/ XAMARIN

Staying Up To Date with Xamarin Development

Xamarin development is booming and as with any great technology, things change fast and you’ll want to keep up to date with the latest news and releases. Xamarin has such a wonderful, thriving community that it can be a challenge!

I’m often asked by students in Xamarin University classes, what are the best resources to stay up to date with the all the awesomeness. Below are the main resources I use:

Blogs {.p3}

Blogs are probably the most common way of staying up to date with the latest things happening in the Xamarin Community.  There are truck-loads of blogs out there, but if you are just going to follow a couple of blogs, then make it these ones:

  • The Xamarin Blog: The official Xamarin blog which gets updated just about every day with new great aricles.
  • Community Blogs (Planet Xamarin): An aggregation of some of the best blogs out there in the community. It is managed by Xamarin and includes posts from a lot of Xamarin staff and MVPs.

Instead of listing out all the other great blogs here, I have a list of blogs I read on Xamarin / Development stuff at this link. (you can even grab the OPML file there).

Newsletters {.p3}

You can spend a lot of time going down the rabbit hole of reading all the blogs out there. Sometimes it’s easier to subscribe to a newsletter and let all that delicious Xamarin news come to you. Here are some of the best:

Xamarin Specific {.p5}

These are the Xamarin specific newsletters and link blogs I follow:

  • Weekly Xamarin: A hand-picked round up of the best Xamarin development links every week. Curated by Geoffrey Huntley and published every Friday. Free.
  • All About Xamarin: Dan Rigby has “The latest tips, tutorials, news, and resources for Xamarin app developers.” delivered daily.
  • Quick’s Xamarin News A daily dose of news about anything Xamarin.
  • Xamarin Forms Monthly Newsletter – A monthly newsletter of Xamarin awesomeness!

More General {.p5}

As Xamarin developers it’s also good to keep up on what’s going on around the .NET space, here are some Feeds I follow:

Social Media {.p3}

Twitter {.p5}

Twitter isn’t just for letting everyone know what you had for breakfast, it’s also an great way of staying up to date with the latest happenings. Here are some key twitter accounts and lists you can follow:

  • @XamarinHQ: The official twitter account for Xamarin.
  • @XamarinU: Xamarin University specific updates.
  • @XamarinEvents: Stay up to date with the latest Xamarin Events around the world.
  • Xamarin MVPs List: Kerry Lothrop has a list of all the Xamarin MVP twitter accounts.
  • XamarinDevs: Another list of Xamarin accounts, this one is via Dan Vanderboom.
  • XamarinTweeteers: I also have a list of people who tweet about xamarin.
  • XamUInstructors: Rob Gibbens has a list of Xamarin University Instructor tweet accounts.
  • Search Twitter: Finally you can just search twitter for Xamarin updates from everyone. Or you can search for Xamarin related accounts here.

Linked In {.p5}

There are at least 26.2 Billion reasons to look here. Here are some key groups:

Facebook {.p5}

Facebook is good for posting pictures of your family, but it’s also got some good Xamarin groups:

Podcasts {.p3}

You can’t beat podcasts for “on the go” information, check these ones out:

  • Xamarin Podcast: The home of the official Xamarin Podcast, bringing mobile developers the latest news and information about Xamarin and mobile development.
  • Gone Mobile Podcast: Hosted by Greg Shackles, Gone Mobile is a podcast discussing the latest in mobile development, with a healthy bias towards Xamarin technologies. The podcast covers in-depth topics with guests ranging from Android, iOS, Windows Phone & Store development to mobile marketing and design, as well as other mobile or not so mobile related technologies.
  • Merge Conflict: A new podcast from James Montemagno and Frank A. Krueger (two developer legends) this is a weekly discussion on all things development, technology, & more.

Videos {.p3}

Some people prefer videos to learn and stay up to date

Releases, Support & Help {.p1}

Sometimes you just want to chat to other developers to keep up to speed.

  • Xamarin Chat Slack Team: This slack team is full of knowledgeable developers. A great resource.
  • Xamarin Forums: The official Xamarin forums is always a great place to ask questions and get answers. Be part of the community.
  • Stack Overflow: Stack Overflow has lots of questions and answers around Xamarin.
  • Xamarin Releases Page: This page shows all the releases across the various products, including older verions. The Current link gives an overview of the current state of our distribution channels and preview releases. And within each of these you’ll find links to the release notes and known issues.
  • Xamarin Bugzilla: Where all the juicy bugs are found.

IRL {.p1}

Nothing beats meeting fellow developers In Real Life, here are some links to help you meet them

  • Xamarin Meetups: Listing of meetup groups over at the Meetup sight.
  • Xamarin Dev Days: Xamarin Dev Days provide attendees with an intense, hands-on learning experience. Spend the morning exploring mobile development with sessions from Xamarin, our technology partners, and members of your local developer community, then roll up your sleeves for an afternoon dedicated to diving into code.

Books {.p1}

I don’t spend a lot of time reading books on Xamarin, however, I couldn’t go without mentioning the a couple of free Xamarin books that have excellent content and are totally free.

What about Android and iOS {.p1}

Yup, we should never forget that as Xamarin developers we are also Android and iOS developers, here are some resources:

  • Android Developers on Google+: A place for Android developers everywhere to meet, share and discuss the latest on Android development. This is the official Google+ home of the Android Engineering teams.
  • Android Weekly: a free newsletter that helps you to stay cutting-edge with your Android Development.
  • Indie iOS Focus: Indie iOS Focus Weekly is focused on iOS developers and is hand curated every Thursday.
  • Ray Wenderlich: This blog is focused on developing high quality programming tutorials for both iOS and Android (mostly iOS though).
  • iOS Dev Weekly: a hand-picked round up of the best iOS development links every week. Curated by Dave Verwer and published every Friday. Free.

Hopefully this list of resources above will give you a launching point for staying up to date with Xamarin Development. There are so many great resources out there for Xamarin development I’m sure I’ve missed a few.

Let me know in the comments or shoot me an email and let me know your must-check-out resources.

Happy Coding!!!

kphillpotts

Kym Phillpotts

Geek, Parent, Human, Senior Content Developer at Microsoft. Co-curator of http://weeklyxamarin.com and twitch streaming live coding at http://twitch.tv/kymphillpotts.

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