app

Pandora Radio proof-of-concept app for Windows Phone 7 [Video]

News

By Daniel Rubino, Monday, Oct 10, 2011 at 6:39 am

Justin Angel, Silverlight and Windows Phone developer, has done some digging around the Pandora AIR app as well as their service in general and has come to a single conclusion: this is all very compatible with Windows Phone 7. Which raises the obvious question: Where's the app?

In a series of Tweets, Justin breaks down what he finds:

"Playing a @pandora_radio "internal-tuner.pandora.com" MP4 on my WP7 right now. From a technical perspective a WP7 Pandora app is quite easy."

"Finished decompiling @pandora_radio AIR app. this can DEFINITELY be ported to WP7. It's all JSON auth and MP4s. WTF Pandora? Just port this."

"@pandora_radio you've got some 'splainin to do! Your format matches WP7 specs to the letter. Where's your WP7 app?"

Indeed. And to prove his assertions, he very quickly whipped up a XAP file which successfully pulls down the Pandora information and allows flawless streaming to our phones. Sure, the frippery of up/down voting is not present, nor are the on-screen controls, but those are easy to add. What's important is the data and interaction with Pandora's servers that count and for all intents and purposes, they work flawlessly and beautifully with Windows Phone. So where's the app? Hopefully something official is in the pipes as there is no technical reason for it not to exist. (There is this tweet from Leon Zandman which may suggest something).

If you have a developer unlocked device, you can grab the XAP file from Justin here.

Spotify/Sharpotify 7 for Windows Phone [Video]

News

By Rich Edmonds, Saturday, Oct 8, 2011 at 1:09 pm

Now we have background streaming at hand, let us return to the whole "Where is Spotify?" question still on many minds who pay for the subscription. We know it's well under way as the service was announced by Microsoft to be coming in Mango earlier this year. For those who simply can't wait for the official app, in the video above, we can see a demo of what appears to be a third-party Spotify app (Sharpotify 7) for Windows Phone with expected features.

The code is stated to be Alpha so it's still early days but we like what we see thus far - playlist support and support, being two vital features of the service.

Via: PhoneTitan

Nokia releases first app that highlights apps

Apps

By Rich Edmonds, Saturday, Sep 24, 2011 at 7:43 pm

While we're all still eagerly awaiting Nokia's first handset to hit stores before the year is out the manufacturer has decided to launch itself onto the Marketplace with Top App. "What does Top App do?" you might ask, well it highlights apps that are worthy of download in Nokia's view.

Some highlighted features:

Update live apps on the home screen
Consultation of the content featured, carefully selected each day for you
Lists of the best apps local and global, never miss anything Research and consultation of new apps is fast and fun.

It doesn't look like Top App is available for download just yet but you can view the Marketplace listing here (opens Zune).

Source: MonWindowsPhone Thanks to everyone who tipped us on this!

BBC Radio Player app chimes onto the Marketplace

Apps

By Rich Edmonds, Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 at 9:43 pm

Good news UK users (and for anyone else who can gain access)! Igneous Software has released a BBC Radio app that features 6 Music, 5 Live, Radio 1 Extra, Asian Network, World Service, BBC Ulster, BBC Wales and BBC Scotland as well as the main stations. Highlighted features include:

Choose from all BBC Radio stations
Now and next programme guide
Full integration with music + video hub
Playback continues under lock screen
Ability to block GSM-based streaming
Buffering confirmed with audible “pips”
Comprehensive programme caching
Dynamic server management

BBC Radio Player is a well polished app and the streaming over both WiFi and 3G is smooth and reliable. You can download the app from the Marketplace for £0.99 ($1.29) - four standalone apps are available for BBC Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 but these stations are included in BB Radio Player itself.

TouchStudio updated to 1.2

News

By Rich Edmonds, Friday, May 27, 2011 at 11:23 am

TouchStudio, the app from Microsoft Research that allows users to create their own scripts and run them on their devices, has just been updated to 1.2. This update brings a fast game and physics engine which enables support for scripts to take advantage (there's a demo ninja game included in the release) and you can now pin scripts to the TouchStudio home screen.

For all you heavy Facebook users, you are now able to post to your wall within your scripts. Global variables are introduced as well as a number of other improvements. The new features in this fun little app are welcomed and it hasn't been a month since 1.1 was released, we look forward in seeing wht else will be added in the near future.

Mango developer tools available today

News

By Phil Nickinson, Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 3:30 pm

Can't have a major OS update without developer tools, right? And to that end, Microsoft has announced that the beta release of the Windows Phone Developer Tools that work with Mango will be available at some point today.

The big strokes, according to Microsoft:

Background processing
New profiler and emulator for testing
Use of Silverlight + XNA together
Silverlight 4
IE9 web browser control
Live Tile enhancements: use of back of tiles and ability to update Live Tiles locally
Deep linking into apps from notifications and Live Tiles
Additional sensors; direct camera access, compass & gyro
Fast application switching
Networking / sockets for communications
Local SQL database for structured storage
Access to calendar and contacts for apps

And that's just the tip of the iceburg. Along iwth the Mango release, the Marketplace is opening up to an addition 19 countires. They are: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, India, Japan, Korea (South), Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and Taiwan.

A fine update, indeed. Get the full deets at the Windows Phone dev blog, linked below.

Source: Windows Phone Developer Blog. Download: Mango Developer Tools

Announcing the Official WPCentral app for Windows Phone 7

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Friday, May 20, 2011 at 8:48 pm

Yes everyone, you read that right. After months of planning and developing, we are excited and proud to deliver our very own, official app. What's more, it is chock full of features, delivering almost every feature of our website in a streamlined, minimalist fashion.

Developed by Jay Bennett, the app has been submitted to the Marketplace and (fingers crossed) it should be live by Monday evening. So, enough chatter, lets hit the features:

Read homepage, reviews, apps, games or how-to sections
View comments associated with each article
Watch videos and view pictures posted in each article
Full search for any previous articles, including by section
Search through YouTube videos from the site
Deep links to the marketplace with articles featuring other apps
Listen to the latest podcast on your device through the app
Clean, simple user interface design and great user experience
Sharing of articles through E-mail, SMS or Twitter
Full landscape support
Live tile for the latest headlines

Not too shabby for a v1.0, eh? The app comes in two flavors: the full, premium-experience version is $0.99--no ads, all the features or the free, unlimited "trial" version (same as full version, but has ads and some missing features--unlimited use though).

So check out the vid for the tour and in a few short days, you can be using it too. Feedback is welcomed, so comment away.

TouchStudio Updated to 1.1

By Rich Edmonds, Monday, May 2, 2011 at 8:09 pm

We recently covered Microsoft's incredibly entertaining Touch Studio for Windows Phone 7, which allows one to create scripts that take advantage of the API's and access available on the OS and hardware. The app has now been updated to 1.1 (beta). The changes are listed below:

Many bug fixes
Better auto-completion in expression editor
Access to accelerometer, location, maps, translation services, web search, tile customization, charting, and more.
Take screenshots of your actions (if you want to show other people your code), and the execution wall; look for the "send screenshot to library" button under the “…” in the application bar.
API changes (see below). If you update an existing installation, all your existing scripts get renamed to "v1.0 ...". Since we changed APIs, your old scripts might have errors which you have to edit and fix yourself.

HTC releases Hidden WiFi app for Windows Phone

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Apr 14, 2011 at 8:19 pm

Hooray! If you're an HTC Windows Phone user, you can now go to the Marketplace and download a free app to connect to hidden WiFi networks.

For those who may have forgotten, Microsoft disallows the addition of Hidden SSIDs for WiFi networks, irking many who have such a setup. It's a philosophical thing for them but those in reality, it's not very convenient.

Now, with this HTC app, you can punch in the hidden SSID or network name and it'll add it your WiFi list. The app is barebones simple so we think it should be simple enough for you to figure out. Remember, only HTC phones can use this and if you have click that link below on your phone.

Grab the app here; via WPSauce

MIX11 Outsider brings the social to MIX [Developers]

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Friday, Apr 8, 2011 at 6:23 pm

Yesterday we covered Microsoft's official MIX11 app for next week's big ol' dev conference in Las Vegas (yes, we'll be there) as well as two other third party apps, which are just as good.

Today, we have a new, but very different one from Matthias Shapiro called 'MIX11 Outsider' and it's like a Foursquare plus MIX11:

MIX11 Outsider is the MIX11 app that doesn’t care about your schedule. It cares about something more important: the people you want to talk to, meet, or otherwise hang out with at MIX. Using a map of the conference floor and a simple “battleship” mapping metaphor, you can tweet, email or text your position at the conference. Don’t eat alone in awkward silence… instead find that Twitter friend who doesn’t have a clear picture of themselves in their avatar. Don’t spend half your pre-keynote time waving your hands in the air. Just tap where you are on the map and send out a link like this one.

As you can see from the video, the app is quite awesome and a great way to find out where those people are that you want to chat with. Unfortunately, Matthias has been unable to get the app through the Marketplace, meaning you'll have to sideload it before the conference--not a problem for a room full of devs, just remember to grab the XAP now to have it on hand. And look for @wpcentral / @malatesta77 at MIX11 as well, as we've just loaded up this app. [Edit: no joke, this is one of the nicest apps we've tinkered with--very fast and elegant--a must have for MIX11 attendees!]

Source: Designer Silverlight

SlingPlayer for Windows Phone 7 - Review

Apps

By Tim Ferrill, Tuesday, Mar 1, 2011 at 6:03 am

The whole point of owning a smartphone is to maintain a constant connection with the things that are important to you. Your calendar, email, pictures, documents, and music are all right at your fingertips with a Windows Phone.

We’ve talked about Slingboxes and their associated apps before; but with Windows Phone 7 our devices are much more media-centric and offer better performance, making something like Sling Player something worth considering.

Pros:

Works well with SlingBox, simple UI.

Cons:

Defaults to low quality video. Expensive app, expensive hardware.

MWC 11 snubs Windows Phone 7: no official app

News

By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Feb 10, 2011 at 11:23 pm

We're prepping for our 4k mile hike to the Mobile World Congress and just received an email about the official phone app for the event. Perhaps not too surprisingly, Windows Phone 7 is left off of the compatibility list, with out guess being that MWC/Whatamap.com did not feel it was popular enough. (Boo, hiss)

Two thoughts though: with Ballmer giving a keynote, dealing with Windows Phone 7, this kind of looks a bit unimpressive. Second, Microsoft should have commissioned someone to do it for them (like they did with the upcoming MIX 11)--though perhaps MWC would have been too daunting a task.

The good news is Windows Mobile 6 is covered, which means we just dusted off our LG eXpo for the event (1GHz baby! Resistive screen, eck!). But we just had a sad thinking we need to cover this event using a Windows Mobile device. That and our Twikini is dead.

Official Flickr app for Windows Phone 7 now available

By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Feb 3, 2011 at 5:08 am

Sure, it's a couple days late, but what's that between friends? Yes folks, the official Flickr app from Yahoo! has finally arrived and it is as glorious as you expected it to be.

We won't go into too much detail now, just run and grab it in the Marketplace as we think it was worth the wait.

Bonus: Turns out Flickr was holding out on us as the app has a Live Tile, which seems to update every hour with a new, random pic.

MIX11 app for Windows Phone now available [Developers]

By Daniel Rubino, Sunday, Jan 30, 2011 at 12:14 am

For those of you attending this years MIX11 in Vegas aka the annual conference "...for web developers and designers at which Microsoft showcases upcoming web technologies", you'll be pleased to know you can get the app now for your Windows Phone. MIX11 will be important for Windows Phone developers--we're expecting a big turn out this year and a heavy focus on Microsoft's new mobile OS.

Featuring the full listings of the schedule (eventually), speakers, sessions, maps, extras and even a way to favorite things (for quicker access), the app is beautifully written with a focus on minimalism, speed and has the ability to update over 3g. It should be fun to see everyone walking around with their Windows Phone using this come April.

Grab the app here in the Marketplace.

Software Review: Need For Speed Undercover

Apps

By Tim Ferrill, Tuesday, Nov 30, 2010 at 10:10 pm

Need For Speed is one of the most recognizable game titles ever. As the quintessential racing game, Need For Speed games offer a number of different racing styles and game types. I personally cut my teeth on Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, Porsche Unleashed, and Underground; all of which offered very different game-play styles, car options, and race types. Additionally, as one of the most recognized names in the Xbox Live category in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace; Need For Speed Undercover is one of the games that Microsoft is using to showcase Windows Phone and Xbox Live as a mobile gaming platform (see Dan’s post on how Microsoft is chipping away at Apple’s exclusivity).

You’ve already seen the first look at Need For Speed, let’s get into the details of what makes this one of the more complete games in the Xbox Live arsenal.

Pros:

Intense graphics, high level of customizations, intuitive controls

Cons:

Slightly expensive

Software Review (Windows Phone 7): Office Hub

By Tim Ferrill, Wednesday, Nov 17, 2010 at 12:07 am

Microsoft is one of the most diverse technology companies in the world. Search, Gaming, enterprise class Mail and Storage solutions, and of course Mobile; Microsoft is among the world leaders in all of these areas.

Microsoft Office is one of the most popular software suites ever. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have been used by millions of people throughout the world. As such a popular set of tools, the Office products are also the de facto standard for document portability. Because of the sheer popularity of Office, even competing products are forced to offer as much support for Office documents as possible.

Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft’s attempt to put their best foot forward in the mobile market. But how does the Office Hub live up to the high standards that Microsoft has set for itself? Read the review for my opinion.

Pros:

Very Usable, Syncs with SkyDrive and SharePoint

Cons:

Not yet a full featured product, lack of Cut & Paste hurts

First look: IMDB on Windows Phone 7

By Daniel Rubino, Monday, Oct 11, 2010 at 4:44 pm

One of the surprises today was the inclusion of the popular movie site IMDB.com. The standalone app is extremly fast, smooth and chalk full of movie info goodness.

Here are a couple of shots of that app in action after the break. More to come later!

New YouTube update brings suggestions to Windows Mobile app

By Phil Nickinson, Wednesday, Mar 10, 2010 at 10:29 pm

Google today took the lid of an update for its Windows Mobile YouTube app, taking it up to Version 2.4 and bringing a few new features online.

There are now search suggestions (which you see above), along with "My Account" settings and a new homescreen that's redesigned for larger screens.

Head on over to m.youtube.com/app to download the latest version. [Google Mobile]

Project Resistance offers an inside look at developing, selling an app

News

By Phil Nickinson, Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009 at 4:59 pm

Ever wonder what it takes to develop an app, and get it into the Windows Marketplace for Mobile? Developers Alex Feinman and Chris Tacke are the duo behind Project Resistance, which offers an inside look at the processes.

From their blog:

Project Resistance is intended to be a fully transparent view into the process of conceiving, developing and selling an application for Windows Mobile. The idea here is that anyone will be able to look at how sausage gets made.

We're going to start by creating a production-quality application, following best practices for coding, etc. etc. All of the source code will be published here, and we will blog about the process, the thoughts we have, and the hurdles we encounter. Bear in mind that Alex and I are already experienced WinMo/Win CE developers, so it's not going to be a beginner's How-to type of process. We're not here to teach you how to wire up an event.

So, it's not really for beginners. But it looks like it will be a really good look at what devs go through in bringing us the thousands of Windows Mobile apps available today.

And as a side note, Project Resistance has sparked a smiliar project for an iPhone app, and it should bring about some great material. Case in point: "Looking at his posts and how easy a time he's having so far makes me almost jealous. If it weren't for the facts that you have to subject your eyes to the abomination known as Objective-C and you have to work on a Mac I just might be."

Zing!

Blog.opennetcf.com

YouTube Mobile App gets bumped to v2.23. Why? We have no idea.

By Phil Nickinson, Thursday, Jun 18, 2009 at 2:47 am

Though we'd be straining to tell you specifically what has changed with v2.23 since Google evidently doesn't believe in change logs or auto-updates via software (rolls eyes), we can tell you that this is a newer version from v2.09. Yep. That's why we get paid the big bucks here at WMExperts.

Actually, some of the controls during play seemed to have changed a bit (shrunk down?) and there seem to be some nice animation effects. But perhaps that's just out imagination. Maybe you can help discern the mystery.

Anyways, go here to directly download the .cab to your phone.