Windows App Developer Links - 2012-09-03

posted on 02 Sep 2012 | App Developer Links

Windows 8

  • OEMs Introduce Innovative New PC Designs for Windows 8 (Blogging Windows)

    • "... The industry is building momentum for Windows 8, and the level of hardware innovation from components and hinges to ultrathin designs and beautiful touch displays is impressive. Customers will benefit from very rich and immersive experiences made possible by the combination of the incredible new Windows PCs and tablets running Windows 8 or Windows RT along with cloud services. With devices that range from tablets and hybrids to more familiar notebooks and all-in-ones on display at the IFA conference, it is clear that consumers will have a broad range of PC choices when Windows 8 launches. Here are some of the highlights from Berlin this week..."

  • Microsoft Studios Windows 8 Titles Revealed! (playXBLA)

    • "Earlier this year we announced that Xbox is coming to Windows 8. Now, in addition to its industry-leading gaming service, Xbox is pleased to announce support from Microsoft Studios to bring high quality Xbox games to Windows 8. Wave one of our portfolio will bring you many of the games you already know and love; and will include 29 titles from Microsoft Studios, some of which will be exclusive to Windows 8. Many games will be available starting October 26th with ongoing new releases coming through holiday and beyond. ... Have a look at wave one of our portfolio..."

Windows 8 App Development

  • Welcome to The Windows 8 Center (SourceForge)

    • "Unless you live in a sealed bunker without electricity, you have probably heard about Windows 8. However, you probably don't know much detail about this provocative new platform. And, I'll hazard a guess, much of what you think you know isn't correct. That's where the newest destination on SourceForge, The Windows 8 Center at SourceForge, comes in. This new site is designed to help developers and others looking to learn more about Windows 8 find the resources they need. The Windows 8 Center will feature original blog posts along with breakouts of the newest Windows 8 features and functions. In addition, this site boasts tools, case studies, best cases, tutorials, and other crucial pieces of Windows 8 content..."

  • Windows 8: Scheduled Tasks & the Lock Screen (Jerry Nixon)

    • "Windows 8 apps are like a stack of cards. Only the top card is active - the rest (apps) have their threads suspended. Windows 8 snap view actually allows for two active apps. That's pretty cool. Here's what you need to know..."

  • Using the Microsoft Ad SDK in Windows 8 (Matt Harrington)

    • "One of the best ways to make money with Windows 8 is to display ads in your Windows Store app using the Microsoft Advertising SDK. Here's how you can get started. Prerequisites: You'll need Windows 8 RTM and Visual Studio 2012. A free 90 day evaluation edition of Windows 8 Enterprise is available, and VS2012 Express Edition is completely free. Start by downloading and installing the Microsoft Advertising SDK..."

  • Portable Class Library even better in .NET 4.5 (Arun Mahendrakar)

    • "Visual Studio 2012 makes Cross-Platform development even easier. It comes with a feature called Portable Class Library (PCL). This feature was available in Visual Studio 2010 as well, but it required an additional install as against being out-of-the-box for 2012. It's also worth noting that PCL is available only for Pro and above versions of 2012. So it's not available with the Express edition of Visual Studio 2012. Let's get started. In Visual Studio 2012 you can see a template called Portable Class Library..."

  • Using Shared WinRT C++ Physics Engines in Your WinJS game (Surf4Fun)

    • "Currently there are no Physics Engines that will drop into WinRT and work, but bear in mind that WInRT is used when you need language projection. That is: You write the code in C++/CX and consume in JavaScript or C# or VB or even C++. Or C# and consume in the other languages, VB is the same, but JavaScript can only consume. With respect to existing game libraries like UDK or Autodesk ScaleForm, these C++ libraries can be used with a little more work then I wanted to do, consumed through WinRT and then projected into JavaScript..."

  • Windows 8 and HTML Part 8: Search Contract (Jeff Brand)

    • "... The Search contract is a way you can integrate the Windows 8 search experience into your game. Windows 8 provides a Search feature that is enabled via the Charm bar (shown at right). The Charm bar is activated by a user swiping from the right edge of the screen with a finger, or by either a mouse or keyboard action (mouse to the upper right corner of the screen or Windows+C ). From the Charm bar, the user can select the Search charm and enter the default Search experience. When dealing with Search, we have two ways of integrating. The first is accepting a query request while our application is running, and the second is dealing with the user launching our application as part of a query request (i..e, picking our app after typing in a query in the Search Pane). Let's take a look at how we handle the first scenario in TweetScan..."

  • Creating a Game Loop in a Windows Store Game using HTML and JavaScript (David Isbitski)

    • "This is the sixth in a series of short screencasts that will teach you Windows Store App development in a fun and immersive way via casual gaming. This screencast covers how to create a simple Game Loop in your Windows Store Game using HTML and JavaScript..."

Tools, Services, Frameworks, & Libraries

  • Transhipment (Andrei Marukovich)

    • "WinRT library for structured data sharing (via Share Contract) using Schema.org data formats..."

Other

  • Microsoft's Azure Mobile Services... and MonoTouch (Craig Dunn)

    • "Microsoft only recently announced a cool new addition to the Azure product offering: Mobile Services. They have done a great job at providing a getting started tutorial that gives you a working Windows 8 app in about 5 minutes (seriously, it's fast and easy). ... Azure Mobile Services consist of an underlying REST API, so it didn't take long for someone (Chris Risner :-) to put a simple iOS client together. That was all the inspiration required to get it working with MonoTouch..."

  • List of Windows 8 Shortcuts (Yash Tolia)

    • "With a paradigm shift in how we look at a Start screen, Windows 8 has added a lot of shortcuts for easier navigation. Check out a loooooong list of shortcuts for Windows 8 to make your life simpler..."