New Additions and cool stuff in Windows Azure Mobile Services
Editor's Note: The original post was written by Nick Harris, Windows Azure Technical Evangelist. Here. I just thought it was too good not to pass on unchanged. 
It’s been less than five months since we introduced the first public preview for Windows Azure Mobile Services and in this short time we have seen continual additions to the Mobile Service offering including:
- SDKs for Windows Store, Windows Phone 8 and iOS apps
- Auth using Microsoft Account, Facebook, Google and Twitter
- Push Notification support via WNS, MPNS and APNS
- Structured storage
- Scheduler to execute tasks on a schedule e.g aggregating feeds, sending notifications, crunching data
- Deployment in North Europe, East and West US datacenters
This post details wealth of new content we have recently released designed to help you get started with Windows Azure Mobile Services including Videos, Code Samples and Tutorials.
New Videos
We recently launched a new Windows Azure Mobile Services series to help people get started with Mobile Services. Through this series you will learn how Mobile Services can:
- Provide turnkey backend solutions that connect your mobile apps to the cloud within minutes
- Store data off device and read it back into your apps
- Add custom business logic utilizing server scripts
- Implement user authentication in your apps using popular social identity providers such as Microsoft Account, Facebook, Twitter and Google.
- Implement Push Notifications in your apps to keep your users up to date with your latest app content
- Execute tasks on a schedule e.g aggregating feeds, sending notifications, crunching data etc.
- Accelerate your mobile app development for Windows Store, Windows Phone 8 and iOS
Here are some quick links to the current videos within the series:
New Code Samples
In addition to the video series, we have released a number of code samples to the MSDN Code Gallery. These samples demonstrate step-by-step how you can use the key functionality available within Windows Azure Mobile Services in your Windows Store apps. Below is a list of the new code samples:
Geolocation sample end to end using Windows Azure Mobile Services (New)
This sample provides an end to end location scenario with a Windows Store app using Bing Maps and a Windows Azure Mobile Services backend. It shows how to add places to the Map, store place coordinates in a Mobile Services table, and how to query for places near your location.
Enqueue and Dequeue messages with Windows Azure Mobile Services and Services Bus (New)
My Store - This sample demonstrates how you can enqueue and dequeue messages from your Windows Store apps into a Windows Azure Service Bus Queue via Windows Azure Mobile Services. This code sample builds out an ordering scenario with both a Sales and Storeroom and app.
Capture, Store and Email app Feedback using Windows Azure Mobile Services (New)
This sample shows how you can implement a Feedback charm option in your Windows Store application and submit the feedback to be both stored Windows Azure Mobile Services and emailed directly to you.
Upload File to Windows Azure Blob Storage using Windows Azure Mobile Services (New)
This demonstrates how to store your files such as images, videos, docs or any binary data off device in the cloud using Windows Azure Blob Storage. In this example we focus on capturing and uploading images, with the same approach you can upload any binary data to Blob Storage.
Create a Game Leaderboard using Windows Azure Mobile Services (New)
The My Trivia sample demonstrates how you can easily add, update and view a leaderboard from your Windows Store applications using Windows Azure Mobile Services.
Event Buddy Sample - Storage, Auth and Push Notifications with Mobile Services (New)
In this sample you will start with a disconnected Windows Store app that manages events & sessions. You will connect it to Windows Azure Mobile Service to provide structured storage, auth using Twitter or Facebook and push notifications.
Authenticate Microsoft Account, Facebook, Twitter and Google w/ Mobile Services (New)
This sample demonstrates how you can easily wire up your Windows Store application to require your users to Authenticate against well know social identity such as Microsoft Account, Facebook, Twitter and Google using Windows Azure Mobile Services.
Tile, Toast and Badge Push Notifications using Windows Azure Mobile Services (New)
This sample demonstrates how you can easily register a channel in Windows Azure Mobile Services and then send different types of push notifications such as tile, toast and badge notifications from a server side script to your client application.
Raw Notifications using Windows Azure Mobile Services (New)
This sample demonstrates how you can easily send Raw push notifications to your Windows Store apps using Windows Azure Mobile Services.
Send Push Notifications at Periodic Interval with the Mobile Services Scheduler (New)
This sample demonstrates how you can offload work from your Windows Store app to be processed on a scheduled basis using Windows Azure Mobile Services. It shows how to create a Scheduled Script that polls a feed and send a Push Notification to update the tile with latest news.
For a full list please see the new Code Sample Page on Windows Azure
Tutorials
There are a number of great step-by-step tutorials that cover Getting Started, Data, Auth, Push Notifications, Services and Tools. We recently added two new tutorials that demonstrate how to:
- Schedule backend jobs using the Mobile Services Scheduler
- Automate mobile services with command-line tools
These tutorials are available for Windows Store, Windows Phone 8, and iOS apps.
I hope this new content combined with our offer of 10 FREE Mobile Services helps get you off to a flying start! That’s all from me for now, if there is new content that you would like to see made available please feel free to reach out to me with your suggestions.
As always, please visit our forum if you have any questions and send any feedback to mobileservices@microsoft.com.