“The most powerful applications in mobile are those that are tightly integrated with the underlying hardware,” Qualcomm’s senior vice president for software strategy told developers at the company’s annual Uplinq Conference in San Diego. Qualcomm (QCOM) wants mobile devices powered by its processors to hit the ground running the best software as efficiently as possible. So the company is offering Android developers a software development kit (SDK) for its Snapdragon mobile processors.
The kit will give developers access to application programming interfaces (APIs) that they can leverage in creating software for mobile devices. By giving programmers access to the Snapdragon APIs before they even start to code, Qualcomm is increasing the likelihood that the resulting software will take full advantage of its powerful processors. This will be especially important as the chipmaker moves from dual-core to quad-core architectures, because device makers will want software that takes advantage of the extra processing power without draining batteries.
A preview release of the SDK is currently available, with the full kit expected within a few months. APIs included in the preview kit include blink and smile detection to facilitate group pictures, as well as burst capture, which enables users to shoot a number of photos at once and then choose the best shot. The APIs also support the development of innovations to the user interface because the chipset can detect movements of the face or head.
Qualcomm also offers developers smartphone and tablet form factors powered by Snapdragon S4 on which to test their applications. The company says manufacturers are currently at work on more than 120 mobile devices that will use the Snapdragon S4 chipset, and that developers can be ready as these products come to market.
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