Sugoi! Explore the Anime world of Gargantia in 3D with Internet Explorer and Production I.G 18 Jun 2014, 8:01 am

Today, we are excited to announce that we are partnering with Japanese anime studio Production I.G to launch Gargantia: Sky Courier – a brand new game experience that’s fast, beautiful, and perfect for touch with the modern web. The game is based on one of Japan’s top anime franchises, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet. Fans will get never-before-seen footage, cut-scene story featuring Gargantia’s original voice actors, and three different “choose your own adventure” endings. You can play it for free in both Japanese and English worldwide. For developers, we are releasing the source code of a packaged version of the Sky Courier game so you can build your own version with the Turbulenz open source 3D game engine.

With legions of passionate fans around the world, anime is one of Japan’s top cultural exports. Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet follows Ledo, a young soldier from space who wakes up and finds himself marooned on a post-apocalyptic, watery Earth. Growing up in space, and knowing nothing but battle, he is a stranger in a strange place, where humans are forced to live on huge interconnected fleets for survival and travel from ship to ship using surf kites, a cross between a surfboard and an ultralight aircraft. In Sky Courier, you get to play the role of Ledo as he explores his new home from the sky while piloting a surf kite with the help of his friends and an occasional hand from his AI companion, Chamber.

Sky Courier has two modes: story and mission. Story mode interweaves the action with an adventure game featuring original cut scenes and voiced dialogue from Gargantia’s voice actors. If you want to get right into the high-flying action, select mission mode and start flying. There is also a third mode – free flight mode – which lets you fly around and leisurely explore the beautiful world of Gargantia.

Pushing the limits of what is possible on the web today

With high-fidelity 3D graphics and smooth touch-based gameplay, Sky Courier pushes the limit of what is possible with the web today. You can see all of the beautiful details in the game, from the many cloud formations to the wind shear that tries to knock you off your route and the birds that cross your path as you navigate the skies. The game beautifully recreates in real time the subtle but essential look and feel of the anime series – the sky, clouds, lighting and ocean have been carefully crafted to match the unique vistas of the Gargantia world. The game also recreates the hand drawn anime style with sophisticated toon shaders for the silhouette and character lighting on Ledo and his surf kite.

Sky Courier is perfect for touch in Internet Explorer 11 and it can also be played with mouse and keyboard. The play area scales automatically depending on your screen resolution and as part of our Rethink Initiative, Sky Courier works across all modern devices and browsers that support WebGL.

“We wanted as many people as possible to be able to experience Gargantia: Sky Courier, and that is why we were very glad to collaborate with Internet Explorer,” said Nao Hirasawa, a producer at Production I.G. “IE11’s WebGL technology allowed us to create a beautiful, 3D version of our Gargantia world for the web.”

Built with the open source Turbulenz Engine

Developers have many choices when it comes to picking web standards as well as frameworks & libraries – the building blocks of the web. Gargantia is the latest Rethink web experience to help inspire and make it easier for developers build with 3D. With FishGL, we showed how the three.js framework can be interoperable across modern browsers. Assassin’s Creed: Pirates was built with the Babylon.JS – a simple tool for building 3D games with physics, lighting, collision detection, and more. With Sky Courier, we partnered with UK-based game developer Turbulenz to build the entire game using the open source Turbulenz Engine.

The Turbulenz Engine is a highly modular JavaScript and TypeScript game engine for the creation of both 2D and 3D games. The engine contains a rich yet flexible set of features to cover all areas of game technology, from high performance physics and animation engines, to powerful visual effects and particle simulation. You can download and check out the Turbulenz Engine on GitHub.

"With IE11, Microsoft has rapidly reached the leading edge of browser standards compliance and JavaScript engine performance. Whilst this technology foundation is an essential enabler for games of this sophistication, they've gone considerably further by investing in the platform eco-system to help demonstrate that the web platform is a viable destination for both game players and developers," said James Austin, CEO of Turbulenz.

Build your own anime experience!

We are releasing to developers the source code for mission mode of Sky Courier, so that you can build your own anime game. (Source code does not include story mode, voices and music.) Download the code from GitHub, deploy it and customize it for your own site. And for those who would like the full how-to, check out our developer teardown on modern.IE.

Finally, Sky Courier also works with web browsers that support the Gamepad API, like the newly released Internet Explorer Developer Channel – try it out for yourself!

Enjoy the breathtaking world of Gargantia!

We are thrilled to partner with Production I.G to bring the Gargantia experience to the web! Whether you are an anime fan, gamer, or just a fan of the modern web, please try out Gargantia: Sky Courier today. Ganbatte!

Justin Garrett
Group Product Manager, Internet Explorer

Free one year prime[31] Unity plug-ins 17 Jun 2014, 12:53 pm

This blog was written by Jaime Rodriguez, Principal Program Manager, and Sonal Pardeshi, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Windows Marketing

Unity, the popular game engine for Windows and Windows Phone, continues to add features that increase developer productivity, making it easier to target the Windows platform with your games. Their most recent Unity 4.5.1 release has better, faster 2D graphics, improved touch screen keyboard support, compass, and a number of bug fixes.

We are excited about this momentum and have partnered with prime[31], a leading Unity plug-in provider, to bring you their Windows Phone and Windows Store Unity plug-ins, now free for a year.

prime[31], one of the most popular providers of plug-ins for Windows and Windows Store, make it easier for you to implement in app-purchases, use Live Tiles, monetize via ads, and connect to Azure storage. Starting today, through June 2015, you will be able to get all these plug-ins for free:

*Note that Windows Phone 8.1 support and corresponding free plug-ins will be coming soon.

To take advantage of this offer and get your free plug-ins, visit the prime[31] website; free plug-ins will be marked as ‘Download Now.’ Please provide your name and email so prime[31] can send you the license, then just import the plug-in into your Unity project.

You can see installation and other information at Plug-in Documentation. Also visit the prime[31] YouTube Channel for videos on how to get set up. For technical questions and support, please use the prime[31] support forums.

Don’t forget about the Unity Developer contest with over $100K USD in prizes. Game submissions will be accepted through July 20, so be sure to download your prime[31] plug-ins and publish your game to have an opportunity to win.

Facebook Beta for Windows Phone gets big update today 17 Jun 2014, 12:05 pm

With the Facebook Beta app for Windows Phone, you can help test out all of the latest improvements, enhancements, and new features before they go out to everyone else and rolled into the non-Beta Facebook app for Windows Phone. Today, the Facebook Beta app is getting quite the update.

With today’s update, you will see a refined user experience, faster and more reliable connections, and support for additional languages. And you’ll also be able to upload videos taken on your Windows Phone device directly from the app too. If your device is running Windows Phone 8.1, the app directly “connects” with your Windows Phone device and your Facebook contacts, events, and photo albums are now powered by the application.

As is normal with Beta software, there might be a few bugs and your feedback is super important to squashing those bugs. So be sure to report any issues you hit here on the Facebook for Windows Phone feedback page on UserVoice. You can download the Facebook Beta app here from the Windows Phone Store.

DEVELOPER SPEAK: Drift Mania series downloaded 6 million times; developer to expand his reach with 8.1 16 Jun 2014, 2:20 pm

Pat Toulouse is first and foremost a 3D artist and Unity developer, but he also established Ratrod Studios in Canada, and has since enjoyed huge success. His Drift Mania series has accrued 6 million downloads on Windows and Windows Phone devices, twice the number of downloads on any other platform over the last few months. Toulouse has always believed in the power of Unity and cross-platform development, but now, having seen the tremendous potential for success on Windows platforms, he has ported all of his other titles to the Windows stores. In this interview, he openly shares his strategy for cross-platform success and his plans to leverage the universal apps and new features of Windows Phone 8.1.

What makes you such a strong believer in Unity and cross-platform development? Why did you decide to expand your game titles to Windows and Windows Phone?

When Unity first launched, it offered an array of options for more creative game development that were not available anywhere else. Since then, Unity has evolved into a multi-platform gaming engine that competes with the big names such as Unreal and FarCry. Unity succeeds because it listens to indie developers and supports us with great resources and platform partnerships. Being able to publish to multiple platforms helps us to maximize our revenue and our reach. In a few years, apps will all have to be multi-platform, and with Unity, we’ve gotten a head start as a cross-platform development studio.

Drift Mania Screenshot

Developing a new title can take six months to a year, so spending a few days porting the game to Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone is totally worth it. When Unity and Microsoft partnered, it was exciting to see the Windows and Windows Phone stores open to us. Overnight, we were able to reach millions of Windows customers worldwide. Our first Unity title to hit the Windows Phone Store was Drift Mania Championship 2. Now, our titles are each rated 4+ out of 5, and since the beginning of the year, the Drift Mania series has been downloaded 6 million times, more than twice that of any other platform. The Skateboard Party 2 series has been downloaded one million times in less than six months—that’s why we’re betting on Windows and Windows Phone.

Best of all is that porting from Unity to Windows is efficient. The first time we did it, it took a little effort to figure out the different steps and get familiar with the platform and tools. Now, however, we can generally port a title to a Windows Phone within a few days and to Windows 8.1 within a week.

Microsoft treats us well. We pay a low fee for a developer account, and in return, we get to use Visual Studio, and we get great support throughout our development process so we can really polish our end product. Microsoft has also provided us resources to help us start advertising via pubCenter, and that has helped us to increase our revenues and generate profits from our free versions. Microsoft’s start-up programs, like BizSpark, have been key, too.

Skateboard Party 2 Screenshot

What excites you the most about Windows Phone 8.1?

New features in Windows Phone 8.1 mean I can imagine more development possibilities. We’ll use the word flow keyboard to provide users more flexibility, and we’ll link our Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 apps so our fans can purchase the game on one platform and use it on all their other devices. And they’ll also be able to share data and in-app purchases from one device to another. This converged app model is good from a development and business standpoint, too: it will help us streamline development and maximize our game exposure since a title purchased on one platform will automatically become available on the other. With individual volume control, our users will be able to set the volume levels of their ringtone, media playback, and game independent of each other.

We are thrilled that our customers will be able to auto-update their apps because we’ll be able to get our updates and content to them more quickly. More users will upgrade to our latest version, meaning we can deliver a better user experience.

Finally, we’ll take advantage of the Live Tile improvements so players can preview their game progress in their device phone menu and receive notifications of upcoming in-game events, leading to better user engagement.

What advice do you have for developers?

I encourage developers to create partnerships. I have extensive experience in advert gaming, so I try to tie our titles in with big brands. They help promote our games, and in return, our games help promote their brands and products. It’s a win-win, and we stand out from the other apps by being more authentic.

We’ve experienced our highest growth on the Windows Phone platform. Developing or porting an app to Windows will allow developers to expand their user base and reach millions of additional customers worldwide. By leveraging new features like the universal platform, it’s easy to develop once and publish across Windows.

The app market is full of surprises and things don’t always go as planned. It’s important to limit the scope of your first few projects and test the market to gauge the response. Then listen to the audience, build new features, and integrate new content and functionality.

You can follow Ratrod Studios on Twitter @ratrodstudio

Micromax introduces their first two Windows Phone devices 16 Jun 2014, 2:34 am

Today in India, Micromax is introducing their very first Windows Phone devices – the Canvas Win W121 and Canvas Win W092. The Canvas Win W121 and Canvas Win W092 are the first Windows Phone devices from an Indian smartphone manufacturer.

The Canvas Win W121 is a 5-inch device with a wonderful looking HD IPS display, an 8 megapixel rear camera (with LED flash), a 2 megapixel front-facing camera, and 8GB of built in storage with up to 32GB of expandable memory for all your photos, music, and videos. It comes powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor with 1GB of memory – so it’s also very powerful. Additionally, the Canvas Win W121 is equipped with proximity, gravity, and light sensors, an accelerometer, Dual-SIM capability, and comes with a leather finish back panel.

The Canvas Win W092 is a 4-inch device with a IPS WVGA display, an 5 megapixel rear camera (with LED flash­), a 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera, and 8GB of built in storage with up to 32GB of expandable memory just like the Canvas Win 121. And just like the Canvas Win W121, the Canvas Win W092 is also powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor and 1GB of memory. It also has Dual-SIM capability as well.

Starting in July 2014, the Canvas Win W121 and Canvas Win W092 will be available in retailers across India for at Rs. 9,500/- and Rs. 6,500/- respectively.

Expanding our partner ecosystem and making it easier to bring Windows Phones to new markets at, more price points remains a top priority. Several of our new partners such as BLU, InFocus, Prestigio and Yezz unveiled Windows Phones 8.1 devices at Computex a few weeks ago. These new devices are a result of the announcement we made back in February at Mobile World Congress with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and $0 Windows for devices smaller than 9-inches in size which has enabled partners to more quickly and efficiently bring Windows Phones in to their mobile devices portfolio.

Adapting app content to the user’s location 13 Jun 2014, 12:05 pm

This blog was written by Gilles Peigné, Program Manager, Developer Ecosystem & Platform

When we think about localization, we typically think in terms of translating UI strings and making sure we use globalization APIs for needs like number formatting, handling dates and times, and other region-specific settings. However, a user’s preferred language and settings do not necessarily reflect where they are located on the earth. This is commonly encountered with users who travel, where they want the UI of their apps to appear in their preferred language but want the content presented by those apps to be sensitive to their travel destinations. This is also a common need for users who live near international borders and regularly interact with people in neighboring countries.

In a previous article we looked at how an app could adapt itself for different locales, even when those locales share a common language. In this post we’ll explore how an app can adapt to user’s location independently from language settings and UI considerations.

Where is my user?

Windows provides powerful location information through the APIs in Windows.Devices.Geolocation, which can return quite accurate latitude and longitude data (see Location awareness in the documentation for more details). For our purposes here, however, we need to know only what country or region the user is presently in. The question is then how to translate a geocoordinate to a country or region, for which we employ what’s called a Civic Address provider.

Using the Bing Maps API

Unfortunately, Windows and Windows Phone don’t have a default provider. Although a provider can be installed by third party software vendors, the most reliable solution is to employ the Bing Maps API as follows:

1. Create a Bing Maps Key from your Bing Maps Account Center: see Getting a Bing Maps Key.

2. Make an HTTP request to the following URI to call the Bing Maps REST API:

    http://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Locations/[Lat],[Long]/?o=xml&key=[Key]

    where [Lat] and [Long] are the coordinates provided by the geolocation service, and [Key] is Bing Maps Key you’ve created.

3. The service will return XML that contains a physical address corresponding to the geographic location.

4. Parse this file and search for the string framed by the <CountryRegion> tag.

For example, for latitude 46.191863 and longitude 6.207946, with a key we created, the URI looks like this:

http://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Locations/46.191863,6.207946?o=xml&key=Aj1zgNOquzTyunycQHwbCsJqRWfB5Nu3DqKDlNuIN7o-CPLAHyHTI1oPb12345678

Using your own key, you can paste this URI into a browser and see the results like those below, where the highlighted element is the one we’re interested in. (Some elements omitted for brevity.)

XML:

As you can see, this geocoordinate is physically located in France.

Note: by default, Bing provides these XML results in English, so you don’t need to check against localized names for the <CountryRegion>. If desired, you can get results in a particular language by adding a culture parameter to the request URI. For example, if you add &c=de (German) to the URI you’ll see “Frankreich” instead; &c=es (Spanish) and &c=it (Italian) will give “Francia”, &c=ja (Japanese) will give フランス. So you can make the request in the user’s language and compare against localized names that might exist in your UI.

Parsing the name from the XML response is a simple matter using the Windows Runtime Windows.Data.Xml.Dom.XmlDocument API, whose LoadFromUriAsync method will make the call and create an XML object structure in one fell swoop. From there it’s easy to extract the CountryRegion value as shown in the code below.

JavaScript:

C#:

The WinRT Civic Address API

The Windows.Devices.Geolocation namespace has a class to detect a civic address. At present, however, real address data is not available unless a Civic Address provider is installed on the user’s machine. If no Civic Address provider is installed, the API returns only the user’s home geographic region.

By default, this location is defined in PC settings > Time and language, and is typically set to the user’s primary locale when the user first boots their device. As such, this value is only accurate so long as the user has not moved to another country and has not manually changed his or her location after a move. However, most users will not change this regional setting when travelling or making temporary moves for business trips, holidays, and so on.

Be aware, then, that an app may retrieve a location that is based on a best guess. The least reliable location is when the user has no GPS, nor a Civic Address provider, and the user has moved to another country without manually changing his region in the Control Panel. In this case, the location will be mapped to Windows’ defaults or IP address-based location.

Nevertheless, most phones along with the new generation of PCs and tablets have location sensors that should generate accurate data. Here is code that retrieves location data and extracts the associated country without even checking of the geographic coordinates.

JavaScript:

C#:

The region variable will then return a two-letter ISO-3166 country code.

Notes:

• For any implementation, make sure the app declares the Location capability in its manifest.
• Location detection is part of the Privacy settings of the PC, and the user can disable these features. Therefore, the app must implement fallbacks in the case it cannot obtain a Geoposition.
• The user’s home geographic region (as set in PC settings) can also be retrieved using the GloblizationPreferences class as follows:

• If the device isn’t equipped with its own geolocation sensor, then earlier code that uses GetGeopositionAsync will return the same country code as GlobalizatonPreferences.

Change layout based on the location

Now that we know where the user is, it will be easier to adapt a layout to the location she actually is in, regardless of her locale and chosen UI language.

Consider the following scenario. Contoso is a regional messenger company that does most of its business in the Geneva (Switzerland) area. The company also works with customers located elsewhere in Switzerland as well as France, Germany, and Italy. To reach customers and serve all international workers in this expanded region, Contoso’s apps should be localized into French, German, Italian, and English. But their apps also need to take into account where the customers and workers are so that each one can deliver the best locale-sensitive experience. For example, a France-based customer can get an app that displays a local regional office picture, whereas a Switzerland-based customer will have a plain red background. Or customers in France will preferably pay in Euros (€), whereas customers in Switzerland will preferably pay in Swiss Francs (CHF or Fr.). These are all separate concerns from the user’s home locale and chosen UI language.

Let’s see some examples of implementations.

Dynamic Styling

The most visible assets of an app should depend on styling. This can be adapted dynamically.

JavaScript

For apps written in JavaScript, ask your designer to create a CSS file for each market into which you’ll release your app, plus one fallback design for when the user is out of the regions your app specifically supports. Then, place the files in the usual folder for your page’s CSS.

By default, the CSS is referenced from your HTML markup, but we’re going to comment those references out:

Instead, we’ll load the stylesheet dynamically by setting attributes on a new link element which we add to the DOM. An interesting practice would consist of creating a variable that points to the CSS that is used for a particular region.

All the graphic assets should now display according to the region the user is in, independently of Windows language and the user’s locale.

Here is the result when the user is in France, with the following CSS in hub_FR.css:

Here is the result when the user is in Switzerland, with the following CSS part in hub_CH.css

Here is the result when the user is somewhere else, using the default hub.css file

C#

For apps written in C#, ask your designer to split the XAML resources in creating ResourceDictionary type files that correspond to the regions you support (plus one fallback) and that contain the design resources to be customized.

In each file, create localized entries that correspond to your local design. For example, here is the Hub_FR.xaml content that brings the same hero picture as the previous Javascript/CSS example:

Then, we need to reference this new key HubPicturein the corresponding XAML markup so it can be used. Let’s change the main hub’s picture in HubPage.xaml.

Now, depending on the location, we need to load and assign the correct resource dictionary to the app, at runtime. Let’s add this to the HubPage.xaml.css and then let’s reload the page to make the change visible.

Finally, to make sure there is at least one dictionary loaded when running the app (or else the keys we put in XAML won’t exist in the resource tree at compilation), we need to load a default resource dictionary. The simplest way is to merge the Hub.xaml fallback dictionary with the main resources from the App.xaml file:

All the graphic assets should now display according to the region the user is in.

Adapt local currency units and format

Beyond styling, we may also need to tweak additional layout that takes into account local parameters or experiences. Currency is one such consideration that is tied to a location rather than the user’s home region. In the Contoso app, we’d like it to display pricing in the currency of the country the user is in. We can imagine the app calls a web service that queries a pricing list per country. The web service then returns arrays of prices for a specific country, but doesn’t necessarily include the currency unit. If the user is currently located in France or Germany, Contoso should display fees in Euros. Or if he is located in Switzerland, fees should be displayed in Swiss Francs. This is obviously done independently of a UI language, butit must definitely be done according to the user’s locale.

Fortunately, we can instruct the Globalization APIs to use a specific locale rather than the default when formatting numbers. This can be done with the CurrencyFormatter class, within the Windows.Globalization.NumberFormatting namespace, that will add the appropriate currency symbol to a number when we specify a location. (For more example of this API, refer to the Number formatting and parsing sample.)

JavaScript

C#

With the code above, here’s how a price is formatted through different combinations of user locations and locales:

As you can see, the formatted currency value adapts automatically to the region’s currency with the appropriate symbol, and to the number format appropriate for the user’s language.

Note that such code depends on a closed list of regions. This is intentional: your app might represent a business that is present in several predefined regions, but might not be available in some others. It should then be made clear to define fallback that processes the inappropriate regions.

Wrapping up

Creating an international app requires designers to answer this question “Who are the users I want to address?” And most of the times, applying traditional globalization and localization methods are enough to provide a usability that fits to customer primary needs, mainly running an app from anywhere in the world and understanding its contents. In the past two decades, software has increasingly progressed in supporting international resources, and IT standardizations have helped interoperability across the world. But, paradoxically, globalized services have also increased the need for more granularity in the customer experience to tailor content or segment the users. To do that, apps and services–or devices--need to know users’ context, in which detailed location can now be an important part of the value proposition.

So today, app designers should also answer this question: “Where can my users be?” Based on this information, we’ve seen how to tailor a Windows Store App experience. This can obviously be combined with all other UI localization methods, or a locale-based adaptive design. Let’s be pragmatic though. Windows provides features for creating an app that works in all regions and is localized for many languages and whose UI can adapt to a real-time user context; but it will increase a lot of the planning, development and testing costs. Therefore, we recommend you adjust such features to your needs: restrict the number of customizable international assets, adjust the number of locales your core business needs to support,always think of fallback, and integrate this international design to your agile software development processes. And you will see Windows Store apps provide one of the best environments to address your customers, whoever they are, wherever they are.

Angry Birds Epic now available for Windows Phone 12 Jun 2014, 2:06 pm

Ok, I’ll admit it – I have a lot of fun playing the various Angry Birds games on my Windows Phone like Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Star Wars, and classic Angry Birds. I even play Angry Birds on my Xbox One too. However today Angry Birds gets more epic with Angry Birds Epic – available free from the Windows Phone Store.

Angry Birds Epic is a new RPG adventure where you lead your feathery team into epic battles against those green snout-nosed piggies using whatever weapons you can get a hold off like a wooden sword, frying pan or stick thingy with a sponge on top. These epic battles take place in everything from tribal villages and frosty mountains to tropical beaches and mysterious caves all across a fantasy Piggy Island. You play as epic characters like Red, Chuck, Bomb and the other heroes and face off against King Pig, Wiz Pig, Prince Porky and other villains. And you can level up your characters, armor, weapons and potions in epic upgrades. There is epic humor in the game too! Download Angry Birds Epic today for some epic fun!

Third update for Windows Phone 8.1 Preview for Developers to roll out 12 Jun 2014, 12:13 pm

Those of you who’ve been participating in the Windows Phone 8.1 Preview for Developers know that since we first rolled out the Preview in April, there have been a couple of updates. The first update rolled out in early May and the second a little over a week ago. These updates have improved battery performance, among other things. Starting today at 10am (Pacific), the third update to the Preview for Developers will start rolling out, and you should be able to get onto build 12397. This update enables some newly commercialized devices and tweaks a couple of new APIs, so you won’t see a difference on your device, but we encourage everyone who’s on the Preview for Developers to stay current on the latest build.

As always, thanks for your interest in Windows Phone!

50-80% off Windows apps: Rayman Fiesta Run, Maps Pro, Skateboard Party 2, and more 12 Jun 2014, 11:30 am

We've got some great discounts on apps and games for Windows and Windows Phone in this week's Red Stripe Deals. Let's get right to them:

Rayman Fiesta Run

A follow-up to the popular Rayman Jungle Run, Rayman Fiesta Run has you lunging for cocktail umbrellas, leaping on limes, bouncing on sausages, and punching piñatas across more than 75 levels of fun! This week you can get it for 67% off—just $.99 on Windows, and $.99 on Windows Phone.

Maps Pro

Why buy another mapping app? Because Maps Pro isn't limited to a single map source—it works with multiple mapping styles, like Google Street View, Nokia, OpenStreetMap, and Bing Maps. It also offers offline maps, and voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation with directions for driving, walking or cycling, and can interface directly with your external Bluetooth GPS device. This comprehensive mapping app is regularly priced at $4.99, but with 80% off this week, you can get it for just $.99 in the Windows Store.

Skateboard Party 2

Master over 40 skateboard tricks and hundreds of amazing combos. Use the tutorials in Skateboard Party 2 to practice and learn at your own pace, and then compete with other skaters online. Works with an Xbox game controller, on-screen touch controls, or accelerometer (tilt) controls, if your hardware supports it. Get it for 50% off this week, just $.99 on Windows as well as $.99 on Windows Phone.

Enigmatis 2: The Mists of Ravenwood (Full)

The second in the popular Enigmatis mystery series, The Mists of Ravenwood gives you lots of spooky details, stunning plot twists, and 55 beautifully hand-drawn locations set in the redwood forests of Northern California. Normally $6.99 on Windows, you can get it this week for half off: $3.49 on Windows and $1.49 on Windows Phone.

Miriel's Enchanted Mystery

In Miriel's Enchanted Mystery, a charming casual time management game for kids 3 and up, you'll bake bread, make potions and colored cloth, and use powerful spells to complete tasks. Once complete, you can use what you've earned to buy more products and skills and make things even more interesting. Download it for $1.49 on Windows and $.99 on Windows Phone.

Dictionary Pro

The super comprehensive Dictionary Pro app offers 14 languages online or offline, with instant translations, and (online only) access to medical, legal, and financial dictionaries, thesauri, acronyms, abbreviations, idioms, and encyclopedia content. You can also play word games, listen to audio pronunciations, and check out interesting daily articles on words and their origins. Get all of this, ad-free, for $1.99 on Windows.

Look for new Red Stripe Deals every Thursday in the Windows Store, under Collections, and in the Windows Phone Store, in the Red Stripe Deals Collection. Note that not all deals and apps are available in all locations, so you’ll need to check the Store app on your own device to see what’s offered in your part of the world.

Taking TechNet Offline: Build Your Own Personalized Documentation 11 Jun 2014, 3:41 pm

IT pro’s live and breathe information. You need accurate data at your fingertips all the time.  That’s why we are constantly creating new content just for IT pro’s to help you with tasks like Windows Deployment or Planning for App-V 5.0. We publish this information via TechNet Library which is a great resource when you are online but is not so great when not connected to the internet.  Our technical writers and support teams are frequently asked for downloadable versions of documentation from TechNet. Well you are in luck, TechNet has a little-known feature that allows you to create your own custom downloadable documentation from TechNet  with the click of a link. 

Every page of the TechNet library has a link up at the top-right of the page that reads “Export.”  Click it and you’ll go here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/export/help. This page explains how to build your own pdf or html document (.mht) from topics you select in the library.  That’s right, you roll up the content you want and download it. 

Click the “Start” button and you’ll be taken back to the page you arrived from – the assumption being that’s a topic you want to export.  From there you can select all the topics you want to include in your personalized downloadable file.  Note there is a functional ceiling to the number of pages you can export at 200 topics. 

Save your new doc set to any device and you’ll have it when you need it.  It’s that simple!

Nathan Barnett, Technical Writer, Microsoft Corporation

Partner Profile: Zattoo TV launches Live TV Universal Windows App 11 Jun 2014, 9:45 am

While consumers are enjoying the latest technologies available right now, developers are busy creating what’s next. Throughout Microsoft’s history, development partners have been essential to our success and we want to more regularly recognize some of the cool projects they’re working on. The post below is the first of many partner profiles to come highlighting developers, their teams, and their interesting work.

We’ll kick off our series with a look at Zattoo TV, Europe’s largest provider of live web-based TV. Zattoo is also one of our first partners to build a universal Windows application, initially announced in April at Build.

The Internet has changed TV dramatically, especially in terms of where and how we consume TV content. An experience once confined to the living room and to those sitting next to you on the couch has been extended to allow viewing programs on the go and en masse, via phone, tablet, laptop or PC. Companies like Zattoo have helped accelerate this cultural and technological shift by distributing linear live TV across a broad range of devices. After launching an app in the Windows Store in 2012, Zattoo placed a special focus on the Microsoft platform to expand its reach by targeting Windows Phone and Xbox.

Established in 2006, Swiss-based Zattoo now has more than 15 million registered users and 1.2 million active users per month, with its core market in Switzerland and Germany. Additionally customers in Spain, France, Denmark, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein and the UK are accessing Zattoo TV apps on the web, mobile, smart TV and gaming devices. The new Windows Phone 8.1 app, launching today, is one of the first universal Windows apps to hit the market. With universal Windows applications, developers can use common APIs to build apps that can target each form factor in the family of Windows devices. That way you create just one app, with the business logic surfacing up through a user experience relevant to a specific device.

Zattoo created their newest app in just one month—more than 65 percent faster than in previous development scenarios—by taking advantage of the universal Windows app capability and reusing about 80 percent of the code from the company’s existing Windows Store app.

Jose Villagra, a Zattoo app developer specializing in Microsoft technologies, credits universal Windows apps and the Model-View-ViewModel pattern for being able to easily share code between apps, including models, session and user management, navigation, advertising, networking libraries, testing—and even some UserControls and resources. He also noted improved efficiencies not only sped up the app production cycle, but also allowed Zattoo developers to put more focus on enhanced features to appeal to customers. The only special code needed was for the UI layer, where Zattoo was able to make simple changes using data templates in order to optimize the device experience.

Zattoo has apps for iOS and Android devices, but their new universal Windows app, which will be the core of their experience on Windows, Windows Phone, and a future Xbox One app, delivers more consumer features, including:

• The ability to pin favorite channels to the desktop for fast, direct user access.
• Snap View for consumers who want to multi-task while watching a show.
• The PiP feature, which delivers great performance even on lower-end tablets.
• The Play To feature, for streaming content to multiple devices.
• Channel loading and switching, which is faster and smoother than on other platforms thanks to Smooth Streaming.
• Live pause, single show recording, catch up (these are great features, but only available in Switzerland due to content rights restrictions).

Zattoo’s existing Windows Store app is growing faster than apps on any other platform. Advances like universal Windows apps will boost the company’s efforts to reach more customers on as many platforms as possible without requiring a major time or resource investment. By associating their app in the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store, Zattoo has greater flexibility with application data like settings and user credentials, contributing to a better consumer experience across devices.

Zattoo demonstrates that it is a fantastic time for engaging in Windows application development. They’re delivering a great product, one that is already enhancing Zattoo’s position as one of the best European TV services on the Windows platform. Take a look at Zattoo’s site for more developments.

If you’re ready to get started building your own, make sure to check out our Microsoft Developer Network to find tools and resources to help you get started.

By the way, since Zattoo is ahead of the curve, folks with Windows Phone 8.1 preview can try the new app today. Everyone else will get a chance when Windows Phone 8.1 ships broadly in the next few weeks – just in time to watch this year’s futbol world cup for free since all matches are broadcasted on TV channels available over Zattoo.

Cheers,

Guggs

Get all the latest news from the Pacific Northwest with the Seattle Times app 10 Jun 2014, 4:15 pm

You can stay up-to-date with all the latest news coming out of the Pacific Northwest and Seattle with the new The Seattle Times app. The Seattle Times app is available for PCs and tablets running Windows 8.1 and Windows Phones running Windows Phone 8.1.

The Seattle Times app is optimized for quick and easy reading on Windows devices giving you the ability to easily browse through your favorite sections and pin those sections to your Start screen to get the latest headlines as live tiles. You can also adjust your reading options in the app by changing the font size within articles. You also get access to all the amazing award-winning photojournalist from The Seattle Times with device-optimized photo galleries. And you can send in news tips to The Seattle Times directly through the app’s settings.

Download The Seattle Times from the Windows Store here and from the Windows Phone Store here.

Cricket Wireless has announced the Nokia Lumia 1320 10 Jun 2014, 12:59 pm

Starting this Friday, June 13th, the Nokia Lumia 1320 will be available exclusively on Cricket Wireless for $229.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate Cricket Visa Promotion Card* in Cricket stores and online. This is the first time this device is being offered in the U.S.

The Nokia Lumia 1320 is a large and powerful 4G LTE device with a beautiful 6-inch IPS LCD display perfect for everything from playing games like Halo: Spartan Assault to texting and web surfing and being productive in email and editing Office documents. The Lumia 1320 has dual cameras and capable of 1080p video recording. Oh and it comes in vibrant orange.

It comes powered by Windows Phone 8 but will be updated for free to Windows Phone 8.1 which will include Cortana in the coming months.

* This offer ends on 7/10/2014 – see this page for details (bottom).

New Release: Windows App Studio Beta makes it even easier to publish your apps 10 Jun 2014, 12:05 pm

If you’re not one of the over 1.1 million people who have used Windows App Studio Beta to quickly turn your idea into an app for Windows and Windows Phone, now is the time to check it out.  Our latest release, available this morning, just made it even easier to publish your apps to the Windows Phone Store and the Windows Store. 

Now after you create your app and select Publish Package, you will get a .zip file that contains your Store-ready publish packages, up to six screenshots of your app, the app logo you created, and publication instructions – everything you need to submit your app to the Store.  You’ll of course need a Dev Center account to submit your apps.  We’ve even produced videos that walk through how to publish your App Studio apps to the Windows Phone Store and the Windows Store.

We’ve also added YouTube playlists as a data source.  Now your app can display videos by user, search term, and playlist. 

You’ll also notice new photo layout options for data sources that include Instagram, Flickr, and dynamic and static collections.

For more helpful tips, check out the home page of Windows App Studio Beta, where you’ll notice we’ve added App Studio News, which provides links to training videos delivered by power users around the world, presentations on specific features, and articles highlighting App Studio users. 

Keep the feedback coming and let us know what you think of this release.

Popular video chat app ooVoo comes to Windows Phone 10 Jun 2014, 11:11 am

The popular social video chat app ooVoo is now available for Windows Phone. With ooVoo, you can instantly connect with your closest friends and family through HD video – for free. ooVoo for Windows Phone lets you do one-on-one video calls and group video calls with up to 12 participants as well as instant messaging, and also includes echo cancellation for crystal clear audio. ooVoo for Windows Phone also has Superclear video which is proprietary technology from ooVoo that automatically adjusts for packet-loss on low-bandwidth video calls giving you the best video experience possible even at places with low bandwidth. You can also use ooVoo for Windows Phone to record and share photos and videos.

Download ooVoo for Windows Phone for free from the Windows Phone Store here.

Keep Internet Explorer Up-To-Date For More Secure Web Browsing 10 Jun 2014, 11:04 am

The latest version of Internet Explorer is faster, more secure, and has better web standards support than older versions. For Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users, upgrading to Internet Explorer 11 has significant benefits—and enabling automatic updating ensures that users will always be up-to-date. This is important, because two-thirds of all desktop computers are still using older, less secure browsers despite years of security advancements and updates. We are making continued investments not only in making a more secure browser, but also in helping consumers and commercial customers get—and stay—current.

New and improved security

Every version of Internet Explorer includes new and improved security protection, building on improvements from the previous version. Below are just a few of the security features added by each major version of Internet Explorer since 2001.

These security features and improvements are augmented with updates such as the ones being released this month, to make socially-engineered attacks and browser exploits more difficult on modern versions of Internet Explorer. According to NSS Labs, for example, malicious download block rates increased from 69% on Internet Explorer 8 in 2009 to over 99% on Internet Explorer 11. This month’s security update makes Internet Explorer more secure against exploits, but it needs to be installed to keep your browser up-to-date. The most recent, fully-patched version of Internet Explorer is more secure than older versions.

The threat from older browsers

According to NetMarketShare.com, two thirds of desktop browsers being used today are outdated. Older browsers are a problem not only for website developers using modern web standards, but also present a significant challenge in keeping the web ecosystem safe and secure. Older browsers and operating systems are more likely to be susceptible to attacks than modern, up-to-date systems.

How to stay up-to-date

Microsoft recommends enabling automatic updates to ensure your computing experience is always up-to-date. Regular updates provide significant benefits, such as improved security and reliability, and Windows Update can automatically install updates for Internet Explorer and Windows. To turn on or check the status of automatic updates, simply press the Start button, type “Update,” and select Windows Update. Installing updates automatically is recommended, as show in the Windows 7 dialog below.

Installing updates automatically is recommended, as shown here for Windows 7

Windows 8.1 users can check the status of Windows Update using this traditional interface or in the “Update and recovery” section of Windows Settings, as shown below. If you are still using Windows 8, you can update to Windows 8.1 in the Windows Store for free; see Update to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8.

Windows 8 users can check Windows Update settings in the "Update and recovery" section of Windows Settings

Commercial customers may have standardized on earlier versions of Internet Explorer, which is why Microsoft introduced Enterprise Mode for Internet Explorer 11 in April. Enterprise Mode offers better backward compatibility for earlier versions of Internet Explorer, and tools to manage which web apps use it. By offering better backward compatibility, Microsoft is making it easier than ever before for commercial customers to upgrade and stay current on the latest version of Internet Explorer. In addition to increased security, Internet Explorer 11 also helps unblock upgrades to Windows 8.1, services like Office 365, and the latest Windows devices.

Improving browser security and helping customers stay current

Microsoft will continue to make significant investments in improving browser security, and is ramping up our focus on helping consumers and commercial customers upgrade and stay up-to-date with the latest Internet Explorer browser. If you are using an older browser, upgrade to the latest version and enable automatic updates for more secure browsing. If you use an older version of Internet Explorer at work, encourage your IT department to learn more about Enterprise Mode for Internet Explorer 11. In the coming months, stay tuned for additional consumer-focused content and communications, updated enterprise resources and training, and other announcements.

Fred Pullen

Senior Product Marketing Manager

Windows themes to make your desktop foxy (for real) 9 Jun 2014, 3:59 pm

We have a lot of wildlife photography on the Personalization Gallery, including themes and wallpapers featuring wolves, tigers, polar bears, mustangs, dolphins, tropical fish, birds of various kinds – including owls and other birds of prey – and a wide variety of other furry families. But I felt like something was missing. What could it be? Marmots? Moles? Muskrats? Manatees? No, none of those seemed quite right. Finally, after seeing this video (no, not this one!) I had the answer… foxes! Curating this set of images was a lot of fun, and I hope you’ll enjoy bringing the alert and playful spirit of these clever canids to your desktop with our new theme.

But if foxes aren’t your thing, no worries – the sky’s the limit! Float away over dramatic landscapes from Ohio to Anatolia in our new Hot Air Balloons theme, including this otherworldly scene above the Fairy Chimneys rock formation in Cappadocia, Turkey.

The skies also take center stage in our next new theme. Nature’s palette of vivid colors is on display in Community Showcase: Dramatic Skies 2, which includes images by 21 different photographers, including Amber Gordon, John Cocores, Lynne Waterhouse, and Raênio Cruz Gomes. The set begins with this blazing sunset captured by Paul Soares.

Vibrant natural color of another kind is celebrated in Community Showcase: Flora 2, which includes 21 botanical photographs from our community of contributors, including Muhammad Faridi, Tina Reeve, Marcel Wetzstein, and Jyotsna Datar. This ruby-red poppy portrait is by Jade Richards.

Our next new theme also explores the beauties of nature, but in a much more expansive way. Community Showcase: Natural Landscapes 2 includes dramatic scenery from around the world, including India, Tasmania, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Bolivia, Serbia, New Zealand, Norway, the US, the UK, and Brazil. The images in this set were taken by 20 different photographers, including Toni Cattel, Walid Mahfoudh, Chung Ooi Tan, and Dani Jordan. Yacen Sergej captured this shot of the Caucasus Mountains in Adygea, Russia.

Picturesque signs of human habitation mark the images in Community Showcase: Rural Landscapes 2, including farmland in Serbia, Ireland, and Poland; ruins in Peru, Cyprus, and England; villages in Canada and Morocco; and remote roadways in Belgium and the US. This set includes images from 19 different photographers, including Pam Williams, Aleksandar Saric, Hayley Eames, Ad de Cort, and Ian R D Johnson, who took this serene shot of a vineyard in South Australia.

The rest of our new themes celebrate specific locations. Zagreb Nights, photographer Tibor Rogulja’s first theme on the gallery, is a moonlit tour through Croatia’s beautiful capital city. I love the cobblestone streets and the contrast between Zagreb’s gorgeous classic architecture and its glittering modern buildings.

We also have a followup to Kazuo Nakadai’s first theme, Perspectives of Japan. The sequel includes dramatic shots of Akashi Kaikyō Bridge span, Diamond and Flower Ferris Wheel, Rainbow Bridge Loop, and many other distinctive sights of Tokyo, Osaka, and the Nagano and Shizuoka Prefectures.

Lastly, we have a two-part love-letter to New York City, featuring a mixture of panoramic and standard proportion images by photographer Chad Weisser. The first set is in dramatic black and white and the second is in brilliant color.

We also publish new wallpapers on a regular basis, in case you have an older version of Windows that can’t use themes, or you prefer to use a single image (perhaps on your lock screen or Windows Phone). Here are a few of the newest ones:

I hope you’ll keep checking back on the Personalization Gallery for more new themes and wallpapers to keep all your Windows devices looking foxy and fine. (We may not know what the fox says, but we do know beautiful imagery for your desktop.)

New and improved – 8 top apps and games recently updated for ewe 9 Jun 2014, 12:19 pm

Today we bring to you a selection of apps and games for Windows and Windows Phone that have been recently updated to become more engaging, more catered to your on-the-go lifestyle, and flat-out more fun.

Check out all 8 recently updated titles – each of them available Free – and then tell us what you think in the comments:

1. Pocket Sheep

Yes, we meant to say ‘ewe’ in the headline – just having a little fun. Which is exactly what Pocket Sheep is all about! Another success story out of our AppCampus program, ewe will totally enjoy this simple casual game. Try to keep the sheep together, but watch out – these sheep are scared of your fingers, panic when crowded, and get into trouble if left unattended. And new in the latest update, there’s now 90 cute collectable cards to earn as you progress through the game. Get the latest Pocket Sheep for Free from the Windows Phone Store.

2. GoPro

GoPro is the go-to camera for capturing your adventures on video. With the latest update to the GoPro app for Windows Phone, you can now turn your phone into a remote control for GoPro HERO3+ cameras. You can also manage your GoPro camera’s firmware and WiFi settings from the app, plus access footage on your camera’s SD card right from the Camera Roll. Get the latest GoPro app Free from the Windows Phone Store.

3. Slacker Radio

If you haven’t tried Slacker yet, get ready to discover the perfect music for any moment, right on your Windows device. Slacker Radio is “hand-crafted by passionate music experts” to help you find the perfect tunes to fit your mood. And when you’re on your Windows Phone, you can use your voice to launch it, and pin your favorite stations to your Start Screen. Tune in to explore 100s of stations, playlists and recommendations. Get the latest Slacker Radio app Free from the Windows Phone Store. Also available for Windows for Free in the Windows Store.

4. USA Today

The USA Today apps for Windows and Windows Phone make it easy for you to read and interact with news stories, sports scores, market snapshots, weather, and more. Freshly updated, you can pin USA Today to your Start Screen and receive Live Tile updates with the latest headlines. Search for news coverage using your voice. And if you’re on Windows, put USA Today in Snap View so you stay informed as you multi-task. Get the latest USA Today apps Free for Windows and Windows Phone.

5. eHarmony

Popular dating service eHarmony makes finding your match on your Windows Phone easier than ever. With their latest app update, you can now set more detailed search criteria and look for matches by name or city. You can complete an in-depth personality profile called The Book of You for better match-making. And when someone reaches out to you, alerts will notify you right away so you won’t miss an opportunity at true love. Get the latest eHarmony app Free from the Windows Phone Store (subscription required for premium features).

6. Frozen Free Fall

Disney is on a roll with numerous new games for Windows and Windows Phone. But one of the biggest hits is match-3 game Frozen Free Fall, recently updated with new puzzles, new power-ups, and new characters, too, like Cliff and Bulda, the Troll parents of Kristoff. Two new game modes let you wake the sleeping trolls with your best matching combos, and you can light up firewood to melt snow blocks to warm Anna’s heart. Get the latest Frozen Free Fall for Free from the Windows and Windows Phone.

7. Dailymotion

Featuring over 40 million videos, there’s something for everyone with video viewing and sharing app Dailymotion. Search for videos, follow the Channels you like, get notifications when new videos are available, and discover new videos every day. And with the latest update, enjoy a completely refreshed user interface and the ability to pin Channels, Playlists, Favorites and more right to your Start Screen for ultra-fast access. Get the latest Dailymotion app Free from the Windows Phone Store. Dailymotion is also available Free from the Windows Store.

8. PGA Tour

If you follow the PGA Tour, you don’t want to miss the latest update to the PGA Tour app for Windows Phone. Redesigned for ease of use, the app provides real-time leaderboard information, player profiles, videos and more. With the latest update, you can also find out where and when players will be teeing off, track shots, review hole statistics, and pin your favorite player to your Start Screen to track how they’re doing via Live Tile updates. Get the latest PGA Tour app Free from the Windows Phone Store.

Extra Credit:

In case you missed it, Facebook Messenger for Windows Phone received a big update last week, too. Read about the Facebook Messenger update here.

New Windows devices unveiled by our partners at Computex 2014 6 Jun 2014, 1:17 pm

Throughout the last week, I’ve been publishing blog posts highlighting new devices announced and showcased during Computex 2014 in Taipei from our partners. Our partners are helping us deliver a broad range of Windows devices with all kinds of different form factors and in new markets and more price points too. To help our partners, we’ve delivered new updates to Windows (Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Update) as part of our new rapid release cadence. We have also added new hardware support to help our partners scale and new licensing such as $0 Windows for devices smaller than 9-inches in size. Many of the devices introduced this week at Computex are a result of all this work – which is awesome.

We had the honor of hosting a keynote at Computex again this year where Nick Parker, Corporate Vice President of the OEM Division, showcased nearly 40 new Windows and Windows Phone devices from our partners around the world. You can watch his keynote on-demand here. I also suggest reading his blog post here on the Official Microsoft Blog.

During his keynote, Nick gave a first sneak peek at Toshiba’s 7-inch tablet (pictured above) that will be available in the coming months at a value-driven price that is very competitive to any other 7-inch devices. You can read a little bit more on how we’re helping partners bring low-cost Windows devices to market here in a blog post I published a few weeks ago.

Nick also showed off the new HP Pro x2 612 2-in-1 that is designed for business customers and comes with a Wacom pen and dual batteries with the Power Keyboard.

Here is a summary of the announcements I’ve covered in blog posts this week.

HP: HP announced new 2-in-1 PCs that include the HP ENVY x360 and HP Pavilion x360 which can easily switch from a notebook to a stand, tent or tablet and the HP Split x2. Click here to read my blog post for details.

Dell: Dell announced two new 2-in-1 Inspiron PCs that feature a 360 degree rotation between laptop, easel, tent, and tablet modes – the Inspiron 11 3000 Series and Inspiron 13 7000 Series. They also announced the Inspiron 20 3000 Series, a new entry-level Inspiron All-in-One PC, and new monitors. Click here to read my blog post for details.

ASUS: ASUS announced a new Zenbook Ultrabook – the Zenbook NX500 – which has a 4k screen. They announced a new 2-in-1 – the Transformer Book Flip. And they announced the Portable AiO PT2001 – a portable All-in-One PC. Click here to read my blog post for details. ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) announced two new gaming desktop PCs, a new gaming laptop, and some gaming accessories too – see my blog post here for details.

There was one device from ASUS I missed earlier this week – the Transformer Book T300 Chi. The Transformer Book T300 Chi is a 2-in-1 with an amazingly thin 12.5-inch tablet (it’s only 7.3mm thick) that can detach from its keyboard.

In the above photo, Nick is holding the tablet and you can see how thin it really is. It’s powered by Intel’s Core M high performance and low power processor and is completely fanless. It also features LTE support and has a 2560x1440 WQHD IPS display.

New partners announced Windows Phones at Computex this week. Prestigio announced two Windows Phones - Prestigio MultiPhone 8500 DUO and Prestigio MultiPhone 8400 DUO. Yezz showed off their new Billy 4.7 Windows Phone. BLU teased their upcoming Windows Phones. On stage during Nick’s keynote, he also showed a phone from InFocus, which is the first of a family of affordable LTE phones in varying sizes. And prototypes were teased from BYD, Compal, Pegatron, Quanta and Wistron. Click here to read my blog post for details.

As you can see, a lot of really cool new Windows devices have been announced by our partners this week. We can’t wait for these devices to hit the market in the coming months!

We also had several partners announce new devices a few weeks prior to Computex that I also think is worth noting.

Toshiba: Toshiba announced new Encore 2 tablets – an 8-inch model and a 10.1-inch model. For details on those new tablets – see my blog post here.

Lenovo: Lenovo also announced new devices for businesses: ThinkPad 10 tablet and the ThinkStation P300. See my blog post here for details on those devices.

Acer: Acer announced a new 2-in-1 – the Aspire Switch 10 – as well as new Aspire E 14 and E 15 series laptops. They also announced new 23-inch All-in-Ones too. For details, see my blog post here.

Need help purchasing a new Windows PC or tablet? Click here!

Back up and restore your app on Windows Phone 8.1, Part 2: App data 6 Jun 2014, 12:47 am

This blog was written by Hector Barbera and Sean McKenna--Program Managers, Developer and Ecosystem Platform – Operating Systems Group

In the first of this pair of posts, we covered one of the biggest additions to Windows Phone’s backup-and-restore functionality in the 8.1 release: the Start screen. In this post, we’ll cover the other major addition: app data.

App data often includes valuable settings, configurations, game state, and usage history, any of which can take a long time to recreate. When this data doesn’t migrate to a new device, it’s both an inconvenience for the user and a loss of hours of valuable engagement with your app. With the addition of app-data backup and restore in Windows Phone 8.1, that inconvenience and loss of engagement become things of the past.

Background

To ensure that your app works well with backup and restore, it’s important to consider the full scope of app data that can be present on a phone. While most of an app’s state resides in its local app-data container—also known as isolated storage—other content resides in other places such as coupons in the wallet, contacts in the address book, and event data in the calendar. Not all of this data is backed up in Windows Phone 8.1, so there’s the potential for issues if your app has dependencies between what’s backed up and what isn’t. The goal of this post is to help you prepare your app to handle app-data restore.

The backup-and-restore feature itself is pretty straightforward. Assuming the user hasn’t disabled app-data backup, here’s how it works: once a day, when the phone is idle, connected to AC power, and connected to a Wi-Fi network, the backup and restore engine looks for changes across the device and syncs them to Microsoft OneDrive. This includes looking for changes in specific folders of backup-eligible apps. By default, the set of eligible apps includes all Store apps targeting Windows Phone 8.1, including Windows Runtime apps and Windows Phone Silverlight apps.

When the user sets up a new device and chooses to restore a backup, any app data included in that backup is restored as part of the system-initiated app installation. When an app is ready to launch for the first time, its app data is available in the same state as it was at the time of the backup.

What you need to do

The good news is that if you’re developing a Windows Phone 8.1 app and want to take advantage of app data backup, you don’t have to do much. The first step is simply to understand the options for storing data in the Windows Phone app data model, which is accessible through the Windows.Storage.ApplicationData class. Those options are:

• Roaming. This container supports both unstructured data (files) and structured data (settings). Data stored here is eligible for roaming synchronization between the user’s devices (including synchronization between Windows and Windows Phone for universal apps with a shared identity). Roaming data may also be backed up under certain conditions (for example, when the user has disabled roaming) in order to capture the entirety of the app’s state.
• Local. This is the default storage location. It also supports storage of both unstructured data (files) and structured data (settings). Note that for Windows Phone Silverlight apps, Local maps to the IsolatedStorage folder. All data in Local is backed up to the cloud.
• LocalCache. This is identical to Local except that it is always excluded from backups.
• Temporary. This container allows you to store unstructured data (files) that are excluded from backups. These files can be cleaned up by the system in the event of a low-storage situation.

Best practices for backup

Here are some tips for backing up your app data efficiently:

• Use Local to store only data that can’t be regenerated without user input. Examples of such data include app configuration, game progress, or user-generated content like voice recordings or typed notes. Because backed-up data counts against the user’s OneDrive quota, don’t use Local (or Roaming) for temporary files or data that can easily be recreated or download as needed.
• Use LocalCache to store data that you want to preserve across app sessions but that you don’t want to be backed up. LocalCache is intended for data that’s important to your app but that shouldn’t be replicated in OneDrive. There are several possible reasons to choose LocalCache:
• Avoiding duplication—The data is already available in the cloud and can easily be downloaded as needed (for example. an e-book title or news article).
• Privacy concerns—The data is confidential and should not leave the device.
• Encryption—The data is encrypted with a device-based key and would be unusable when restored on a different device.
• Use the Temporary folder for data that you don’t need to save between app sessions. The Temporary folder is eligible for clean up whenever the device reaches a low-storage threshold.

Potential issues

Here are some situations to look out for as you back up and restore app data.

Running for the first time

There are some tasks that an app might need to do when running for the first time, such as asking for user credentials. With the introduction of app-data backup, your app can no longer assume that it has already run on a particular device based on the presence of certain data in its Local app data location. If you need to keep track of whether your app has already run on the current device, persist a local flag and store it in the LocalCache folder.

Encryption

When you store sensitive data locally on the phone, it’s highly recommended that you use the Windows Data Protection API (DPAPI) to encrypt the data first. It’s important to note, however, that DPAPI uses an encryption key that is based on the device that it’s running on. So if you try to decrypt that data on after restoring it on a new device, the decryption operation will fail.

If you’re encrypting data with DPAPI, either store it in the LocalCache folder or be prepared to handle the decryption failure on a new device. If you’re storing user names and passwords, use the PasswordVault object in the Windows.Security.Credentials namespace. If enabled by the user, the PasswordVault roams across all Windows devices, which means that it’s available for use on a new phone following restore.

Content licenses

Content licenses present similar challenges to data encryption. If your app acquires licenses that are tied to a specific device, consider storing them in the LocalCache folder.

Testing your app with app-data backup and restore

If you store all of your app data in the Local folder, you can simulate a device restore using the Isolated Storage Explorer tool (ISETool) by following these steps. (Note that the ISETool does not currently support interaction with the Roaming, Temporary, or LocalCache folders, or the Local settings container.)

1. Deploy your app to your developer device or emulator using Microsoft Visual Studio.

2. Use the app and create the state you want to test on restore.

3. Close the app.

4. Using the Isolated Storage Explorer tool, copy your Local folder to your PC:

• Using the emulator:
  ISETool.exe ts xd <your app's product ID> <path to an empty folder on your PC>
• Using a physical phone:
  ISETool.exe ts de <your app's product ID> <path to an empty folder on your PC>

5. Uninstall the app. This clears your app’s state.

6. Deploy your app again. If you want to test for hardware dependencies, try restoring to a device that’s different from the one you used in step 4.

7. Using the Isolated Storage Explorer tool, restore to your device the data that you backed up:

• Using the emulator:
  ISETool.exe rs xd <your app's product ID> <path to an empty folder on your PC>
• Using a physical phone:
  ISETool.exe rs de <your app's product ID> <path to an empty folder on your PC>

8. Launch your app and make sure all features work as you would expect following a device restore.

Opting out

While we hope that most app developers are pleased with the arrival of app-data backup and restore, we understand that there are reasons why you might want to opt out some or all of your data. The preferred method is to segment your data based on the data model described earlier—that is, using the LocalCache folder for data that you do not wish to store outside the device. This approach lets you take advantage of backup for some data while opting out content that might be sensitive or inappropriate for backup.

Of course, because the segmented app-data model is new for Windows Phone 8.1, you probably need to do some work before your data is cleanly separated. If you’d like to update your Windows Phone Silverlight app to target Windows Phone 8.1 without worrying about data migration just yet, you can simply opt out of backup altogether. Just use a flag in the Packaging tab of the WMAppManifest.xml file, as shown here.

Final notes

App-data backup and restore is a significant new feature in Windows Phone 8.1. Users who have spent significant time and energy engaging with your apps will now be able to carry that forward to new devices with little or no work on your part. We hope this post has helped you understand how backup and restore works and how your app can take advantage of it.

New partners announce Windows Phones at Computex 2014 5 Jun 2014, 6:30 pm

An exciting array of new Windows Phone devices were on display this week at Computex. Several of our new partners unveiled Windows Phones 8.1 devices. These new devices are a result of the announcement we made back in February at Mobile World Congress with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and $0 Windows for devices smaller than 9-inches in size which has enabled partners to more quickly and efficiently bring Windows Phones in to their mobile devices portfolio. Here is a look at just some of the many devices headed to all corners of the globe.

Prestigio:

Prestigio has unveiled their first two Windows Phones: the Prestigio MultiPhone 8500 DUO and Prestigio MultiPhone 8400 DUO. The MultiPhone 8500 DUO has a 5-inch IPS display (720x1280) and a quad core 1.2 GHz processor. It also has an 8 megapixel rear camera and Dual SIM capability. The MultiPhone 8500 DUO available in Europe in July for estimated price of $235 (U.S.). The MultiPhone 8400 DUO will have a 4-inch IPS display (480x800), quad core 1.2 GHz processor, rear 8 megapixel camera and Dual SIM capability as well. The MultiPhone 8400 DUO will be available in Europe in August for estimated price of $115 (U.S.).

Yezz:

Yezz was on the ground showing off their new Billy 4.7 Windows Phone they announced earlier this month. The Billy 4.7 features a 4.7-inch IPS display, has a 1.2 GHz processor, rear 8 megapixel camera, and Dual SIM capability. Did you know Yezz named this phone to honor Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates? Yup! The Billy 4.7 is expected to be available soon starting in Europe, LATAM, and the U.S. In the U.S., the Billy 4.7 will be priced at $249 (U.S.) and available through Amazon.com. It will have interchangeable covers available in red, white and blue.

The Billy 4.7 is part of a larger family, though, since Yezz also announced previously it would be joined by the Billy 4.0 which comes will a 4-inch OGS screen, 8 megapixel rear camera, and quad core processor priced at $139 (U.S.).

BLU:

BLU is also teasing their new 4-inch (left shot above) and 5-inch (right shot above). More details to come on these devices but they will be coming to the U.S. and LATAM soon. Their colors are awesome. I want the bright orange 5-inch one!

In addition, there were some interesting Windows Phone prototypes teased at Computex as well, from manufacturing partners BYD, Compal, Pegatron, Quanta and Wistron. It is exciting to see new Windows Phones from new partners. Stay tuned for more to come!

Facebook Messenger for Windows Phone updated with performance improvements and new features 5 Jun 2014, 2:15 pm

An update to Messenger for Windows Phone is rolling out today bringing performance improvements and new features. You will see better performance in a few areas. In the background, Messenger is doing more caching of images (like stickers) for better data consumption. Taking and sharing a photo is much quicker: you can take and send a photo with just one tap. You don’t have to leave the app to take a photo with a separate camera app. There is a brand new photo gallery feature built into Messenger that gives you quick access to photos on your phone without leaving the app!

You will also see a new groups tab where you can manage and create groups with your closest friends, family or work colleagues and have group conversations. You can pin these groups to your Start screen as well for quick access.

If you don’t have Facebook Messenger installed, you can download it here free from the Windows Phone Store.

IM+ Pro, ilomilo plus, Doodle Devil, and more are half off in Red Stripe Deals this week 5 Jun 2014, 11:30 am

A new set of Red Stripe Deals are available to you today, which means 50% or more off of these popular apps and games for Windows (and 4 of them are discounted on Windows Phone too!).

Here's the rundown of this week's deals:

IM+ Pro

This cross-platform messaging app supports pretty much any major IM service you can think of, including Messenger, Facebook, Skype chat, Google Talk, AOL/AIM/iChat, Yahoo!, ICQ, Vkontakte, Mail.Ru Agent, Odnoklassniki, Yandex chat, Mamba.Ru, Mig33, SINA Weibo, Renren, Fetion, Gadu-Gadu, MeinVZ and Jabber. Get it this week for $1.99 in the Windows Store and $1.99 in the Windows Phone Store.

ilomilo plus

In this cute but challenging puzzle game, you try to reunite two sweet friends named ilo and milo as they travel a surrealistic and ever changing world made of cubes. Leap from cube to cube on Windows for $2.49 this week, or on Windows Phone for just $1.99.

Doodle Devil

In this evil counterpart to the popular Doodle God games, you combine fire, water, earth and air to create zombies, demons, and other evil creatures, and destroy the earth as we know it—fun! This week, Doodle Devil is just $.99 on Windows, and FREE on Windows Phone!

Azkend 2

This game combines addictive tile-matching gameplay with interesting stories and beautiful illustrations. Get it for half price this week, $2.99 in the Windows Store, and $1.99 in the Windows Phone Store.

Special Enquiry Detail: Engaged to Kill

Immerse yourself in the puzzling unsolved mystery of a serial murderer. You'll help detectives find the evidence that will identify the killer and bring him to justice. Work your way through six thrilling chapters, 44 locations, and 22 mini-game puzzles. Start solving for just $1.99 this week (Windows only).

Back Trainer

The answer to your back pain problems is prevention through strengthening. This Windows app shows you how with detailed illustrations, videos and photos. You'll also be able to learn more about the anatomy of the spine, and the muscles that support it. Start your own back conditioning program this week for $2.49 in the Windows Store.

Check the "Collections" section of the Windows Store every Thursday for new Red Stripe Deals for Windows—and for additional deals in the Windows Phone Store, check this Red Stripe Deals Collection. Note that some apps and sale pricing might not be available in all locations, so check your local listings.

Marmalade SDK 7.3 for Windows platform: new features, free license 5 Jun 2014, 10:51 am

Marmalade, a Windows platform middleware partner, just released a new version of their popular SDK.  The Marmalade SDK enables developers to deploy code across multiple platforms and devices from a single code base. The new 7.3 SDK release brings new capabilities for Windows 8 and 8.1 and Windows Phone 8 across all license types, including Community licenses.  And for new users, the SDK will be available for no license fee. Existing users with Indie, Plus or Pro licenses will get a free upgrade. 

The addition of the Extension Development Kit for Windows Store (both Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 apps), enables developers to access Windows managed and native APIs, plus integration with advertising and social networks.

The prior Marmalade SDK 7.2.1 release provided support for features such as Accelerometer, Audio, Compression, Video, and more. Just a few enhancements in this release include APIs to access:

• Device camera UI and ability to capture frame data
• Device’s magnetic compass reading
• Facebook website via Facebook Connect
• Get the full list here

In addition, this release includes an ads-in-apps extension that support monetization through the Microsoft Advertising SDK or AdDuplex SDK.

Read more about this release, download the SDK and get started today.  

Backup and restore your app on Windows Phone 8.1, Part 1: Start screen 4 Jun 2014, 4:45 pm

This blog was written by Hector Barbera and Sean McKenna, Program Managers, Developer and Ecosystem Platform, Operating Systems Group

Windows Phone 8 introduced backup and restore as a way to ease migration from one Windows Phone to another. Windows Phone 8.1 improves on this by adding critical data sets that weren’t previously backed up, including the user’s Start screen. When the user chooses to restore a Windows Phone 8.1 backup to a new phone (or an existing phone that’s been reset) all the Start screen tiles are restored to their previous position and size.

We expect the majority of apps to work just fine following restore. However, because Windows Phone supports secondary tiles, and those tiles may point to data that no longer exists after restore, there are a few cases that developers need to think about. Let’s talk about those cases and look at ways to deal with them.

Background

When we initially looked at backing up the user’s Start screen, a fundamental question arose very quickly: how do we handle secondary tiles? By definition, primary tiles contain no launch context, so all you need to do to make them functional is to restore the associated app along with the tile’s size and position. Secondary tiles, on the other hand, are more difficult. In some cases, a secondary tile is just a deep-link to a specific page in the app. For instance, a news app might allow the user to create a secondary tile for international news, and assuming the page still exists in the restored app, everything will work fine once the app is reinstalled. However, apps can also create secondary tiles that depend on user-generated data unique to the device, such as a shopping list in a task-management app. That’s when things get interesting!

Ideally, we’d be able to guarantee that all the data associated with secondary tiles would also be backed up and restored, but that’s simply not possible. For a variety of reasons, we decided not to back up app data for apps targeting Windows Phone 8. But even if we had, users still have the option to turn it off without disabling Start screen restore. We could have chosen to simply not restore secondary tiles for Windows Phone Store apps, but this would lead to a poor user experience on a new device. Furthermore, our testing found that most app tiles work fine after restore even if the data wasn’t restored. And because there isn’t a consistent way for the platform to determine whether a particular tile depends on data on the device, we had to choose between restoring everything and restoring nothing.

In the end, we chose to back up just the data that is closely associated with tiles, such as tile properties and images. Having made that call, what makes backup and restore work with local data is you! That is, to create a seamless user experience we’re asking you to ensure that your apps do the right thing following restore.

Under the hood

Tiles and their metadata live in the Package Manager, which is responsible for carrying out app installs, updates, and uninstalls. More importantly for us, it manages the app metadata needed to render the app list and the Start screen.

The Start screen restore feature, or SSR, simply acts as another client of the Package Manager. When a backup is triggered–either an automatic nightly backup or an on-demand backup requested by the user–SSR queries the Package Manager to read all the tile metadata and to locate any images associated with the tile. All this data is then backed up to OneDrive.

During a restore, SSR is invoked during device setup if the user chooses to restore a backed-up image. SSR then retrieves all the Start screen data in the backup, and creates temporary app entries in the Package Manager to store the tiles and their metadata. These temporary entries are placeholders that are shown until the actual app is downloaded and installed; if the user taps on one of them, the system navigates to the download queue in the Windows Phone Store app. The system also keeps an eye on the restore progress: if a placeholder tile has no corresponding app entry in the download queue (for example when the app is not available anymore), that tile is marked with an exclamation mark badge and will show an error message when tapped.

When an app with restored tiles is successfully installed, the Package Manager updates the temporary tiles with the real functional tiles.

Preparing your app for Start screen restore

The key to preparing your app for Start screen restore is to handle navigation requests from restored secondary tiles. This might happen before your app has had the chance to run for the first time and do any required housekeeping.

For example, let's say you have a weather app that lets the user add multiple locations, where weather data for those locations is fetched and cached in a local database. Naturally, the app allows you to pin secondary tiles for each location where the navigation URI for each includes a reference to the location’s ID in the local database, as shown in Figure 1. When the user taps one of these secondary tiles, the app navigates to a page that shows that location’s weather.

Upon restore, the app is reinstalled and all those pinned tiles are recreated on the Start screen. However, it’s possible that none of the other data will come back–perhaps the app is not eligible for data backup or the user disabled it. When launched for the first time on the new device, then, the app will likely query for tiles on the Start screen and try to update them, but will be unable to resolve their location IDs in its (now empty) local database. At this point, the app either leaves the tiles alone or makes them blank as shown in Figure 2. Moreover, if the user taps a secondary tile, there’s the potential for an unhandled exception if the app doesn’t check correctly for invalid location IDs.

At the very least, then, your app needs to gracefully handle invalid navigation URIs, perhaps taking the user to a default page instead. Ideally, the app would recognize an invalid location ID, fetch the appropriate data to populate its local database, and then navigate to that location’s page as expected. The key to doing this seamlessly is to store an identifier in the tile’s navigation URI that’s relevant beyond the lifetime of your local app data. In the case of our weather app, this might be a postcode or a latitude/longitude pair, depending on the search parameters supported by the web service providing our weather data, as shown in Figure 3.

Of course, there will be cases where no amount of advanced planning can overcome the loss of your local app data. Consider an app that relies on user authentication to a cloud service for most of its functionality. If that app creates secondary tiles that navigate to experiences assuming the user is signed in, the app needs to handle the case where credentials are no longer available following restore. Ideally, it would redirect the user to the app’s login page and then navigate to the original experience following sign-in.

The bottom line is that you should never assume that a specific prerequisite has actually occurred when navigating into your app from a secondary tile. Always check for failure cases and handle them gracefully.

How to test your app with Start restore

Having followed our advice here and feeling confident that your app is ready to handle a Start screen restore, how can you test it without submitting an update to the Windows Phone Store and resetting your phone? Fortunately, you can simulate the Start screen restore scenario by clearing your app state and then launching it from secondary tiles:

1. Deploy your app to your developer device or emulator using Visual Studio.

2. Use the app to create any state associated with secondary tiles (log in with credentials, add locations, download content, etc.)

3. Pin every type of secondary tile your app supports.

4. Verify that invoking the app from secondary tiles navigates to the expected location.

5. Close the app.

6. Using the Isolated Storage Explorer tool, clear the local folder of your app. Do this by replacing its local app data with an empty folder as follows, recreating the conditions that follow first installation of the app:

• Using the emulator:
  ISETool.exe rs xd <your app's product ID> <path to an empty folder on your PC>
• Using a physical phone:
  ISETool.exe rs de <your app's product ID> <path to an empty folder on your PC>

7. Launch the app from each pinned secondary tile to make sure the app works and handles any exceptions correctly.

If everything works as expected, you should be good to go.

Final notes

Following a Start screen restore, you might notice that some tiles don’t seem to update until you launch the corresponding app for the first time. In this release, we weren’t able to restore push channels and background task registrations for apps. We debated whether to return secondary tiles to a default state during restore, but decided it was better to make the tiles look like they did before at the risk of having stale data for some time until the user launches the app. As the developer of such an app, make sure you’re refreshing your push channel registrations and background task registrations every time you launch…but you were already doing that, right?

The Start screen is the most distinctive part of the Windows Phone user experience and we’re excited to save user’s customization time when they move to a new device. By doing your part as described in this post, you’ll ensure that your apps pick up right where they left off.