At its I/O developer conference, Google today announced a new Maps API for mobile developers, updates to Maps for Android and iOS and a completely refreshed Google Maps experience on the desktop. After the main keynote, however, Google also announced a major visual refresh for sites that use its Google Maps API. → Read More
Zapier, a service that automates tasks between online services, has launched a tool that monitors 200 APIs, sometimes catching an outage before the provider does.
The new tool monitors the uptime and downtime of every API on Zapier. It is designed to monitor the realtime status of popular web APIs and their impact on customers that use the Zapier service or just want a good resource to… → Read More
Jawbone is doing something a lot of developers will probably be interested in, by opening up the UP fitness tracking wristband as a platform play, with an open API coming soon. Jawbone’s new version 2.5 update for the iOS UP app allows you to integrate with IFTTT, MapMyFitness, Withings, Sleepio, Wello, RunKeeper, Notch.me, Maxwell Health, Lose It!, and MyFitnessPal. → Read More
During our Disrupt event today, New York City company Foursquare’s co-founder Dennis Crowley spoke about how people are talking about the company these days. One of the interesting things about the company is its strategy to be the “location layer” of the Internet. For four years, the company has been trapping all of this location data, tips and social graph information. On its… → Read More
What a two weeks it’s been. Something happened that has been simmering for a while. The API market exploded. Intel bought Mashery for more than $180 million and CA acquired Layer 7. 3Scale received a new $4.2 million round of funding from Javelin Ventures. Mulesoft acquired Programmable Web. And then Facebook jumped in and bought Parse. The acquisitions and funding point to a maturing market… → Read More
MuleSoft has acquired Programmable Web from Alcatel-Lucent effectively marking the telecommunication company’s exit from a core API community. For MuleSoft, a data integration company, the deal provides a vehicle for it to offer what it calls a GitHub for APIs that will integrate its APIhub with Programmable Web’s API database and rich editorial focus on the correlating market space. → Read More
Mozilla is working with payment vendors and the W3C standards body to create a common API to make online payments, both on desktop and mobile, easier and more secure. To get this process going, Mozilla has implemented a new and experimental JavaScript API into its new Firefox OS for smartphones that will eventually allow web apps to accept payments. Mozilla argues that having a common API for… → Read More
Gyft, the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2012 finalist working to bring the plastic gift card industry to mobile, is today announcing the general availability of its APIs, which allow developers to integrate Gyft into websites, apps, or other services. However, as Gyft co-founder and CEO Vinny Lingham explains, the primary focus is on mobile app developers – a group that’s interested in offering gift… → Read More
Twitter has released an open invite to a developer press event it’s holding April 2 on its dedicated developer website today. The event is mobile-focused, Twitter says, and will take place at Twitter HQ between 6:30 PM and 9:30 PM Pacific. Twitter says it will use the occasion to share “some exciting new features for the Twitter Platform” it has been working on. → Read More
The complexity of connecting tools in this new API economy is getting compounded by the inability to link this new breed of services so people can talk in context about the code. Application development cycles are shorter and developers are picking tools that make them more productive. → Read More
Concurrent has raised $4 million in a Series A funding for its big data application development platform and hired a new CEO. The investment was led by True Ventures and Rembrandt Venture Partners. Concurrent received a $900,000 seed round in 20111. → Read More
On one day, the software runs on complex hardware systems behind the firewall. The next it is software operating as a service in the cloud. And so explains Kinvey, a startup that today announced a way for enterprise customers to scrap their hand stitched, back end systems running middleware for a service that does it for them in a cloud environment. → Read More
Postmaster, a TechStars Cloud company based in Austin, Texas, just launched a new API in beta that will allow businesses to optimize their small parcel shipments. You’d think that shipping is pretty much a solved problem at this point. In reality, it’s still hard for developers to easily hook their applications into the APIs of major shippers and understand who offers the most… → Read More
Google Reader being shut down by its malevolent overlords leaves a gaping, Google Reader-sized hole in the market where it used to be. Many are stepping up today to announce that their products or services can act as a replacement, but one source is specifically saying it will build a functionally complete replacement – news aggregation service Digg. → Read More
At SXSW this afternoon, Google provided developers with a first glance at the Google Glass Mirror API, the main interface between Google Glass, Google’s servers and the apps that developers will write for them. In addition, Google showed off a first round of applications that work on Glass, including how Gmail works on the device, as well as integrations from companies like the New York… → Read More
Meet Sunrise, the calendar app that will replace every calendar app that you’ve tried so far. It’s the best calendar you’ll ever use. Behind its apparent simplicity, there’s a server component (like Mailbox), making it significantly smarter with data from Google Calendar, Facebook, LinkedIn and others. The app was made by ex-Foursquare designers who believe they may have finally figured out how to… → Read More
One nifty feature of HTML5 is that apps can store data locally on your computer and have it available even when you are offline. Google today introduced a new API for Chrome, the Sync FileSystem API, that offers an app-private sandboxed file storage system, similar to what’s already in the HTML5 specs. The interesting new feature here is that this data is also automatically synchronized across… → Read More
Dropbox is unveiling a brand new API for developers today that should give mobile app makers an excellent new tool to work with. The Dropbox Sync API allows apps for iOS and Android to treat files stored on a user’s Dropbox account as if they were local, managing syncing, caching, offline access and tracking changes easily so that developers only have to worry about building an app, and not the… → Read More
Segment.io, a Y Combinator-backed analytics startup for developers, offers an easier way for developers to integrate the APIs from multiple analytics providers into their own applications. The service currently supports 20 analytics providers, including those from Google, KISSmetrics, Mixpanel, Chartbeat and more, as well as enterprise providers like HubSpot and Salesforce.
Currently, both… → Read More
One of the nice things about ordering from Amazon is that you get package tracking details and information right on site. It’s a key ingredient in why Amazon leads all others as an online retail destination, and now, thanks to Hong Kong-based startup AfterShip, any merchant will be able to offer the same thanks to an API for package tracking that works with a wide range of international shippers… → Read More
Depending on who you ask, Google+ is either a thriving social network and the most important backbone of Google’s social efforts, or a deserted wasteland where a small clique of fans keeps the lights on. I tend to think it’s doing quite alright for Google, but I also know that I would use it far more if I could use a desktop client (and maybe one that combines Twitter, Facebook and Google+) to… → Read More
Imgur, the popular photo-sharing site among users of Reddit, Digg and Facebook, is today announcing an overhaul of its API in an effort to make it easier for developers to build applications using Imgur’s infrastructure. The company had already issued over 10,000 API keys prior to today’s API update, reaching developers who have built everything from desktop image uploaders to mobile applications. → Read More
Geolocation is very important for consumers these days, it’s a technology that can be used in almost any application you can think of. Whether you want to shop, do volunteer work or meet new people, having a great Maps integration is key for Android developers.
Today, Google launched an update to its Maps API so that developers can better integrate them into the applications that they’re… → Read More
At the Defrag conference in Broomfield, Colo., this week, three themes came in the forefront: APIs, identity and data. The themes reflect the tenor of the times, which can be summed up in the turmoil at Microsoft this week: Microsoft President Steve Sinofsky left the company. → Read More
StackMob, an end-to-end development platform for mobile applications, is today announcing the launch of the StackMob Marketplace for third-party services, as well as changes to its pricing structure for API calls. StackMob is now making API calls free. This latter news will impact the competitive landscape, which includes startups like Parse, Kinvey and others, all of which have traditionally… → Read More
APIs are the glue that connect apps. It’s as true for consumer apps as it is for the enterprise. API management platforms have come into vogue as apps proliferate across the enterprise.
As APIs rise in importance, so has the need for better practices in their creation, development and management. All the major API management services have built strategies that they use as guiding principles… → Read More
SOA Software has a new management platform that company executives say better addresses the enterprise API market more so than the open API providers whose services have come into vogue in the past few years. → Read More
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is asking for help in explaining to the federal circuit why copyrighting APIs is such a bad idea.
The EFF’s request comes after a victory earlier this year when U.S.District Court Judge William Alsup ruled in the Oracle v. Google case that an API cannot be copyrighted. → Read More
During the Q&A portion of the earnings call, Zuckerberg was asked if they would ever charge for APIs. It’s an interesting question, and one that I’ve thought a lot about as I’ve watched Twitter change the way it works with developers. I figured that the answer would be a flat-out “No”, but it sounds like this is something that Facebook has thought about.
Zuckerberg said that the company… → Read More
Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers. Twiliocon is going on this week in San Francisco, it’s the second annual conference for the company that makes telephony easy for developers to integrate into their products. Today, the company running it, Twilio, announced that it is releasing beta support for the WebRTC standard for its client product. This means that Twilio stays on the cutting… → Read More
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Boston, MA
Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
Berlin, Germany
