The Microsoft Interoperability Technical Strategy team announced a new set of tools based on Eclipse and updated client libraries (SDK) for Windows Azure at Professional Developers Conference 2010 (PDC 10).

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As you ready your Windows Phone 7 app for submission, check out these top seven tips to help your app sail through certification testing the first time.

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On November 3, Windows Phone 7 app submission will be open to all registered Windows Phone Marketplace developers.

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Microsoft Platform Ready Test Tool delivers a simple, self-service way for software publishers to quickly verify application compatibility, fix errors, and receive benefits for innovating on the latest Microsoft platform technologies. Passing the test helps you meet requirements for Microsoft Partner Network ISV Competency.

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I saw this posted yesterday and wanted to spread the word. This book is a gift from the Windows Phone 7 team to the programming community.  To learn more about the book please visit this link . 

During the keynote address at Developers Conference (PDC), Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Server and Tools Business President Bob Muglia showed how the company is advancing the Microsoft platform, spanning the PC, phone and cloud. Microsoft specifically highlighted the momentum of Windows Azure, Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 and Windows Phone 7 and the opportunity for developers today and in the future.

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At the Professional Developers Conference (PDC), Microsoft underscored its continued commitment to HTML5 and showed how developers can fuse the full hardware acceleration and site-centric design in Internet Explorer 9 to tap into the power of PC hardware, transforming their websites to feel more like native Windows applications.

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At the Professional Developers Conference (PDC), Microsoft is announcing a host of new enhancements and services that make it easier to move to platform as a service, to enhance current applications and workloads, and to transform applications to take full advantage of the underlying platform.

These include Virtual Machine Role for Windows Azure, SQL Azure Reporting, Windows Azure Marketplace, Team Foundation System on Azure, AppFabric Caching, more control over IIS and elevation of privileges, improved support for Java apps, numerous improvements in the development experience, and a new offering for Microsoft Partners.

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The Windows Azure Platform benefits offered as part your MSDN subscription have been extended from 8 months to 16 months. In addition new Azure benefits have been announced.

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The WP Developer Tools October update is available here on the Microsoft Download Center . This October 2010 release provides: Updated Bing Maps Control that improves map performance during user gestures Capability Detection tool, which scans your application and reports on detected phone capabilities which will be applied during ingestion to marketplace. Visit this link on MSDN to learn more The WP Connect utility, which enables creating a connection between the Phone and your PC without require...

Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac is the tool you need to sync your favorite music, photos and videos, movies and TV shows, and podcasts from your Mac to your Windows Phone 7 device. You can also sync photos and videos you captured on your phone with your Mac, and when needed, update your Windows Phone 7 software. You can download the beta here . Supported OS: Apple OSX 10.5 and above

Improve the efficiency and availability of IT resources and applications with the new virtualization innovations provided in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 RC. Dynamic Memory and Microsoft RemoteFX TM , to help businesses further optimize their datacenter and desktops. Dynamic Memory lets Hyper-V administrators pool available memory on a physical host and dynamically distribute it to any virtual machine(s) running on that host. RemoteFX lets Windows Server 2008 R2 administrators...

Watch PDC Live - October 28 & 29 at 9am PT This year’s groundbreaking PDC event will include live streaming of the keynotes, as well as concurrent live streaming of sessions. If you can’t join the live stream, you can still watch the video on-demand, or download all the content within 24 hours of live recording. The online event is free; no registration is required to join the live or on-demand stream. The PDC Session Guide is now available - add sessions to your calendar and plan your PDC10...

MSDEV has put together a set of free developer training videos on Windows Azure development and includes updates that have been coming out on the platform in the past several months. Each video is about 15 minutes.

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This video introduces programmers who are familiar with using the Android Development Tools (ADT) with Eclipse to Visual Studio 2010, which is the recommended IDE for creating Windows Phone 7 applications.

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If you’re an iPhone developer accustomed to working with Xcode and Interface Builder, check out this video where you’ll find all about the tools for developing Windows Phone 7 apps! You’ll learn the fundamentals of Visual Studio 2010, the Windows Phone emulator and Microsoft Expression Blend for Windows Phone.

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The Underground powered by PDC10 is one of the hottest events of the year. Sponsored by Microsoft, this year’s event is focused on the Southern California technology and startup community. The event is on Tuesday, November 9 from 6:00PM-10:00PM at Club Nokia at LA Live. The night will open with a highly anticipated Q & A session with tech luminaries Dan’l Lewin , CVP for Strategic and Emerging Business Development at Microsoft and Blake Irving, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer...

The Windows 7 Team Blog reports today that more than 240 million licenses of Windows 7 have been sold. Windows 7 is the fastest selling operating system in history. As of September, Windows 7 was running on 93% of new consumer PCs and has over 17% global OS market share (according to Net Applications as of October 1st).

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Missed your opportunity to attend PDC10 in Redmond? If so, you can still join in on the excitement via the live stream and in-person delivered sessions.  Attend this October 28th event at the Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus - this year’s content will focus on the next generation of Cloud Services, client & devices, and framework & tools. You can get the highlights of PDC without heading to Redmond.  Welcome keynote by Dan’l Lewin (CVP, Strategic and Emerging Business Development...

One issue customers have had in the past is that they would exceed their predefined limits on Windows Azure Platform without notification (especially when using MSDN offerings and such).  Now we have a way to notify you. 

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Office 365, the next major update to Microsoft Online Services, was announced today.  Office 365 includes new versions of SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online (each based on the 2010 versions of those servers) as well as Office Professional Plus 2010 as part of the subscription.

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We have just released a full online (and downloadable) training kit for Windows Server AppFabric.  This kit is comprised of the 4-day technical training course that explains all about the new capabilities in Windows Server AppFabric.  It includes the lab exercises and the full HD streaming of recordings of an actual delivery of the class.   

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Windows Phone 7 gives you the power to build complex, robust applications using consistent hardware specs, a comprehensive development toolkit, and the all-new, full-service Marketplace for selling your apps. To celebrate, we’re launching two days of fast-paced learning that will help you stake your claim in this exciting new frontier. The first day kicks off with a Keynote from Mark Hindsbo, Vice President of Microsoft’s Developer & Platform Evangelism Group in the US. Then we’ll take you inside...

New integration between Quark Publishing System with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 supports knowledge workers and creative departments what want to collaborate within one system to create, edit, revise, and publish brand-compliant, cross-media marketing communications. A new Channel 9 video describes the product and the challenges the team faced in developing the application

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App Hub is now the single place where Windows Phone and Xbox LIVE Indie Games developers can register; find development tools, support and resources; and submit and manage their apps for Windows Phone and Xbox LIVE. Every Windows Phone 7 customer will get all of their apps and games from the Marketplace Hub on their phone and from the desktop Zune software . App Hub is another step of making it easier for you to create and distribute great apps and games across Windows Phone, Xbox 360, PC and the...