Google has announced that Android Studio 3.1 is now available for developers to work with. The main areas of the release include product quality and app development productivity. New features and improvements include a C++ performance profiler, Kotlin link checks, database code editing, IntelliJ platform update, new build output window, quick boot, and C++ CPU profiling. 

The C++ performance profiler is new to the release and designed to help developers troubleshoot performance bottlenecks in their code.

“For those of you with a Room or SQLite database in their your app, we added better code editor support to aid in your SQL table and query creation statements. We also added better lint support for your Kotlin code, and accelerated your testing with an updated Android Emulator with Quick Boot,” Jamal Eason, product manager for Android, wrote in a post.

Microsoft open sources WSL sample for Linux
Microsoft has announced it has open sourced WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) sample for Linux distribution maintainers. The project will allow developers to create custom Linux distributions that can be side loaded onto their dev machine, and enables Linux distribution maintainers to package and submit a Linux distribution as an appx that runs on WSL.

“We know that many Linux distros rely entirely on open source software, so we would like to bring WSL closer to the OSS community,” the company wrote in a blog post. “We hope open sourcing this project will help increase community engagement and bring more of your favorite distros to the Microsoft Store.”

Valohai announces new round of funding
Valohai has announced a $1.8 million round of funding to help international companies accelerate machine learning development and scale their model development. Valohai is designed to automate machine learning training and deployment infrastructure and enable companies to run multiple variations in parallel.

This round was led by Nordic seed stage investment company Superhero Capital, with participation from Reaktor Ventures and Business Finland, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation. 

“Currently, every company starting with large-scale machine learning needs to build a lot of overhead infrastructure before they can apply deep learning to solve the actual problem. By providing a standardized infrastructure and workflow, we help companies focus on the actual business driving machine learning models instead of the infrastructure,” said Eero Laaksonen, CEO and co-founder of Valohai.

NVIDIA announces new virtual reality headset
NVIDIA has announced the HTC VIVE Pro VR headset, powered by NVIDIA GPUs.. According to the company, the VR headset is designed to improve display resolution by nearly 80 percent compared to its predecessor. This will help provide developers and VR users with visual clarity, clear audio and comfort.

“VR headsets require powerful GPUs to refresh at the 90 frames per second needed for a smooth, comfortable experience. With 78 percent more pixels, VIVE Pro raises the GPU performance workload to the next level — and NVIDIA GPUs deliver,” the company wrote in a blog post.