Xamarin.Forms: portable mobile C# GUI

Xamarin.Forms - Build native UIs from a single, shared C# codebase. - Xamarin:

using Xamarin.Forms;

var profilePage = new ContentPage {
    Title = "Profile",
    Icon = "Profile.png",
    Content = new StackLayout {
        Spacing = 20, Padding = 50,
        VerticalOptions = LayoutOptions.Center,
        Children = {
            new Entry { Placeholder = "Username" },
            new Entry { Placeholder = "Password", IsPassword = true },
            new Button {
                Text = "Login",
                TextColor = Color.White,
                BackgroundColor = Color.FromHex("77D065") }}}
};
                
var settingsPage = new ContentPage {
    Title = "Settings",
    Icon = "Settings.png",
    (...)
};
 
var mainPage = new TabbedPage { Children = { profilePage, settingsPage } };

$2000/dev/year
podcast: Xamarin Forms with Chris Hardy @ .NET Rocks!

Or just use Cordova/PhoneGap, and some CSS for GUI adjustments...

Docker containers on Azure

Here's how Microsoft is supporting the open-source Docker container model | ZDNet:
Docker testers already were able to run pre-release versions of Docker on Azure in Linux virtual machines. But during the DockerCon show this week, Microsoft representatives demonstrated Docker deployment into an Azure Linux virtual machine using Azure's Virtual Machine Extensions.

Docker 1.0 released at DockerCon

IoT: Arduino, Rasberry Pi, AMQP, Azure, Hadoop

Azure Insider - Telemetry Ingestion and Analysis Using Microsoft Azure Services: @ MSDN magazine



An example of IoT "cloud" system

This is also an example of opportunity for system optimization (reducing complexity and cost) both on "device" as well as on "cloud" side.

IoT: China "Smart City", Apple "HomeKit"

This Is How Apple Could Dominate China (AAPL):

"China is leading the Internet of Things: A recent report by the GSM Association shows that China's overall machine-to-machine -- and by extension IoT -- connectivity far surpasses anything currently in the U.S. or Europe.

China has 219 cities signed up for 'smart city' initiatives that connect local municipality infrastructure systems to the Internet. By comparison, the US public sector is just getting started with IoT in San Jose this month.

Apple's HomeKit is designed to pair third-party devices like Phillips' smart light bulbs andHoneywell's new smart thermostat together on one platform. 

This means that users won't have to open two separate apps to turn down the lights and adjust the temperature and, more importantly, they can pair both devices together and give a voice command to Siri to control both the lights and the thermostat at the same time."