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Microsoft pushes universal apps that run on everything Windows
Crafting a seriously great app experience for one device is hard enough, but these days developers have plenty of form factors to tackle. Microsoft is trying to ease their suffering a bit with the introduction of universal Windows apps, which just took the stage at the company's Build conference in San Francisco. Long story short, you'd theoretically only have to write an app in Visual Studio once. Most of the code (in the language of your choosing, Microsoft insists) remains the same, but that universal app will take on a different appearance depending on what device it's running on. Well, if you want it to, anyway. Naturally, developers can fine-tune the finished product too, so the experience of using the app on Windows Phone feels as polished as it does on a PC. You'd be forgiven for thinking this is a bit on the dry side, but this is a big deal -- Microsoft is trying to break down the app barrier so devs can make more consistently good apps for us faster.
SkyDrive brings offline file access in Windows 8.1 update
Tired of needing the pesky internet for all your cloud-related, Microsoft-hosted files? Tire no more, as SkyDrive in Windows 8.1 adds the ability to make files available offline across your SkyDrive-enabled devices by simply clicking a button. After enabling said functionality, those files will become available across your devices even when you're away from the information superhighway (perhaps in the rural roads of Maine, per our recent experiences). We took a deep dive into Windows 8.1 in late June, exploring the SkyDrive functionality as well as a whole mess of other features -- you can find that piece right here. Windows 8.1 will arrive for the Windows 8 loyalists in the coming months (starting in August), but a preview version is available right now.
Microsoft Build 2013 opening keynote liveblog!
Hello, and welcome to sunny San Franciscso where Microsoft is about to kick off its annual Build developer conference. We already know today is the day Windows 8.1 becomes available as a public preview, and the execs in Redmond have hinted they have even more to share about the big OS update. But what else? Will those rumors of WebGL support for IE11 come to fruition? And how 'bout some news indie gaming developers can use? We'll be giving you the blow by blow, starting around 12PM ET today. Stay tuned! June 26, 2013 12:00:00 PM EDT
