Events

Windows 8 has made its debut in Singapore as well as making its presence felt in countries worldwide. It is now available in stores nationwide, including Challenger, Courts, Harvey Norman, and Newstead. Launching together with Windows 8 are the new Windows 8 devices that will soon be filling the shelves of stores. There are over 50 new devices sporting the new Windows 8 from various manufacturers to launch in Singapore (with the exception of the Microsoft Surface RT), many of them with extraordinary features such as touch-enabled ultrabooks and convertible tablets. [caption id=“attachment_12261” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“http://windows.sg/"][/caption] Microsoft has launched 3 different versions of Windows 8 in Singapore comprising of Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, and Windows 8 RT. Windows 8 RT will only be available on newer devices and existing devices will not be able to upgrade to it. You can find a comparison chart between the 3 Windows 8 editions here: Users with older versions of Windows, including XP, Vista, and 7, will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 with an upgrade going for S$49.99, available at http://windows.microsoft.com/. If you had purchased a Windows 7 PC between the 2nd of June, 2012 and the 31st of January, 2013, you will be able to download Windows 8 Pro at a discounted price of S$17.99 due to the Windows Upgrade Offer which is available at http://www.windowsupgradeoffer.com/. Windows 8 itself will retail at S$89.00. Apps are a major part of the new Windows 8 ecosystem. Beautifully constructed apps make up the Windows 8 ecosystem, with an amazing 4,433 apps available in the Singaporean Store at the time of writing. Some top apps available for Singaporeans right now are Channel NewsAsia, The Straits Times, SG Deal, MerlionWords, Photo Monkey, STOMP, Razor TV, SG Cab, NomWhere, My SingTel, StarHub, Wego.com, and iProperty. Over 900 people attended the Launch Party at the Esplanade, an overwhelming response to the invitation. There was a brilliant showcase of new devices on the Esplanade’s Roof Terrace, and many devices caught my attention with their aesthetic beauty and unbelievable specifications. [caption id=“attachment_12265” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga”][/caption] [caption id=“attachment_12263” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“ASUS VivoTab RT TF600”][/caption] [caption id=“attachment_12262” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Acer Iconia W700”][/caption] Developers will be able to leverage on the easy and beautiful design principles that come with Windows 8 to get their apps ready to compete in the market. It is heartening to see Windows 8 launching with so many local apps already available, reflecting the hard work of our Singaporean developers that have been working so hard over the past few months, especially during the HackWeekends that were organized. I look forward to more apps coming up to populate the Windows Store, especially since Windows 8 is now readily available for everyone! See here for more information on developing for Windows 8 and why it’s “Not to be Missed”. If you have an idea for an app and would like to start developing, please join us at WOWZAPP, an upcoming worldwide Hackathon for Windows!

[caption id=“attachment_12254” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Windows 8 Game Development Opportunities and Training at Games Solution Center. Register Now.”][/caption] The fact of the matter is; Windows is huge. There are 1.2 billion Windows users globally, with 690 million currently on Windows 7 who can upgrade to Windows 8 for a great price on October 26th. This is just the PCs. When you factor in the plethora of other devices from slates and phones to ultra-books and tablets on offer from a variety of manufacturers, Microsoft included, this is where the potential ecosystem gets even more exciting. The idea of taking one device from home and leisure to work and enterprise with seamless continuity and the ability to sync content, system settings and app settings over multiple devices is also a tantalising thought. Developers who are ahead of the pack can get unparalleled exposure for the forthcoming launch of Windows 8 on October 26th”, the arrival of Surface in the region and considering the exciting changes in the OS and the accessible upgrade price point – uptake is expected to be notably high. Come join us on November 8 as Microsoft Singapore’s Developer and Platform Evangelism team takes you through the Windows 8 game development process. ...

[caption id=“attachment_12247” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Click here to register for #WOWZAPP Singapore.”][/caption] Registration has launched for Microsoft’s WOWZAPP 2012, Worldwide Hackathon for Windows students, developers and entrepreneurs across countries and other types of developers across countries including Singapore, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Turkey, Finland, Chile and Greece. Developers will work in teams to develop apps that will be published and available for download in the Windows Store. WOWZAPP 2012: Worldwide Hackathon for Windows is an event that allows you to take part in a truly global experience – developers and designers all over the world coming together to build apps for Windows, Windows Phone and Windows Azure. WOWZAPP 2012 is on November 9-11, 2012, timed to celebrate the launch of Windows 8 and immediately after the Build conference to take advantage of all that fresh new information that will be delivered at that time. It’s also on the weekend before Global Entrepreneur Week so that startup developers can kick off that week with a bang. Expert Help, free resources Microsoft app experts, developers and trainers will be available to assist your learning and coding. Download the developer tools and resources now and get ready for action. Download at no charge to students and BizSpark members: Windows 8 Getting Started Guide Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8 ...

Behind every successful entrepreneur, is a couple of failed attempts. Bill Gates will forever be remembered for starting Microsoft, but this was actually not his first business venture. Before Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen built a company called Traf-O-Data. They wanted to build a “computerized machine for processing paper tapes from traffic counters.” They planned to sell this computerized data to state and local governments, but failed because the product was unacceptably buggy. The experience gained in this venture would later be used to write Altair BASIC for the MITS Altair 8800 computer and start Microsoft. Paul Allen now refers to it as his favourite mistake. ...

Build is Microsoft’s Developer Conference that happens at our HQ in Redmond, Washington, USA. It’s the second year that we’re going to do Build. Tickets were sold out in less than an hour. And there’s good reason why. [caption id=“attachment_11725” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Live Streaming for Build happens on 30 October, 2012”][/caption] This year’s Build is going to have a strong focus on - wait for it - yup, Windows 8! At Build, we’ll dive deep to cover all the areas you care about. How to design and build beautiful Windows 8 apps. How to sell your apps in the Windows 8 Store and make money. And much more. Live streaming will be starting on October 30 at 9:00 am PST - which means October 31, Midnight - Singapore time! Tune in at http://www.buildwindows.com/ . Agenda will be updated soon! ...

Konnichiwa! I am currently based in Japan and I was kindly invited to attend Pycon Japan 2012 that is held from 15th September to 17th September at Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology located at Shinagawa, Tokyo. Here’s a brief account of my adventure at my 1st developer conference in Japan. It was a great Saturday morning at 9am in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology is the host venue for Pycon Japan 2012. After walking for 5 minutes from the Shinagawa Seaside Train Station, I finally reached the venue. It was an exciting sight to see the sheer amount of Pycon passes available for collection by the eager participants from all over Asia. I was so excited about the event that I arrived at the main event hall 30 minutes before the start of Pycon Japan 2012. Here’s a closer look at my press invite for the event. At 9:30am, Pycon Japan 2012 is officially opened. The main theme of the convention is to connect and communicate with fellow developers and to share our ideas freely. Everyone embraced the idea of communicating ideas freely during the convention and proceeded to introduce ourselves to each other. The keynote of Pycon Japan 2012 is “Happiness Through Ignorance” by Armin Ronacher. I felt that the keynote was inspiring as it encourages everyone to have the courage to try our ideas. The most important part of developing an idea is the journey and what we can learn from it. We should not be too concerned with failing or else we would never develop or create anything. And of course, Armin also highlighted our love for Python, which is easy to learn and fun to use. After the end of the keynote, everyone dispersed to their respective Japanese and English sessions for the day. A big thank you to the Pycon Japan committee and Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology for a successful convention. I had a great time at the convention and I will be returning for Pycon Japan 2013. Here’s the Youtube video for Pycon Japan 2012 keynote speech by Armin Ronacher: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EDlFk1hc8kc Other Pycon Japan 2012 Youtube videos are located at: http://www.youtube.com/user/PyConJP Pycon Japan 2012 information are located at: http://2012.pycon.jp/en/index.html Here’s also a quick python trick for setting up on Windows Azure! All you need to do is go to this link http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/python/and you can start implementing a simple Hello World application written in the Django Python web framework and deploy the application to Windows Azure! Have fun! What do you think of Pycon Japan 2012? Do you have other great tech events to recommend for us to participate? Do share with us your recommendations in the comments below and we might just do a special report based on your recommendations!

I had the pleasure of attending Part 1 of the Fruit Ninja Developer Workshop on 14 September, held in Sauce Bar at the Esplanade. The men of the hour who had just flown in from Brisbane - Richard McKinny (Chief Technical Officer) and Phil Larsen (Chief Marketing Officer) of Halfbrick - said a quick hello after opening the event, allowing the many participants to mingle over drinks and finger food catered for the game development enthusiasts. One such attendee was Joshua Cheong, 21, a current Information Systems major from the pioneer batch of the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). Currently developing a game called Slash The Snowflake in Objective C, he decided to sign up for the workshop given the similarities it shared with Fruit Ninja. Mingling with other developers, he also said, was a good opportunity for sharing and exchanging unique ideas. Another enthusiastic participant was Jeff Lim, a Senior Lead Engineer in his 30s at Lucasfilm Singapore. It was hard to find local developers, he said, explaining that he had come to get to know more of such like-minded programmers on the ground. Jeff mentioned that the gold-rush era of Zygna and their particular breed of social games was over, and the gaming community was trending towards developing individual titles on a much larger scale. Given the fact that “consumers are becoming more discerning and picky with how they spend their time”, even current development of casual games has taken this mindset shift into account with the inclusion of sleek graphics and clever mechanics despite a simpler premise. Something most developers at the event seemed to agree on was using iOS as a sort of “testing ground” for an app before releasing it on other platforms. Whether this trend continues, however, remains to be seen.

Developers gather at Sauce Bar for Day 1 of Fruit Ninja Dev Dojo Day 1 of Fruit Ninja #DevDojo proved to be a great evening with so much interaction amongst the participants, sharing their their passion on game development. Everybody, including me, was looking forward to getting to know the success story of Halfbrick and its famous game with more than 300 million downloads - Fruit Ninja. Registration began at 6pm. ...

[caption id=“attachment_11393” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Fruit Ninja Dev Dojo is just the start of our Windows 8 activities for game developers here in Singapore!”][/caption] Hey Ninjas, We hope you had a fruitful session learning with Shainiel, Phil and Richard about the latest game development techniques and useful marketing strategies at Fruit Ninja Developer Dojo. You can look out for the slides and videos from the event right here at Spiffy! Photos from the event can also be found on our Facebook Page. ...

Fruit Ninja Developer Dojo, is an exclusive event catered to game developers and those interested in game development. Halfbrick, one of the world’s most successful indie game studios with more than 100 million downloads for acclaimed game Fruit Ninja, will be sharing about their game development strategies, best practices, marketing tactics and much more in this 2 day event. Here are the top 5 reasons why you should attend! ...