Apps and Software

Nest Labs, which Google recently acquired for $3.2 billion, opened its smart Nest thermostat and smoke detector to developers in June to make more products work together in the home, from washing machines and garage doors to lights and cars.

Now, more than 4,000 developers are a part of its Works With Nest platform, which connects smart products with Nest's offerings, the company said on Friday. The integration growth is a part of a greater effort by Nest (and ultimately Google) to kickstart the home automation revolution

The news also comes as Apple readies its ...

When Apple Pay officially launched earlier this week with the release of iOS 8.1, many rushed to local participating retailers to be among the first to use their iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus as a mobile wallet. Early reviews peg it as easy to use and incredibly convenient.

But before we herald it as the future of mobile payments — requiring just a tap of your thumb at checkout to pay for items — is it secure to use? After all, massive ...

Twitter has had a complicated relationship with developers.

In its earlier days, the social network encouraged third-party developers to build their own apps and services on top of the platform. But the company later began to roll out its own competing features (the most notable example of this is when Twitter created its own image sharing service, frustrating companies like Twitpic and Yfrog).

But Twitter made its biggest appeal yet to developers on Wednesday at Flight, the company's first mobile developer conference. There CEO Dick Costolo ...