Beginning January 1st, Google will start charging a fee to developers and websites that frequently access its Google Maps API service, BBC reported recently. Developers will apparently be charged $4 for every 1,000 views after Google Maps is accessed more than 25,000 times in a single 24-hour period. BBC said Google expects the changes will only affect 0.35% of its user base. “We understand that the introduction of these limits may be concerning,” Google Maps product manager Thor Mitchell said. &#...

Google announced on Friday that it is shutting down a number of properties in the coming months, the most notable of which is likely its failed social network, Google Buzz. Best known as that annoying thing under “Inbox” in Gmail, Google Buzz was a Twitter-like service that never gained traction. Buzz encouraged users to share status updates, photos and more that could then be viewed by friends in real time, however it offered no compelling features compared to already established services such as...

Google recently announced that its Google+ social network is now available to anyone who wants to join. The search engine giant noted that it has added 91 changes during the social network’s beta trial, which lasted just under 90 days, and that it is deploying nine new changes on Tuesday. Among the most notable additions, the Hangouts video chat feature is now available for Android smartphones running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) or newer. Here is a list of several other key changes: A new “Hangouts...

Google posted a guide on its Android Developers website on Monday that should help developers prepare Honeycomb applications for the new Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system, which will run on smartphones as well as tablets. That means Honeycomb developers will need to make their applications compatible with displays smaller than those found on various Android tablets. Creating an Ice Cream Sandwich compatible version of an application is important to reaching a larger audience, too. “Optim...

After spending three days with iOS 5 on multiple devices now, I can confidently say that this is the mobile operating system to beat. It gives you just enough of what was missing, while still remaining solid (“closed” — a.k.a. fast, responsive, apps that don’t steal your data, etc). There have definitely been some slowdowns in daily usage due to the fact that the OS is in beta, and battery life has no doubt taken a hit, but this isn’t meant to be used on consumer devices. And even wi...

After two days of use with Apple’s brand new iOS 5 on both an iPhone 4 and iPad 2, I can confidently say that iOS 5 has not only added much-needed features and enhancements, but has pushed Apple’s mobile operating system even further out into the lead ahead of competitors. What’s incredible is that Apple’s first beta release of iOS 5 for developers already runs better than any production BlackBerry or Android OS phone, and in daily use, I haven’t had any major issues at all with...

I’ve been using iOS 5 on my primary iPhone 4 since it was made available to developers yesterday around 5:00 p.m. This is the most solid iOS beta Apple has ever released, so far. What’s even more impressive is that Apple seems to have fixed every single gripe I’ve had with the platform. Little things that drove me insane that were available on other mobile operating systems — like setting a default calendar notification time so you can quickly go into the calendar app, jot down the meeting...

PlayOn on Wednesday announced the availability of a new API that makes building channels for the company’s streaming video service easier than ever. PlayOn’s new “dead simple” PlayDirect API allows partners to create new channels by simply specifying a URL for the video feed and then selecting the video’s viewable area. Since making the new API available just two days ago, PlayOn has already added 25 new channels including Food Network, Disney Channel Live, Lifetime and TV Land, ...

Microsoft is aiming to assuage the pains of mobile application developers looking to migrate their iOS applications from Apple’s mobile operating system to Windows Phone. “Launched today, the iPhone/iOS to Windows Phone 7 API mapping tool helps developers find their way around when they discover the Windows Phone platform,” writes Microsoft in a blog post. “Think of the API mapping tool as being like a translation dictionary.” The tool will allow iOS developers to easily find the...

Research In Motion has just announced that BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) Social Platform is now available in public beta. First announced during BlackBerry DEVCON 2010, BBM Social Platform allows developers to integrate their applications directly with BBM using a set of new APIs, and RIM is banking on developers to make BBM a more robust application. RIM hopes programmers will create multimedia apps, location-based services, games, VoIP services, and more, that can build on the existing BBM experience. HereR...

Google made its software development kit (SDK) available for version 2.3.3 of the Android OS earlier this month, and Stanford University’s MobiSocial News uncovered a nifty feature that hasn’t gotten much coverage. The new SDK features an API for “insecure Bluetooth socket connections” on both the client and server sides. Coupled with Gingerbread’s widely publicized NFC capabilities, this will allow developers to enable a tap-to-connect feature that lets NFC-equipped Android phon...

If you have a Windows Phone 7 device and are itching to get some OS tinkering in, listen up. Blog ChevronWP7 has released their first Windows Phone 7 unlocking tool for users running Windows XP SP2 or higher. The unlock will allows for “the sideloading of experimental applications that would otherwise can’t be published to the Marketplace, such as those which access private or native APIs.” The tool itself is a dead-simple executable file that requires three to four clicks to delivery its pay...

Today, Google announced that it would be adding six new fonts to its Google Font API: Droid Serif, Droid Sans, Calibri, Cambria, Consolas, and Corsiva. The Google Font API system enables the use of web-fonts, hosted on a server, to be displayed on modern web-browsers. In other words, you can display fonts that are not loaded on your, or your clients, system. Google also notes that Google Docs will be able to leverage these new fonts (as they use the Font API) and that it is already testing its next batch of ...

Finally! Palm has announced that they will begin to roll out the webOS 2.0 SDK — in a limited capacity — to developers starting today. The company isn’t talking about what webOS 2.0 will bring to consumers, but they are touting some of the major overhauls and additions that developers can look forward to. Some of those improvements include:Exhibition for Touchstone– Exhibition will allow developers to code their applications to perform custom actions when your webOS device is plugged ...