My team was involved with a great project this week. That project was to stream a live event on one of our sites. In fact, the event is streaming live at www.DevX.com/RIA as I write this blog entry.
You might think this headline is a joke, but it's not. Microsoft presented what equates to a forty inch tablet PC at the CES convention last week. Many have commented on Microsoft entering the tablet market with Windows 7 Tablets. There have been questions on whether Microsoft can deliver a computing device that doesn't have a keyboard or require a pen. After all, Windows 7's touch features are okay, but when combined with small controls in Windows 7, they aren't always the easiest to use without reaching for the mouse.
I believe the technology winner for 2010 was Cloud Computing. Over the course of 2010 delivery of Cloud-based products heated up and made a mark in the market. This started with releases such as Microsoft's Azure and continued throughout the year with nearly every major vendor releasing products or strategies. 2010, however, is over and we are in a new year.
For online applications, having an API should simply be a part of doing business. This week I attended CloudStock where in one of the sessions John Musser talked about the change in perception that has occurred with APIs. I wrote a quick article that is published on DevX. To learn some of the benefits of creating APIs as well as discover tips for building the best APIs, read my article The Rise of APIs - Lessons from the CloudStock Conference.
Microsoft has reported the availability of Visual Basic for Windows Phone Developer Tools. Visual Basic developers no longer have to wait to start building WP7 applications using Visual Basic! You can tap into the trial version of the tools now.
Just ask Forrester, and they'll tell you that the data reveals that Java is still firmly planted in enterprise IT shops for custom-developed applications. Forrester asked software decision makers the question, "For custom-developed applications, which development platforms does your company use?" The answers were as follows:
