number of updates including a new Android 6.0 Marshmallow permissions model.Android 6.0 Marshmallow PermissionsAndroid 6.0 Marshmallow offers a new permissions model allowing users to control app permissions at runtime. For apps running on the M Preview that support the new permissions model, the user does not...
Android M Developer Preview Hits Version 2
Sunday, July 12, 2015 by Richard Harris
Google has released the first update to the M Developer Preview since its launch. The Developer Preview 2 update includes the up to date M release platform code, and near-final APIs to validate an app. To provide more testing support, Google has refined the Nexus system images and emulator system images with the Android platform updates. In addition to platform updates,...
Google Releases Android M Developer Preview
Tuesday, June 9, 2015 by Richard Harris
Google has released the Android M developer preview, offering a clear timeline for testing and feedback plus more updates to the preview build. For the M release, Google reports they have focused on improving the core user experience of and making big changes to the fundamentals of the platform.The M Developer Preview includes an updated SDK with tools, system images fo...
New Google APIs Expands Mobile Developers Ability to Leverage Gaming and More on the Big Screen
Monday, June 8, 2015 by Stuart Parkerson
Google has released a number of new developer tools for Google Cast specifically designed to help mobile app and game app developers to bring new experiences to the TV.The new Google Cast Remote Display APIs in Beta helps mobile developers to bring graphically intensive apps or games to Google Cast receivers with APIs for Android and iOS. Casting an Android screen has b...
Google Play Services 7.5 Offers New APIs, Security and More
Wednesday, June 3, 2015 by Richard Harris
Google Play Services 7.5 was announced at Google IO offering new capabilities and optimizations to devices across the Android ecosystem. Included in the release is the addition of Smart Lock for Passwords, Instance ID, new APIs for Google Cloud Messaging and Google Cast, as well as access to the Google Maps API on Android Wear devices. The 7.5 SDK is now available for d...
Lots of App Development Goodies Announced at Google I-O 2015 Including Android M Developer Preview
Friday, May 29, 2015 by Stuart Parkerson
A number of new initiatives were announced at the keynote of the 8th annual Google I/O conference as more than 5,600 developers looked on at Moscone Center. The event also was viewed by over 530 I/O Extended communities around the world and millions via the I/O Live stream. During the keynote, Google made a number of announcements that covered the evolution of the ...
Updated Google Play SDK Provides App Developers with Enhancements to Analytics, Drive and Fit
Wednesday, September 17, 2014 by Stuart Parkerson
Google has released the latest version of its Google Play SDK with 6.1 adding enhanced ecommerce analytics support from Google Tag Manager and offers new improvements to the Google Drive Android API. Google is also including a refresh of the Google Fit developer preview.Here are the major updates:Analytics: Enhanced ecommerce is an analytics extension designed...
Intel’s Latest XDK HTML5 Mobile Development Platform Release Focuses on Cordova Plugins and Mobile Monetization
Tuesday, August 12, 2014 by Stuart Parkerson
Intel has launched the latest release of its mobile development XDK, which provides a HTML5 and Javascript platform for mobile development. In this release, the company has focused on Cordova plugins and mobile monetization.The Intel XDK now offers full support of Cordova APIs and plugins on iOS, Android, and Windows 8. Developers can take advantage of the number of plu...
Google Moves Forward On the Wearable Front with Google Fit Preview SDK
Friday, August 8, 2014 by Richard Harris
Google has now made the Fit Preview SDK available to developers, offering a single set of APIs for apps and device manufacturers to store and access activity data from fitness apps and sensors on Android and other devices (like wearables, heart rate monitors or connected scales). One of the impacts of the SDK is that developers, with a user’s permission, can get ac...
Google Play Services 5.0 Release: What’s Inside
Thursday, July 10, 2014 by Richard Harris
Now that Google Play services 5.0 has rolled out to devices we’ll take a peek at what it means for app developers. This release introduces Android wearable services APIs, Dynamic Security Provider and App Indexing and provides updates to the Google Play game services, Cast, Drive, Wallet, Analytics, and Mobile Ads.Android Wearable ServicesGoogle Play services 5.0 introd...
What’s in the New Google Play Services 5.0 Announced at Google IO
Thursday, June 26, 2014 by Richard Harris
At Google I/O a new version of Google Play services was revealed that brings new capabilities and the latest optimizations to devices across the Android ecosystem. Here is what Google says about the New Google Play Services 5.0:Services for Android wearables: Apps can more easily communicate and sync with code running on Android wearables through an automatically s...
Google Play Services 4.4 Offers New Features in Maps, Location, Games Services, Mobile Ads, and Wallet API
Thursday, May 8, 2014 by Richard Harris
The latest release of Google Play Services includes a number of updates, including an enhancement to Maps with the introduction of Street View, as well as new features in Location, Games Services, Mobile Ads, and Wallet API.What’s new in of Google Play services release 4.4:Google Maps Android APIDevelopers can now embed Street View imagery into an activity, enabling use...
New Google android wear smart watch OS
Tuesday, March 18, 2014 by Richard Harris
Google likes to be front and center during major developer events and so after announcing new Google Play Services on Monday, on the second day of the GDC they have announced their new Android Wear OS for smartwatches and other wearables. And if you want to know everything about the Android Wear from an app developer standpoint, you’ve come to the right place.
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New Google Play Services Are Rolling Out for Game App Developers
Monday, March 17, 2014 by Richard Harris
With GDC at full steam already this week, Google has kicked off the week announcing new services for its Google Play developer program including the new game gifts incentive program and enhanced engagement and discovery options.Highlights of the New Offerings- Google is introducing game gifts, a new service that lets players send virtual in-game obje...
Asia Mobile News : New Report Says Asia Is The Leading App Market In The World
Thursday, January 23, 2014 by Richard Harris
In a new report from Distimo concerning app store downloads and revenue generated, Asia is claiming the #1 spot taking in a whopping 41% of the total revenue generated globally! The Asian app store market is a train that cannot be stopped and this month's report takes a deep dive into the trends happening in Asia and the countries in it - including China, Hong...
Google Play Services 4.1 Provides App Developers With Enhances to Game Apps, Android SDK Access, Mobile Ads, and Google Drive API
Tuesday, January 14, 2014 by Stuart Parkerson
Google Play Services 4.1 has launched and it includes a number of enhancements including new Turn Based Multiplayer support for games, and a preliminary API for integrating Google Drive into apps. This update also improves battery life for all users with Google Location Reporting enabled. Once the rollout has completed, developers will be able to download the SDK u...
Busy, Busy, Busy App Developers
Wednesday, June 26, 2013 by Richard Harris
The Summer of 2013 is in full swing now and with the closing of the WWDC, and the Google Developer Conference (I/O), and the starting of the Build Microsoft Conference - we app developers are finding it a bit difficult to keep up with all of the happenings around the globe. From changing API's to new OS's, all the way to enhanced hardware support and 3D game engines, it...
