This is the first in a series of articles on implementing Machine Learning scenarios in UWP apps. All of these are cross platform Open Source technologies, all of these are written in C#, all of these are free, and all of these can be used on the UWP platform, albeit with some -hopefully temporary- restrictions. Currently the large majority of the online samples on ML.NET are straightforward console apps. That's fine if want to learn the API, but we want to figure out how ML.NET behaves in a more hostile enterprise-ish environment – where calculations should not block the UI, data should be visualized in sexy graphs, and architectural constraints may apply. Machine learning is a data science technique that allows computers to use existing data to forecast future behaviors, outcomes, and trends.

Minecraft's new Discovery Update later this spring will offer something new to explore: an in-app, paid marketplace of content that users can download for the company's version of the game on the Xbox One and "pocket" mobile editions. The update, due later this spring, stretches Minecraft in two directions. The new Minecraft Marketplace moves the UWP version of the game a bit closer to the moddable worlds familiar to classic players. Initially, Microsoft plans to partner with nine content creators in the first iteration of the Minecraft Marketplace, though a partner program will encourage more to sign up. The Store will provide both "skins" of existing content, as well as new Adventure Maps, where content creators can provide their own custom worlds and rules to lay out a guided story for players to play through.

Two years ago, VLC-maker VideoLan rolled out a version of its popular open source media player for the Windows Store. Now the group is back with a new beta version of VLC for the Windows Store built on the universal Windows platform (UWP) for Windows 10. Even better, the app actually takes advantage of the UWP to bring VLC to multiple Windows 10 device types, including PCs, tablets, Windows 10 Mobile, and even the HoloLens augmented reality headset. As if that wasn't enough, the UWP version of VLC is coming to the Xbox One later this summer once Microsoft opens up the console to third-party UWP apps. The powerful, beloved VLC seems like a perfect showcase for what's possible with UWP on the Xbox One, and a great fit for your TV.

If you still think Minecraft is a PC game--well, you're flat wrong. According to new numbers released by Mojang and Microsoft, the original version for the PC is the least popular platform, in almost every region worldwide. Microsoft said Thursday that Minecraft has sold more than 106,859,714 copies to date across all platforms--which would represent the twelfth most populous nation in the world, right behind Japan. Four copies have even been sold into Antarctica. But if you dig into Microsoft's numbers, they reveal that far, far more users are buying Minecraft on platforms other than the PC.

As developers, we adapt as technologies move from the realm of Science Fiction into readily available SDKs. In the past 5 years, devices have become more personal and demanding of new forms of interaction. In Windows 10, speech is front-and-center with the Cortana personal assistant, and the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) gives us several ways to plug into that "Hey, Cortana" experience. But there's much more that we can do when working with speech from a UWP app and that's true whether working locally on the device or remotely via the cloud. In this 3-part series, we will dig in to some of those speech capabilities and show that speech can be both a powerful and a relatively easy addition to an app.