Microsoft updates Kinect SDK beta

Microsoft have pushed out an update to their public beta Kinect SDK, in the form of a "beta refresh". Following on from the huge popularity of the SDK since its release just over a month ago, the community have spoken and Microsoft have responded with this update.

 

Robotics Developer Studio supports .NET 4, Kinect SDK 2

Microsoft has released an update to its Robotics Developer Studio 4 Beta, and among a fair few new features to the system since the last Beta in September, it includes support for the brand new Kinect for Windows SDK.
“There has been tremendous excitement with Microsoft Kinect within the robotics space signaling the potential opportunities that exist in transforming robots to low-cost mainstream consumer devices” wrote the team. “With support from the Kinect sensor, [Robotics Studio] aims to make it easier for developers to build applications, including those directed at personal robotics and consumer scenarios, both in hardware and in simulation.”

 

‘Google co-founder tests Google glasses in subway‘ 

 

Yahoo! buys scrapbook website Snip.it 

Yahoo! confirmed Tuesday that it bought Snip.it, a young San Francisco startup that lets people create scrapbooks with pictures, articles, videos and other content found online.
"The Snip.it team created an innovative technology that lets people share content in a social and fun way," Yahoo! vice president of product Mike Kerns said in a statement emailed to AFP. 

Google announces redesigned, faster image search 

Search giant Google has revamped its image search feature. In a blog post, company's associate product manager, Hongyi Li, said that based on feedback from both users and webmasters, the company has redesigned Google Images.
The revamped Google Images page will be faster and more reliable than the current version, claims the post. The images will soon be displayed in an inline panel and will be accompanied by the associated metadata and key information. 

Windows Azure may be the overall platform for Microsoft's cloud services, but SQL Data Services (SDS) is the new name for the repository it will be based upon. Dave Campbell, a Microsoft technical fellow, is leading the SDS effort.

Windows Azure may be the overall platform for Microsoft's cloud services, but SQL Data Services (SDS) is the new name for the repository it will be based upon. Dave Campbell, a Microsoft technical fellow, is leading the SDS effort.

Hands On With Microsoft‘s Impressive Surface Pro Tablet

For several months now, Microsoft's Surface RT has stood as an example of Microsoft's commitment to the concept of a Windows tablet.
But in the next few weeks, Microsoft will begin shipping the full-fledged Windows 8 version of the device (officially known as Surface with Windows 8 Pro, and priced at $899) offering improved performance as well as full-fledged Windows 8 compatibility and functionality. ReadWrite received a behind-the-scenes look at the new tablet at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Building F# apps under Linux and OS X just got a lot easier:

It’s all been happening in the world of F# in the past couple of weeks. Earlier in the month Microsoft announced the open-source availability of the F# compiler and core library source code. Late last week, Miguel de Icaza of the Mono project (which ports .NET languages to run on Linux, OS X, and other platforms) informed developers that they expect to be able to bring F# to many of the Mono platforms following the previous announcement.

Windows Phone developers get new tools for building mobile apps

Another trick has been added to the Windows Phone 7 developer’s kit with the release of the Microsoft Visual Basic CTP for Windows Phone Developer Tools.
The VB for Windows Phone tools allow developers to write Windows Phone 7 applications using the Visual Basic language as opposed to C# which was the only language previously available. The toolkit release includes all of the components required to get this up and running, including project templates, item templates, designer and emulator support, intellisense and debugging.

New Browsers - Firefox 18 And Chrome 24 release

Pit - F# to JavaScript Compiler

Pit is a new open source project that compiles F# to JavaScript.
JavaScript is doing so many amazing things that you have to treat it as a first class high-level language, but for many programmings the idea that it is the new assembler is still sinking in

Minification and Bundling of CSS and JavaScript Files ASP.NET

Minification can be applied to both CSS and JavaScript files and it simply involves removing any unnecessary whitespace within the code. It might also involve trimming long variable and method names. However, your code will still run exactly as intended, but, due to the fact that it has been drastically reduced in size, it will run a lot faster. It is important to understand that, while humans might struggle to read this minified code, the browser will have no trouble at all processing the code. This is a necessary evil because the removal of whitespace and the obfuscation that needs to take place will ultimately help the file load faster. The built-in support for minification that comes with Visual Studio 2012 is also intelligent enough that, while you are in development, you will be able to see the full, un-minified code. When you run your website in release mode, the code will automatically get minified on the fly for you.

Bundling CSS and JavaScript is an effective way to reduce the number of HTTP requests that a web page needs to make. The more HTTP requests that a browser needs to make, the longer it takes for a web page to load. This is because each HTTP requests takes time and, quite often, your browser will only be able to download a certain number of files in parallel. By combining all JavaScript files into a single script and similarly combining all CSS into a single StyleSheet, you can severely reduce the number of HTTP requests that your web page makes. For example, if there are two CSS files on a webpage, simply by combining the two files into one you are effectively reducing the number of HTTP requests that a browser needs to make from 2 to 1. There is no reason why combining two JavaScript files together into one should stop them from working just as effectively as if they were two separate files.

Five Awesome Tools Improving Website Development Procedures:

The Firebug:If you are into computer technology then you must have heard the name of Firebug. It is a very crucial and probably the most popular tool for web development. Interestingly, this important tool can be downloaded free from the internet. The various functions performed by this tool are analyzing of web pages, debugging and testing them. As a result the whole procedure of be development becomes considerably simpler. With the help of the Network tab of the Firebug tool, one would be allowed to inspect the CSS, JS, HTML, XHR and JS components. YSlow:One would find YSlow with the Firebug. This tool is used to rank the website through an evaluation process, which is done keeping the high performance websites as a par. The yahoo Developer Network details out these websites. Every single rule in the list has an alphabet between A-F assigned to it. Through these one would get an idea of how to rank a website on the front-end performances. Moreover, you would also get to have an idea of the areas where you need to make improvements like using CDN, to make as few HTTP requests as possible and compress the external JAVA Script. IBM Page Detailer:With this tool, you would be able to analyze each of the web components, which is being downloaded at that very instance. Since this tool would stick to the browser, all you need to do is get into the IBM Page Detailer and navigate to the website you need to. The moment you would be clicking on the component on the website’s page, a slide window will be opened and the component’s entire requisite details would be listed in there. Now, when the process starts on the page, a window will be opened where the information about the process would be obtained. Fiddler 2:This is a tool used for debugging. It is based on HTML and thus one would be able to scrutinize both outgoing as well as incoming traffic to a website. With its awesome debugging features Fiddler 2 can be used as par the requirements of the customers. however, it would be wise to go through the guide which MSDN has issued, prior to using this tool. Each and every feature and function of this tool is discussed in this guide. Moreover, various tips on improving the performance like creating custom flags for the need of dealing with a critical issues etc. Cuzillion:This is one high-performance tool, which helps in tracing how several web page elements mane mutual interactions. Updated and modified web pages are checked and tested with the help of this tool. This is an important step before you zero upon the final look of your website. In addition to this, one would also get some useful suggestion on troubleshooting and some miscellaneous tips to help in the improvement of the website’s performance.

TIL power rangers created the Google chrome symbol

Microsoft releases Silverlight 2:

Silverlight 2 is to launch tomorrow, bringing the .NET framework to the browser and a much improved feature-set over its initial release. Developers can now write Silverlight applications using any .NET language (including VB, C#, JavaScript, IronPython and IronRuby), thanks to the inclusion of a stripped down version of the .NET framework. Also included are a much wider range of built-in controls including data grids and list boxes, and rich networking support including REST, WS*/SOAP and raw socket support.

Windows Phone developers get new tools for building mobile apps

Another trick has been added to the Windows Phone 7 developer’s kit with the release of the Microsoft Visual Basic CTP for Windows Phone Developer Tools.

F# compiler and core library now open source

Early this morning Microsoft made available a package of compiler and library source code for F#. F# is a functional programming language that runs on the .NET framework. While it is not as mature as C# or VB, the languages more often used to build for .NET, it has progressed quickly and is extremely popular in development environments where functional paradigms have been traditional, for example banking and finance.

Mono for Android preview arrives, get .NET on your Android

A preview program for Mono for Android has just opened up, allowing developers interested in getting .NET running on Android-powered smartphones an opportunity to take it for a spin.

Microsoft wraps WPC by committing to the cloud

Microsoft have been rounding off their Worldwide Partner Conference in the US with a review of where Microsoft will be focussing their business software on going forwards – and it’s all looking up (at the Cloud).