We just completed Build 2014 last week, and what a show! Between extensive keynotes packed with many important announcements, over 150 breakout sessions, and the channel9 live recordings from the show floor itself, there’s much to digest!
Throughout April, then, we’ll help you navigate all the content that’s now available on channel9 at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2014. We’ll do this by sorting sessions into related groups so you can more easily find those that are most important for your development work.
This week we’ll recap the keynotes, sessions related to the newly-announced Windows Phone 8.1, and sessions that cover how Windows is now spanning a variety of devices, including Xbox One.
Here’s a quick rundown of what you’ll find in the keynote sessions. We’ve included time signatures for the different speakers and segments so you don’t have to watch all six hours to find what you want to see most! (Note: the segment links below take you directly to the indicated start time in the video.)
Day 1 Keynote
Terry Myerson– Introduction (00:00:00)
Joe Belfiore– Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Update
o Windows Phone 8.1 Launch (00:03:43)
o Cortana Digital Assistant (00:11:51)
o Windows Phone for Businesses (00:35:49)
o Additional Windows Phone 8.1 features (00:41:55)
o Windows 8.1 Update (00:54:53)
David Treadwell– Developer Update
o Introduction (01:04:20)
o Universal apps for Windows (01:08:49)
o New platform features/preserving your investments including enterprise and desktop (01:31:23)
o Cross platform apps, WinJS open source, and availability announcements (01:41:19)
Terry Myerson - Futures
o Xbox (01:50:22)
o Internet of Things (02:03:16)
o Platform roadmap (02:08:44)
Stephen Elop - Nokia devices (02:14:29)
Satya Nadella– Insights and developer Q&A (02:35:35)
Day 2 Keynote
Scott Guthrie - Azure
o Overview (00:00:00)
o IaaS Features: VMs, Storage, Networking (00:10:33)
o Web (00:28:50)
o Mobile Services, Active Directory, Notification Hubs (00:45:29)
Anders Hejlsberg - Programming languages and tools, including C#/Roslyn open source (01:09:52)
Bill Staples– Azure portal and Scott Guthrie wrap-up on Azure features (01:24:33)
Steve Guggenheimer and John Shewchuk– Developer conversations and cool demos
o Overview (01:49:28)
o Supporting existing technology investments including desktop, WPF, and embedded (01:54:33)
o Cloud and mobile first development (02:04:18)
o Maximizing business opportunities across platforms (02:27:38)
One of our major goals with Build 2014 was to present universal apps for Windows, the ability for you to target Windows and Windows Phone together with a large percentage of shared code. Here are core sessions for universal apps:
- 2-507 – Developing Apps using the Common XAML UI Framework
- 3-591 – Using Visual Studio to Build XAML Converged Apps
- 2-540 – Building a Converged Phone and PC App using HTML and JavaScript
- 2-586 – Strategies for Developing Cross-Device Applications with Visual Studio 2013
- 9-001 – What’s New for Windows and Windows Phone Developers
- 9-002 – Developing for Windows Phone and Windows
The following sessions then go into specific areas of the common platform:
- 3-541 – From 4 to 40 inches: Developing Windows Applications across Multiple Form Factors
- 2-522 – Dealing with Data: Storage, Roaming, and Backup on Windows and Windows Phone
- 2-544 – The Story of Bing Apps: Delight Across Multiple Form Factors
- 2-543 – Apps without Borders – Winning Globally with the Windows Platform
- 2-640 – App Packaging and Deployment for Windows Devices
- 2-520 – Contracts and Pickers: Building Apps that Work Together on Windows
- 2-521 – Notification Platform Development on Windows
- 2-525 – Modern Camera and Imaging Apps in Windows and Windows Phone:
- 2-526 – Building Geo-Aware Apps with Maps and Geofencing
With the announcement of Windows Phone 8.1 at //build, we also presented a number of sessions specifically for Phone developers or targeting Phone-specific features:
- 2-509 – The New Windows Phone Application Model
- 2-550 – Windows Runtime for Windows Phone Developers
- 3-542 – Managing Resource Constraints on Windows Phone
- 2-518 – Multitasking and Triggered Background Tasks for Windows Phone Apps
- 2-519 – Building Great Bluetooth Apps for Windows Phone
- 2-523 – Live Tiles Enhancements
- 2-529 – Sensors Platform Enhancements in Windows Phone
- 2-531 – New Security Features for Windows Phone
- 2-533 – New Integration Opportunities with Wallet on Windows Phone
- 2-555 – The New Video Editing APIs for Windows Phone: Windows.Media.Editing
- 2-566 – User Data Management in Windows Phone
- 2-659 – Extend your Windows Apps with Nokia SDKs
- 2-517 – What’s New with Windows Phone Silverlight Apps!
Of course, let’s not forget about Cortana, the new digital assistant of Windows Phone 8.1. Beyond Joe’s segment of the keynote, you’ll want to watch 2-530 – Integrating Your App into the Windows Phone Speech Experience, and might also be interested in 9-018 – How the Bing Platform Powers Cortana and 9-2663 – Cortana Contextual Awareness.
Similarly, a number of tools and services sessions, including coverage of Azure Mobile Services and Application Insights, are relevant to a wide variety of apps:
- 9-008 – Visual Studio and .NET Overview
- 4-557 – How to Analyze Performance Issues in Your Windows and Windows Phone Apps
- 3-657 – Avoiding Windows Store App Failures
- 2-616 – Mobile Push Notifications to Any Client with Azure Notification Hubs
- 3-620 – Scheduling Jobs in the Cloud with the Azure Scheduler Service
- 3-623 – Powerful Mobile Apps with Mobile Services and ASP.NET Web API
- 3-653 – Go Mobile with C# and Xamarin
- 3-597 – Gain Early Warning of Performance Issues and Failures, and Pinpoint the Cause with Application Insights
- 2-654 – Creating Engaging Windows Store Apps with the Bing Platform
- 2-656 – Take Your Solution Worldwide from the Start with Bing Translator
Finally, the Xbox One team also contributed to the story, with sessions that show how you’ll be increasingly able to leverage work on Windows and Windows Phone, using JavaScript, along with sessions on Kinect and SmartGlass:
- 2-649 – Building Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox One Apps with HTML/JS/CSS & C++
- 2-651 – Understanding the Xbox One Game Platform Built on Windows
- 3-648 – Leveraging Windows Features to Build Xbox One App Experiences
- 2-647 – Building Xbox One Apps using HTML and JavaScript
- 2-514 – Kinect 101: Introduction to Kinect for Windows
- 2-532 – Bringing Kinect into Your Windows Store App
- 2-637 – Extending Xbox Experiences to Devices (SmartGlass)
That’s plenty for now. Next week we’ll look at sessions for enterprise, XAML, and IE/JavaScript/web apps.
The Build Planning Team
P.S. What did you think of the Build 2014 content? What were your favorite sessions? What did you want to see but didn’t? Leave us your feedback in the comments here, and also leave session-specific feedback on the channel9 page for that session. We do read and care about your input!