Issue 172

KYM PHILLPOTTS

A little bit light on links for this week, but still some great content. Maybe everyone is resting up for the upcoming Apple Event, Microsoft Ignite and also .NET Conf

Have a great weekend everyone!

CODE

C# – async and await – who are you?

Async and Await are the bread and butter of asynchronous programming for .net developers. In this article, Damian shows you how async transforms your function in asynchronous code.

C# – async and await – who are you? by Damian

DESIGN

Visual Designer fundamentals

Good visual designs aren’t born. They are made.

The key to becoming a better visual designer is rigor. You will only improve as a visual designer if you make a conscious effort. Here are some fundamentals you should master so you can take your visual design to the next level.

Before you can master design, you must first master the fundamentals by Jonathan Z. White

BUSINESS & MARKETING

How to Build a Mobile App Brand

Competition in the App Stores is really hot: according to Statista, as of March 2017, there were 2.8 million available apps at Google Play Market and 2.2 million apps available in the Apple’s App Store, the two leading app stores in the world, and the numbers are steadily growing.

So, not only should mobile apps be high quality but also build up strong brands to stand out. This article discusses strategies and tips for mobile app branding.

How to Build a Brand for Your Mobile App: Strategies, Tips and Examples by Tubik Studio

Surviving the App Store

This is a free ebook with some interesting content about building games for mobile. Whilst it focuses on games, the content really is great advice for people trying to make a business of more mainstream apps.

amirrajan/survivingtheappstore by Amir Rajan

ANDROID

Working With Xamarin Toast Message For Android

Toast messages are short pop-up messages that show up for a few seconds and then fade away. In this article, Debendra shows you how to use them.

Working With Xamarin Toast Message For Android by Debendra Dash

IOS

Apple says, it's time to have a privacy policy

Apple has announced that starting October 3, 2018, all new apps and app updates will require a privacy policy in order to be submitted for distribution on the App Store or through TestFlight for beta testing purposes. Unleash the lawyers!

All New and Updated App Store Apps Required to Have a Privacy Policy Starting October by Joe Rossignol

XAMARIN FORMS

Getting Started with Resources, Styles and Dictionaries

Nick Randolph has been pumping out some great articles on Xamarin Forms Resources and Styles. You should really check them out.

Getting Started with Xamarin.Forms with Resources and Styles

Resource Dictionaries

and my favourite of the series (because I hadn't even thought about splitting resources across platform projects):

Platform Specific Resources using OnPlatform

Getting Started with Xamarin.Forms and Platform Specific Resources using OnPlatform by Nick

Xamarin Forms X - 5 More Tips for XAML

Thiago shares some more XAML Tips.

O X do Xamarin Forms — Mais 5 Dicas para o XAML by Thiago Bertuzzi

Do you have permission?

Most apps ask for permissions, be it camera, microphone, calendar, and so on. But what if I want to control it better? Or be sure that a certain permission exists to take action? Here enters the plugin Permissions of James Montemagno .

Meu plugin minha vida —Eu tenho Permissão ? by Thiago Bertuzzi

Connecting to Cosmos DB Without Connection Strings

In this article, Matthew shows you how to build a Xamarin.Forms app that displays movie reviews downloaded as documents from Azure Cosmos DB.

Connecting to Cosmos DB Without Connection Strings by Matthew Soucoup

Adding shortcuts to your app's icon

Add shortcuts to your Xamarin.Forms app's icons with this plugin from Aden Earnshaw. Adding App Shortcuts by Aden Earnshaw

MVVMCROSS

Getting Started with Xamarin.Forms and Presentation Attributes in MvvmCross

The great thing about MvvmCross is that it provides a minimal effort approach to things like navigation. However, there are times when you want to override the navigation model. For example you might want a page to appear as a modal page instead of a regular page.

Getting Started with Xamarin.Forms and Presentation Attributes in MvvmCross by Nick

AZURE

Using Object Detection from inside your Xamarin app

Microsoft Cognitive Services provide a great way to get started with AI without being a machine learning or data science expert. A common favourite of cognitive services is the Custom Vision Service. In this post on the Xamarin Blog, Jim Bennett shows you how to get started.

Using Object Detection from inside your Xamarin app by Jim Bennett

PODCASTS & VIDEOS

Merge Conflict: 113: The 30% App Developer Tax

This week we switch things up a little bit and talk business... app store business talk! Right now is an interesting time as there has been a revolt against paying the app store 30% tax with Epic and Netflix changing course. We discuss what this fee is, how it works, if it needs to change, and some ideas to change the revenue sharing process.

Custom Vision – Object Detection Made Easy

Following on from the Custom Vision – Machine Learning Made Easy episode, in this show Jim looks at Custom Vision object detection. The custom vision service recently has been updated to include object detection, and this allows you to train the service to detect multiple objects inside an image with their locations, instead of just being a simple classifier. Jim walks through creating an object detection model, tagging regions in images that show the objects to be detected, then he builds a simple Xamarin app to use this to annotate a picture from his daughters toybox, naming all the toys it finds.

RELEASES

Lottie got an update!

Lottie 2.6.0 for #Xamarin is now available! It adds support for Android Pie, loading an animation from a zip file that contains both json and images, and fixes a couple of bugs!

Render After Effects animations natively on Android and iOS for Xamarin by Martijn van Dijk

AND FINALLY...

.NET Conf is coming...

Don't forget about .NET Conf which is happening September 12-14. Should be lots of amazing content streamed live!

.NET Conf is a FREE, 3 day virtual developer event co-organized by the .NET community and Microsoft. Over the course of the three days you have a wide selection of live sessions streaming here that feature speakers from the community and .NET product teams. It's a chance to learn, ask questions live, and get inspired for your next software project.