Build 2016 in 10 Tweets: Of Xamarin, Socks and Superheroes
If you follow any Microsoft-related news, you've probably heard that Xamarin will now be available for free with Visual Studio. That's great news for .NET developers (native mobile in C#!), great news for enterprises (no more excuses about avoiding mobile!), and fantastic news for us at GrapeCity. Our newest product, Xuni, released a year ago as a collection of native mobile data visualization controls for Xamarin Platform. Since then, we've added native iOS and native Android controls, the world-class FlexGrid, and most recently, a calendar control. With Microsoft's big announcement, Xuni is getting all the attention we know it deserves!
Holy native mobile, Batman! #Xamarin is shipping with #VisualStudio. Come check out @goxuni controls at #Build2016. pic.twitter.com/ti0H1jLLfa
— Jody Handley (@jodyhandley) March 31, 2016
To my own delight, that tweet got the best gift ever from some folks at Azure.
.@jodyhandley #Build2016, where heroes are made. pic.twitter.com/TfIQsZC76o
— Microsoft Azure (@Azure) March 31, 2016
(That's now my banner image for Twitter. They even sent me a hi-res version. Thanks, Azure!) The conference in general was fantastic, in that oh-my-gosh-I'm-going-to-drop-from-exhaustion way. The first floor of Moscone West was a fantastic location for the Expo, and by all accounts, better than last year's. Our booth was right across from the Coding Challenge, where day after day, we watched you hunker down in front of laptops to solve some fun development issues in hopes of winning a Surface book. We were even across from the DJ, a guy on a loft who literally did not stop spinning tunes for one moment during the long Expo days.
I don't know the name of the #build2016 DJ, but I've been thoroughly enjoying his tunes. pic.twitter.com/WZtJuHlAJy
— Jody Handley (@jodyhandley) March 31, 2016
As for you, if you didn't know us, you knew you wanted socks. Boy, did you want the socks.
Speaking of #swag at #Build2016, @GrapeCity has mad socks! Come get'em and check out custom controls for #Xamarin. pic.twitter.com/ETjepangdV
— Jody Handley (@jodyhandley) March 31, 2016
But then you found the Xuni Explorer and stayed long after you'd pocketed the swag. You loved our gauges and pie chart, and delightedly played with the touch animations. You grilled us on Wijmo's support for Angular 2 (yep, full beta support) and React (coming soon). You wanted UWP controls (got 40 of 'em!) and WPF (one of our bestselling Editions). You came from Denmark and Philadelphia and New Zealand and Korea, and Justin and I loved talking to every one of you. Here's Justin. Say hi, Justin!
Stop by @GrapeCity and say hi to @C1JustinM! Also: we have socks. @ComponentOne @wijmo @goxuni #Build2016 pic.twitter.com/SYb4BtYFIM
— Jody Handley (@jodyhandley) March 30, 2016
Of course, I took some time to wander around myself. I played with the FaceTheremin, for example. Which was literally a theremin, for my face.
#FaceTheremin at #Build2016 @ComponentOne @goxuni @wijmo pic.twitter.com/gLnDwfMFbz
— Jody Handley (@jodyhandley) April 1, 2016
I found a 3-D printer, and asked, "Is this Hogwarts?" "No," he said. "That's a small model of it."
The magic of 3D Printing! #Build2016 pic.twitter.com/tiEqKk9UZT
— Jody Handley (@jodyhandley) April 1, 2016
Justin tried out the HoloLens, which was lucky: people were literally running to get tickets. Here's a quick look.
Galaxy Explorer is now live on #HoloLens. See how the universe came together. #Build2016https://t.co/ZLSVPe1iaI
— Microsoft HoloLens (@HoloLens) March 30, 2016
Thursday night, we sponsored the VSIP Mixology event, and had a blast trying for David Bowie records (I lost) and chatting with other Visual Studio Industry Partners.
@GrapeCity selfie! @ComponentOne @wijmo @goxuni #vsmixology pic.twitter.com/KEMJXioI7y
— Jody Handley (@jodyhandley) April 1, 2016
And at the end of the day Friday, after all was said and done, with six hours left to explore the delights of San Francisco, we went back to our hotel and did this.
Life after #Build2016. See you next year. @ComponentOne @goxuni @wijmo pic.twitter.com/0tdMywhfqJ
— Jody Handley (@jodyhandley) April 1, 2016
So there you have it: Build in 10 Tweets. Hope to see you again next year. And take a moment to check out Xuni for Xamarin!
MESCIUS inc.