Visual Studio 2010 is the latest version of Microsoft’s IDE which has a new improved UI build using WPF, tools for Windows 7 and SharePoint 2010, drag and drop bindings for Silverlight and WPF, parallel programming support and the inclusion of Dynamic Language Runtime for programming with scripting languages. The release of Visual Studio 2010 was delayed (originally 22nd March) due to some performance issues but now the new launch date is April 12, 2010 according to Mary Jo Foley who picked it up from Developer Division’s Marketing and Communications Manager Rob Caron’s blog.  Read more...

Permalink: New release date for Visual Studio 2010 is April 12, 2010

With the announcement of Silverlight 4 on day 2 at PDC09, Silverface, a desktop application for Facebook, was demoed. Two days back, an application called Fishbowl was released by UXLabs@Microsoft. This application is a sample Facebook client that lets you update you status, scroll through your news feeds, easily browse through friends, browse and upload photos etc and is specially optimized for Windows 7.  Read more...

Permalink: Fishbowl – Facebook Desktop Client optimized for Windows 7

If Twitter clients weren’t enough already, Facebook recently updated its API to allow developers to create client applications that would let you update your status or keep an eye on your stream. But which are most popular Facebook clients amongst them all? To answer that question, this edition of Apps for Windows is dedicated to Desktop Apps for Facebook.  Read more...

Permalink: Apps for Windows – Desktop Apps for Facebook

Sobees web is a web version of bDule – a Twitter/Facebook client for Windows with a new twist though. It’s made of Silverlight 3 and supports Silverlight out of Browser experience.

It’s a fully featured Twitter client with support for multiple accounts, RT, pictures, URL shortening and much more. The Facebook part of Sobees web isn’t functional yet, but to get a taste of how it works, you can try out bDule. Sobees web also has real-time search for OneRiot, Twitter and FriendFeed. You can set up multiple search columns by choosing your preferred layout for Sobees Web.

The interface is clean and streamlined. There’s nothing new to notice in it if you’ve used any other Twitter client like Seesmic Desktop or TweetDeck. The difference between Sobees Web and other clients is the multiple layout support. You have a wide variety of layouts to choose from, and you can even chose to run many Twitter accounts or real-time searches in them. It’s very helpful if you need to keep track of particular keywords or trends on Twitter.  Read more...

Permalink: Apps for Windows: Silverlight 3 based Twitter Client by Sobees

Expression Blend 3 + SketchFlow is a visual tool for designing and prototyping desktop and web applications. You build an application by drawing shapes, drawing controls such as buttons and list boxes, making the pieces of your application respond to mouse clicks and other user input, and styling everything to look uniquely your own.

Expression Blend 3 + SketchFlow RC is now available for download on Microsoft Download Center. It was previously released as a preview only but didn’t have SketchFlow. The download is around 71.2MB.

The release notes aren’t up yet but will be available here. Here are the system requirements:  Read more...

Permalink: Microsoft Expression Blend 3 + SketchFlow RC available for download now

Microsoft shows off Facebook Open Stream API demos from Rafe Needleman on Vimeo.  Read more...

Permalink: Microsoft demos Facebook on Silverlight and WPF

Microsoft Vine is the Redmond Giant’s take on Twitter. It’s actually more focused on the real time web and happenings rather than starting conversations as in Twitter. Vine will be used to stay in touch, informed and involved when it matters. It comes with its own slick looking desktop app, based on WPF.  Read more...

Permalink: Microsoft Vine to take on Twitter and the Real Time web

Blu, the WPF Twitter app for Windows XP and beyond, has been finally updated with the long awaited Twitpic integration, and have they nailed it! It has a very simple but intuitive way of uploading the images, without any extra clicks or hassle what so ever. Actually, it’s a ‘clickless’ process just like the TinyURL integration in Blu.

The main UI hasn’t changed much except for the Tweet panels looking bigger than before and some other nice little touches. Animations and scrolling seem faster and much smoother now. Clicking a hashtag opens up the search results in a browser now.

Here’s a walkthrough of the major changes and new features in this update.

Twitpic integration:

Just drag and image to the application and it’ll automatically be set for uploading on the side.

 Read more...

Permalink: Blu – The best looking Twitter app just got better

*chirp just got updated and renamed to blu. TinyURL integration is available in the new version. Just paste in the URL and it’ll convert into a TinyURL. It’s really that simple. The performance also seems noticeably faster in blu than chirp. chirp used to hog around 110 MB of memory for me, where as blu just uses 36 MB.  Read more...

Permalink: *chirp updated and renamed to blu

I’ve always been a fan of thirteen23, and loved the interfaces and experiences they create. I’ve also had the chance to use some of their previously-available-for-download applications and wished to use the ones not available for download. So, I’ve been using *chirp and tweeting and using the inertia scroll madly over the past few days. But, my curiosity got the best of me and I started searching around for more about this WPF wonder. Turns out that this WPF client has been in the making for a around 6 months, if the date on this blog is to be believed. That blog belongs to Hal Saville, a designer behind *chirp. I also found a few initial designs of *chirp in beta, which although looks similar to the released final version, but has many more features. So, until I’m able to find out more information, drool over the images. I’m sure there’s much more to come for *chirp.  Read more...

Permalink: So, you think you know *chirp?