API

Many third-party Instagram apps no longer working

Do you use a third-party app to browse Instagram feeds and hashtags more efficiently on an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad?

If so, there’s a high likelihood that your app has now ceased functioning due to Instagram’s new and much stricter policy pertaining to the official API, which has gone into effect today, as first noted by MacRumors.

New report details Siri API, Apple’s Google Now, ‘Browse Around Me’ in Maps and more iOS 9 stuff

Apple is reportedly reading a Siri Application Programming Interface (API), according to a new report. Called Breadcrumbs, it should let developers enhance iPhone and iPad applications by implementing Siri intelligence in a limited fashion. Another new initiative seeks to create a Google Now experience for iOS devices.

In addition, the Cupertino firm is reportedly adding augmented reality features to Apple Maps, including one dubbed Browse Around Me.

The way it’s supposed to work, you’d point your iPhone’s camera toward a particular business or an area and Maps would put up relevant information such as a virtual view of menu items or daily specials, 9to5Mac said Wednesday.

Google ends YouTube support on older Apple TVs and pre-iOS 6 hardware due to API changes

Following up on its original plan to end support for older Apple TVs, iPhones, iPods and iPads due to API changes, YouTube is no longer accessible on second-generation Apple TVs and iOS devices manufactured in 2012 and earlier, as first reported 9to5Mac.

The app has simply disappeared from the Home screen on second-generation devices, with owners of these boxes reporting inability to access the Settings menu option to hide or show it along with other channels.

Google-owned Nest takes on Apple’s HomeKit, opens up API for developers

Nest Labs, the Google-owned maker of the popular Nest thermostat and smoke detector, has signaled its intention to open up its technology to third-party developers by launching the Nest Developer Program last September.

Since then, Nest has been building a real-time web API for the Nest Learning Thermostat and today, ahead of Google I/O which starts tomorrow, the program has gone active.

The official API allows the Nest to work with all kinds of devices, from smart light bulbs to various home appliances to fitness bands and even cars. “Connect your Nest to things inside and outside of your home, and we’ll get even better at keeping you comfortable and safe,” says Google.

Contrary to previous assurances by Nest co-founder and former Apple engineer Tony Fadell, Nest devices will need to share some data with Google so the Internet giant could understand your daily habits and intelligently propose new ways of saving energy around the house…

Apple opens up Touch ID to developers

Apple has announced that it is opening up its Touch ID fingerprint sensor to third-party developers. Reportedly years in the making, the all-new Touch ID API is available to registered iOS developers, making it easy to integrate Apple’s seamless fingerprint reading functionality into their apps without compromising Touch ID’s strong security…