Today Embarcadero Technologies released RAD Studio XE8, Delphi XE8, and C++Builder XE8 (press release at www.embarcadero.com/press-releases/major-new-release-rad-studio-xe8). Another great step forward for Windows/VCL and multi-device/FireMonkey developers. Product pages:

As you can see in the main banner images, a core theme is connectivity, with improvements in AppTethering (between VCL and mobile), BlueTooth support, and now also Beacons support in the box. But connectivity is also a driver for the new HTTP client library (also for VCL) based on platform HTTP and HTTPS support (no OpenSSL required), connecting to the GetIt repository to add packages to the IDE, track applications usage by connecting them to the AppAnalytics service, connecting to mobile devices using Push Notifications in EMS, and connecting with Teradata database servers in FireDAC.

Of course, this is only a subset of the new features, with the new iOS 64-bit platform now available, including support for Apple Universal Applications (single app with both 32bit and 64bit binaries), and that is for both Delphi and C++. iOS 64-bit support is highly backwards compatible with existing FireMonkey mobile source code, much more than if you are using Xcode or Xamarin.

There are many new features in the IDE, including developers productivity enhancements, the already mentioned GetIt package manager, a new less cluttered Welcome page, the multi-device preview, direct support for DUnitX and Mercurial version control system... I could continue, with all of the FireMonkey features (from the MapView component to desktop browser component), but you can visit the web site for lots of short product videos, highlighting the features, and you can also refer to the Feature Matrix, which is now a single document shared among the three products www.embarcadero.com/products/rad-studio/rad-studio-feature-matrix.pdf (PDF).

For learning more, wait for your maintenance download (because you are moving to update subscription, aren't you?), download a trial (just follow the links in the respective product pages) or sign up to the RAD Preview RAD XE8 Launch webinar in Thursday at forms.embarcadero.com/WindowsAndBeyond_AnnouncingRADStudio. I'll be online with the other RAD Studio product managers, talk to you at the webinar... 

PS. I'll also visit quite a few countries and events to talk about XE8 in person, stay tuned for the details and also for way more technical information about the product in the coming days and weeks.