Microsoft Updates Its Developer Tools And Services, Introduces Monthly Visual Studio Subscription

shutterstock Microsoft Microsoft today announced a large number of updates to its developer and DevOps tools and services at its Connect conference in New York. These range for a new free program for developers who are just getting started, all the way to a new subscription service, a marketplace for extensions, updates to .NET, and the renaming of Visual Studio Online. This is the first major dev tools update… Read More

Keep Your Apps Playful

toddler plays with tablet Computer software and apps are our modern-day toys. Whether it’s a hot dating app or a system for planning molecules (a true story), interface designers must treat the process of creating a new app as if they were creating a new toy. I’m calling it “playification,” and I believe it’s a must-have tool for anyone in our industry. Read More

Vortex Is A Toy Robot That Teaches Kids How To Code

Image 2 DFRobot, a company that has been building robots for the education market since 2008, this week introduced its first attempt at making a robot accessible to all children, with the debut of Vortex – an interactive, programmable robot aimed at kids 6 and up. The Vortex robot pairs with iOS and Android smartphones or tablets over Bluetooth, and lets kids control its movement by tapping… Read More

Tynker, A Startup That Teaches Kids To Code, Now Works With Robots, Drones And More

tynker-drone-training-puzzle Tynker, a startup that teaches children the fundamentals of programming by having them build their own games, is now expanding its platform to allow kids to control connected devices, including drones, robots and other “smart home” products, like lighting systems. The company will introduce these capabilities this weekend at the Bay Area Maker Faire in San Mateo, and the… Read More

CodeFights Scores $2.4 Million To Turn Coding Practice Into A Game

vs_fight A startup that turns practicing your programming skills into a game, CodeFights, has just raised $2.4 million in seed funding to further develop its real-time, social game where developers can participate in “code battles” versus either a timed clock or other opponents directly. While the site has only been live for around six months, already 70,000 users have shown up and have… Read More

YC-Backed Moltin Wants To Simplify E-Commerce Development

Colorful shopping carts The three founders of Moltin, a member of the 2015 Y Combinator winter class, like many fellow members birthed their company idea out of necessity, coming up with a way to solve an entrenched problem they were facing.
In this case, they were working for a design agency in England, and they found adding e-commerce functionality like a shopping cart to a website was too hard and often… Read More