14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Microsoft Mobile has announced the availability of new resources for developers interested in building applications for Lumia handsets, in the form of the Nokia Imaging SDK and SensorCore SDK Beta.
The Nokia Imaging SDK was announced earlier this year at the BUILD 2014 conference in a Beta flavor and is now available in a stable state, as version 1.2.
The pack of tools comes with the same technology that powers Lumia exclusive applications such as Creative Studio, Storyteller and Cinemagraph, and enables third-party developers to take full advantage of new capabilities included in Lumia phones.
In fact, the new release was meant to expand the availability of Nokia Imaging beyond the Windows Phone 8.1-based Lumia series of handsets, thus offering support for all Windows Phone 8.0 and Windows 8.1 devices as well.
“With Universal apps, developers can now address the installed base of the Windows family with a single project, reusing a lot of their code across platforms,” a recent post on Nokia Conversations reads.
“The Nokia Imaging SDK 1.2 is fully compatible with Universal apps and Windows Runtime languages, providing developers with flexibility to use the languages they prefer.”
The developer tools will also deliver features such as support for animated GIFs, along with an Image Aligner, which will enable devs to create apps that can deliver moving images.
On top of that, brand-new Local Blending API will allow app builders to merge and position images of different sizes easier than before.
As for the Lumia SensorCore SDK Beta, it was designed to allow developers to come up with apps that can take advantage of some new capabilities inside the latest Lumia phones out there, such as the ability to collect more data about users.
Nokia Lumia 630, Lumia 635 and Lumia 930 were made official with a brand-new SensorCore inside, capable of storing users’ movements, including walking, running, or staying idle. Apparently, the upcoming Lumia Cyan update will activate the technology on Lumia 1520 and Lumia Icon as well.
Courtesy of this new sensor, apps such as Bing Health & Fitness can be designed and deployed. With the release of the new SensorCore SDK beta, third-party developers can also tap into the capabilities of Lumia handsets.
“Worried about battery drain? Fear not. SensorCore is designed specifically to consume almost no power so it barely makes a dent in your battery indicator, unlike traditional sensor technologies,” the aforementioned blog post reads.
Those app developers interested in downloading the Nokia Imaging SDK should head over to the Nokia Developer portal. More info on SensorCore SDK Beta can be found on the developer website as well.
