Ask a Techspert: What is open source?

When I started working at Google, a colleague mentioned that the group projects I worked on in college sounded a lot like some of the open source projects we do here at Google. I thought there had to be some misunderstanding since my projects all happened in-person with my classmates in the corner of some building in the engineering quad. To find out how a real life study group could be like a type of computer software, I went straight to Rebecca Stambler, one of Google’s many open source expert...
Tags: Google, Developers, Google Doc, Google Kubernetes Engine, Ask a Techspert, Camille Carr, Rebecca Stambler, Google Open

Amazon aims to inject new life into Alexa with release of developer tools and features

Amazon is giving its Alexa voice platform a shot in the arm after seeing further declines in skill growth over the past year, indicating lagging interest from third-party voice app developers. At the company’s Alexa Live developer event today, the company announced a slew of new features and tools for the developer community — its largest release of new tools to date, in fact. Among the new releases are those to encourage Alexa device owners to discover and engage with Alexa skills, new tools fo...
Tags: Amazon, TC, Ecommerce, Apps, Japan, Media, Whole Foods, Wikipedia, Germany, India, Tech, Amazon.com, Developers, Artificial Intelligence, Canada, Mobile Devices

Highlights from the Google for Games Developer Summit

This week, we hosted the Google for Games Developer Summit, a free digital event for game developers, publishers and advertisers to come together globally. Though we couldn’t meet in person, we’re grateful for the chance to share our latest solutions for developers to create immersive and memorable gaming experiences for players everywhere. All keynotes and sessions from the summit are available on demand. Here are a few things we discussed during our keynote sessions:Easier game development ...
Tags: Google, Android, Developers, Admob, Stadia, Chris Luhur

Consumer spending on apps hit record $64.9B in first half of 2021, but install growth slowed to 1.7%

Consumer spending in mobile apps hit a record $64.9 billion during the first half of 2021, according to from app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower. This figure represents a 24.8% increase in spending seen across both the App Store and Google Play, compared with the year-ago period. But while industry experts believe the accelerated shift to mobile fueled by the pandemic is a trend that will continue, it’s worth noting that — despite the new record — the growth rate for consumer spending has...
Tags: Google, Android, Google Play, Mobile, Facebook, Apps, Youtube, Finance, China, India, Tech, Developers, Philippines, App Stores, App Store, Mobile App

Amazon’s Appstore lowers its cut of developer revenue for small businesses, adds AWS credits

Amazon is following in the footsteps of app store giants, Apple and Google, with this week’s introduction of its Amazon Appstore Small Business Accelerator Program. The new program will reduce the commissions Amazon takes on app developer revenues for qualifying smaller businesses. Previously, Amazon’s Appstore took a 30% cut of revenue, including that from in-app purchases. Now, it will take only 20% from developers who earned up to $1 million in the prior calendar year. The program will additi...
Tags: Apple, Google, Amazon, Apps, Tech, Developers, Aws, App-store, Amazon Web Services, Amazon Appstore, Previously Amazon, AppStore, Palanidaran Chidambaram

Apple’s StoreKit 2 simplifies App Store subscriptions and refunds by making them accessible inside apps

If you’ve ever bought a subscription inside an iOS app and later decided you wanted to cancel, upgrade or downgrade, or ask for a refund, you may have had trouble figuring out how to go about making that request or change. Some people today still believe that they can stop their subscription charges simply by deleting an app from their iPhone. Others may dig around unsuccessfully inside their iPhone’s Settings or on the App Store to try to find out how to ask for a refund. With the updates Apple...
Tags: Iphone, Apple, Ios, Google, Mobile, Apps, Tech, Customer Service, Smartphones, Developers, App Stores, App Store, Api, Subscriptions, Hulu, Apple Id

Grow your indie game with help from Google Play

Today we’re opening applications for the 2021 editions of the Indie Games Accelerator and the Indie Games Festival from Google Play. These programs are designed to support the growth of small games studios that bring unique games to players around the world.  10:25 Get help to develop your game with the Indie Games Accelerator The Indie Games Accelerator brings the best of Google’s programs, products, people and technology to indie game developers that are ...
Tags: Google, Google Play, Developers, Japan South Korea, Patricia Correa, U S UK Germany France Russia Japan South Korea

Apple’s App Store facilitated $643 billion in commerce, up 24% from last year

In its antitrust trial with Epic Games, which has just adjourned, Apple argued it doesn’t evaluate its App Store profit and loss as a standalone business. But today, the company put out new figures that indicate it does have a good understanding of the money that flows through its app marketplace, at the very least. The company has now released an updated version of a study performed by the economists at the Analysis Group, which claims the App Store ecosystem facilitated $643 billion in billing...
Tags: Apple, Amazon, TC, Mobile, Facebook, Apps, Europe, China, Tech, Developers, Mobile Apps, Tim Cook, App Stores, App Store, Wwdc, Apple Inc

Malt raises $97M at a $489M valuation for its freelance marketplace for developers

The world of professional services has long relied on contractors to fill in for assignments and projects that might not be a part of the course of daily work, but are essential work nonetheless. Today, a startup that’s built a marketplace to make it easier for freelance developers, designers and others with technical skills with those job opportunities is announcing a significant round of funding to expand its business. Malt, which provides a way for developers, data scientists, designers, proj...
Tags: Europe, UK, Developer, Labor, Funding, Linkedin, Tech, Developers, Designers, Paris, Italy, Hiring, Freelance, Contractors, Vincent, Mckinsey

RevenueCat raises $40M Series B for its in-app subscription platform

RevenueCat, a startup offering a series of tools for developers of subscription-based apps, has raised $40 million in Series B funding, valuing its business at $300 million, post-money. Founded by developers who understood the difficulties in scaling a subscription app first-hand, RevenueCat’s software development kit (SDK) solution gives companies the tools they need to build a subscription business, including not just adding subscriptions themselves, but maintaining them over time even as the ...
Tags: Apple, Google, Amazon, Startups, Mobile, Apps, Y Combinator, Microsoft, Funding, Tech, Developers, Mobile Apps, App Stores, App Store, Subscriptions, Cto

Giant cranes and video games: How I/O went digital

There’s a sign on the wall behind Andrew Rossi's desk that’s been impossible to ignore during video calls lately. The placard counted down the days until I/O 2021 — and as event lead for Consumer Apps at Google, Andrew is part of a huge team behind the whole production. While it now reads “0,” the purposefully placed sign was visible during the many virtual meetings he had with people all across Google in the run-up to an entirely different kind of I/O. I/O is a major undertaking unde...
Tags: Google, Molly, Developers, Jason, Ama, Elizabeth, Tom, Andrew, Andrew Rossi, Tom Greenaway, Jason Titus, Marvin Chow, Mountain View That, Life at Google, Google Andrew, Elizabeth Cha

Google I/O 2021: Being helpful in moments that matter

It’s great to be back hosting our I/O Developers Conference this year. Pulling up to our Mountain View campus this morning, I felt a sense of normalcy for the first time in a long while. Of course, it’s not the same without our developer community here in person. COVID-19 has deeply affected our entire global community over the past year and continues to take a toll. Places such as Brazil, and my home country of India, are now going through their most difficult moments of the pandemic yet. Our t...
Tags: Google, India, Developers, Brazil, Mountain View, Nevada, Ai, Oklahoma, North America, Pluto, Sundar Pichai, Mountain View California, Charleston East, Google Lens, A message from our CEO

Google Plans to Add Privacy Labels to Play Store Apps Next Year

Apple with iOS 14 introduced App Privacy labels for App Store apps, which are designed to let customers know details about the data that an app will collect about them before they make the decision to install an app. Google is planning to follow in Apple's footsteps with the Play Store, introducing a new feature that will require developers to provide transparency into how apps are using data. On the Android Developers Blog, Google announced a new "safety section" for the Play Store that wil...
Tags: Apple, Google, Google Play, Developers

Apple expands its ad business with a new App Store ad slot

At the same time as it’s cracking down on the advertising businesses run by rivals, Apple is introducing a new way for developers to advertise on the App Store. Previously, developers could promote their apps after users initiated a search on the App Store by targeting specific keywords. For example, if you typed in “taxi,” you might then see an ad by Uber in the top slot above the search results. The new ad slot, however, will reach users before they search. This can expose the app to a wider a...
Tags: Iphone, Apple, Ios, Mobile, Facebook, Apps, Tech, Ios Apps, Developers, Mobile Apps, App Store, Financial Times, Apple Inc, Flurry Analytics, Google Facebook, Ios 14

Tips and shortcuts for a more productive spring

In my previous life as a startup entrepreneur, I found that life was more manageable when I was able to stay organized — a task that’s easier said than done. At Google Registry, we've been keeping an eye out for productivity and organization tools, and we’re sharing a few of our favorites with you today, just in time for spring cleaning. .new shortcuts to save you time Since launching .new shortcuts last year, we’ve seen a range of companies use .new domains to help their users get things do...
Tags: Google, Small Business, Entrepreneurs, Developers, Coda, Google Jamboard, Google Registry, Bruno Panara

Arc opens its remote career platform to all software developers

The COVID-19 pandemic threw remote work into the spotlight, but tech companies have hired in other locations for years to deal with talent shortages. Arc announced today it is opening its remote hiring platform to all software developers. Previously, Arc was open only to developers who passed its verification process. Developers can still get verified to stand out from other applicants, but Arc’s job database and search engine is now available to everyone. Arc was launched two years ago by the t...
Tags: Startups, TC, Y Combinator, Asia, Tech, Remote Work, Developers, Taiwan, SEC, Latin America, Harper, Codementor, Eastern Europe, Liu, Arc, Weiting Liu

How To Work With Techies So You Get The Best From Them

Good communication is vital in the startup world. James Zhao, co-founder of Thought&Function shares some tips for non-technical founders when communicating with developers. The post How To Work With Techies So You Get The Best From Them appeared first on Young Upstarts.
Tags: Startups, Developers, Communication Skills, Professionalisms, Startup Advice, James Zhao, Developmental Team

IBM launches its first quantum developer certification

IBM today announced the launch of its first developer certification for programming quantum computers. While quantum computing may still be in its infancy, most pundits in the industry will tell you that now is the time to learn the basic concepts. And while there is little that’s immediately intuitive on the hardware side of quantum computing, the actual software tools that most players in the industry are developing today should feel somewhat familiar to virtually any developer. Unsurprisingly...
Tags: Python, TC, Technology, Developer, Finance, Tech, C, Developers, Computing, Ibm, Pearson, Sdk, Bell, Emerging-technologies, Quantum Computing, Bloch

Sentry adds performance monitoring for React Native, Android and Xamarin

Sentry, the company that helps developers catch bugs before they result in downtime, has added support for React Native, Android and Xamarin to its Performance Monitoring software. The company, which reached unicorn valuation in its last funding, also updated its Flutter SDK with support for new languages. App monitoring platform Sentry gets $60 million Series D at $1 billion valuation Sentry’s Performance Monitoring software is used by development teams to trace bugs and performance issue...
Tags: Google, Startups, TC, Microsoft, Tech, Developers, Sentry, Sdk, Xamarin, Milin Desai, App Performance Monitoring, Atlassian Cloudflare Disney GitHub

Stack Overflow adds a free tier to its fast-growing Teams service

Stack Overflow is the default Q&A site for programmers (though the overall Stack Exchange network goes well beyond helping you answer your basic PHP questions). But over the course of the last year and a half, with its new CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar coming on board, the company has also kickstarted its SaaS business with a new focus on its StackOverflow for Teams product. Teams offers businesses something akin to a private Stack Overflow for managing and sharing knowledge across a company. Until...
Tags: Programming, Technology, Microsoft, Developer, Tech, Ceo, Php, Developers, Software, Slack, Software As A Service, Dietrich, Stack Exchange, Stack, Teresa Dietrich, Freemium

Fueled by the pandemic, Daily raises $15M Series A for its real-time video platform

Daily, the makers of a developer platform for real-time audio and video, has been booming in recent months — in part, due to the pandemic’s impact on remote work, virtual events, telehealth and more. Over the past year, Daily saw around a 20x increase in the number of paying customers and a 30x increase in revenue, it says. Though the team was initially hesitant to raise funds in light of this growth, they have now closed on $15 million Series A funding. The new round was led by early Stripe emp...
Tags: Startups, Daily, Video, Developer, Funding, Tech, Eu, Developers, Api, Kramer, HIPAA, Kwindla Kramer, Kuruvilla, Lachy, Lachy Groom, Recent Funding

Eight women kicking butt and taking (domain) names

Who do you think of when you hear the words sister, daughter, mother? How about when the words are leader, founder, CEO? As a mom of three, I want my kids to grow up in a world where the second set of words is as likely as the first to bring a woman to mind. Which is why we’re elevating the voices of women and making sure their stories are heard in today’s #MyDomain series. On this International Women’s Day, Google Registry is sharing eight new videos — all featuring female leaders who are takin...
Tags: Small Business, Entrepreneurs, Developers, Soraya, Don, Elena, Rita, Romina, Diversity and Inclusion, Ifrah, Google Registry, Christina Yeh, Alice Truswell Alice Truswell, Annie Hwang Annie Hwang, Elena Czubiak Elena Czubiak, Ifrah Khan Ifrah Khan

Stream raises $38M as its chat and activity feed APIs power communications for 1B users

A lot of our communication these days with each other is digital, and today one of the companies enabling that — with APIs to build chat experiences into apps — is announcing a round of funding on the back of some very strong growth. Stream, which lets developers build chat and activity streams into apps and other services by way of a few lines of code, has raised $38 million, funding that it will be using to continue building out its existing business as well as to work on new features. Stream ...
Tags: Social, Facebook, Apps, Twitter, Europe, Developer, Dick Costolo, Youtube, Funding, Tech, Developers, Amsterdam, Ikea, Stream, Chat, Adyen

Google's Stadia gaming division reportedly missed its user goals by hundreds of thousands of gamers

Playing a Stadia game. INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images Google's Stadia gaming division missed user goals by hundreds of thousands, according to Bloomberg.  A source told Wired they questioned whether execs "above Stadia leadership understand what they got into." Google in February announced it would stop developing in-house games for Stadia.  Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories. Google's Stadia shut down its in-house game-development division after failing to hit tar...
Tags: Google, Gaming, Trends, Bloomberg, Developers, Netflix, Playstation, Xbox, Harrison, Stadia, Tech Insider, Getty Images Google, INA FASSBENDER AFP, Kevin Shalvey, Weekend BI UK, Phil Harrison Stadia VP

GameSnacks brings HTML5 games to Google products

Last February we announced GameSnacks, a HTML5 gaming platform from Area 120, Google’s workshop for experimental products. We launched GameSnacks to test whether lightweight, casual games would resonate with people who use the internet via low memory devices on 2G and 3G networks, especially in countries like India and Indonesia.Since then, millions of people from around the world have played our games. GameSnacks now has more than 100 games built by early game development partners. These games ...
Tags: Google, Indonesia, India, New York City, Developers, Kenya, New Delhi, Area 120, Ani Mohan, India Indonesia Nigeria, Cake Slice Ninja

A Czech developer helps fellow students learn remotely

As students all over the world were making the transition to online learning last spring, 17-year-old Matěj Krček, a Google Developer Group member, realized that many of his fellow students in Czechia needed tutorials in their native language on how to use Google Workspace.Matěj usually works on coding and programming projects within his Google Developer Group, a program that connects local developers with similar interests, and it gave him a deep familiarity with Google technologies.  He realiz...
Tags: Google, Education, Developers, Google Calendar, Matej, Czechia, Google in Europe, Google Developer Group, Jennfier Kohl, Matěj Krček, Czech Ministry of Education Conference, Czech Ministry of Education Conference He, Ivana Kopkova, Google YouTube Channel

Top 100 subscription apps grew 34% to $13B in 2020, share of total spend remained the same

Apps saw record downloads and consumer spending in 2020, globally reaching somewhere around to , according to various estimates. But a growing part of that spend was subscription payments, a new report from Sensor Tower indicates. Last year, global subscription app revenue from the top 100 subscription apps (excluding games), climbed 34% year-over-year to $13 billion, up from $9.7 billion in 2019. The App Store, not surprisingly, accounted for a sizable chunk of this subscription revenue, giv...
Tags: Apple, Google, Google Play, Mobile, Apps, Youtube, Disney, Tech, Developers, Netflix, App Stores, Play Store, Espn, Subscriptions, Google One Google

Google updates Play Store policies on gamified loyalty programs following confusion in India

Google has updated and broadened its Play Store policy on gaming loyalty programs to help developers better understand the practices that are permitted, months after confusion about the guidance prompted some backlash in India, the biggest Android market by users. The company said on Thursday that it now specifies guidance on gamified loyalty programs that are based on a qualified monetary transaction in an app and offer prizes of cash or other real-world cash equivalent perks. Scores of apps ru...
Tags: Google, Android, Apps, Asia, India, Tech, Developers, Frey, Google India, Samat, Sameer Samat, Suzanne Frey

LottieFiles, a platform for the animation format, lands $9 million Series A led by M12, Microsoft’s venture fund

LottieFiles, a platform for JSON-based Lottie animations, has raised a Series A of $9 million. The round was led by M12, Microsoft’s venture capital arm, with participation from returning investor 500 Startups. Based in San Francisco and Kuala Lumpur, LottieFiles was founded in 2018. The platform includes Lottie creation, editing and testing tools, and a marketplace for animations. It now claims about one million users from 65,000 companies, including Airbnb, Google, TikTok, Disney and Netflix, ...
Tags: Fundings & Exits, Startups, TC, Asia, Design, Microsoft, Southeast Asia, San Francisco, Developers, Netflix, Malaysia, Animation, Airbnb, Lottie, PNG, JSON

Twitter’s new API platform now opened to academic researchers

Twitter today is rolling out a new product track on its API platform, as part of its ongoing efforts to rebuild the Twitter API from the ground up. The track, which aims to serve the needs of the academic research community’s efforts, offers broader access to the Twitter archive and fewer restrictions on tweet retrievals, so researchers can access the entire history of the public conversation on Twitter’s platform. In addition to gaining access to all the Twitter API v2 endpoints released to dat...
Tags: Twitter, Developer, Tech, Research, Developers, Api, Academic Research, Researchers, Twitter Researchers