Microsoft details new developer driven features in App Studio Beta

Microsoft unleashed the Windows Phone App Studio Beta back in August, accumulating a whopping 30,000 projects in just 48 hours. Now an article over on the Windows Phone Develop Blog details some developer driven changes that have been implemented into the app. Perfect for the 160,000 developers who have created more than 150,000 projects, leading to 65,000 apps in just two months.

The team has been taking feedback on-board from developers and seasoned enthusiasts on blogs, tweets and emails. This has enabled them to announce a new set of features to make the beta even more responsive to app development requirements. So what's new in the App Studio Beta for developers? There's quite a lot to take in. Here's a quick summary:

• Improved app development workflow by enhancing code and projects. 
• New cache implementation enables external data sources to be available even if the phone is not connected.
• Visual Studio projects have been optimised to remove external references when not used (reduces project size, complexity, etc.).
• "Fast Resume" enables you to set a default language for easy publication to the Windows Phone Store.
• It's now possible to navigate data sources easily with the new "FlipView."
• NFC (Near Field Communication) can now be used to share apps with other App Studio Beta users.

As well as the above list, the team has also made it easier to integrate native phone functionality into apps using "actions." Lastly, Microsoft has included calls to the Windows Phone Ad SDK as the company works toward integrating third-party SDKs. There's a lot to take in so we strongly recommend you head on over to the blog to read the full details.

How does one get involved to try out the new features? Head on over to the App Studio dashboard and recreate your app.

Source: Windows Phone Developer Blog