Last week was an exciting one for .NET developers. The beta version of Visual Studio 11 and the Windows 8 consumer preview were especially interesting because they were quite unlike other updates from previous years—this is a first glimpse at developing in an OS that seamlessly operates on both desktops and tablets. Although it is still very early, Microsoft is poised to shake up the mobile market.
On top of this wave of excitement, we released a vector image library of more than 600 icons that adheres to the Metro standards outlined by Microsoft. We’re calling it Syncfusion Metro Studio 1. In it you’ll find icons for virtually any purpose, whether you’re working on an app for banking, an e-mail client, or a simple UI. It also ships with an editor that allows you to take any of the included images, resize them, change their color, customize them as need, and immediately use them in your applications. We’ve worked very hard on Metro Studio, and we want to give it to you for free to get you ready for the clean, uncluttered future of desktop, Web, and mobile applications.
Windows 8 integrates the desktop and tablet environments, further closing the gap between them. This is a bold move for Microsoft, essentially making only one device necessary for consumers—they can have a device with a keyboard and mouse, and then simply pick up the device and use it as a tablet. This is a new environment that we’ve never seen before. If the hardware can take on this challenge, you can be sure the development community will be there to take advantage of this paradigm shift.
Check out the vlog below to learn more about Metro Studio and my first impressions of Windows 8.
Vice President Daniel Jebaraj discusses Metro theming in Metro Studio 1 and the implications of Windows 8.