KYM PHILLPOTTS
Happy New Year
Happy New Year everyone! Hopefully you've all had a relaxing break and are ready for an energized year ahead. In this issue, we have a look back at some best of lists and also check out the new links over the past week.
And whilst most of us have been on holidays - spare a thought for the poor IT Pro peeps, who's week has looked like this
NEWS
Unifying iOS and MacOS?
Rumour has it that Apple is planning on merging iOS and MacOS frameworks to make it easier to write apps that run on both platforms. UWP for Mac anyone?
DEVOPS
App Center: Show BuildID on iOS App
If you are using AppCenter then you might want to show your build number within your application UI - Divikiran shows as one technique to get this done.
TOOLS
Using Xamarin Live Player with Kindle Fire
Andrew Hoefling provides a workaround for using the Xamarin Live Player with Kindle Fire.
MFractor XAML Intellisense
If you haven't got into MFractor yet, you owe it to yourself to give it a spin. Now there is awesome support for XAML Intellisense.
ANDROID
Android Emulator - Quick Boot
The Android Emulator is the bane of my existence. John Douglas discusses the new quick boot feature of 27.0.2.
Android O Emulators and latest Android SDK tools
If you are using the latest Android SDK tools you may have noticed some error messages relating to downgrading or using the command line AVD. This post might help you out.
IOS
4 Push Notification Best Practices
Push notifications can make or break customer engagement for your application. Here are some best practices to consider...
XAMARIN FORMS
Building an ASP.NET Core Website with Xamarin.Forms, XAML, and Ooui
Straight from the "Because you can" news feed - you can now totally build websites powered by XAML leveraging Xamarin.Forms and Frank Krueger's amazing Ooui library.
Styling Xamarin.Forms with CSS
Yup, you heard correctly... Xamarin.Forms and CSS together at last :) David Ortinau gives his initial impression of this upcoming feature.
Flex Button Control for Xamarin.Forms
The button control in Xamarin.Forms is actually pretty limited. If you need something a bit more powerful, you should take a look at this Flexible button control for Xamarin.Forms with events for different states, color overlays and adjustable shapes and paddings. Supports iOS and Android.
Spicing up your Xamarin app with Lottie animations
Gerald Versluis shows you how to spice up your forms application with the amazing Lottie library!
Getting Started with SyncFusion
Devlin gives us an intro to getting started with the excellent Syncfusion controls for Xamarin.Forms
MVVMCROSS
Making MvvmCross with Xamarin Forms Friction Free
Nick Randolph has been seeing if he can ease the onramp for integrating MvvmCross into Xamarin.Forms projects.
.NET
4 tips for learning Azure in the new year
If your new year involves getting deeper into Azure, then here are some nice resources to get you started.
AI
Identifying my daughters toys using AI - Part 2
Jim Bennet continues his series on using AI to identify his daughters' toys.
CAREER
What's hot for 2018
It's always interesting to think about what is going to be worth sinking your teeth into for the year ahead. Alejandro Ruiz Verela has given a top 6 in this blog post. What's on your hot topics list for the year ahead?