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Already using Windows Azure Mobile Services for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8?

Are you already using Azure Mobile Services for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8? It doesn’t matter what your response is. Geoff Webber-Cross’s “Learning Windows Azure Mobile Services for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8” book got all answers to all your questions. Whether it is your first time or a seasoned developer already using Azure Mobile Services, you will learn a thing or two from this book.
This book is a short, fast and focused guide to enhance your Windows 8 applications by leveraging the power of Windows Azure Mobile Services

What I like most about this book is the approach the writer has taken from the very chapter of the book. We have a real-life problem to solve by leveraging Azure Mobile Services. Here is short extract on the problem.

The TileTapper game consists of a grid board seeded from a simple Boolean array of
active or inactive tiles. When the app launches, it prompts the user to log in using the
Windows Live connect authentication provider, downloads levels and current high
score from our back end service, and then begins the game.

So as you progress through the chapters, the writer solves the problem by show casing each aspect of Azure Mobile Service is applied. It also comes with access to the source code for each chapter – so essentially you can dry run through the code as you read the contents of the book.

I am not a first time user of Azure mobile services, but I have learned a few tips and tricks on how to design apps leveraging the power of Windows Azure Mobile Services.

I recommend this book to any developer leveraging the power of Windows Azure Mobile Services

360Agileweb

Try SQL Server 2014

Have you tried the latest SQL Server 2014? I have. I have put together the installation wizard screen shots that I captured while installing my copy.

Get started

Download your copy from this link provided by the SQL Server Team via Twitter

Screen shots of the installation process

ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

 

Hope this helps!

I will blog about the new features and share my thought in the next article. Until then, good luck with your installations.

360Agileweb

Installing and Evaluating Windows Server 2012

You can get a 180-day evaluation copy of Windows Server 2012 (link: http://tinyurl.com/clll28q- ). You will receive 4 emails from Microsoft during the 180-day evaluation period to enhance your evaluation experience

After downloading the trial copy, I set up a Hyper-V machine and installed the Windows Server 2012 as follows:

Start Install
Start Install
Select OS
Select OS
Accept licence
Accept licence
Upgrade/Custom install
Upgrade/Custom install
Installing Windows
Installing Windows
Settings
Settings

If everything goes on well, you will see this lovely log on screen.

Ready to sign in
Ready to sign in
Enter admin log on details
Enter admin log on details
Server Manager
Server Manager
We are up and running
We are up and running

I have started playing with the server. I will post further updates on my evaluation.

360Agileweb

Windows Azure programming patterns for Start-ups review

I have had a chance to review this book ‘Windows Azure programming patterns for Start-ups‘. As a .NET developer and C#, I have to say I found this book both fulfilling and practical for the areas I wanted to learn in Windows Azure.

I am not very new to Windows Azure having written some code here and there. I found this book very practical in the approach the authors have taken to ensure all areas of Windows Azure are explained. In this book, the developer is angaged from page 1 as a brand new service is created from scratch to deployment.

I will say having read this book, I can now make informed choices on which Windows Azure storage to choose from Table Storage, Blobs, Queues and Windows Azure SQL databases. I also enjoyed the topic on ‘What’s New in Windows Azure’

360Agileweb

Need a Windows 8 genius? We got an app for that too


Win8 Genius – it does what it says on the tin, it is your genius on your Windows 8 device.
We are building a set of dashboards for you where you can access information about your Windows 8 and device centrally in the modern fluid user interface. A place where you can view your network/internet info, your device info, your printers info among others. And what about a live tile to loop through some of these message on your home screen?

We are starting small but open for ideas on which pieces of information that can be added to this genius app.

The initial version of the app has been submitted to the store for certification. We are currently working on next dashboards which will be available soon.

We are happy for any feedback you may have:


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