In this blog post series I will share MEA Applications of the month for Microsoft Windows 8 (W8) Devices, Windows Phone 8 (WP8) Devices and Xbox, these applications were selected by real application users, you will find a short description about each application as a why question this application was selected, then from where you can download it,

Oct 2013 Apps of the Month can be found here.

Nov 2013 Apps of the Month can be found here.

Applications selected as MEA Apps of Jan 2014 month are as follows:

Authenticator:

WP8

Why?

Ever had your Microsoft Account (Live Account) compromised? Would you like an extra level of authentication security on the account? If so, check out Authenticator. The app generates security codes you can use to help keep your Microsoft account secure. Want something similar for your enterprise customers, so they can keep their on-premises or cloud identities secure, check out one of Microsoft’s latest acquisitions, www.phonefactor.com.

From Where to download?

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/authenticator/e7994dbc-2336-4950-91ba-ca22d653759b

Afrinolly:

WP8, W8

Why?

Africans have been known to be one of the happiest people on the planet and Entertainment is one of the reasons for this. The African entertainment industry has one of the largest libraries in the world filled with Movies, Music, sports etc. Africa is a rich continent with cultural diversity and people.

Watch full length Nollywood movies, African movies, Short films, Trailers, Music videos and full length Bollywood movies on your Windows phone. On Afrinolly you get to watch the best of Nigerian movies and other African movies including Short films/Documentaries and comedy. Afrinolly also brings to you the latest African celebrity news plus gossip about movies, music and celebrities in Africa

Afrinolly App is available on both Windows 8 and Windows Phone

Windows Phone:

Windows 8:

From Where to download?

W8 - http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/afrinolly/44e8dec9-fc0e-4ea5-b9fb-795d548e37a

WP8 - http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/afrinolly/ccf8a50e-104d-41db-915b-82a567d7ac81

Shared Shopping List:

WP8

Why?

An easy to use shopping list app that can be shared between phones.

You can have your grocery list and a wish list shared, the app can group items based on where they are located in the grocery, it has live tiles and you can check items while shopping (you have to be fast though as the items are keep coming ;-), especially while I'm at the counter).

From Where to download?

http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=f841f8d0-131e-e011-9264-00237de2db9e

 Mega Tic Tac Toe:

WP8

Why?

The classic Tic Tac Toe game is back and it is better than ever!!!

I love to spend hours playing this, You can play with friends or by yourself.

Be the first to make a 5 in a row line against a strong artificial intelligence engine or play with players around the world with real ELO ratings !

From Where to download?

http://www.windowsphone.com/he-il/store/app/מגה-איקס-עיגול/f52e4ca5-d95a-42f4-a11e-86f57c0f3ded

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/mega-tic-tac-toe/f52e4ca5-d95a-42f4-a11e-86f57c0f3ded

Backgammon pro:

W8, WP8

Why?

Backgammon is one of the ancient  games in the world for 2 players

It involve luck and strategy ( as a player, it’s better to have them both )

Caution:  Backgammon on a  touch device  is addictive.

Read more about the history of the game ( it’s origins here in MEA )  and learn the rules.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backgammon

From Where to download?

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/backgammon-pro/ac42f61a-03b1-e011-a53c-78e7d1fa76f8

http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/backgammon-pro/3f179c37-ed75-4d81-9495-2702e407d778

Enjoy these great application and keep tuned for next month applications.

Today I faced an issue that took me some time to figure out with Host Integration Server 2013. Usually when you develop transaction Integration (or application integration) with BizTalk server you require XSD schemas to be able to perform mappings and send messages using a send port. With Host Integration Server and up to 2010 version we did that by writing an application definition DLL within Visual Studio 2010 and then while you have the DLL description open in the designer you would click on the “XSD Definition” tab within your Visual Studio window as below:

Then you copy all contents of this tab into a newly created XSD schema in a BizTalk project.

Now the problem I faced was that this tab is missing in HIS 2013 :( So how can we do this. At first I thought that maybe this is an installation issue as I had in that environment HIS 2010 and VS 2010. But it was not. It turned out that now you simply save the DLL and VS 2012 automatically generates for you the XSD (along with many other things such as WCF and ASMX services) inside a bin folder. So Vola use that XSD.

Happy HISing ;)