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Xamarin vs Titanium vs FireMonkey: should cross-platform tools abstract the GUI?

By tim, on February 21st, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Cross-platform development is a big deal, and will continue to be so until a day comes when everyone uses the same platform. Android? HTML? WebKit? iOS? Windows? Maybe one day, but for now the world is multi-platform, and unless you can afford to ignore all platforms but one, or to develop independent projects for each

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Xamarin 2.0 and Xamarin Studio announced, build for OSX, iOS and Android with C#

By tim, on February 20th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Xamarin has announced significant updates to its developer platform. Xamarin is the company formed around 18 months ago, when Novell discontinued its investment in Mono, a cross-platform implementation of C# and the .NET Framework. Its focus is on mobile platforms, in particular iOS and Android, though there is also support for the Mac. On Windows

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Windows Phone 7.8 Live Tiles are buggy, say users

By tim, on February 15th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

When Microsoft announced Windows Phone 8, one disappointment was that existing phones would not be upgraded to the new mobile operating system. In mitigation, Microsoft promised Windows Phone 7.8 instead, an upgrade to Windows Phone 7.5 that implements the most visible feature of WP8, a new Start screen with more flexible live tiles that can

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Browser monoculture draws nearer as Opera adopts WebKit, Google Chromium

By tim, on February 13th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Browser company Opera is abandoning development of its own browser engine and adopting WebKit.

To provide a leading browser on Android and iOS, this year Opera will make a gradual transition to the WebKit engine, as well as Chromium, for most of its upcoming versions of browsers for smartphones and computers.

Note that Opera is

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Not just a four-horse race: three new mobile operating systems joining the fray

By tim, on February 5th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Some have declared the mobile OS battle over, won by Apple and Google Android between them. Microsoft and RIM Blackberry will fight it out for third and fourth place.

Maybe, but I doubt it will be so simple. There are not one, not two, but three further open source mobile operating systems which have significant

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Last minute offer: attend BlackBerry Jam Europe in Amsterdam for half price or even free

By tim, on January 23rd, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

At the end of January RIM is launching BlackBerry 10 in a now-or-never moment for the company. The new smartphone, based on the QNX embedded operating system, has distinctive features that just might win it a foothold in a crowded market dominated by Apple iOS and Google Android.

If you are developing for

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IntelliJ IDEA: the best IDE for programming Android?

By tim, on January 22nd, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Late last year the JetBrains team released IntelliJ IDEA 12, the latest version of its Java IDE.

Java today has many roles, but two dominate. One is server-side programming using one of many Java application servers, while the other is coding Android apps. IntelliJ IDEA has the former role well covered, though this is the

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The cross-platform app problem. What should the BBC do?

By tim, on January 11th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

The BBC released a new sports app last week. In the comments to the announcement though, there is little attention given to the app or its content. Rather, the discussion is about why the BBC has apparently prioritised iOS over Android, since the Android version is not yet ready, with an occasional interjection from a

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Hacking Windows RT and Surface RT to run desktop apps

By tim, on January 7th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

A developer on the XDA Developers forum, known as clrokr, has figured out how to run unsigned applications on Windows RT (Windows on ARM), including Microsoft’s own-brand Surface RT device.

The technique is described here and involves patching the Windows kernel. Currently it is not possible to jailbreak Windows RT completely, because Secure Boot prevents

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Google the new Microsoft, goes to war on Windows Phone users (updated)

By tim, on January 5th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Google has fired a one – two – three salvo at Microsoft and Windows Phone users. Consider the following.

First, we learn that Google, under the guise of Winter cleaning, is removing Google Sync from its Mail, Calendar and Contacts online products, for consumers only. This is the Exchange ActiveSync protocol used by Windows Phone

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