developers

AppWizard
June 17, 2025
On June 10, the Russian State Duma approved the establishment of a national messenger to be pre-installed on all newly sold smart devices starting September 1. This app will include a digital ID system and aims to streamline access to government services, identity verification, contract signing, and banking transactions. The initiative is inspired by China's WeChat but raises concerns about surveillance and data storage by the Russian government. The specific application for the national messenger has not yet been finalized, with Max, developed by VKontakte, being a leading candidate. Legal expert Sarkis Darbinyan doubts that Max will attract WhatsApp's user base and predicts it will be limited to domestic use without end-to-end encryption. Despite these issues, State Duma IT Committee head Sergei Boyarsky believes that existing messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram will continue to operate if they comply with Russian laws.
Winsage
June 17, 2025
Discord has developed a new client called Discord Messenger, which allows users on legacy systems such as Windows XP, Windows 95, and NT 3.1 to access the platform. This project utilizes the Discord API as a web application, enabling third-party client development without repercussions from Discord. The developers overcame challenges related to TLS encryption compatibility and crafted shims for API calls absent in older systems. They also addressed runtime issues on Windows NT 3.1 by backporting features from the original operating system.
AppWizard
June 17, 2025
Google is introducing a new feature called AppCard to its Android Automotive OS, which allows applications to display essential data and functionalities directly on the home screen. The design of these AppCards will be determined by car manufacturers, ensuring a consistent user interface across vehicles. AppCards can include images, text, tappable buttons, and progress bars, although space limitations may restrict the amount of information displayed. This feature may not be exclusive to Android 16 and could function independently of primary operating system updates. AppCards aim to optimize applications for automotive environments, encouraging developers to refine their apps for vehicle use.
Tech Optimizer
June 17, 2025
EnterpriseDB has introduced significant advancements to its EDB Postgres AI (EDB PG AI) platform, enabling secure and compliant deployment of AI solutions across Postgres environments. The platform integrates transactional, analytical, and AI workloads into a unified system, featuring automatic pipelines and built-in development tools for data automation. Key capabilities include low-code/no-code simplicity for rapid AI pipeline creation and comprehensive hybrid management for real-time insights across databases. Recent research indicates that only 13% of enterprises have successfully implemented agentic AI applications at scale, with early adopters achieving up to 227% higher ROI. Collaborations with Red Hat aim to provide organizations with solutions for successful AI outcomes. New features include enhanced data security, a purpose-built PG AI Analytics Engine for high-performance queries, and a universal data store for various data models. Performance advantages include six times better total cost of ownership (TCO) compared to SQL Server and up to 150 times faster NoSQL performance than MongoDB. A comparative analysis showed that EDB PG AI reduced overall complexity by 67% and maintenance costs by 38%.
AppWizard
June 17, 2025
WhatsApp will soon introduce advertisements within the app, specifically in the Updates tab, as part of Meta Platforms' strategy to monetize its 1.5 billion daily users. The company assures that user privacy will be maintained, as ads will not affect private chats and personal messages remain end-to-end encrypted. This change marks a departure from WhatsApp's original promise to remain ad-free when it was launched in 2009. Ad targeting will be based on limited user information such as age, location, and language, without using personal messages or calls. Additionally, WhatsApp will allow channels to charge subscription fees for exclusive content and enable business owners to pay for increased visibility.
Tech Optimizer
June 17, 2025
Databricks acquired the serverless Postgres startup Neon for approximately billion and integrated this technology into its offerings, launching Databricks Lakebase, a new operational database designed for intelligent applications. Lakebase is a fully-managed Postgres database aimed at addressing the integration of operational and analytical data for AI workloads. It operates on PostgreSQL and allows developers to manage data applications without server infrastructure concerns. Databricks also introduced additional products, including Lakeflow Designer, a no-code ETL tool, Databricks One for easy access to data and AI capabilities, and Agent Bricks for automating the creation of customized AI agents.
Winsage
June 17, 2025
The LibreOffice project is encouraging users to transition from Windows to Linux as Windows 10 approaches its end. The Document Foundation is developing LibreOffice version 25.8, which will remove support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1, as well as deprecate x86 (32-bit) Windows builds. The latest version is 25.2, released in February, with version 25.8 expected in August. Users on Windows 7 can access both "fresh" and "stable" releases, with the current stable version being 24.8.7, which will still support Windows 7 after the release of version 25.8.
AppWizard
June 16, 2025
At Unreal Fest in Orlando, Epic Games showcased new features for Unreal Engine 5 through a tech demo of CD Projekt Red's Witcher 4 and hosted training sessions for developers. Key topics included shader compilation stutters and performance issues in Unreal Engine games, with a focus on optimization methodologies rather than the engine itself. Insights revealed persistent performance optimization challenges, particularly with shader compilation and traversal stutters. Developers were encouraged to implement PSO precaching in Unreal Engine 5.2 or newer, although neither solution is perfect. Obsidian's game Avowed began development in Unreal Engine 4 before transitioning to version 5.3.2, while aiming for specific frame rates on Xbox Series S and X. The team size for Avowed was 140, with only 15 in technical roles, which may have limited their ability to fully utilize new features. Unreal Engine 5.6 offers performance enhancements that require strategic implementation by developers. Attendance at Epic's sessions was high, indicating a growing awareness of performance issues among developers. The hope is that future titles will leverage the latest engine version to address these challenges effectively.
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