Codota secures $12m series A funding for AI which automates code suggestions

Israel-based startup Codota has raised $12 million (£9.6m) in a series A funding round to build on its AI-flavoured product which aims to improve developer productivity.

The company's platform aims to be the dev equivalent of Gmail's Smart Compose, providing suggestions to coders based on an analysis of 'millions' of code repositories. In the company's own words, it 'automates all predictable parts of the development cycle, such as looking up syntax and applying the best...

By | 27 April 2020 | AI

Huawei sets out its post-Google plans with release of HMS Core 4.0

Huawei has unveiled further details about its replacements to Google’s services as it prepares to lose access following US sanctions.

During an event in London, Huawei made its pitch as to why developers should port their apps to HMS (Huawei Mobile Services).

The first reason is a cash incentive. Huawei announced that it will use a pot of £20 million ($26 million) to help persuade developers to bring their apps to HMS.

Anson Zhang, MD of Huawei UK, said:...

By | 17 January 2020 | AI

Disruptive AI technology can overcome the trade-off between cost, speed and quality

Anyone who has ever managed a project has probably had to make a decision between delivering at high speed, high quality, or low cost: As the saying goes, you can only pick two. This is usually as true for the delivery of software as it is for anything else, but mounting pressure to digitally transform and continuously deliver updates has made speed a default requirement for most organisations. This leaves a choice between quality and cost, which often comes down to a decision about...

By | 19 December 2019 | AI

Farewell, benevolent dictator: Python creator Guido van Rossum retires

Guido van Rossum, the "benevolent dictator for life" creator of Python, is stepping down from his current role at Dropbox and hanging up his keyboard.

Dropbox hired van Rossum six and a half years ago. The hire made perfect sense, given the company uses about four million lines of Python code. When van Rossum started in 2011, Dropbox’s server and desktop client were written "almost exclusively in Python".

Over the years, other languages have seeped...

By | 31 October 2019 | AI

Samsung announces Bixby DevJam contest with $125k prize money

Samsung has announced the launch of Bixby DevJam, a contest with $125k prize money in total up-for-grabs.

Developers are tasked with developing new “Bixby Capsules” (voice apps, basically) which must be submitted and approved before December 9th to be eligible.

The overall winner will receive $10,000 while second and third place finalists will be awarded $5,000 each. A further five runner-ups will receive $1,000 each.

Winners of the following 20 store...

By | 21 October 2019 | AI

Google Pay APIs improve checkout and pass experiences

Google has updated its Pay API to support new features which improve the online checkout and pass usage experiences.

Some of the features were debuted at this year’s I/O developer conference, but Google has now provided further detail of how they can be used in practice.

Going forward, the Google Pay payment sheet will display all information about the purchase – item cost, shipping options.etc will be displayed to prevent the customer from having to return to the...

By | 5 June 2019 | AI

Sony and Microsoft will partner on cloud, AI, and semiconductors

In a contender for the decade’s most surprising partnership, Sony and Microsoft have agreed to work together on cloud and AI technologies.

AI and cloud are increasingly vital technologies, and Sony isn’t exactly considered a leader in either. It’s easy to see what Sony is getting out of the partnership, but less so what Microsoft sees in the collaboration.

Microsoft and Sony are each other’s biggest competitor in the gaming space. Gaming is shifting...

By | 17 May 2019 | AI

Google adds Smart Reply and Language Identification APIs to ML Kit

Google has announced the addition of ‘Smart Reply’ and ‘Language Identification’ APIs to its ML (Machine Learning) Kit.

Until now, the APIs in ML Kit have focused predominantly on camera-based machine learning processing. The latest additions begin to unlock the many other possibilities for machine learning.

Smart Reply provides the same features that you may be familiar with in some of Google's products like Gmail and Android Messages. As the name...

By | 10 April 2019 | AI

Android Q adds shiny new APIs while blocking others

Android Q is approaching which means developers are getting treated with a few shiny new APIs while others are getting blocked to boost platform security.

The first preview of Android Q has been released for developers and early-adopters to start tinkering with. In this article we'll provide a rundown of what's changed so far.

API Additions

What's being added or changed is always more exciting than what's being taken away, so it's where we'll...

By | 14 March 2019 | AI

#MWC19: Achieve immersion through video and VR

A session during MWC highlighted the growing importance of video and VR when it comes to creating immersive experiences.

Anjali Sud, CEO of Vimeo, was part of the session. Vimeo is the largest ad-free video network and its monetisation model allows it to be agnostic, even allowing creators to publish to YouTube.

Sud highlighted that video is becoming ‘the de facto form’ of communication. People expect a constant supply of professional, engaging video...

By | 26 February 2019 | AI