It’s time for this month’s blog round-up! Check out what our authors have been creating over the past month!
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This month in MSDN Magazine, Rachel Appel looks at the many new enhancements in features in Windows 8.1 designed to help developers innovate and built the best creations possible. Curious about the substantial update to the Windows OS and how it will impact developers who build Windows Store apps? Check out What’s New in Windows 8.1 for Windows Store Developers.
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Dwight Goins is a member of the Kinect Developer Preview Program and has had the opportunity to check out the beta software and SDK to go along with the new Kinect v2 device. In his blog, he discuesses the capabilities of the Kinect Studio for version 2 Kinect devices and how the application works. It also discusses potential usage patterns, and a quick step by step instructions on how to use it with a custom Kinect v2 based application. Read more in his blog.
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Kevin Griffin, who is a business owner in addition to a WintellectNOW author, recently conducted a test – he wanted to see what would happen if he spent just $1 per day on Facebook ads to drive traffic to specific sites. Check out his methodology and results in his latest post 30 Days Facebook Ad Challenge Results.
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Jeremy Likness has two fascinating articles you won’t want to miss. The first one, Angular: The Modern HTML5 Answer to Silverlight’s MVVM, compares the Silverlight technology with its modern equivalent and explains how if used correctly they can make your life easier. The second, JavaScript Chaos with Canvas, explores several simple yet elegant ways JavaScript can chart the mysterious terrains of chaos theory.
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Since the announcement at Build earlier this month, Jeff Prosise has been like a kid in a candy store when it comes to Universal Apps! He has posted two articles of late – Building Universal Apps with Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 and More Fun with Universal Apps: MyComix Reader. If you’re at all interested in the new universal app model that Microsoft introduced, you have to check these out!
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Until recently there was no easy way to interact with MIDI devices in a Windows Store App. But that has all changed! You can now install the Windows Runtime API for MIDI Preview Nuget package in your project and start using MIDI in your app. Read Walt Ritscher’s latest article to learn more.
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John Robbins has turned his recent pain into your gain in two separate blog posts. First, while the circumstances were sad (Surface-Pro-death-by-dropping), John Robbins was able to turn the situation into a positive by replacing his beloved machine with an ASUS Vivo Tab Note 8. He reviewed the new machine in a recent blog post entitled Initial ASUS Vivo Tab Note 8 Review. Second, he had a Surface Pro that needed to have a full client restore and Windows Server 2012 Essentials that contained the full client backup, but here’s the rub – the Surface Pro doesn’t have an Ethernet port, it is a wireless machine. Windows PE does not support wireless connections. In Windows Server 2012 Essentials Client Restore vs. Microsoft Surface Pro, John will walk you through you he was able to get all to work together.
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Rob Tiffany spoke at Build earlier this month. If you weren’t able to go, you can check out his session entitled Wrap a Mobile API around your Enterprise & take Data Offline w/ NoSQL on Windows Phones & Tablets. In this presentation you’ll learn how to build fast and scalable REST + JSON APIs using the ASP.NET Web API while employing techniques such as data sharding and in-memory caching. On the device, you’ll learn how your apps can work with offline data via in-memory NoSQL tables that use LINQ to support the same CRUD operations as relational databases. You’ll walk away from this session with the ability to deliver flexible server solutions that work on-premise or in Azure and device solutions that work with Windows Phones and Tablets.