Microsoft recently released an update to Windows Azure Mobile Services which enables you to develop applications for iOS, add e-mail capability, integrate SMS and voice services with Twilio including the ability to authenticate users via Windows Live, Facebook, Twitter and Google. Moreover, the new update enables you to deploy Windows Azure applications to the West US region.
The iOS support for Windows Azure enables you to connect iPhone and iPad apps to mobile services. It is still in development phase but the latest libraries are available on GitHub. However, Microsoft has not included a simple push notification service for iOS.
The latest update enables you to make use of Windows Azure Blob, Tables and ServiceBus with your mobile services application using server scripts. These scripts are written in JavaScript and are executed in a secure server side scripting environment built using Node.js from within the Windows Azure portal.
Microsoft has partnered with SendGrid to integrate e-mail solution for your mobile services application. With the help of this feature, you can easily add a welcome e-mail upon successful user registration and also set an alert upon the completion of certain activity, like when a database table is modified.
The latest release provides an ability to add SMS messages (1000 free text messages) using mobile service server scripts and Twilio’s REST API to your application which Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President, Windows Azure Application Platform Team at Microsoft, demonstrated at the recently concluded TwilioCon in San Francisco, USA.
With the help of the latest update, you will be able to deploy mobile services to West US region by selecting the relevant option in the Region drop down from the dashboard.
Microsoft will add support for Windows Server 2012 and .NET Framework 4.5 in an update which is slated to be released by the end of October 2012.