"Location Intelligence for Windows Store" the free eBook...

Ricky's Bing Maps Blog - Free eBook: Location Intelligence for Windows Store

I am happy to announce the release of my  book “Location Intelligence for Windows Store Apps”. This is available as a free eBook. Yes I said “free”, as in “Free beer”.

Location Intelligence has been one of the fastest growing industries in recent years and continues to grow at an exponential rate. Seventy to eighty percent of all business data has some sort of geospatial context. Many companies want to make use of this data however most of them do not know where to start. Many of these same companies are planning to create Windows Store apps.

In this book we will dive into the world of location intelligence and the different options for creating location aware applications in Windows 8.1. The first half of the book focuses on the inner workings of Window Store Apps and the various location related tools available such as sensors and the Bing Maps SDK. The second half of the book focuses on creating several useful location intelligent apps. All code samples are provided in JavaScript, C# and Visual Basic.

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1: Getting Started
• Chapter 2: The Sensor and Location Platform
• Chapter 3: Bing Maps JavaScript API
• Chapter 4: Bing Maps Native API
• Chapter 5: Bing Maps REST Services
• Chapter 6: Bing Spatial Data Services
• Chapter 7: Working with Spatial Data
• Chapter 8: Drawing on the Map
• Chapter 9: Creating an Augmented Reality App
• Chapter 10: Creating a Templatable Compass Control
• Chapter 11: Cross Platform Development

... [Click through for the download links]

At 421 pages this is not your slim eBook... :)

From the PDF;

"Introduction
Location Intelligence has been one of the fastest growing industries in recent years and continues to grow at an exponential rate. Seventy to eighty percent of all business data has some sort of geospatial context. Many companies want to make use of this data however most of them do not know where to start. Many of these same companies are planning to create applications targeting Windows 8. You may well be reading this book for this very reason.

With Windows 8 you have the ability to create applications that reach across many platforms such as desktops, laptops and tablet devices. A Windows Store app is a new type of application that runs on Windows 8 devices. Unlike traditional desktop apps, a Windows Store app has a single, chrome-less window that fills the entire screen by default, so there are no distractions. In addition to this, these apps can support different layouts and views to create a fluid experience across different screen sizes and orientations. Several different types of input sources are supported, including touch, pen, mouse, and keyboard input. It’s also possible for apps to communicate with each other by sharing content in a standard way. Instead of icons, Window Store apps uses live tiles which can be used to display useful, at-a-glance data to the user, without the need for the user to open up the app. Windows Store apps can be written in several different languages including JavaScript, C#, Visual Basic, C++ and C. Apps are distributed through the Windows Store in Windows 8 and gives you the ability to make your app available to millions of people around the world.

In this book we will dive into the world of location intelligence and the different options for creating location aware applications in Windows 8. The first half of the book focuses on learning what tools are available for creating location aware Window Store applications. The second half of the book uses a more hands on approach by demonstrating how to develop complete end-to-end location aware solutions.

Who this book is for?
This book is aimed at developers who are being introduced to creating location based Windows Store apps using both Web (HTML, CSS3, JavaScript) and Managed (C#, Visual Basic) programming languages. Previous knowledge on creating location based application is not required or needed and all topics are explained from the ground up. This will including the use of Bing Maps and sensors such as the accelerometer, compass, gyro, and location services. It will be assumed that you have a working knowledge of one of these programming languages; JavaScript, C# or Visual Basic. Experience creating Windows Store applications will help but is not required.

Chapter Overview
In the first half of this book each chapter builds on top of the previous such that by the time you reach the end chapter 7 you will have gained a good working knowledge on how to use all the tools available for creating location aware Windows Store app. The chapters in the second half of the book are independent of each other. Each of these chapters show how to create a complete end to end application. If you wish to skip between these chapters, you can do so without missing out on any content that might be required

..."