OStatic

Earlier this week, the Qt Labs at Nokia announced a new project, QtMobility. QtMobility's primary goal is to offer a new set of Qt API development tools for mobile device applications.

While this will certainly make life easier for developers working with the Qt framework on specific Nokia devices, one of the best (and intentional) fringe benefits is that the new API tools are cross-platform. A single application, then, can be built and maintained for any supported Qt platform -- regardless of the mobile device model or manufacturer.

True Knowledge, an innovative semantic answer engine that?s currently in closed beta, has opened its API, as WebWorkerDaily reports. ? If you?re a developer, the API offers the enticing possibility of adding knowledge-based functionality to your apps, writes Simon Mackie. Answer engines are different from search engines in that they provide answers to questions, rather than the ability to search for keywords in content, he adds. The True Knowledge application is a combination of an interpreter (which examines your query and turns it into a form that the app can use) and a knowledge base, which is expanded by its users over time. Check out more in Simon's story here.?

A portion of my job at Splunk is helping drive the development of SDKs for our new REST- based APIs. These APIs are served from the integrated web server in the product, which happens to be closed source. While writing software for REST-based APIs is fairly straightforward, providing various language-specific SDKs speeds up development time and eliminates common tasks like authentication, searching, and error handling for the end users. We've come up with some ways to optimize and open up this process.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced its intention to purchase Yahoo for $44 billion in cash and stock. Now, Yahoo has announced its intention to become a fully open, platformizable company, letting developers mix and match its services and data in new and different ways. How much of this is designed to make Yahoo more profitable, and how much is simply a reaction to Microsoft's acquisition attempt? Will openness bring Yahoo more revenues, or simply make it a cooler company in developers' eyes?