Tag Archives: Windows

Create your own apps for free with open-source LiveCode 6.0

Application development may have once been the exclusive domain of professional programmers, but today a growing number of amateur-friendly development environments invite just about anyone with an app idea to bring it to life.

In the past few years we’ve seen the arrival of BuildAnApp and Google’s App Inventor for Android on the mobile side, for example. An even longer-standing contender, however, is RunRev’s cross-platform LiveCode, a recently renamed version of the HyperCard-inspired "Revolution" development system born in the early 2000s.

LiveCode has traditionally been available only as a paid development environment, but on Wednesday its maker rolled out the platform’s first-ever free, open source version. If you’ve got a mobile, desktop, or server app idea for your small business, the new LiveCode 6.0 could be the tool you’ve been waiting for to help make it happen.

Drag-and-drop functionality

LiveCode 6.0 is actually the result of a highly successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the open source version. Closed at the end of February, the campaign raised roughly $760,500, far surpassing its $539,000 goal.

Targeting iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, and server, the commercial version of LiveCode offers an intuitive graphical user interface with drag-and-drop functionality and a natural English-like programming language. Apps developed in LiveCode can be written once and quickly deployed on all popular mobile, desktop, and server platforms. Annual pricing is $500.

Now, however, RunRev is targeting educators, students, and business professionals with this first open source edition of the rapid application development platform.

‘The power of programming’

“With its drag-and-drop interface and easy-to-learn English-like language, LiveCode puts the power of programming in the hands of students, business professionals, and novice developers, regardless of their familiarity with programming,” RunRev explains.

For those who want a little extra help, LiveCode “academies” are also available with step-by-step videos and documentation, including sample apps and code. Two free eBooks on the topic can also be downloaded from RunRev’s site focusing on mobile apps and games.

LiveCode 6.0 is released under the GPL3 license, and the only requirement for users is that they make their apps open source as well, with the source code publicly available. If you decide you want to build a closed-source app, you can buy a LiveCode license at that point, RunRev says. You’ll also need the paid version if you want to upload your app to Apple’s App Store because of license incompatibilities, as RunRev’s product-selection chart points out.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2033881/create-your-own-apps-for-free-with-open-source-livecode-6-0.html

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Apple removes Windows malware from iOS App Store

On Tuesday, an iOS app in the App Store was discovered containing malicious Windows executable files. While this meant your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Mac could not be infected, even Windows users were relatively safe since the malware had to be manually extracted from the iOS application package. Either way, Apple quickly removed it.

iOS user "deesto" posted the following message in the Apple Support Communities forum in a post titled "apps reported as virus" (via CNET):

In short, the app called "Instaquotes-Quotes Cards For Instagram" was being flagged by the user’s antivirus as a worm. While some argued this was a false positive, it was quickly confirmed the iOS package included a threat identified as Worm.VB-900 by ClamAV and Worm:Win32/VB.CB by Microsoft.

The app in question had been in the App Store since July 19. Over the weekend, its price was temporarily slashed from $0.99 to free. It is unknown how many users downloaded the infected app while it was available, and Apple is unlikely to share such information.

Within hours of the report, Apple removed the app from the App Store. The developer "Appsstand" then posted the following message in the same forum topic:

It’s not entirely clear whether the malware’s inclusion inside the app was done on purpose. Given that it wasn’t exactly set up to infect a computer upon download, it’s most likely this was an accidental inclusion due to an the developer’s computer being infected.

Apple needs to start scanning for Windows malware as well as Mac and iOS malware when developers upload their apps to the company’s app repository. A simple extraction and scanning of all the files from the iOS app package would have prevented this threat from getting onto the iOS App Store.

source:http://www.zdnet.com/apple-removes-windows-malware-from-ios-app-store-7000001570/

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Windows 8 Release Candidate Coming in Early June

The Microsoft Windows 8 release preview will arrive in plenty of time for manufacturers to have Windows 8 devices "out in the fall well ahead of the holiday buying season," said analyst Al Hilwa. "Shipping early means an even bigger variety of devices by the holidays" that will be running Microsoft Windows 8.

Microsoft will launch a Windows  8 release preview of its next generation operating system in early June. The announcement was made on Tuesday by Stephen Sinofsky — the president of Microsoft’s Windows division — at the Windows Developer Days conference in Japan.

Microsoft’s release schedule for Windows 7 began with the launch of the W7 developer’s preview on October 28, 2008. Then in 2009, Microsoft rolled out the W7 public beta, release candidate (RC), and release to manufacturing (RTM) versions on Jan. 7, April 30 and Oct. 22, respectively.

This time around, Microsoft has changed the designations for its incremental W8 OS releases to developer (Sept. 13, 2011), consumer (Feb. 29, 2012) and preview (early June).

"Barring any major issues, an early June roll out of a release candidate caliber version of W8 is in fact earlier" than many industry observers had expected, said Al Hilwa, director of applications software  development at IDC.

The W8 release preview will arrive in plenty of time for manufacturers to have W8 devices "out in the fall well ahead of the holiday buying season," Hilwa said. "Shipping early means an even bigger variety of devices by the holidays."

A New Mobile Platform

When we asked Hilwa what the impact would be of each subsequent W8 release on third-party app developers and service operators, he said he does expect independent software vendors to begin to take more notice of each new W8 release — and with some ISVs already showing visible interest in W8 because they view it as a new mobile  platform.

"Traditional PC  ISVs will likely start to take notice with the June release," Hilwa said. "Business ISVs will likely be the last to come and will likely add modules for their apps around business-to-consumer functionality."

With its new cross-over capability to run on media tablets and other computing devices equipped with ARM-based processors, however, Windows 8 may present Microsoft with more challenges to have a final release-to-manufacturing version ready for an October rollout to tablet  makers as well as PC manufacturers. The good news for Microsoft, however, is that the new OS will radically expand the sheer number of platforms on which W8 can run.

"All indications are that we will see tablets and convertible devices at various points of the weight and price spectrum with Windows 8 itself," Hilwa said. "The theory is that Windows RT devices will be lighter, cheaper and have better battery life, but I am guessing they are going to get a run for their money from Intel -based machines."

Adapting to a New PC Paradigm

So far, however, Hilwa is impressed with the extensive set of consumer friendly features and capabilities that Microsoft has packed into its consumer preview release of W8, which he has been using for the past couple of weeks.

"From a quality perspective the consumer preview version of Windows 8 is amazing," Hilwa said. "I have to pinch myself sometimes when I see the device sleep and wake-up in a couple of seconds."

Hilwa’s principal concern from the consumer perspective is whether people will welcome all the new changes or be overwhelmed with having to change their past computing behavior to fit Microsoft’s new paradigm. The response of consumers to all the changes may depend on how long they have been using Windows — with younger PC users potentially finding it easier to adapt to the new computing environment.

"There are some things I am still trying to figure out in Windows 8 and I have been using a PC for 20 years," Hilwa said. "Maybe that is why."

source:

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=12000EO2A2BC&page=1

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Node.js sees Windows compatibility as key to success

The creator of Node.js says he wants to avoid the mistakes of other development environments, and support cross-platform systems as much as possible.

Ryan Dahl, who devised Node.js as a way of running JavaScript on the server side, was speaking in a group session with Rackspace and Microsoft at the first Node Summit in San Francisco. In the opening keynote, he laid out his plans for the Node.js development environment – and about the importance of addressing the Windows market.

“Ruby on Rails decided it wasn’t interested in Windows and that’s hurt Ruby in the long run,” Dahl explained. “Python has done a good effort, on the other hand. To be a big platform, a real platform, you have to be on Windows.”

He explained that while he wasn’t a Windows user himself, there were plenty of people who were, and that their needs should be addressed. Not surprisingly, Microsoft and Rackspace agreed. Rackspace has been working with Redmond and Joyent, Dahl’s employer, to port the platform to Windows via Azure.

“To build a diverse open source community, you need a wide platform,” said the impressively bearded (even by developer standards) Paul Querna, architect at Rackspace. “Ruby didn’t do a Windows port and it hurt, Python did and it helped. It’s obvious it makes sense.”

Read More:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/24/nodejs_windows_developer

_ruby/

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Windows 8 Includes Tablet Hardware Requirements

Microsoft’s own batch of "Windows 8 Hardware Certification Requirements" documents, released last month, reveal that the company is providing minimum hardware requirements for x86, x64 and ARM-based tablets running the upcoming Windows 8 OS. Devices will need at least 10 GB of free space, a 1366 x 768 screen resolution, Bluetooth 4.0 + LTE, a 720p camera and more.

The requirements are part of a 293-page "Windows Hardware Certification Requirements" document for client and server systems, covering aspects ranging from pen- and touch-based digitizers to WiFi Direct to power management. Starting on page 72, Microsoft begins to set the foundation for tablets, defining bezel width, boot latency, required hardware buttons and required components.

According to the document, a Windows 8 tablet must feature a power button, a rotation lock, a Windows key button measuring at least 10.5-mm in diameter, volume up and volume down buttons. "The default orientation is in landscape mode and the Windows Key button must be on the front of the device facing the end user in the centre along the bottom bezel," Microsoft says. "If the system is a convertible, the buttons must be accessible in all configurations. For convertible systems, it is acceptable to have the button off centre along the bottom bezel when the convertible is in its tablet mode. "

Read More:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Windows-8-Microsoft-Tablet-x86-ARM,14504.html

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Gates testifies in $1B lawsuit against Microsoft

04

Bill Gates wanted the top word processor on the market to be included in Windows 95, and by 1994, that just happened to be his own Word program, the Microsoft Corp. co-founder testified Monday in a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit filed by the creator of then-rival WordPerfect.

"It was a real milestone," he said of the shift in popularity.

Gates, wearing a gray suit and a yellow tie, was the first witness to testify Monday as Microsoft lawyers presented their case in the trial that’s been ongoing in federal court in Salt Lake City for about a month.

Utah-based Novell Inc. sued Microsoft in 2004, claiming the Redmond, Wash., company violated U.S. antitrust laws through its arrangements with other software makers when it launched Windows 95. Novell says it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss. Novell is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group, the result of a merger that was completed earlier this year.

Gates said Novell just couldn’t deliver a Windows 95 compatible WordPerfect program in time for its rollout, and its own Word program was actually better. He said that by 1994, Microsoft’s Word writing program was ranked No. 1 in the market above WordPerfect.

Gates called it "an important win."

Source: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20111121/bill-gates-testimony-microsoft-lawsuit-111121/

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