Windows Phone

Visual Studio 2013 Update 5 (2013.5) RC–Released

May 5, 2015 .NET, .NET Framework, .NET Framework 4.5, .NET Framework 4.5.2, ASP.NET, ASP.NET 4.5, ASP.NET MVC, BCL(Base Class Library), KnowledgeBase, Microsoft, Microsoft SDKs, Portable Class Library, Visual Studio 2013, VisualStudio, VS2013, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 8 No comments

Microsoft has released an release candidate version for VS2013 Update 5 (short: 2013.5).

This update is the latest in a cumulative series of technology improvements and bug fixes for Visual Studio 2013.

What’s new in Visual Studio 2013 Update 5

Current iteration query token
Team Project Rename support for Local Workspaces : – [ability to update local workspaces after a team project is renamed. Performing a get or check-in will automatically correct the workspace mapping so that it uses the new team project name.]

WARNING: All prior releases of the Tools for Apache Cordova are incompatible with Update 5. If you have previously installed a Tools for Apache Cordova CTP extension, you must uninstall that extension before installing Visual Studio 2013 Update 5.

Download: Visual Studio 2013 Update 5 (2013.5) RC

KB – https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3021976?wa=wsignin1.0

https://www.visualstudio.com/news/vs2013-update5-vs

Office 2016 Preview available

May 4, 2015 Microsoft, Office, Office 2016, Preview, Previews, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Phone No comments

Microsoft has released Office 2016 Preview

Download links

Obtain license key from: https://products.office.com/en-us/office-2016-preview#howToGet

Read more about features available from official blog: http://blogs.office.com/2015/05/04/office-2016-public-preview-now-available/

Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova in Visual Studio 2015 RC

May 3, 2015 ANDROID, Cordova, CSS, CSS 3, HTML, HTML5, iOS, JavaScript, jQuery, Mobile, Mobile Frameworks, Mobile SDK, Mobile Services, Mobile-Development, PhoneGap, Visual Studio 2013, Visual Studio 2015, Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova, VisualStudio, VS2013, VS2015, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8 apps development, Windows 8.1, Windows Phone, Windows Phone Development, Windows Phone Store, Windows Store, Windows Store Development No comments

Microsoft has announced that with Visual Studio 2015 – Apache Cordova tools will be integrated within the main install bundle. Using Apache Cordova Tools for Visual Studio you will be able to develop cross-platform mobile applications using single codebase for iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

With support for native device capabilities (e.g. camera, accelerometer, contact), offline scenarios and popular JavaScript frameworks (e.g. Angular, React and Backbone), the Tools for Apache Cordova contain everything web developers need for building cross-platform mobile apps using Visual Studio.

What’s new in Apache Cordova Tools for VS2015-RC

Grunt, Gulp, Bower and Node-based Workflows – Starting with the RC release, it’s also much easier for you to build Cordova apps using tools familiar to many web developers.
New Templates from Ionic and Onsen UI – Ionic and Onsen UI templates are provided as optional to enable developers to try out the new frameworks. Each framework provides a variety of starting points to suit the most common project types.
Fresh Samples, Tutorials and Documentation

If you are using Visual Studio 2013, then you will have to rely on Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova CTP3.1 (Add On) to enable cross platform mobile development using Visual Studio 2013 Update 4.

This preview release for Visual Studio 2013 Update 4 and Visual Studio 2015 RC supports building apps for the following device targets:

Android 4+

iOS 6, iOS 7, iOS 8

Windows 8.0 and Windows 8.1 Store

Windows Phone 8.0 and Windows Phone 8.1

Benefits of using Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova:

When you develop apps using Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova, Visual Studio provides these benefits:

Easy installation. Manual installation of Cordova involves a lot of work to find, install, and maintain the correct version of all the third-party software required to support native platforms. Visual Studio handles all that for you by including a third-party dependency installer that gets you up and running in the first hour.

Plugin management. Cordova plugins provide access to native APIs using a JavaScript interface. Support for custom plugins like those that turn a mobile phone into a barcode scanner are critical to an app’s success. Visual Studio makes it easy to add plugins of all kinds, including core Cordova and custom plugins. You also benefit from IntelliSense for plugins in Visual Studio.

Unified debugging experience. Cross-platform development often requires a different tool for debugging each device, emulator, or simulator. Different tools mean different workflows and lost productivity every time you switch devices. With Visual Studio, you can use the same world-class debugging tools for all deployment targets, including iOS devices and emulators, Android devices and emulators, Windows, and the Apache Ripple emulator.

Write once, deploy everywhere. The common JavaScript and plugin APIs in Cordova make it easy to write an app using a single code base that deploys to all target platforms—iOS, Android, and Windows. Of course, you can always write platform-specific code if and when you need it.

Command line interoperability. The Visual Studio solution directly reflects the file system and is updated in real time. This means that it is easier than ever to use your favorite command line tool with Visual Studio.

Multi-Version Cordova support. The Visual Studio solution allows you to select different versions of Cordova at the project level.

Quoting from MSDN Article – Getting Started with Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova

TO Learn more USE THE FOLLOWING RESOURCES

Visual Studio 2015–Editions

April 30, 2015 .NET, .NET Framework 4.6, ASP.NET 5.0, Community, Editions, Microsoft, Microsoft SDKs, Mobile-Development, MSDN, MSDN, Visual Studio 2015, Visual Studio SDK, VisualStudio, VS2015, Web API, Web API v2.0, Windows 10, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 8.0 SDK, Windows Phone SDK No comments

With Visual Studio 2015 Microsoft has changed type of editions available as part the Visual Studio product line up, also made some changes to MSDN Subscription levels.

Changes in Visual Studio Editions

No more Premium and Ultimate edition of Visual Studio. There will only be 3 editions available:

Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition – Free, full-featured and extensible tool for developers building non-enterprise applications
Visual Studio 2015 Professional Edition – Professional developer tools and services for individual developers or small teams
Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise Edition – Enterprise grade solution with advanced capabilities for teams working on projects of any size or complexity, including advanced testing and DevOps

Changes in MSDN Subscription Levels

MSDN Subscription Levels also has changed: there will be only two subscription levels MSDN PRO and MSDN Enterprise. If you have a valid MSDN Premium subscription, it will be automatically upgraded to MSDN Enterprise, which is fully loaded as previous MSDN Ultimate.

Limited Period Upgrade Offer – 50% off on upgrade to Premium

Beginning May 2015 – Upgrade from : Visual Studio Professional with MSDN or Visual Studio Test Professional with MSDN to Visual Studio Premium with MSDN for 50% off the regular list price and get a free upgrade to Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN automatically when Microsoft release Visual Studio 2015.

For more information follow: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/vs-2015-product-editions.aspx

Windows Phone Screen Sharing/Mirroring to PC

July 4, 2014 KnowledgeBase, Mirror Casting, Visual Studio 2013, VisualStudio, VS2012, VS2013, Windows, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone 8.0 SDK, Windows Phone Development, Windows Phone SDK, Windows Store Development No comments

Being mobile developer and strong follower of Mobile related technologies, always admire to demonstrate my work to my friends and colleagues. All this time I was fancy about iOS Mirroring provided through apps Reflector and Air Server. With help of these tools we used to mirror our iPad/iPhone to be mirrored to a Windows/Mac and then project that to large screen using a Projector. These tools seamlessly mirror your activities on iPad/iPhone and audiences get a live view of the application running in a Live Phone. Advantage is you don’t have to rely on iOS Simulators coming with XCode and iOS SDK alone to demo your applications.

Coming to Windows Phone, we can have the same through a Wired Connection. Probably in recent Microsoft demos you might have fancied how the presenters used to share their Windows Phone activities and features from their live phones. You don’t have to envy them, it is available for our use now.

Microsoft has provided an application to be installed on Windows/Mac or Tablets and through a Wired or Wifi.

Download Project My Screen App from Microsoft

It is pretty simple to use:

1. Just install the app on your Windows/Mac

2. Connect your Windows Phone to USB (wired)

3, Launch “Project My Screen App” from Start Menu. It will detect your phone and your will will be prompted to Accept the screen sharing. Click on ‘Yes’, and look how amazing it is to share your screen on PC.

PS: There is a caveat you all need to know, you cannot share DRM protected contents through this feature.

Enjoy your live demos…

Visual Studio 2013 – Update 2 is available

May 14, 2014 .NET, .NET Framework, .NET Framework 4.5.2, Azure SDK, Microsoft, SQL Server 2014, Trial Downloads, Updates, Visual Studio 2013, VisualStudio, VS2013, Windows, Windows 8, Windows 8 apps development, Windows 8.1, Windows Azure Development, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone 8.0 SDK, Windows Phone Development, Windows Phone Store, Windows Store, Windows Store Development, Windowz Azure, XBOX Development No comments

Microsoft has released the latest update for Visual Studio 2013 with major improvements including support for developing Universal apps for Windows 8.x, Win Phone, and XBOX.

Here are the list of improvements included as part of the release(lending from Visual Studio team blog):

Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 has many new capabilities as well as fixes that address bugs, customer feedback, performance, and reliability improvements. Here are some new capabilities that are part of this and related Updates and links to where you can find more info.

Universal Apps. With this release you can now build universal apps that can run on Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 while sharing code and assets through shared projects.

TypeScript. The TypeScript language is a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript. As a typed language you can define classes, modules and interfaces that compiles to JavaScript and runs in any browser.

Web Tool. Our web development tools have many new features like SCSS support, a new JSON editor, updated ASP.NET templates, and an improved URL picker.

Azure tools. It’s easier to take advantage of Azure with options to create websites and SQL Azure databases directly on Azure for simpler deployment to a development / testing environment.

Diagnostics. Our diagnostics tools also got some enhancements. Performance events now let you navigate to user code for MVC Methods or jump to the SQL command for database queries. It is also possible to view the Windows Store diagnostics tools at the same time to see all your diagnostics information on a shared timeline.

Slipstream install. You can download Visual Studio with all its latest features from one install that includes Visual Studio 2013 RTM and Update 2 for Visual Studio.

There are a number of other important updates that are available today in addition to Update 2 for Visual Studio 2013:

Apache Cordova and Visual Studio. Cordova tools in Visual Studio let web developers build cross-platform mobile applications targeting Android, iOS, Windows and Windows Phone using use their existing skills in HTML and JavaScript. To learn more about Apache Cordova visit http://cordova.apache.org/

A cloud optimized .NET. The latest updates to the framework provide a cloud optimized mode that is smaller, lighter weight, and designed for cloud and server workloads.

.Net vNext. This update to the .Net framework is optimized for cloud-first and mobile-first development. It enables you to compile C# 6 and VB code with Roslyn compilers, speed up Windows Store apps with the .NET Native ahead of time compiler, and has a cloud optimized mode for ASP.NET apps.

TFS 2013 Update 2. It’s worth mentioning again the updates in TFS 2013 like improvements for tagging, charting, shared parameters, cloud load testing application analytics, and a lot more.

Check out Somasegar’s Blog and Brian Harry’s Blog to get more details on some of the highlights in this release. For a quick view at all the features and fixes included in this update go to the KB article.