Last week at its ‘build’ technology conference Microsoft unveiled more technology and innovations that help every developer easily and simply build intelligent apps and services.
Skype me, baby: The new Skype for Business App SDK and Skype Web SDK enable companies to integrate Skype calls directly within their Web or device offering.
Skype Bot Portal for developers – join and gain access to new Skype Bot API and Skype Bot SDK.
Windows 10 Anniversary Update brings new innovations including Windows Hello for apps and Microsoft Edge, Windows Ink to share your analog thoughts in the digital world, Cortana going proactive and reaching beyond the lock screen, and gaming getting better with Cortana coming to Xbox One.
Windows 10 has support for Bash with Ubuntu user mode. Developers can get native access to some of the tools and open source frameworks only available on Linux through the Windows Subsystem for Linux
With Xbox Dev Mode, developers of all sizes can unlock their retail Xbox One to build and test Universal Windows Platform apps and games. Xbox Dev Mode is available in a preview environmentNickelodeon. NASCAR and Hulu all announced plans to bring Windows 10 Universal Windows Apps to Xbox One later this year.
Newly introduced Microsoft Bot Framework can be used by developers, programming in any language, to build intelligent bots to interact with customers using natural language on social platforms.
Vuforia announced support of their Augmented Reality SDK for Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform and showed how it will work on Microsoft HoloLens.
Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition shipped
The developer portal for Office 365 Connectors is now available for developers to write and to publish their own connectors, to deliver relevant content, such as updates on financial records or helpdesk logs, from popular apps and services directly into Office 365 Groups conversations.
Six new APIs for the Microsoft Graph link Office 365 data to third-party solutions. Develop, smarter, more contextually aware apps.
Microsoft Cognitive Services, a collection of intelligence APIs that enable systems to: see, hear, speak, understand and interpret our needs using natural methods of communication, was unveiled.
The Internet of Things : A collaboration between the Quest Institute and Microsoft delivered the first Windows IoT implementation in space. Students from San Jose’s Valley Christian Schools showed off an experiment that will run on the International Space Station.
Power BI Embedded. Fully embed interactive reports and visualizations in any customer-facing application, on any device
Azure services and solutions to build for the cloud of tomorrow, including Azure Service Fabric, Azure Functions and new Azure IoT Starter Kits for anyone with Windows or Linux experience to quickly and inexpensively build IoT prototypes.
For customers who already use Word, Excel and PowerPoint, it’ll be easier to reach to create the tabs and buttons found in those apps’ ribbons. One example: Starbucks is developing an Outlook add-in so that its customers can send gift cards within Outlook and schedule meetings at nearby Starbucks locations.
As mentioned in my last post Xamarin’s cross-platform development will be available as part of Visual Studio Community for free, and Xamarin Studio for OS X will also be available for free as a Community Edition
Looking ahead – Seeing AI, an app under development that helps people who are visually impaired or blind to better understand who and what is around them.
