Windows 8.1 Preview, and a cookbook for iOS devs

Today was the first big product launch event I've been to in my new team. The conference rooms were packed as we watched the live keynote stream, with various teams yelling as their feature was highlighted.

Plus there were free donuts.

The Windows 8.1 Preview is now available, and of course, you should be playing with that and the new Visual 2013 Preview too (make sure you update your existing Visual Studio 2012 if you want to use it side-by-side with 2013, by the way).

Got a Mac? Good for you! I do too! Now install a copy of Parallels or VMware, and grab a Windows 8.1 ISO image and install it. Boom - Windows 8 on your MacBook Pro. Just don't touch the screen - it just leaves smears. (Did you see that new Samsung with the ultra-high res screen? I'll have one of those please.)

There's a LOT of new content for developers on the Windows Dev Portal. You might want to start with Windows 8.1 Preview: New APIs and features for developers, which walks through the new stuff. There is also a new blog - The Windows App Builder Blog - which will be essential reading for you.

Last but not least, if you want to know what I've been working on, it's all here - it's a practical collection of stuff for iOS developers who are porting stuff or just investigating Windows 8. We've gone through the new controls, and listed things in terms you feel familiar with. So, if you are comfortable with UIViewController, but a little wary of XAML, we've got your back. Writing code for Windows is not that scary, honestly. And we put lots of videos in there too (and on Channel 9) so you can just sit back and let the knowledge flow over you.

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 28, 2013
  Does Windows 8.1 for certain work with the most recent version of Parallels?  Have you tried it?

• Anonymous
  June 29, 2013
  Yes, I just tried it with the downloaded ISO. Seems fine!