windows

Meet the new Surface Pro The Surface team never stops growing and learning. We listen to our customers, asking them what will help them better create and be more productive. Their input guides us to discover and build new ways to streamline and enhance creative processes – helping people use one device instead of two, eliminating the need for pen and paper, removing barriers so their ideas can flow freely. We know that customers love the flexibility and versatility of the Surface Pro. In fact, Surface Pro 4 users are more likely to recommend their device than iPad and MacBook users.** But we’re not complacent – we know in order to live up to the expectations of our customers, we must continue to improve and better deliver on our promise on performance, mobility, and versatility – while improving what people [ more… ]

Announcing Windows Template Studio Today, we are pleased to announce the next evolution in your File → New Universal Windows Platform app in Visual Studio – Windows Template Studio. Windows Template Studio addresses a top community ask in our developer survey to make it easier and provide guidance to create new projects that target the Universal Windows Platform. In this post, we’d like to spend a few minutes introducing Windows Template Studio and show you how it works. Windows Template Studio uses a dev-friendly wizard to get your UWP apps to F5 in no time, bringing together the pages, frameworks and features that you want. Our wizard walks developers through four steps to quickly scaffold a new UWP app: Project Type: Select between standard layouts and predefined controls. Framework selection: Select the structure of your UWP app with in-house and third-party [ more… ]

Announcing Project Rome iOS SDK Project Rome is a platform for enabling seamless cross-device and cross-platform experiences. The philosophy behind Project Rome is simple. App experiences shouldn’t be tied to a single device any more than data should be tied to a single device. Your apps, like your data, should travel with you. Previously, this meant switching between devices, while maintaining a single user experience, on a different Windows device. A few months ago, Project Rome features were extended to the Android platform, allowing you to start an app session on your Android phone and continue it on a Windows PC, an Xbox One or even a Surface Hub. Now, Project Rome support is also being extended to the iOS platform. You can download the Project Rome SDK for iOS here. Revisiting the Contoso music app If you have been following [ more… ]

Project Rome: Driving user engagement across devices, apps and platforms Overview Recently there has been a dramatic shift in the way users use their devices. Rather than substituting new devices, users are using additional form factors like phones and tablets, alongside their PCs; many consumers live in a heterogeneous environment (interact with multiple platforms). In the past, form factor drove distinct types of behavior differences among consumers. However, this is no longer the case as multi-device consumers conduct all their activities across all their devices. Consumers also want to be able to use whatever screen is available independent of where the input comes from. As users purchase more apps and devices, they naturally expect their lives to become better – simpler, more enjoyable, more productive. However, suddenly, these users are faced with some harsh realities where each device has a [ more… ]

Windows Store: more options to manage, monetize and promote apps At Build 2017 last week, the Windows Store announced new capabilities to reach more customers, improve your productivity and promote and monetize your apps and games, including: Offering your games to Xbox One users Updating your Store listings faster via import/export Releasing new games or apps using private beta, targeting a limited audience Navigating Dev Center faster through an updated dashboard experience Enabling more users to acquire apps via one-click download with no Microsoft account login Offering more engaging Store listings with video trailers Monetizing via recurring billing using in-app purchase subscriptions Offering discounts only to some user segments, or only to users of your other apps or games Analyzing your app performance more effectively, through funnel analysis and crash analytics Earning more revenue from ads through more advertising formats To learn [ more… ]