iOS and Windows Phone toolkit updates have also been released.

Microsoft Releases Windows Azure Toolkit for Android

• By Leila Meyer
• 08/31/11

Microsoft has released its new Windows Azure Toolkit for Android along with updates to the Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone (now version 1.3.0) and Windows Azure Toolkit for iOS (now version 1.2.1).

These tools use the Windows Azure cloud operating-system-as-a-service from Microsoft to make it easier and less expensive for developers to extend their applications across major computing platforms. Developers can use cloud services as a common back-end while maximizing the performance of each mobile device.

The Windows Azure Toolkit for Android was designed to help developers work with Windows Azure from native Android applications developed using Eclipse and the Android software development kit (SDK). It includes native libraries that support storage and authN/Z authentication. It also includes a sample application and unit tests.

New features in Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 1.3.0 include:

• Support for SQL Azure as a membership provider;
• Support for SQL Azure as a data source through an OData service;
• Web applications upgrade to ASP.NET MVC 3; and
• Support for Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio 1.4 and Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1 RC.

Updates to Windows Azure Toolkit for iOS include bug fixes and project restructuring.

Windows Azure Toolkit for Android is available now through the GitHub Web-based hosting service for software development projects. Further information about the toolkit can be found on GitHub.