Sparx Systems has announced it is acquiring the rights to the sharing and collaboration software solution Prolaborate. Prolaborate will now be offered as part of Sparx’s Pro Cloud Server. According to the company, the collaboration software leverages Enterprise Architect and enables users to analyze, interact and make key decisions.

“Prolaborate is a perfect compliment to our Pro Cloud Server offering and brings the benefits of modeling and design based solutions to a much wider audience. With highly customized and tailored views of Enterprise Architect models it is the perfect platform for delivering tightly focused information to selected audiences in a way that optimizes the content for a target stakeholder,” said Geoffrey Sparks, CEO of Sparx Systems.

Rust 1.3 now available
The latest version of the systems programming language Rust is now available. The latest version features a number of new enhancements such as module system improvements, raw identifies and library stabilization.

In addition, Rust 1.3 features the ability to define advanced macros as well as bring macros into scope with the use keyword.

More information is available here.

Google to discontinue Android Nearby Notifications
Google has announced it will no longer be offering support for Android Nearby Notifications. The notifications were designed to enable Android users to discover apps and contents based on their location. “Our goal was to bring relevant and engaging content to users – to provide useful information proactively. Developers have leveraged this technology to let users know about free wifi nearby, provide guides while in a museum, and list transit schedules at bus stops,” Ritesh Nayak M, product manager for Google, wrote in a post.

After some time, Google noticed the notifications were providing irrelevant and spammy notifications, resulting in a poor user experience. The company will stop delivering beacon notifications by December 6.

In addition, it is releasing two related APIs, Nearby Messages and Connections, but device-to-device connectivity experiences.

API Fortress addresses continuous testing bottlenecks
API Fortress is releasing new command-line tools to help developers and engineers design, reuse and automate functional API testing. According to the company, organizations moving towards a more CI/CD workflow do not have time to deal with bottlenecks in API testing. But development teams also don’t have the time to waste trying to solve those bottlenecks by building and maintaining their own set of tools, or relying on third-party solutions.

“As more organizations turn to multi-cloud architectures and embrace REST, SOAP and GraphQL APIs to modernize their apps, it is only becoming more challenging to introduce API testing earlier in the life cycle. Since day one, we’ve planned for this. If change from waterfall to agile product development is too fast, too complex, our platform helps companies mitigate growing pains. We’re ready out-of-box. Build via GUI or use your own IDE. Focus on what to test, not how to test,” said Patrick Poulin, CEO at API Fortress.