At its GoingNative 2012 event, Microsoft announced a new, open specification to help C++ developers tap into the compute power of graphics processing units (GPUs). - Microsoft is making it easier for C++ programmers to take advantage of the computing power in graphics processing units (GPUs) with a new, open specification called C++ AMP. The software giant announced the new specification at its GoingNative 2012 event on Feb. 3, which focused on C++ development....

Google's Android operating system is regularly blasted for fragmentation. It won't be mistaken for Apple iOS, but it might not be as bad as we originally thought. - Much of the negative conversation concerning Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android platform is predicated on the fact that it's fragmented. Specifically, the concern is that there too many operating system builds spanning Android 2.0 to Android 4.0, too many devices and handset makers clogging an a...

Adobe says it will deliver its Adobe Creative Cloud offering this spring, featuring Adobe Creative Suite 6, Adobe Touch Apps, Muse 1.0 and a new preview of Adobe Edge, among other things. - Adobes new cloud initiative aimed at creative professionals, known as Adobe Creative Cloud, will go live this spring. Adobe announced the Adobe Creative Cloud at its MAX 2011 conference last October. In an interview, Heidi Voltmer, director of product marketing for Web and interactive solutions at ...

Mozilla's Firefox 10 is relatively light on new user features, but includes a variety of new tools for developers, particularly those creating multimedia experiences. - In keeping with its rapid release cadence, Mozilla has released Firefox 10.0 for Windows, Mac and Linux. While the latest browser version features relatively few cosmetic changes, there are some under-the-hood additions that could prove vital for developers trying to create next-generation Web exper...

AccuRev announces Kando, a new platform that integrates the open source Git software configuration management (SCM) system with commercial SCM platforms. - AccuRev, a maker of tools for managing the software development process, has released a platform that integrates the open-source Git revision control system with commercial enterprise configuration management systems. AccuRevs new Kando, an enterprise security and compliance platform for Git, c...

With HTML5 and CSS all the rage with developers, particularly Web developers, a new site has emerged to advise them on the use of features in the programming languages. The HTML5 Please site offers expert advice on which features to use and not to use when developing apps. The site breaks its advice down into three categories: use, use with caution, and avoid. Additionally, it tells developers which features they should use with fallbacks or polyfills. The bottom line is that the new site gives developers recommendations on which HTML5 and CSS3 elements they can safely use to create apps and sites that are effectively supported across a range of browsers. Because HTML5 is a moving target and many of its elements are too new to safely use for cross-browser support, HTML Please is a welcome aid to developers who want to color inside the lines. The HTML5 Please site is a community project created by Divya Manian, Web opener for Opera Software; Paul Irish, developer programs engineer on the Google Chrome team; Tim Branyen, a software engineer at Bocoup; Connor Montgomery, a Web developer and computer science student at St. Louis University; and a host of others. This slide show takes a look at the HTML5 and CSS3 elements that HTML5 Please says are completely safe for developers to use. - ...

Google's Chrome browser growth leveled off through January, ending the first month of the year with just under 19 percent market share. Microsoft's Internet Explorer grew to 53 percent. - Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Chrome is having an inauspicious start to 2012, slipping a tad to 18.9 percent market share through January from 19.1 percent through December, according to Net Applications. Mozilla's Firefox browser, meanwhile, continued its slide, dropping nearly a full percentage po...

Sumo Logic, a startup providing cloud-based log management and analytics services, has emerged from stealth mode with $15 million in funding. - Startup Sumo Logic has emerged from stealth mode to unveil its cloud-based log management and analytics service that leverages big data to deliver real-time IT insights. Sumo Logic's software-as-a-service (SAAS) solution eliminates the need for expensive premises-based solutions, time-consuming...

Google is telling Android developers to stop using the Menu button when building apps and move to the Action Bar, which was introduced with Android 3.0 Honeycomb. - Google is telling Android developers to stop using its Menu button and begin using the Action Bar that was introduced with the Android 3.0 Honeycomb release. Scott Main, lead tech writer for developer.android.com, penned a Jan. 26 blog post titled quot;Say Goodbye to the menu Button quot; to ...

EnterpriseDB delivers its Postgres Plus Cloud Database with support from CloudBees, Engine Yard and others. - EnterpriseDB, a provider of PostgreSQL and Oracle database compatibility products and services, announced the general availability of the Postgres Plus Cloud Database on Amazon Web Services. Postgres Plus Cloud Database is an enterprise-class PostgreSQL database as a service (DBaaS). Enterprise...

HTML Please is a new Website that offers recommendations on which elements of HTML5 and CSS 3 developers can safely use to build Web apps and sites. - With HTML5 and CSS all the rage with developers, particularly Web developers, a new site has emerged to advise developers on the use of HTML5 and CSS 3 features: HTML5 Please. The HTML Please site, as first reported by Webmonkey, offers up expert advice on which features to use and not use when...

NEWS ANALYSIS: Microsoft's decision to kill its MIX developer conference, and pull out of CES, could be part of a broader strategy. - Microsoft seems in a conference-killing mood. First the company decided to pull out of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) after this year, where for years it had maintained a sizable presence. Now it plans on eliminating its MIX developer conference, in favor of an event later in the year. “We ha...

Black Duck Software has announced its 2011 Open Source Rookies of the Year list of the top 10 new open-source projects and three honorable mentions to hit the streets. The list, released Jan. 18, features two open-source cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS) projects, two others tailored to the needs of game developers and a toolkit to help social media application developers build Web apps. The Black Duck Software 2011 Open Source Rookie of the Year list is the fourth annual edition of the companys rundown of the top new projects out there. Using data on open-source projects from Ohloh.net and the Black Duck KnowledgeBase, Black Duck reviewed thousands of open-source projects started in 2011 to select the Open Source Rookies of the Year. Using a weighted scoring system, points were awarded based on commit activity commits per day, size of the project team, and the number of in-bound links to the project. Black Duck determined the top 10 projects following an audit of its findings and normalization of scores. In addition to the 10 Open Source Rookies of the Year, Black Duck identified three projects that deserve honorable mention due to their outstanding rate of commits and team support. - ...

Microsoft announced it has canceled its MIX conference for Web developers and designers for 2012 and will instead hold another major developer conference later in the year. - Microsoft has announced it is killing off its springtime MIX developer conference to hold another major developer conference later in 2012. Microsoft launched the MIX events in 2006, with the last one running April 12-14, 2011, in Las Vegas. Microsoft heralded the conferences as “conversations” wit...

The top city in the United States for technology jobs is in Texas, but it's not Austin. Instead, Houston is the leading city for energy and technology job growth, with a 145 percent increase in technology jobs from 2010, according to a list compiled by CyberCoders, a recruiting firm for the IT industry. Northern California, with its storied Silicon Valley, also is highly represented, with both San Francisco and San Jose (and its 100 percent increase in tech jobs) among the top 10. Also making CyberCoders' list of the top 10 cities for technology jobs is Seattle. Known for its proximity to tech giant Microsoft and a lot of great startups, this city comes in ninth. And rounding out the list is Atlanta, which saw a 15 percent increase in technology jobs from 2010 to 2011. - ...

Sencha, which creates frameworks, tools and services for developers to build Web applications using JavaScript and HTML5, has released its 2012 HTML5 Wish List.  "Looking at the phenomenal rise of HTML5 as the next industry standard for Web development, it's clear that 2011 has been a transformational year for this powerful set of Web technologies," said Michael Mullany, CEO of Sencha. He said Sencha's offerings give Web application developers the ability to "harness emerging HTML5 technologies and create highly functional Web applications that erase the line between native apps and Web apps." Sencha also issued a 2011 wish list, and out of the 10 wishes, four came to be. The four wishes that came through were: A richer CSS3 effects toolbox; high-performance position for mobile browsers; pervasive GPU acceleration; and Websockets stabilization. Sencha's 2012 list includes wishes such as better mobile browser debugging, a contacts API, IndexedDB and better offline caching. This slide show offers the full Sencha wish list. - ...

A recent Evans Data survey showed that three-quarters of developers polled said they use or plan to use HTML5 for app development. - Evans Data has a new survey that tells us something we already knew: Developers are flocking to HTML5. Indeed, Evans Data's latest Global Development Survey indicates that although the HTML5 standard is still a work in progress, software developers are already committed to it. The survey of mor...

Opera Software launches its new HTML5-based TV app store at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). - Opera Software has launched the Opera TV Store, an HTML5-based store solution for connected TVs, available for OEMs, developers and content providers who want to reach millions of application-hungry users. The Opera TV Store introduces HTML5 applications, such as Facebook or Vimeo, to users li...

AT&T announced that it has joined the OpenStack community to deliver an open-source cloud computing platform. - AT amp;T has joined the OpenStack community as the first major carrier to take part in the open-source cloud computing project. By joining OpenStack, AT amp;T can lend its hand in pushing the project forward while also tapping into the OpenStack cloud technology for AT amp;Ts own developer clou...

At its 2012 AT&T Developer Summit, AT&T-joined by CEOs of partners Microsoft and Nokia-launched a new API Platform with HTML5 support, a new developer cloud and an upcoming app store. - AT amp;T made a series of moves aimed at helping developers build better mobile apps to run on its wireless platform, including a new API environment, new support for HTML5 apps and a developer-centric cloud platform, among other things. AT amp;T announced the new initiatives at its sixth annual AT...