Microsoft Garage releases several new apps, aimed at both consumers and developers

As a part of the Microsoft’s Garage project, employees coming from different departments in the company can connect and develop their ideas during their free time, and create apps even for rival operating systems. We’ve seen a number of apps to come out from Microsoft Garage workroom for Android, iOS and Windows Phone — many are already receiving regular updates as well. The folks at Microsoft Garage have now released a bunch of new apps focusing on a wide range of users.

Starting with DevSpace, developed by Milind Solage and Soniya Khoja, it’s targeted audience is engineers who use Visual Studio Online to work on their projects. With DevSpace, they can check the projects and their progress through their smartphones instead of going through the hassle of turning on their laptops and connecting to the network.

“When we work on these side projects, [Garage advisors] come up with feedback, they give us points of contact we can connect with to help us with UI design and roadblocks,” Solage says. “Soniya and I both work on this outside of office hours, but it’s because we’re both passionate about this idea. It’s a good way to learn new technologies, as well as convert ideas into actual projects.”

Next in line is a Chinese-language app, Your Weather, which aims to provide users with weather reports and air quality for several cities in China. The app comes with Live Tiles and Lock Screen integration so the users don’t have to fire up the app every time they want to know about the weather conditions in their area. 

Next up is Join Conference, an app for those users who make conference calls on a regular basis. Bret Johnson, the employee who came up with the idea said, “Under the covers, though, the app parses through your meeting invite text in the calendar. From that it can see what kind of conference system it is, what the meeting ID and PIN codes are, and if you’re the meeting leader. Then it figures out the best way to connect to the meeting, either launching another app (like Lync or GoToMeeting) or dialing the right access phone number and ID/PIN touch tones to join.”

There are a handful of apps and ideas coming to life at Microsoft Garage. Simply head over to the source link below to read more about them, or visit Microsoft Garage.