Android Owners Being Left Behind, Study Claims

A new study has revealed that Android phones have a bad history of not getting the latest OS upgrades, often leaving them several versions behind. The Understatement's Michael Degusta tracked 18 different Android phones shipped in the U.S. through the middle of 2010, and found that most have not received major OS upgrades or even minor support patches, even though they're still under contract.

Oracle Fills ASF Renounced JCP Seat with JavaMan Bruno Souza

Oracle has nominated Brazilian user group SouJava to fill the vacancy left by the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) on the Java SE/EE executive committee. SouJava, one of the oldest and largest Java User Groups (JUGs) in the world with 40,000 members, is headed by Bruno Souza who promotes himself as the JavaMan.

Google's Tablet-Geared Android Software Inches Closer with Honeycomb

Google Inc. is inching closer to releasing a version of the Android software meant for tablet computers with the release of its new tablet operating system, Honeycomb, which is now available for developers to tinker with. In a post Wednesday on Google's Android Developers blog, Xavier Ducrohet, the Android SDK tech lead, has suggested that a final version of the kit will be available "in the weeks ahead." This final version is expected to enable developers publish Honeycomb applications to Google's Android Market app store. Consumer tablets running Android 3.0 (aka Honeycomb) is still months away.

Decision Making In Software Teams

Alistair Cockburn has described software development as a game in which we choose among three moves: invent, decide, and communicate. Most of our time at technology conferences is spent learning how to be better at inventing. Beyond that, we understand the importance of good communication, and take steps to improve in that capacity. Rarely, however, do we acknowledge the role of decision making in the life of software teams, what can cause it to go wrong, and how to improve it.

Eclipse Unveils Orion for Web Developers

“Orion” is a brand new adventure for Eclipse, and one which we hope will interest and excite a whole new community: web developers, says Mike Milinkovich, President of the Eclipse Foundation. Orion is not a set of Java plug-ins which run in the existing Java IDE. It is browser-based open tool integration platform which is entirely focused on developing for the web, in the web. Tools are written in JavaScript and run in the browser.

Adobe Flash 10.1 Speeds Up Mac and Shows Love

In the midst of the Apple vs. Adobe war, a phoenix seems to have risen from the ashes. Enter Flash 10.1 on Mac OS X. After years of poor performance and the long raging Apple and Adobe battle, hardware acceleration for Adobe Flash finally got the green signal. The Adobe team seems to have really heard out the developer community this season. With the 10.1 release they have aimed to correct several of the previous Flash glitches. Adobe says developers can look forward to no more bogging down of browsers, CPU utilization reduction (up to two-thirds when GPU hardware acceleration is active) and eliminating the iPhone it runs on a gamut of handheld devices.

Eclipse's Largest Gravy Train Helios Arrives

Amongst the colossal additions and falls that 2010 has witnessed, the Helios technology from the Eclipse line is the largest and includes 39 different project teams, over 33 million lines of code and the work of 490 committers. Codenamed Helios, the current release train comes loaded with developer delights comprising projects based on open source, Java based Eclipse IDE, and more features including improved support in the JavaScript Development Tools project (JSDT) including a JavaScript debug framework, Eclipse Marketplace Client that makes it easier to find and install Eclipse solutions, the new support for Git, a popular distributed version control (DVCS), and so on.

Google IDE for the Non-coder Android Developer

Good news for the non-coder developer - Google has released the App Inventor for Android. The dragging and dropping of visual blocks of code enable the developer to build applications. App Inventor "makes it easy for anyone -- programmers and non-programmers, professionals and students -- to create mobile applications for Android-powered devices".

Java, Open Source, SOA & WS* on Top of Indian Developer's Radar

Himanshu Goyal heads Academic Initiative, developerWorks and Globalization initiatives for IBM India/South Asia. Under these initiatives, he is responsible to evangelize, skill and certify on the IBM Software to Engineering Students, Faculties, Developers and senior IT professionals in the Industry. Under Globalization he is responsible for the availability of IBM software in local languages in India/South Asia. Himanshu spoke to DeveloperMarch about the 27-city road show ‘Develothon 2010’geared towards skilling the Indian developers on emerging technologies and trends, the mission for developerWorks going forward and the technologies that is keeping Indian developers excited in 2010.

Google Coming to your Idiot Box?

Google is set to invade your living room as the company puts its finishing touches on technology that lets software developers build applications for televisions in much the same way as they do for smartphones. Google is planning to unveil an Android-based 'Google TV' at the Google I/O conference, which open in May, San Francisco. Intel and Sony are also involved in the platform, which is rumoured to be open source, in keeping with the Android operating system. "(Google) hopes the move will spur the same outpouring of creativity that consumers have seen in applications for cellphones."

Symbian to Fully Endorse HTML 5

Symbian has released a set of web application development tools for the recently open-sourced Symbian platform. These tools aim to aid the development, distribution and installation of web applications on Symbian devices, using technologies such as HTML, JavaScript and CSS. "Symbian Foundation is fully embracing HTML5. Symbian^4 will take a big step forward and we’re encouraging our contributors to move as fast as possible. Check this out for a snapshot of the progress," says the Development Tools Manager at Symbian Foundation.