Logos from the new Timeline app makers

Facebook on Wednesday unveiled a host of new apps — more than 60 in total — that integrate with its new Timeline user interface. The social networking company also announced it will begin approving Timeline apps running on its Open Graph API from all developers.

“The apps launched at f8 in the music, news and video verticals have seen tremendous success so far. But really, that was just the tip of the iceberg. Our vision for Timeline is that whatever you love, whatever story you want to tell, you can add to your platform.”

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For anyone thinking the big data trend is a flash in the pan, some new evidence to the contrary. A hefty 75 percent of IT pros and developers responding to a new Linux Foundation survey have their eye firmly on this big data phenomenon.

More than three-quarters of the 428 respondents “expressed concern” about big data and nearly 72 percent (unsurprisingly) said they will use Linux to support big data applications.  The respondents, while biased towards Linux — this is the Linux Foundation after all – do not work in a vacuum. A respectable 35.9 percent said they plan to use Windows to meet their big data needs.

The survey queried IT/IS people and developers in organizations with 0 million or more in annual revenue and 500 or more employees.  Just less than half  (41.6 percent) of the respondents are based in the U.S. or Canada.

For more of the data, scroll on.

Feature photo courtesy of scoobygirl

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If you’re looking for some exergaming action, but don’t have the rhythm — or lack of self awareness — for some existing sport game accesories, how about a game controlled by effort? Using your iDevice’s camera and accelerometer, BitGym has created a control system for playing iOS games while on your exercise equipment of choice (possibly not the trampoline though). The first release is a racer that converts rate of exercise to acceleration and head movement to steering. We’re told there’s an SDK too, so developers looking to trim-up can make their own gym-distractions. Fitness Freeway is available now, but if you want to see it in action, without breaking a sweat jog on over the break for a demo video.

Continue reading Face and ‘effort’ controlled iPad game helps you outrun the competition (video)

Face and ‘effort’ controlled iPad game helps you outrun the competition (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s only right that the creative individuals behind a multi-billion dollar industry should have access to their own professional body, but for some reason the idea has yet to take hold. That could change at CES, when Jon Potter — formerly of the Digital Media Association — will start selling membership to a new outfit called the Application Developers Alliance. His pitch will open with the concept that “there’s an interesting space in the application developer community that isn’t really organized” and then move on to offer services like an online collaborative network, shared product-testing facilities, discount training schemes and cloud services, and even government lobbying over issues like privacy and IP. Who knows? That sort of thinking could ultimately lead to a fully-fledged union movement to stand up to fat-cat platform owners and let them know who’s boss, but first things first eh?

App developers unite! Or at least organize yourselves a bit better originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The 42nd fastest supercomputer on earth doesn’t exist. This fall, Amazon built a virtual supercomputer atop its Elastic Compute Cloud — a web service that spins up virtual servers whenever you want them — and this nonexistent mega-machine outraced all but 41 of the world’s real supercomputers. Amazon is the poster child for the age of cloud computing. Alongside their massive e-tail business, Jeff Bezos and company have built a worldwide network of data centers that gives anyone instant access to all sorts of computing resources, including not only virtual servers but virtual storage and all sorts of other services that can be accessed from any machine on the net. This global infrastructure is so large, it can run one of the fastest supercomputers on earth — even as it’s running thousands upon thousands of other virtual servers for the world’s businesses and developers.

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Nokia’s seems to have finally realized that it can’t just kill off a long-standing name like Symbian with a mere three-word mention (in parentheses) on its official blog. It’s now posted up a marginally more detailed statement in response to “heaps of questions” from Nokia fans about the name change, and it reads as follows:

“We are still using Symbian Belle with some audiences like developers but now we also have the flexibility of using Nokia Belle when referring to our greatest and latest Symbian software update.”

There, that should clear it up. Or maybe not. The idea of switching between different names for the same product might be considered bad branding, and the notion of developers being an “audience” is confusing too. But what more can you expect from a single sentence? In other news, the update also clarified that Nokia/Symbian Belle will be coming to the Nokia 500, along with the devices mentioned yesterday, and that it’s delay until February 2012 was due to this being a “major software update” that will “make such a big difference in the user experience.”

Nokia responds to questions over Symbian name swap originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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