First, every Windows 8 machine has the Windows Store application.  One can find an app via promotion on the landing page, via application categories and filtering, and even via the search charm.

Second, any published app can be found via a browser and search engines. You can share the URL of a specific app page with anyone, and any browser. Finding the URL takes a little effort – I do a search like windows store + company name. As an example, BING windows store buzztap (looking for Buzztap), and look for a URL that starts with http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/….

Third, there’s a hidden little gem that I don’t hear many people talk about – but I think it’s kind of interesting. In Modern IE10 (where most Windows 8 consumers will be surfing), have you ever seen this symbol?

Well, the wrench should look familiar – it’s the wrench in the modern IE10 toolbar – which typically enables finding text on the page AND jumping to the desktop version of IE10 . But note this version of the button has an addition of a plus sign. It’s a visual indication that the current web site has a enhanced experience waiting for the consumer in the Windows Store.  More details and background can be found here, but it only takes two lines added to the HEAD element in the web page to enable this (see msApplication-ID and msApplicationFamilyName).  To see this in action, take a look at Cut The Rope site – and go ahead an install the Windows 8 game version of this while you’re there.

To take this further, the web developer can even add another line to supply additional arguments (msApplicationArguments) – so that the consumer could be taken to an existing page in the application (assuming the app is already installed on the consumer machine). That’s kinda cool too!  There are all sorts on scenarios that can be created from this.  Maybe I could jump directly to a specific item in a catalog, go directly to an artist in a music app, etc.

So, there you go. Bottom line: we want people to find your app.

• “More apps in the Windows Store at launch than any other app store at their launch”
• “since then [the launch], the number of apps in the Windows Store has doubled”
• “A number of apps in the Windows Store have crossed the $25,000 revenue mark “, which is good news for some developers because their rev split was just enhanced to 80/20. Cha ching!
• “A lot of great new apps have been added to the Windows Store since launch such as CBS, ABC News, ABC Family, Engadget, Flixster, OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), Vimeo and my (current) personal favorite - Top Gear.”  Well – whatever. Those are nice, but my list is different. The good news is that nice app’s await, and more are on the way.

As this news spreads through the technology news engines, it’s interesting to see the interpretation and comments coming out (a few that I don’t see in the Microsoft post). NOTE: I can only fully trust that the Microsoft posts are accurate. Following on from here, I don’t know if these news items are 100% fact – but they are interesting. After seeing the press and MSFT hater beat up our name, I’m glad to see some positive news come out and I hope these positive excerpts below are true.

For example, a related CNET article by Mary Jo Foley had several interesting comments:

• How does this compare to Windows 7 sales? Microsoft said it had sold 60 million Windows 7 licenses from the end of October 2009, its launch date, to the end of December 2009. So that's 60 million Windows 7 licenses sold in two months. So far, Microsoft has sold 40 million licenses of Windows 8 in one month.
• Microsoft now has certified 1,500 PCs and tablets for Windows 8, up from the 1,000 devices it had certified a month ago at launch
• Reller said that users are finding Windows 8 "easy to understand and embrace." She said users are exploring Windows 8 and enjoying learning it, from Day One.  Based on customer feedback and information gathered by Microsoft's customer support organization, "We do know that customers do, indeed, 'get' the product," she said.

In an article from Softpedia, they lightly cover this announcement, but another prevailing item is mentioned:

“What’s more, the company has revealed a pretty interesting thing: Windows 8 is outpacing Windows 7 in terms of upgrades, Microsoft said without providing official stats on the number of upgrades”. This is good news because that means that our bet towards our existing customers is working, as well as moving the Windows ecosystem forward with new machines like the Microsoft Surface.

In an article from Computerworld, Joab Jackson had several more interesting comments:

• "We believe Windows 8 is shaping up is as one of the company's most successful products," said Tami Reller
• Outlook.com, a relaunch of the company's Hotmail service, has attracted 25 million users. This is not Windows 8 related, but it’s still nice to know that the new email system and interfaces are attracting customers.
• Since the launch, Microsoft has logged over 1.5 billion impressions of users deploying the start screen through remote telemetry. "So we know this is home base for customers, as we intended it to be," she said.
• Customers are also personalizing the start screen. Within the first three weeks, customers on average added 19 tiles to the ones that are already installed on the system.
• 90% of customers use the charms, which are OS features such as search and share that can be run within different apps. They use these charms on average two to three times each time they run the device.
• Over 85% use the desktop during their first use and approximately half visit the app store.
• The number of apps in the store has doubled since the OS launch.
• Several apps have already been downloaded more than a million times.

That’s all good news!

And another item, that came out from the Computerworld article and others, points out where the reporters wanted to know more about the Sinofsky departure:

• During the question-and-answer period, the moderator asked how the departure of Sinofsky will affect Windows development. Reller responded that the Windows team has a work ethic that does not rely on any one leader. "The team, holistically, is in great, great shape," she said.

You might also consider adding some logging capabilities and runtime analytics – but that’s a post for another day.

Happy Programming!

It will be interesting to see what experiences can be built with access to sensors in WinRT.  As an example, has anyone noticed what the Bing Travel app does?  If you have a Windows RT device (or device with the proper sensors), go click on the Panoramas (the tiles with the 360 logo).  You’ll be able to turn around (holding the device in front of you), and you’ll get a 3D viewing experience.  If you don’t have the right sensor access, you still can control these pictures with touch or mouse – but the motion version is way cool!.

At first, I thought the new Xbox Music app surely would fill the gap. But, I can’t find this feature if it’s in there. I certainly can play imported music with the application, just have to make sure that the locations for my music library is known.

But, after looking around, I found an article that Change settings for ripping music that describes how to use Windows Media Player to rip. Basically, just change from Now Playing mode to Library mode (by clicking the Switch to Library button (top right, looks like 3 dots), and the RIP actions start appearing.

Now, this is not the best story in my opinion (I’d prefer to see it all in one app). And I haven’t checked to see how my Surface RT will react to this (but guessing it will be fine). However, at least I can import without having to install the Zune software (which as fantastic BTW).

Also, check out the Xbox Music app. Pretty nice. And now I’m listening to a James Dean Hicks CD, Somewhere In America, that I recently purchased.  (this is the CD that I wanted to import, and you can see it in the My Music section below).

Hope this helps someone else!

Build your first Windows Store app: Video versions of the step-by-step tutorials at dev.windows.com – 13 videos and 4.5 hours of content

Build a Windows Store Blog Reader app with C#: Video versions of the Blog Reader step-by-step tutorial at dev.windows.com – 9 videos with 2.5 hours of content

Windows Store app for Absolute Beginners with C#: Video versions of the Contoso Cookbook Hands-on labs, designed for Absolute Beginners – 30 videos with 7.5 hours of content

Migrating apps from Windows Phone to Windows 8: Step-by-step video tutorials of migrating a real-world app (Khan Academy) from Windows Phone to Windows 8 – 5 videos with 1.5 hours of content

• The Screen
• Why is 10.6 inches significant
• ClearType display
• 16x9 aspect ratio
• Has to feel right - light (1.5 lbs), but strong
• Micro SD Card
• Power life, recharge speed
• WiFi (2x2 MIMO antennae), and the hotel story
• Video scenario
• “transferred the movie from my device to you through my Xbox using SmartGlass with one touch”
• Music Scenario
• Xbox Music, unlimited streaming of music
• “You have a surround sound, you have a stereo system, now your Xbox just became the ultimate music controller just for you”
• Game Scenario
• Showing off screen quality and performance
• Surface drop test
• Screen optically bonded, “It's fused together with the cover glass and the top screen. It's the thinnest cover glass on any tablet that's being shipped today. And on top of it, it's Gorilla Glass 2.0. So you know it's pretty sturdy, and I'm going to prove that for you”
• VaporMg, “we're able to mold the largest pieces of magnesium right out of the factory and make sure we're giving you this watch-quality finish”
• “You can drop it in 72 different orientations. If you can find that many orientations, good luck. You can actually drop it 72 different ways, and we do, and we drop them. We drop them until we know how perfect they are so when you have them, you take them home, you can have every bit of confidence”
• Surface, as a skateboard
• Sinofsky on skateboard (wheels mounted on device as toughness test)
• Kick Stand
• 3 custom hinges, the usefulness of 22 degree tilt
• Video Recording (cameras on front and back)
• Touch Cover
• “flux fountain of magnets”
• a keyboard, yet a stand too
• Office is built-in (Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Word)
• Multitasking with Snapped View
• Annie Wang (recent Harvard graduate, cofounder of HerCampus.com, blogger)
• “I'm actually writing a blog post for our campus using Word, the post is on how Surface is going to be a great device for college students”
• importing pictures via USB port from Sinofsky’s camera
• Sinofsky concludes
• Surface video

Video of Surface Launch Event in NYC

• Remarks by Steven Sinofsky, President, Windows Division, New York City, Oct. 25, 2012
• Video
• Transcript

YouTube Videos from Surface team

• The Making of the Design of Surface (1:57)
• Surface is here. (:39)
• The Surface Movement Commercial (1:01)
• additionally significant to my team due to seeing a few customers on the Start screen that JohnG and I worked with – and these are impressive app’s
• iHeartRadio
• FlightAware
• ARMED!
• Behind the Scenes making of The Surface Movement TV commercial (2:18)
• The Making of Touch Cover for Surface (1:41) 3mm is crazy cool…
• Learn more about Surface  (1:37)
• The making of Microsoft Surface (1:40)
• Microsoft Surface Street Art time lapse (:45)
• Surface by Microsoft (1:04)

Windows 8 Launch Event

Remarks by Steven Sinofsky, President, Windows Division; Steve Ballmer, CEO; Julie Larson-Green, Corporate Vice President, Windows; Michael Angiulo, Corporate Vice President, Windows Planning, Hardware & PC Ecosystem, New York City, Oct. 25, 2012

Transcript

Video

Some Interesting Quotes from the Keynote

· As of today, we're pleased to share with you that Windows 7 has sold over 670 million licenses to businesses and consumers

· We've had 16 million installations of the prerelease builds of Windows.

· Today, we are pleased to share that over 1,000 new PCs have been certified for Windows 8.

· These PCs come in a wide variety of screen sizes, configurations, and designs. And in keeping with the root of what makes PCs so broadly used, we will see fully capable PCs for Windows 8 that cost under $300. That's so much cheaper than leading tablets. And these new PCs are thinner, lighter, and better than ever.

· At our grand opening, the Windows Store has more apps than any competing app store had at its opening.

· As Steven said, there are 670 million Windows PCs just waiting to be upgraded to Windows 8. That is a very large number even in the world of large numbers in this industry.

· Additionally, in the next year, analysts have forecast sales of another 400 million new PCs, most of which will run Windows 8.

Wow! There’s a lot going on Microsoft, and it’s tough for me to keep up.  Thought that I throw a few of these out there.

Windows 8 Release Preview

On May 31st, Microsoft made available the Windows 8 “Release Preview”, including updates to the tools and a new Windows Store. You can continue to get the latest at http://dev.windows.com and http://design.windows.com.  Now, we’re on the home stretch towards RTM and GA.  And we’re looking for more app’s to put into the store before launch – so if you got an idea, we’ve got a program to help get you there (just ping me).

Here are some links to more info about this release:

• Press Release: Microsoft Announces Availability of Windows 8 Release Preview
• From the Building Windows 8 blog, Delivering the Windows 8 Release Preview
• From the Windows 8 app developer blog, What’s changed for app developer since the Consumer Preview
• Lots of good stuff to note, even if it’s your first look at our API
• From the Windows Store for Developers blog, Windows Store for Release Preview
• check out pointers to policy issues, announcements around desktop applications, and a few big name app additions in the store
• From the Windows Experience Blog,  The Windows 8 RP & Windows Upgrade Offer
• From the Windows for your Business blog, What business will want to know about the Windows 8 Release Preview
• RP enterprise readiness, the path to Windows 8, looking forward to TechEd
• Don’t forget to get the Release Preview samples

E3 and Xbox

• Xbox.com page about E3
• Major Nelson posts letter on upcoming features

Computex

• Windows 8 hardware shown at this show in Asia