Windows Dev Center Tips Aims to Help With Common Windows Store Publishing Scenarios
Friday, May 20, 2016 by Richard Harris
The Windows developer team's new blog series called Windows Dev Center Tips to help app publishers through several common publishing scenarios associated with the Windows Store.Among the topics covered in the new series are:- Publish or update a public app- Package flighting- Third party and legacy distribution options- Publishing hidden apps- Side-loading and enterpris...
Windows Dev Center Updates Coding4Fun Coding Site
Wednesday, January 6, 2016 by Richard Harris
The Windows Dev Center team has relaunched Coding4Fun with new content for the Universal Windows Platform. Coding4Fun is a site within the Windows Dev Center that’s offers fun and interesting code samples that feature the APIs available on the Universal Windows Platform. The site offers different, unique, and time-saving capabilities as you noodle around the project bas...
Windows Dev Center Rolls Out New Age Rating Process and Other Updates
Wednesday, December 2, 2015 by Richard Harris
The Windows Dev Team is rolling out several updates for how developers work within the Windows Dev Center including a new age rating system, new app promotion and monetization opportunities and updates to the Windows developer agreementNew Simplified Age Rating ProcessIn December Microsoft will begin the rollout of a new process to simplify obtaining age ratings for app...
Microsoft Releases No Code Windows 10 App Studio Out of Preview
Wednesday, November 4, 2015 by Stuart Parkerson
Microsoft has released the Windows App Studio with Windows 10 Store Support Release out of preview providing the access to a free, online app creation tool for those with no coding experience to create and publish a universal Windows app with no code required. App Studio Windows 10 was released in preview in July. With the general release, users can now direc...
New Windows 10 (UWP) Package Submissions Provide Advanced App Usage Info
Wednesday, October 28, 2015 by Richard Harris
The Windows Development Team has released a new feature that provides app usage information to developers in the Windows Dev Center. This feature is included in all new Windows 10 (UWP) package submissions and provides increased reach into app analytics.Developers can view a number of app usage statistics including user sessions, active users, session length, page views...
Microsoft Streamlines Windows Developer Ad Options
Wednesday, October 14, 2015 by Stuart Parkerson
The Windows Dev Center team has announced that it finished integrating the functionality previously available in the Windows pubCenter in order to simplify the process that developers use to create, manage and track Microsoft advertising ad impressions and revenue across Windows phone, tablet and PC. In addition, Microsoft Advertising and Windows ad mediation have ...
Microsoft Streamlines Ad Management Process for Windows Store Apps
Tuesday, September 8, 2015 by Richard Harris
The Windows Dev Team has announced it has streamlined the process for app ad management in the Windows Store. In the past, for apps using any of the Microsoft Advertising SDKs, the ads-in-app creation, advertising reports, and financials have been managed in Windows pubCenter, while the app itself is submitted to the Windows Store and managed in the Windows Dev Center.N...
Microsoft Provides Windows COPPA Support for App Advertising to Kids
Wednesday, September 2, 2015 by Stuart Parkerson
Microsoft is releasing COPPA support in its Dev Center to help developers define how to manage ads in apps whose primary audience is children.Beginning in September, developers can indicate if their app targets children under 13 as defined in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). If a developer selects this option, Microsoft will disable its behavioral a...
Windows 10 Store Is Officially Open for Business for Developers
Friday, July 31, 2015 by Stuart Parkerson
On the launch of its biggest news in years, Microsoft is betting the farm that developers will flock to get their apps on the Windows 10 Store. The Windows Dev Center is open for business to accept Windows 10 app submissions for PC and mobile apps and soon for IoT, console and holographic offerings.It is a new day for the Universal Windows Platform as Microsoft is not o...
Visual Studio 2015 and Windows 10 SDK Release Dates Announced
Monday, July 6, 2015 by Richard Harris
This month will see a lot of activity for Windows developers as the releases of Visual Studio 2015, Windows 10, and the Universal Windows App Development Tools, which includes the Windows 10 SDK, will all hit in July. Here are the release dates:- July 20: Visual Studio 2015 (“VS 2015″)- July 29: Windows 10, the Windows 10 SDK, and the Visual Studio Universal Window...
Windows 10 Developers Prepare For Takeoff
Friday, June 26, 2015 by Richard Harris
With Windows 10 being released on July 29, 2015 the Windows 10 team continues to provide updates on things that are new for developers and things you can do to get ready now.There will be more rapid announcements as the team will start releasing previews of the Windows 10 SDK more often to Windows Insiders. Expect to see more rapid releases of the Windows 10 SDK preview...
Microsoft Advertising Announces New Monetization Tools Including Preview Advertising SDK for Windows 10
Wednesday, May 6, 2015 by Richard Harris
Included in the announcements release at Microsoft’s Build conference was a number of new monetization tools including the availability of a new preview advertising SDK for Windows 10. Here are highlights of the announcement:- Preview advertising SDK for Windows 10 is now available. This universal ad SDK supports phone, tablet, and PC. The ad SDK also supports video int...
Windows 10 Developer Tooling Technical Preview Released
Friday, March 27, 2015 by Richard Harris
The Windows developer team has released to the Windows Insiders community the first technical preview of the Windows 10 developer tooling.As a preview, do not expect a completely finished product, instead you get the opportunity to experiment with the new platform capabilities while Microsoft continues working to finish Windows 10.Here are some of the top features of th...
Reporting Changes to Windows Phone App Downloads and In App Products Reports
Tuesday, February 17, 2015 by Stuart Parkerson
The Windows Dev Center has announced that Windows Phone download and in-app purchase reports have been optimized to deliver information faster. The team released this change for Windows in December and is now are aligning these improvements to Windows Phone. App developers will now see transaction data no more than 2 days following the transaction itself and in man...
New Windows and Windows Phone Store App Dev Contest
Tuesday, February 10, 2015 by Stuart Parkerson
The Windows and Windows Phone Store app developer program has launched a new game developer contest running through March 20 offering $28,000 in prizes including a top prize of $10,000. Contest winners will be announced on or before May 11.Developers can submit games made with any technology. You can submit original games or port existing published games (from an altern...
The PC Is Not Dead and Here Is Proof
Wednesday, January 14, 2015 by Stuart Parkerson
Oh, the poor PC. Relegated in the app development world as an afterthought. Even as manufacturers create hybrid PC devices including ultra-thin laptops, 2-1 devices, and light-weight models, PC’s have lagged in the public eye as smartphones, tablets, wearables, and other devices took the center stage at CES. Not so fast my friend. It may take a little connecting of the ...
Windows Mobile App Ad Mediation Solution Now Available
Tuesday, November 11, 2014 by Stuart Parkerson
The Windows Mobile team has announced the availability of Windows Ad Mediation, a solution designed to help Windows Phone developers manage multiple in-app advertising SDKs.The solution allows developers to increase fill rates by deploying multiple ad networks in a way that when one ad network is unable to deliver ad inventory, the app calls a second or third ad network...
Microsoft Announces New Office 365 REST based APIs plus iOS and Android SDKs
Friday, October 31, 2014 by Richard Harris
Microsoft has announced has announced three new Office 365 capabilities for developers: 1) general availability of new Office 365 APIs for mail, files, calendar and contacts; 2) new mobile SDKs for native app development, and 3) visibility for developers’ apps through the new Office 365 app launcher. The new Office 365 REST-based APIs for mail, files, and calendar ...
Microsoft Creates Lifetime Developer Center Account Packaged with New Benefits
Monday, September 22, 2014 by Richard Harris
Microsoft has introduced a new lifetime Dev Center account and a new Dev Center Benefits program. A lifetime Dev Center registration fee is now available as Microsoft continues its vision to integrate the Windows and Windows Phone developer experience. Now the Windows Dev Center requires only a one-time registration payment, which grants developers the ab...
Microsoft Launches New Dev Center Partner Program
Thursday, September 11, 2014 by Richard Harris
Microsoft has announced a new Dev Center Partner Program which provides middleware providers access to devices, software, co-marketing, event support, and more. The program includes a new partner directory to help developers find a growing list of middleware partners targeting Windows.Current partners include Unity, PayPal, PhoneGap, Facebook, Localytics, Fortumo, Syncf...
Heroku Release Heroku Button: A Simple HTML or Markdown Snippet
Friday, August 8, 2014 by Stuart Parkerson
Heroku has released the Heroku Button, a simple HTML or Markdown snippet that can be added to READMEs, blog posts and other places where code lives. Clicking a Heroku Button will take you through a guided process to configure and deploy an app running the source code referenced by the button.How it WorksWhen you see a Heroku Button in a README, in documentation or ...
Microsoft to Roll Out Ability for App Developers to Respond to user Reviews
Monday, April 28, 2014 by Richard Harris
At Build earlier this month, Microsoft announced that the option would soon be available for developers to respond to reviews, beginning in May. The company is taking the first step toward implementing this feature with a small private pilot program that will expand over time. This new capability enables developers to respond to reviews of Windows Phone apps direct...
Developers Can Test Out Windows Phone 8.1 with New Windows Phone Preview
Wednesday, April 16, 2014 by Richard Harris
As of this week, developers can now install Windows Phone 8.1 on their dev phone through the Windows Phone Preview for Developers and try out a lot features that were announced at Build a couple of weeks ago. Along with the tooling delivered in Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 RC, developers can now get everything they need to start building and testing Window...
Microsoft’s Bing Conversational Understanding Team Releases MSDN Voice Search App
Wednesday, April 16, 2014 by Richard Harris
Microsoft’s Bing Conversational Understanding team has released a new reference app, the MSDN Voice Search App, that demonstrates how to integrate your app into the new contextual voice capabilities available in Windows Phone 8.1.The app itself is very simple and straight-forward, surfacing the MSDN documentation library from the Cortana experience. Once you have t...
Microsoft Offers Unity Game Developers New Incentive Program to Develop Windows Apps
Saturday, February 22, 2014 by Stuart Parkerson
In an effort to continue to populate its Windows app market, Microsoft is incentivizing Unity developers to create Windows apps. Developers who qualify will receive complimentary Windows store registration, a Microsoft Windows 8 license, a Windows device (phone/tablets), a promotional package and technical assistance.Any Unity developer using Unity 4...
Windows App Developers Can Now Access New Emulators for Windows Phone 8.0 Updates 2 and 3
Wednesday, January 8, 2014 by Stuart Parkerson
The Windows Dev Center crew has announced on its blog that app developers can now download new emulator images for Windows Phone 8.0 Updates 2 and 3 from the Microsoft Download Center, and install them on existing Windows Phone SDK 8.0 installations.
The Windows Phone 8 Update 2 (8.0.10322) emulator images have been updated to support development enviro...
Windows App Developer’s Beta Apps No Longer Facing 90 Day Deadline
Wednesday, December 18, 2013 by Stuart Parkerson
One of the benefits offered through the Windows Phone Dev Center is the ability to test apps prior to submitting them to the public catalog in the Windows Phone Store. However one of the downsides was that after 90 days, those beta apps expired.
As the Windows Dev Team explains, “We’ve spoken with many of our developers to learn more about how they use beta apps. Many ...
Windows Dev Center Eliminates “Explore Store Trends Section” to Emphasize Blog Summary Posts
Tuesday, December 17, 2013 by Richard Harris
Sometimes the best intentions don’t pan out. In the past the Window’s Dev Team has been sharing information in the Explore Store Trends section of the Windows Store Dashboard, including some user demographics and catalog information.
As they very diplomatically said in a recent blog post, “Very few developers used these reports, and we received feedback that the presen...
Windows App Developers Get Markets Update to Dev Center App
Tuesday, December 17, 2013 by Stuart Parkerson
Windows developers can use the Windows Dev Center app to access a variety of useful tidbits of information. That functionality has expanded with the new “Markets” page which now makes it easier to see how an app is doing in each of the markets where it’s offered.
The new markets page provides a per-market breakdown of downloads, ratings, and reviews. These can be sort...
Microsoft Provides New Unified Registration for Windows and Windows Phone App Developers
Wednesday, November 13, 2013 by Richard Harris
Developers, like consumers, can continue to expect the unification of Windows to affect them in varies ways. Recently, Microsoft exec Todd Brix posted an update on the combination of the Windows Store and Windows Phone marketing and operations team.
Developers will probably care most about the unified registration for Windows Store and Windows Phone where developers on...
Windows Phone App Studio Beta Receives Updates
Tuesday, August 20, 2013 by Stuart Parkerson
In just two short weeks, Windows Phone App Studio Beta has seen a lot of activity. In the first 48 hours more than 20,000 people started over 30,000 projects which has now grown to over 55,000 active projects.
App Studio allows anyone to create an app without actually setting up a dev account. Apps created in App Studio don't automatically publish to the Windows Phone...
iOS 7 Beta 6 Download Now Available From Apple Dev Center
Thursday, August 15, 2013 by Richard Harris
iOS 7 beta 6 has been released and is ready for downloading. At only 13 megs it's not a huge update, but Apple has let everyone be privy as to what has been changed for this release by with a complete change log, repeated below.
Notes and Known Issues
The following issues relate to using iOS SDK 7.0 to develop code.
Address Book
Notes
The classes in the Ad...
Windows Phone Dev Center Account Still Just 19 Bucks
Tuesday, August 13, 2013 by Richard Harris
In late June Microsoft announced a nice little "Summer Break" to developers wanting to get a Windows Phone developer account when they slammed the registration price down to just $19 which is an $80 savings from the yearly $99 fee.This is a reminder that time is running out! The promotion ends on 8/27/2013 (in about two weeks from now) so if you want...
iOS 7 Beta 5 is Available
Tuesday, August 6, 2013 by Richard Harris
We are getting close to a new Apple iOS! Apple just released the latest developer preview for iOS7 in Beta 5 form! Sent to developers today"OS 7 beta 5 and Xcode 5 Developer Preview 5 are now available on the iOS Dev Center. Download these new releases today and start developing your apps to take advantage of new multitasking APIs, dynamic motion controls in UIKit,...
iOS7 Beta 4 Is Available
Monday, July 29, 2013 by Richard Harris
Right on schedule with beta releases, the iOS 7 beta 4 for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, and Xcode 5 Developer Preview 4 are now available on the iOS Dev Center. Download these new releases today and start developing your apps to take advantage of new multitasking APIs, dynamic motion controls in UIKit, AirDrop, Sprite Kit, enhanced video APIs, new features in Game Cent...
