Top 10 reasons Day 2 of Build rocked it for developers

On Thursday, Microsoft unveiled more technology and innovations that help every developer easily and simply build intelligent apps and services. Here’s why Day 2 of Build rocked it for developers:

10. Skype me, baby: The new Skype for Business App SDK and Skype Web SDK enable companies to integrate Skype calls directly within their Web or device offering.

9. Howdy, partners: Nickelodeon, NASCAR and Hulu announced plans to bring Windows 10 Universal Windows Apps to Xbox One later this year.

8. This is virtual reality: Vuforia announced support of their Augmented Reality SDK for Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform and showed how it’d work on Microsoft HoloLens.

7. Connect the dots: The developer portal for Office 365 Connectors is now available for developers to write and publish their own connectors, which deliver relevant content, such as updates on financial records or helpdesk logs, from popular apps and services directly into Office 365 Groups conversations.

6. Third-party on: Six new APIs for the Microsoft Graph link Office 365 data to third-party solutions. What this means for developers? Smarter, more contextually aware apps.

5. The Internet of Things goes to space: A collaboration between the Quest Institute and Microsoft delivered the first Windows IoT implementation in space. Students from San Jose’s Valley Christian Schools showed off an experiment that will run on the International Space Station.

4. Visualize this: Fully embed interactive reports and visualizations in any customer-facing application, on any device using a preview of Power BI Embedded.

3. Making the future easy with the cloud: Also available, a bevy of Azure services and solutions to build for the cloud of tomorrow, including Azure Service Fabric, Azure Functions and new Azure IoT Starter Kits for anyone with Windows or Linux experience to quickly and inexpensively build IoT prototypes.

2. I’ll take a meeting room with my triple venti no-foam soy latte, please: For customers who already use Word, Excel and PowerPoint, it’ll be easier to reach them through creating tabs and buttons found in those apps’ ribbons. One example of how this could work: Starbucks is developing an Outlook add-in so people can send gift cards within Outlook and schedule meetings at nearby Starbucks locations.

And the No. 1 reason Build rocked it for developers on Day 2:

1. Mobile made easy: Starting Thursday, Xamarin’s cross-platform development will be available as part of Visual Studio Community for free, and Xamarin Studio for OS X will also be available for free as a Community Edition.

Also, check out the top 10 reasons Build rocked it for developers on Day 1.