Category Archives: Tech News

Best of Build and Windows 10

Now some important news from Microsoft for developers out there:

Build sold out in record time this year, so a lot of people may have missed out. If you’re one of those unlucky few, there’s a few ways to catch up on news…

Microsoft Virtual Academy has a “Best of Build and Windows 10” video series you can check out! It goes into the new app model, news for game developers, info about the new Edge browser, IoT, open-source, and more.

And for more in depth Windows 10 development content, a free live-streamed event will be held on the same web site starting tomorrow! Register now for A Developer’s Guide to Windows 10.

Or, if you’re near a major city and want to venture outside, check out the Build Tour. Day-long live events may be coming to your country/area! We have Atlanta coming up on May 20, and Chicago on June 10, and lots more. These events are international so one may be closer to home than you think! Look it up at https://www.build15.com/

HoloLens and GameDev News at Build

Some highlights from the Build keynotes today and the announcements from Microsoft:

News: HoloLens apps, for Microsoft’s AR HoloLens device, are Windows 10 apps. Windows 10 apps that run in windows will be able to snap to your actual walls. For examples, see some pictures here or check out the link to the video: HoloLens on the Walls

Unity 3D will work to create apps and games for HoloLens! I’ve heard really great things about this integration. Imagine making a game character that could run right out into the real world and jump around on all your furniture… More info released from Unity today here: Unity Blog

Unity announced deeper integration with Visual Studio recently. So not to leave Mac or Linux developers behind, Visual Studio Code is a new cross-platform Visual Studio family member. You can get it here, free: Visual Studio Code

Full Unity support for this is still pending, but it has some features that Mac and Linux developers should find useful!

Also, for game devs who have been holding off on Windows support for their games, Build also announced support to easily retarget Windows with your Java or C++ apps from Android and Objective C apps from iOS. Here’s some details at TechCrunch.

Get ready for Philly Tech Week!

Philly Tech Week has almost begun! Microsoft is sponsoring, and I plan to be all over the event as much as I can.

Here’s where you can find me and Microsoft next week…

Starting on Friday, where the Arcade @ Dilworth event is going to bring in local game developers from all over town! (UPDATE: this event is now Saturday, due to rain. So Saturday night!)

On Saturday, I’ll be at the 4th Annual Philly Women in Tech Summit, talking about Cloud computing!

On Tuesday, I’m going to be at Girl Develop It! Rise and Shine to connect with the great GDI Chapter here.

Wednesday, Microsoft is hosting a special all-day event: Doing Business and Developing in the Cloud. We are going to have great info, and also some great raffle prizes to give away, so don’t miss out on this if you can make it!

On Thursday I’m going to talk about Kinect and exercise at the Dev Day Talks. And I’ll see you at the Dev Day After Party too!

And it’s all over next Friday, with the big Signature Event!

A full list of events Microsoft is recommending, and where to sign up, is located right here: http://phillymtc.com/SitePages/ptw2015.aspx

Unity Roadshow and other Philly Game News

Quick programming notice:

Unity Roadshow is going to be in Philadelphia this week! I’m very excited to be there on April 2 at the Philly Game Forge. If you want a great day of Unity training, it’s not too late to register for free!  Hope to see you there!

Also, if you love Philly games, please check out the results of the latest Philly Dev Night Game Jam: ProfitJam.

The GDC Vault also released lots of free content today. This includes the GDC Failure Workshop featuring Will Stallwood from Philly’s Cipher Prime and Indie Soapbox featuring Philly developer Greg Lobanov talking about his adventure biking across the USA. Cipher Prime’s Dain Saint also did a cool talk about the Universe from a game design perspective, and How to Break the Game.

So much love for local devs! Can’t wait to see many of you this week!

Azure for Students

This last weekend at Philly Code Camp I did a short presentation on Azure Websites. I was going to outline it here today, but then a few things on the Azure side changed overnight and I’d rather talk about those things instead!

Today we’re announcing  Azure for Students: a way for students to get easy access to the Azure platform for free – no credit card required! This is a pretty big deal, because…

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