Several announced were made about SQL Azure at TechEd North America this week.

Microsoft announced it will offer spatial data support and access to 50GB of SQL Azure Database capacity allowing for higher scalability, flexibility and easier management of applications and services. Further enhancements to management capabilities include the public preview of SQL Azure Data Sync Service, which provides more flexible control over where and how data is distributed and synced across multiple datacenters, and Microsoft SQL Server Web Manager, a lightweight and easy to use tool to help develop, deploy, and manage data-driven applications on the cloud.

Here’s some more details.

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Microsoft is making several announcements at TechEd this week that developers should be sure to catch, like the introduction of our new Windows Phone Marketplace policies . We’re also providing more details about some developer features, one of which I think is worth exploring more closely; private beta distribution through Windows Phone Marketplace . Windows Phone 7 Private Test Distribution The public model enables developers to market and distribute applications to all phone users globally or...

Repost from Paul Andrews' blog : We completed and published the SharePoint VSeWSS Import tool . This tool is an add-in to Visual Studio 2010 and it adds a new SharePoint project template for importing a VSeWSS project. VSeWSS or the Visual Studio 2008 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services are the Microsoft tools for creating SharePoint 2007 projects on Visual Studio 2008. In Visual Studio 2010 we have built in tools for creating SharePoint 2010 projects. This import tool takes a VSeWSS...

New Windows Server 2008 R2 Developer Training Kit are available on MSDN Code Gallery as hands-on-labs specializes in parallel computing.

Sample are now available on MSDN Code Gallery (hands-on-labs).

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Changes are being made as the Microsoft Partner Program completes its evolution to the Microsoft Partner Network in October 2010. Beginning in October, the Certified and Gold Certified Partner designations will be retired. In their place will be Communities, Partner Competencies and Subscriptions.

This blog post summarizes the changes for ISVs. Get details about the changes at Prepare for Upcoming Changes to the Microsoft Partner Network on the Microsoft Partner Network site.

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A new beta shows off new Home & Hub pages for MSDN. The focus is to build a better developer on-ramps for each platform with several important realizations in mind.

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This five part video series chronicles the migration of the MSDEV Web sites from a traditional, third party hosted, terrestrial infrastructure, to its new home in the cloud using Windows Azure. See this real world project through the eyes of the MSDEV team and their partners at Slalom Consulting as they take you through the process from planning to completion. The series is available at msdev Cloud Migration . Episode 1. Planning. MSDEV team members discuss the reasoning behind moving the msdev...

Episode7 is now available! In episode 7 I cover the Developer Dashboard.  I’ll show you how to turn it on and off for your site, as well as at the page level.  I also show how you can add code to your projects that exposes information through the Developer Dashboard to make troubleshooting issues easier. What's New: SharePoint 2010 is a series of screencasts centered on what is new in SharePoint 2010 for developers. My goal is to highlight a majority of the major new features that are of...

New pricing was announced at Tech-Ed for pricing of SQL Azure.

SQL Azure today offers two editions with a ceiling of 1GB for web edition and 10GB for business edition. With our next service release. Ceiling sizes for both web and business editions will increase 5x.

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This series of Web seminars and labs from MSDEV is designed to quickly guide PHP developers on how to work with Windows Azure. You’ll learn the essential concepts of the Windows Azure Platform, and then you’ll learn how to use some of the Azure services from PHP and deploy your PHP applications to Azure.

See the videos and download the labs and source code at PHP and the Windows Azure Platform.

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As of October 22, 2010,OEMs will no longer pre-install Windows XP Home on new netbook PCs. You probably won’t notice because most hardware manufacturers already ship Windows 7

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Microsoft's new Envisioning Lab shows off technology that provides a vision into the future.

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The Windows Azure Platform Training Kit has been updated. The kit includes a comprehensive set of technical content including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Windows Azure platform including: Windows Azure, SQL Azure and AppFabric. The June release includes new and updated labs for Visual Studio 2010.

Get the kit from Microsoft Download at Windows Azure Platform Training Kit - June Update.

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Episode 6 is now available! In episode 6 I cover using the Word Automation Services to convert files as they are dropped into a document library.  For this demo I’ve chosen to use a workflow associated with the document library and have the code convert the document to a PDF and save it to a different document library, something you may need to do for compliance reasons. What's New: SharePoint 2010 is a series of screencasts centered on what is new in SharePoint 2010 for developers. My goal...

Episode 5 is now available! In episode 5 I cover searching external data sources using the Business Connectivity Service (BCS).  What's New: SharePoint 2010 is a series of screencasts centered on what is new in SharePoint 2010 for developers. My goal is to highlight a majority of the major new features that are of interest to developers and help you get started building solutions on those features.  What better place to start that at the beginning, building your dev box.   Episode...

SQL Azure Service Update 3 has arrived in six datacenters worldwide, including data centers in East Asia and Western Europe. The update and is now available with the promised new features, such as: 50 GB Database Support – You can now store even more data in a single SQL Azure database as the database size has been increased to 50 GB. Spatial Data Support - SQL Azure now offers support for the Geography and Geometry types as well as spatial query support via T-SQL. HierarchyID Data Type Support ...

Recently I sat down with John Wethington, Sr. Account Engineer with BinaryTree via Live Meeting. During our discussion we talked about BinaryTree’s SharePoint 2010 offering, CMT for SharePoint. CMT for SharePoint is a tool that allows you to easily migrate your existing Domino applications over to SharePoint. John was also kind enough to give a thorough demonstration of the product in action. Video: John Wiese Talks with John Wethington, Sr. Account Engineer from BinaryTree about their Domino...

Please join us in Washington, D.C to hear the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference Guest Speaker President Bill Clinton, Founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the United States on Wednesday July 14. He's speaking on In addition to this fantastic reason to attend the conference this year, you won’t want to miss the following tracks, which will provide insight into Microsoft's vision and product roadmap.

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Recently I sat down with John Challis, CEO of Concept Searching via Live Meeting.  During our disucssion we talked about Concept Searchings SharePoint 2010 product, migrating from 2007 and taking advantage of new SharePoint 2010 features.  John Challis also gives us a short demo of their concept Classifier product. conceptClassifier for SharePoint is the only SharePoint solution that delivers automatic identification and extraction of concepts from within content as it is created or ingested...

Pervasive Software(R) Inc. ( NASDAQ: PVSW ), a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and recent “ Best of SaaS Showplace ” award winner, enables the integration and connectivity to the Open Data Protocol (OData) using the Microsoft Dynamics certified Pervasive Data Integrator ™. Pervasive Data Integrator Universal CONNECT! has an unparalleled range of connectivity and integration capabilities to a variety of on-premises, on-demand and cloud-based applications and sources, including the...

Video Link - http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/jodonnell/Enterprise-mobility-with-Windows-Embedded-Handheld/ On June 17th at a joint press conference with Steve Ballmer and Motorola , we announced a new software platform called Windows Embedded Handheld. This platform is designed to deliver a mobile operating system to meet line of business scenarios in the enterprise. I talked with Rene Bernier, account manager for Motorola to get his take on what this means for our mobile partners and where this...

Learn Windows Azure at your own pace, in your own time and without travel headaches. Windows Azure one week pass is provided so you can put Windows Azure and SQL Azure through their paces. NO credit card required. You can start Virtual Boot Camp VI any time during June 14 and June 21 and work at your own pace.

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ISV Architect Evangelist Patrick Foley talks with Dewey Hou and Dean Craven from TechSmith about how TechSmith uses Windows 7 jump lists and task bar progress in Camtasia Studio, the popular screen recording and production software. Snagit, and Morae are also discussed, along with what to expect next from TechSmith.

ISV Video: TechSmith Lights Up Windows 7

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Recently I sat down with Jim Brown, Manager – Solution Center for Equaterra, via live meeting to discuss their SharePoint 2010 offering “Equaterra Direct”.  Equaterra Direct makes extensive use of the Business Connectivity Services to bring data from external systems into SharePoint.  Jim also shared a short demo of the product during our discussion.   Video: John Wiese Talks with Jim Brown, Manager of Equaterra's Solution Center about their SharePoint 2010 Offering   John Wiese...

We had a great time at 2 nd xRM Acceleration Lab in Redmond, WA during the week of 24 th May 2010. 9 ISVs built their solution prototypes using Dynamics CRM “5” xRM Framework. Few teams opted to record Video interviews. Enjoy the following videos: ISV Video Interview Aplicor Hyland Software Lattice Engines Simplifi Sanjay Jain ISV Architect...