Task Queue Quota Increases

Since the Task Queue API launched in June, we've been thrilled with
how many developers have started using the API.
Many developers have asked for more quota so that they can better utilize the API within their apps. We're pleased that we can now address these requests by
significantly increasing the Task Queue quotas and are happy to
announce the following changes, effective from today:

• Free quota increased from 10K to 100K task insertions per day.


• For billing enabled apps, quota increased from 100K to 1M (one million) task insertions per day.


• Total execution rate (across all queues for a given app) increased from 10 to 20 task invocations per second.

Stay tuned for more enhancements to the Task Queue system in the coming months.

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Find App Engine news and content at reddit

We're pleased to announce that you can now submit and comment on App Engine news and articles on a new App Engine specific section of the popular social media site, reddit. Our subreddit is for any articles, blog posts, or other content relevant to App Engine, and is actively moderated and maintained by the App Engine team. Registration takes seconds and allows you to submit, vote, and comment on new App Engine content. The top articles, as selected by the App Engine community, are shown in a widget on http://code.google.com/appengine/.

Be sure to check us out on the App Engine reddit - http://reddit.com/r/appengine

Posted by Nick Johnson, App Engine Team

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App Engine SDK 1.2.7 - Bugfix Release for Python

Due to two issues introduced in the 1.2.6 release of the Python SDK, we are releasing version 1.2.7 today. This is a bugfix-only release with just a few minor changes (no new features or functionality); all users of App Engine for Python should upgrade to the new version, available on our Downloads page.

The two issues were:

• 
  The 1.2.6 release added a key argument to the Model class constructor that broke subclasses who were calling the constructor's private arguments with positional (not named) values. The fix is to restore the original ordering, and require that the new key argument be specified as a named argument only.
  


• 
  The 1.2.6 release broke an interaction between remote_api and the local development app server.
  

Both are now fixed in 1.2.7.

There is no corresponding release for the Java language version of App Engine (the Java SDK remains at 1.2.6).

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App Engine SDK 1.2.6 Released with Incoming Email, App Deletion, and more!

The App Engine team is psyched to present version 1.2.6 of our SDK for both runtimes, Python and Java. This releases contains plenty of improvements and bugfixes, along with some exciting new features:

Incoming Email - Your App Engine app has been able to send email for some time ... but now, with 1.2.6, your app can also receive email. After enabling mail as an inbound service (just like XMPP), users can email your application at whatever@yourappid.appspotmail.com. Inbound messages are converted to HTTP requests (again, just like XMPP) which you can receive via webhook handler. Docs for Python, Java.

Delete an App - Our developers have been quite vocal with their desire to delete an App Engine application once it is no longer used (It's one of the top 5 most requested features on our issue tracker). Well, this feature is now available via the Admin Console! Just visit the Application Settings page for more information. Please be careful when deleting an app - the appid can never be reused after deletion. Learn more.

Datastore Stats - You can now see more detailed statistics about how your application data is stored in the Admin Console. This information can also be accessed programmatically. Docs for Python, Java.

More details can be found in the Release Notes. To download the new SDK and get coding, please visit the Downloads page.

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Interactive XMPP demos

We hope you've been enjoying the new XMPP API we shipped in App Engine release 1.2.5. We're always impressed with the cool scenarios our developers create!

A couple of Google engineers found the time to create cool App Engine demos using the XMPP API and we'd like to share them with you.

CrowdGuru - this app, courtesy of App Engine Developer Programs Engineer Nick Johnson, is a fun trivia game which crowdsources answers. Add crowdguru@appspot.com to your IM list and ask it a question. You can read up on full details of the design and implementation here.

Multi-Chat - David Symonds wasn't satisfied with simple person-to-person IM, so he built an IRC-like chat room system! Add multi-chat@appspot.com to your IM list and message it "/help" to find out how you can join channels and start chatting it up. Full source is available here, and a basic web interface is here.

Of course, please note that these apps are solely intended to demonstrate the power of the XMPP API - they are not official products in any form, nor are they supported. In particular, don't send any private or personally identifying information when chatting with these bots.

But definitely try them out and let us know what cool app experiences you are building with App Engine!

Posted by the Google App Engine Team

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Build a Voice App in the Cloud and Enter the Twilio + App Engine Developer Contest

This week, Google App Engine and Twilio challenge you to build voice or voice-enhanced applications hosted on App Engine that use Twilio's voice application API to make and receive phone calls. Submit your app by October 4th to win a Dell Netbook from Twilio and $1000 of App Engine hosting credit from Google.

Twilio hosts a telephony in the cloud web service, allowing web developers to build scalable, reliable voice communications applications on web hosting platforms like Google App Engine. Put Twilio and App Engine together and you can build voice applications with features, scalability, and reliability that companies used to spend millions for.

What Are Voice Apps?

Voice apps can be as sophisticated as an airline flight status hotline or a company PBX, or as simple as getting the weather by phone. For inspiration, check out what previous contest winners have built:

• Advocate a Cause: Mobile Commons
• Get Answers on the Go: Ask-a-Human w/ Mechanical Turk
• Get in the Game: ExcitementLivesHere.com
• Have Some Fun: Phone Simon

Tips on Getting Started

• Get Started with App Engine for Java or Python
• Learn how Twilio works or read our Twilio Quickstart
• Check out an example Python/AppEngine Twilio application with source code: Weather by Phone
• Twilio has libraries for Python and Java to help you get started.

Contest Details

Where to Submit: http://contests.twilio.com/submit-your-twilio-project.html
Deadline: October 4th at MIDNIGHT (Pacific Time)
Prize: 1 Dell Netbook from Twilio and $1000 in Google App Engine hosting credit

Questions? Drop us a line at help@twilio.com

Guest Post by Danielle Morrill, Director of Marketing, Twilio

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