Today we are happy to announce the 1.3.5 release of the App Engine SDK for both Python and Java developers.

Due to popular demand, we have increased the throughput of the Task Queue API, from 50 reqs/sec per app to 50 reqs/sec per queue. You can also now specify the amount of storage available to the taskqueue in your app, for those with very large queues with many millions of tasks. Stay tuned for even more Task Queue scalability improvements in the future.

Additionally, in this release we’ve also added support for precompilation of Python source files to match the same feature we launched for Java last year. For Python, you can now use precompilation to speed up application loading time and to reduce CPU usage for new app instances. You can enable precompilation by including the following lines in your app.yaml file:

derived_file_type:

- python_precompiled

This will start offline precompilation of Python modules used by your app when you deploy your application. Currently precompliation is off by default for Python applications, but it will be enabled by default in some future release. (Java precompilation has been enabled by default since the release of 1.3.1.)

To give you a taste of what this feature is like, we tested this on a modified version of Rietveld (which included a copy of Django 1.0.4 in the app directory, and which did not use the datastore in its base url). The latency and CPU usage results for the initial load of the application, after uploading a new version of the app and requesting the homepage, were:

Before precompilation enabled:

Test 1: 1450ms 1757cpu_ms

Test 2: 1298ms 1523cpu_ms

Test 3: 1539ms 1841cpu_ms

After precompilation enabled:

Test 1: 805ms 669cpu_ms

Test 2: 861ms 702cpu_ms

Test 3: 921ms 803cpu_ms

Of course, any individual app’s performance will vary, so we recommend that you experiment with the setting for your application. Please submit your feedback and results to the support group!

In addition to Task Queues and Python precompilation, we have made a few changes to the Blobstore in 1.3.5 We have added file-like interfaces for reading Blobs. In Python, this is supported through the BlobReader class. In Java, we have implemented the BlobstoreInputStream class, which gives an InputStream view of the blobs stored in Blobstore.

More information on this release can be found by reading the release notes for Python and Java.

Posted by the App Engine Team

Read More..

The big Microsoft event came and went and there wasn’t even a word about Windows Phone 7.8. Joe Belfiore and co didn’t even announce a date when the update will be released, but it will probably be a while after WP8 hits the shelves (which is already happening).



Whoever is managing the Windows Phone Italia Facebook page was more talkative, however, and answered a question from a fan, revealing the new features that v7.8 will bring. The response has been deleted since.

The list includes the new homescreen (which we already knew), something called Club, which we guess is Rooms, Xbox Music and SmartGlass.

Facebook is hardly a reliable source of info, but the features listed seem quite probable - we already know about the homescreen, Rooms and SmartGlass are available for other OSes too, so its unlikely they will be excluded from WP7.8 and Xbox Music will bring the existing user base to Microsofts new music service.

In case you dont know yet, Windows Phone 7.8 will be released for 7 and 7.5 devices, as the old hardware wont get updated to WP8.

Source (in Italian) | Via

Adminss Note:

Here is the post translated to English

"The upgrade to 7.8 will be available for versions 7.0 and 7.5 shortly after the marketing of the devices Windows Phone 8.

Among the features are the new Start screen, the sharing of the calendar using the function Club and access to key Microsoft services and content, including Xbox Music Store library that can be enjoyed by Zune and Xbox SmartGlass.

Continue to follow us for all other news!"

Read More..