Brovin Yaroslav

Time is running out for the best deal of the year on RAD Studio, Delphi and C++Builder. Berlin 10.1.2 is the best release in years, with support for all the latest platforms, technologies, databases and features. Act now and you can celebrate Christmas early!

• Upgrade Amnesty qualifies you for upgrade pricing from any previous version
• 20% Off Architect + FREE RAD Server Site License (worth $5000)
• 15% Off Enterprise + All updates into 2018 (with 15 months Update Subscription)
• 10% Off Professional
• Free RAD Bonus Pack for all on Update Subscription
• Buy InterBase Server 50 user license or above and get unlimited InterBase ToGo deployments until 2018!

For all the details on the current special offers visit the RAD Offer page.

When we first launched our Cool App contest, we knew there would be some stiff competition. The winners represent some truly amazing innovations that are helping people live and work more creatively and compassionately. I want to congratulate all these great developers for their innovative use of Embarcadero tools. If this year is any indication, I truly can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2017.

The very first entry to the Cool App contest was 1Password for Windows. This is the premier password and identity manager, and many of us already used it and were fans, but we didn’t know it was written in Delphi. When interviewing the Stefan van As, the developer of 1Password for Windows, it was really clear why he used Delphi: it has a great collection of encryption libraries, fast native code, and everything you need to make amazing user interfaces.

Our next Cool App winner already have a few other awards to it’s name, notably a Technical Achievement Emmy award. And that winner is FrameForge Previz Studio. If you’ve ever seen behind the scenes of a movie you’ve no doubt seen them working with storyboards. A real low-tech way of working through the story and framing before filming begins. Well that has all changed with the introduction of FrameForge 3D pre-visualization software. Not only does it make it much easier to create the storyboard frames, but it understands things like camera spacing, perspective, set layouts and more.

A little back story. I’m a big fan of the TV series Orphan Black, which is about a bunch of clones. This means the main actress plays a number of different roles, and is regularly in scenes where she is interacting with herself. From the very beginning I was impressed with how well the scenes worked. So much so that I checked the credits to see if she was quintuplets or something. When I was interviewing Ken Schafer, the developer of FrameForge, he mentioned that FrameForge was used in the production of Orphan Black. It all made sense. It is only with a tool as powerful and versatile as FrameForge could something so impressive be pulled off so well.

I come from a very musical family. Both of my parents released music albums and all my siblings play a couple instruments by ear and sing beautifully. I’m the one they call when they have computer trouble, but I’ve never been musical. I tried. Took a couple classes, but never really got it. That is where the next winner of our Cool App contest comes in. Introducing EarMaster for the iPad. This is the app for people who want to learn music theory like rhythm and the ability to carry a tune. I downloaded EarMaster and installed it on my iPad and I kid you not, within a few minutes my wife noticed a difference. I’m not ready to release an album yet, but I’m planning to work with EarMaster some more.

Hans Lavdal Jakobsen is the lead developer behind EarMaster. He developed the original EarMaster for Windows in Delphi, and when it came time to create an iPad version he wanted to use Delphi. A few people told him it wouldn’t work, but the end result was he shared 97% of code with the Windows and macOS versions, got to market quicker and had a fantastic native app for iPad.

I was starting to think nothing else could impress me as much as these first few winners. I was wrong, and I’m OK with that. Expresii is the most impressive paint program I’ve ever seen. It uses the GPU for real-time physics simulation of watercolors. I can watch their showcase video over and over again. It is mesmerizing the way you can reposition the tablet to control the flow of the paint as the water flows down the canvas - in real-time! I’m starting to wonder if there is any reason to use paper anymore at all! Nelson Chu tells me that the GPU simulated physics are powered by GLSL and GLScene, and he uses the built in sensor components that come with Delphi to determine the tip of the tablet. He is looking forward to using the new parallel programming library to simulate a split brush in parallel.

Our most recent Cool App winner is something completely different. Built by two sixth grade girls, Suresh and Safalta, from Sherwood Middle School in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, HOP is designed to help prevent both hunger and obesity. The idea is to help people understand the relation between their caloric intake and obesity. So those who are overweight can reduce their caloric intake, and then donate the money they would have spent on food to feed the hungry. It is a brilliant idea.

The thing I love about this story is Suresh and Safalta’s school taught them to use Java and Python for app development, but they were not satisfied with the selection of tools they saw. Until they tried Delphi. As they put it, “Embarcadero provided [an] easy button tool for compiling codes for multiple devices including android, iOS etc. which helped us to develop app quite faster. We are planning to recommend the use of Embarcadero [Delphi] to other kids interested in developing apps.”

We have an impressive collection of apps as contenders for future cool app winners, but we are always looking for more. Maybe it will be your app. Enter today and you could win the opportunity to be highlighted in a future newsletter, blog post and press release, not to mention receiving a $500 Amazon (or equivalent) gift card.

20% Off Architect + FREE RAD Server Site License (worth $5000)

As part of the current RAD Studio Architect Offer, you will get a free site license of RAD Server, an additional $5000 value. The offer ends December 21st, 2016.

The offer is valid with a purchase of RAD Studio, Delphi or C++Builder 10.1 Berlin Architect named user new license or upgrade.  It is not valid with a purchase of Add-On Packs, Starter editions, 5-packs, 10-packs Academic, network named or concurrent licenses.

This great offer also extends to our current Amnesty promotion. Upgrade to Berlin Architect now from an older version and get a free RAD Server Site License.

Customers on Update Subscription can also take advantage of our free Bonus Pack Promotion ($899 Value).

What is RAD Server?

RAD Server is a turn-key application foundation for rapidly building and deploying services based applications. RAD Server enables developers to quickly build new application back-ends or migrate existing Delphi or C++ client/server business logic to a modern services based architecture that is open, stateless, secure and scalable. RAD Server is easy to develop, deploy and operate making it ideally suited for ISVs and OEMs building re-deployable solutions. RAD Server allows you to take your existing code and convert it to REST API endpoints.

RAD Server offers many great features:

• Multi-Tier Development made easy: Integrations provide out of the box connectivity with external servers, applications and services

• Quickly Build your UX Forms for Desktop and Mobile platforms in RAD Studio, Delphi or C++Builder

• Manage your APIs and users, and analyze utilization and API activity via the built-in RAD Server Application Management Portal

• Host your RAD Server on an a private “on prem” Windows server or cloud host on Amazon, Rackspace or Azure Clouds

• Deploy your server-side Delphi and C++ code to RAD Server, creating automatic REST/JSON API endpoints for your clients

• Connect RAD Server to your Enterprise Databases, Cloud Services and IoT Devices to extend your application

• A collection of ready to use key built-in services to power your application

• Includes core functions such as user directory services and user management, push notifications, user location tracking, and built-in data storage

• Configure user groups and add users via the RAD Server portal or import from LDAP. Assign API access rights to control what functionality different user groups have access to

For a full list of features, visit the RAD Server product page.

RAD Studio 10 Seattle and RAD Studio 10.1 Berlin have offered specific support for many features of Windows 10, and the Anniversary Edition (of Update 2) of RAD Studio 10.1 adds more, including the ability to generate Appx packages using the Windows Desktop Bridge and offer full support for Microsoft Windows 10 application Store.

You can find a summary of the features that were already part of the Berlin 10.1 release in the article at https://community.embarcadero.com/article/news/16424-windows-10-anniversary-update-and-rad-studio. As I highlighted there,

"RAD Studio is the only tool that gives developers the ability to leverage existing code and also support the latest Windows APIs. Clearly, RAD Studio has the best migration path to the latest editions of Windows 10."

Windows 10 Support in Previous Versions

This is a summary of the Windows 10 features that were already in the product:

• The best available support for the traditional WinAPI encapsulated via the VCL library and for Windows COM subsystem. This is unmatched by any other tool and library
• Great cross platform support with the ability to build applications with FireMonkey on Windows, migrate them to macOS, but also on tablets using the iOS and Android operating systems.
• Styling support for legacy VCL applications, to modernize their UI seamlessly and with very limited effort

• A collection of WinRT UI controls (added in 10 Seattle) that offer a modern look-and-feel to your controls in the context of the existing VCL library, and in a way that offers full compatibility between Windows 7 and Windows 10

• Support for native WinRT APIs, to leverage new specific Windows 10 features, with ready-to-use components for notifications and contracts

• Easy migration for old VCL applications to the latest versions of Windows, compared to a complete rewrite with a different language and framework

Windows 10 Support in Berlin Anniversary Update

On top of these existing features, the latest Update 2 of Berlin adds some incredible new capabilities for Windows developers, specifically those focused on VCL (but not only):

• There are new Windows 10 styles you can immediately leverage
• There are two new Calendar controls (CalendarView and CalendarPicker), which let you add new WinRT like UI elements to a VCL application,m without loosing Windows 7 compatibility.

• There is support for creating Appx packages integrated into the IDE. You can create both Appx packages for local testing and Ad-Hoc distribution (see http://blog.marcocantu.com/blog/2016-november-building-deploying-appx.html for details and complete steps in the text and the embedded video), or Appx packages ready to be uploaded on Windows Store (read some information at http://blog.marcocantu.com/blog/2016-november-delphi-appx-win10-store.html)

Supporting Windows Store Distribution

RAD Studio is the first IDE with integrated support for the Windows Desktop Bridge and I think this is a clear indication of the importance we put in allowing our customers to migrate their existing code into the future, rather than pushing them to continuously rewrite their applications for the sake of the platform. The Appx distribution and the Windows Store support are likley going to revolutionize Windows software distribution, bot for Enterprises and end users. Having the ability to take your existing VCL applications and your newer multi-device applications to the Windows Store in such a seamless way can certainly open up new opportunities to your business.

Microsoft is looking for more applications to be available on the store, will yours be the next one?

Still not on Berlin? Take advantage of great offers

Finally, if you are still not on Berlin, consider the current great offers (up to 20% off, Amnesty, and more) available until December 21st and detailed at https://www.embarcadero.com/radoffer.