developers

Windows Phone development on a Slate [Developers]

By RogueCode, Tuesday, Jan 3, 2012 at 7:44 am

Those of you who follow the Microsoftie world will probably know of the Samsung Series 7 Slate. Microsoft gave these out for free to every attendee of the BUILD developer conference in Anaheim this past September (press had to return them though). Roughly a month after the conference they popped up on the Microsoft Store available for pre-order - albeit slightly nerfed.

I finally bought myself one in December for Windows 8 development. Since then I haven't really touched any dev in Windows 8 (going to wait for the Beta) and have just been using it as my secondary Operating System. What I have been doing on the Slate though, is WP7. And it's awesome!

Take a look at the spec's below:

Display: 11.6 in SuperBright LED-backlit HD (1366 x 768) - 8 finger multi-touch

Processor: Intel Core i5-2467M 1.60 GHz

Memory: 4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz

Hard drive: 128 GB SSD (also available in 32GB and 64GB)

While it doesn't look particularly powerful in relation to today's desktop's and laptop's - it really does pack quite a punch. Booting into Windows 7 takes around 20 seconds to be fully loaded and Windows 8 a mere 10 seconds. For day-to-day tasks there isn't a single program that my 6-core Phenom can run faster (presumably this is because of the SSD).

Here is a short video demonstrating an app, Relaxify X, running in the emulator, along with deploying it to an actual device:

So if you have a thousand bucks spare and want a really shiny late Christmas present, I suggest picking one of these up. There's no denying that they are very expensive for what you get compared to a traditional laptop, but if you're looking to get into the Windows 8 market early, or just want to do Windows Phone 7 development without being tied to a device then it's perfect.

'31 Days of Windows Phone Metro Design' series launches

By Daniel Rubino, Monday, Jan 2, 2012 at 3:22 pm

We previously covered 31 Days of Mango app development, a daily post on the best way to make apps on Windows Phone. Now we're kicking off the new year with a '31 Days of Windows Phone Metro Design' lead by Arturo Toledo, a Sr. User Experience Designer at Microsoft for the Windows Phone Design Studio:

"We usually refer to “Metro” as the UI design style Microsoft is using in their platform and the one Microsoft is exposing for developers and designers to create apps for Windows Phone (I’m focusing on Windows Phone in this series). But let’s delve a bit deeper into the term “Metro” and explore what it really means. To begin with, Metro is defined by two things: Metro Design Principles and Metro Design Language..."

The series looks to be pretty killer and we hope developers take note. One thing we have learned from user feedback here at WPCentral is that you folks are Metro-fanatics--if an app doesn't look Metro enough, a lot of you tend to rip it up in reviews. That's important for devs to remember when making apps as the more Metro it looks, the better the reviews tend to be (although there is room for going outside of Metro, see SoundHound, Shazam and Tweet It!).

Anyways, devs, bookmark and learn from this series. You ignore it at your own peril in the Marketplace as Windows Phone users have spoken: they want Metro.

Source: ux.artu.tv

Free gadgets for UK dev's [Developers]

Developers

By RogueCode, Tuesday, Dec 27, 2011 at 2:58 pm

Yesterday we covered The Developer Movement where Microsoft Canada was giving away goodies to developers for publishing apps.
Apologies for this being rather delayed but we have good news for those of you in the UK! A while back MSDN UK started their own promotion where you get 1 point for every app you publish in the Marketplace. You can then redeem those points for gadgetry by either saving up the points for something big, or just redeeming them for prizes as you go.

Here's a brief summary of some of the prizes, but be sure to hit the source link to go find out the rest:

For 1 point:
Pure One Mini Black Compact Radio

A 12 month magazine subscription

A Champagne Afternoon Tea for 2

For 4 points:
A Pocket Cinema Projector

An Xbox 360 Console (250GB HDD)

A Performance Car Experience

There are additional benefits if you are a student.

The closing date is the 5th of February, so I recommend stocking up on your energy drink of choice ASAP.

Source: MSDN UK Team Blog

Blame Canada, for an awesome competition [Developers]

Developers

By RogueCode, Monday, Dec 26, 2011 at 3:13 pm

Did you get a shiny lump of coal for Christmas? Not planning on keeping it until the world's reserves run low? Don't worry, Microsoft has your back! The good people over at Microsoft Canada have just started a promotion entitled "The Developer Movement" where they are handing out cool toys to dev's just for publishing high-quality apps to the Windows Phone Marketplace up until May 20'th 2012.

So what do you get? It's based on how many apps you publish within that time, and here are the rewards:

PUBLISH 1 QUALITY APP
       Select a reward below:

A Kinect™ Sensor for Xbox 360®

10,000 Microsoft Points

Monster® Beats™ Headphones

A 1TB External HD

PUBLISH 2 QUALITY APPS
      Select a reward below:

    A Windows® Phone 7

    A $500 Gift Voucher

    35,000 Microsoft Points

    An Xbox 360® with Kinect Bundle

PUBLISH 3 QUALITY APPS
      Your apps will be considered by our judges for publicity across:

    The Xbox Newsletter

    The Xbox Live Dashboard

    MSDN Website

    MSDN Flash Newsletter

    Canadian Developer Blog

The website also mentions that the first 200 people that register (for the Developer Movement) may get their AppHub account for free. So if you're a Canadian developer then what are you waiting for? It really is a win-win offer.

Cool, eh?

Source: The Developer Movement; Thanks, @archiecoder, for the tip!

Visual Studio Achievements for Windows Phone beta [Developers]

Developers

By RogueCode, Saturday, Dec 24, 2011 at 4:07 pm

In case you didn't get the memo, the world now runs on achievements. I would say that it's rather superficial, but honestly that magic little sound my XBOX makes when it thinks I'm awesome is just plain addictive. Yip, most of us have this weird compulsion - whether it's beating that final boss in some ridiculously hard kill-em-all, or serving 20 customers in one level in Sally's Salon.

So why is it just for games? Well, a little while ago the great minds at Channel 9 decided that us developers deserved a piece of the pie too, and launched Visual Studio Achievements.

What more could we need?

Personally I think there needs to be a lot more achievements added, but besides that Den Delimarsky seems to have hit the nail on the head. He has just released the beta of Visual Studio Achievements for Windows Phone which you can use to track achievements plus compare yourself to others (for modern-day bragging rights of course). There is also Live Tile integration plus a load of other features he has planned. And quite frankly, it's beautiful:

So if you didn't have enough reason to be using VS Achievements before, you do now.

Den is currently running the beta for all who are interested, so I would jump on the band-wagon quickly before all the space fills up. As with all beta's run through the marketplace you will need to provide him with you LiveID and your phone does not have to be unlocked.

Hit up the link below for more details.

Source: Den by default

The Lumia 800 guide on What Not To Do

By RogueCode, Friday, Dec 23, 2011 at 4:18 am

Most people like starting things off on a positive note, but I’m of the belief that you should get the horrid stuff out of the way first, and go uphill from there.

Since I got my Windows Phone 7 I have taken it upon myself to bring as many people as I can over to our side. You can think of me as one of the Microsoft WP7 Evangelists – but without the, you know, money. So I was rather pleased when I found out a family member was getting the Nokia Lumia 800. Nokia took their sweet time to finally get a phone to market so it could only be assumed that it would be a really rockin’ device, right?

After playing with the phone I immediately realized that was only half true. As a developer I pride myself in knowing that I have developed great stuff. It isn’t perfect (else I would be Popcap), but I avoid the obvious pitfalls as much as I can, and for the most part, do lots of QA before publishing. Sadly, it looks like Nokia (and Microsoft), who must have approved it all, didn’t focus too much on the software side. Here’s why…

Phonegap framework v1.3 brings full support to Windows Phone

By JayTBennett, Tuesday, Dec 20, 2011 at 5:20 am

Developing cross platform apps just got that bit easier with the announcement that the PhoneGap community have released v1.3 of their open source framework for Windows Phone, bringing with it all features of the API.

For those wondering what PhoneGap is all about, the simplest explanation is that it's a development framework based around HTML5, CSS and javascript. This means that if you feel comfortable creating web pages in HTML5 you can now try your hand at Windows Phone Development (or if you wanted an alternative to C# and XAML coding). Of course as the framework is available across several smartphone operating systems you can then port your application to the majority of the smartphone-weilding public.

Going one step further, there is some plugin support for searching with Bing maps as well as live tile implementations, allowing PhoneGap developers to take advantage of some of Windows Phone's unique features should they so desire. Finally, as Jesse MacFadyen details in his blog, existing Silverlight controls (such as advertising banners etc) can be integrated with PhoneGap apps.

What does this mean for consumers? With the Smartphone market expanding whilst still supporting so many ecosystems, developers are increasingly keen to keep things cross platform, rather than write an app for each OS. With frameworks such as PhoneGap now supporting Windows Phone fully, we will start to see these apps finding their way to our devices of choice.

Are you keen to try developing a Windows Phone app using web tools, or do you have an oppinion on cross platform apps versus bespoke developed apps? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: MSDN, via WMPowerUser

Feed Me removed from the Marketplace

By George Ponder, Saturday, Dec 17, 2011 at 11:52 am

For those not familiar, Feed Me is a well laid out RSS reader for your Windows Phone (here's our review). We've been contacted by the developer of Feed Me, forty3degrees, and informed that the Windows Phone app has been temporarily removed from the Marketplace.

"Feed Me will be temporarily removed from the marketplace within the next few days. Due to personal reasons I am unable to further develop or support feed me for the immediate future. However, I do hope to have a new version back online towards the end of the first quarter of 2012.Thanks go out to all of the people that have supported feed me over the last 10 months."

The developer is considering publishing an unsupported beta version of Feed Me until he can get a new version back on the Marketplace. You can reach out to forty3degrees through their website or Twitter account (@forty3degrees) should you need to reinstall Feed Me or voice your support for the Windows Phone app.

Dream.Build.Play Challenge 2012 to include Windows Phone games, awesomeness

By Paul Acevedo, Wednesday, Dec 14, 2011 at 2:28 pm

For years, Microsoft’s Dream.Build.Play Challenge has showcased and inspired some of the best and most innovative indie games around. Developers get the chance to compete for cash and prizes as well as showcase the fruits of their labors to the world. Most winners produce their games on Xbox 360 and XBLIG titles, with many seeing PC releases as well.

The 2012 competition looks to be the best one yet. For the first time, the contest will feature a Windows Phone category. The winners will likely go on to be hit indie titles in the Marketplace, but there’s always a chance they’ll be picked up as Xbox Live titles instead. The 2008 winner, Carneyvale: Showtime, went on to become a Games for Windows Live title on PC and Xbox Live title on Windows Phone.

The Dream.Build.Play Challenge is open to developers from around the world. Games are evaluated on the criteria of Innovation, Fun Factor, and Production Quality. Winners will be announced in the summer of 2012. Learn more about the contest and past winners at the official Dream.Build.Play web site and the Facebook fan page.

Justin Angel giving away 5 Nokia Lumia 800s to homebrew developers

By Rich Edmonds, Tuesday, Dec 13, 2011 at 5:15 pm

Justin Angel, a well known character within the Windows Phone community and who was recently hired by Nokia, is giving away 5 Nokia Lumia 800s (our review) to homebrew developers over at the XDA Developers forum. Although this is no competition or sweepstake, as Angel will be selecting only those who need the device and will put it to good use by creating and developing apps for the community or for those who own Lumia handsets. Here are the goals that the homebrew developers who wish to apply need to have (set out by Angel):

Port existing homebrew apps/features/hacks to Nokia Lumia 800.

Create new Nokia Lumia specific homebrew apps/features/hacks.

Anything else that you can convince him makes sense.

So, how does one get hold of said free phones? It's pretty simple. You are to respond to Angel's forum post (source link below) with the following:

What will you use the Nokia Lumia 800 for? The more specific the better. (see the aforementioned list of goals)

Up to 3 links (+ explanation) showing that you have the previous experience required to meet your development goal.

Anything else you think will help you get one of the Lumia 800 phones.

When does this offer close? December 23rd, or later (depending on when submissions die down). Also, this is not limited to the U.S., should you live elsewhere you may still enter. See photo of the handsets above. Head on over to the developers forum to submit your entry and be sure to read through Angel's post to get the best idea on how to approach your application.

Source: XDA Developers Forum; via PC

ScrollMotion Inc releasing more than 10 apps in one day

News

By Rich Edmonds, Thursday, Dec 8, 2011 at 9:33 am

Microsoft recently restricted the amount of apps developers can submit to the Marketplace to 10 per-day. This was in response to a continued injection of spam, some apps being completely useless. As one can see in the above video, captured by SolidSnakeSK, ScrollMotion Inc. has been able to submit more than 10 apps (or books in this case) to the Marketplace, which were approved. While this isn't spam as such, it does prove to be an issue with scrolling through "new" apps etc. and one can only assume that certain developers can bypass the restrictions depending on what they're submitting.

It would make sense for one app to be used as a gateway (or digital book shelf) where books can be purchased and stored inside the app itself. Having books published separately will clog up the listings, but will increase total Marketplace numbers of course.

Source: YouTube, thanks Snake for the video!

Learn how to develop Windows Phone 7 games in just 24 hours

By Rich Edmonds, Monday, Dec 5, 2011 at 5:19 pm

An interesting book has been released by Sams Publishing, which will be of great value to anyone who's looking at Windows Phone to develop games taking advantage of available technologies and hardware. The book, authored by Jonathan S. Harbour, claims (as does other learning material) to teach the reader how to develop a playable title in just 24 hours using Microsoft's free XNA 4.0 toolset. The book is set out in easy-to-digest chunks, with "Did you know?" tips and "Watch out!" alerts.

Some of the highlights include:

Develop fast, playable Windows Phone 7 games with XNA 4.0
Get and manage user touch screen input
Draw 2D bitmapped images, and bring them to life as sprites
Transform sprites using rotation, scaling, and velocity calculations
Detect and handle collisions between game objects
Create surprisingly realistic animation effects
Master sophisticated finite state programming techniques
Integrate GPS Location Services into your game
Make the most of Windows Phone audio
Read, write, and save game files
Create your game’s Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Implement realistic physics effects, including gravity and acceleration
Tweak gameplay to make your games more fun

The book is available to purchase as paperback or in ebook format, and prices start at just $25.59. Amazon is also stocking the resource at $23.85 (UK version from £13.36, available for Kindle too).

Native-code access "on the radar" for Windows Phone developers

By Daniel Rubino, Sunday, Dec 4, 2011 at 12:23 am

We have what looks like great news for current and potential Windows Phone developers. Now that Microsoft has made great strides with Windows Phone 7.5, they appear to be turning their attention to native access for developers, at least in some form. Up till now, developers have had no access to certain aspects of the OS, including telephony, codecs, graphic engines or deeper file access. Reasons for such restrictions were thought primarily to revolve around OS-stability and security. Now, Microsoft seems to be seriously considering opening up some native code to developers--either as part of a reconsideration of the policy or perhaps just being able to focus on implementation.

Stemming from a discussion on the Microsoft WPDev Feedback site, one of the most requested features is native development. In a subsection titled "How can we improve the WPDev application platform?" a suggestion of a Native SDK is sitting in the 4th spot with 1,000 votes. The thread is quite revealing as devs discuss how the current limitations of the platform are hurting their work. One example comes from an iOS developer who states "I want to do DSP on WP7. My DSP algorithms in Tunepal (my app) take fractions of a second on IOS and Android (written in C++) and about 10 seconds to run on WP7." Likewise, others discuss the need for 3rd party gaming engines e.g. Unreal or Unity, both of which are currently not allowed in the OS.

Cliff Simpkins, Senior Product Manager for Windows Phone 7, posted a response to the native SDK request and didn't pull any punches:

"...we are interested in providing developers with more options to develop great apps for Windows Phone, and native is one item that is high on the radar."

The goal of his post, dated just three days ago, is to solicit specific feedback on what exactly developers want most e. g. C++, third-party gaming engines, etc.. As he points out, while it would be nice to give developers everything, Microsoft is on a fixed schedule needing to prioritize any such opening up of the platform. Clearly Microsoft would need time to develop the SDK, APIs and do what they do best which is make premium, easy to use developer tools. Putting that aside, it seems quite clear that Microsoft wants to open up the platform to developers, resulting in more feature-complete apps and games for consumers.

Microsoft's only hesitation at this time seems to be: What parts do you want now and what do you want later?

Source: WPDev Feedback/User Voices; Big thanks to Amir, for the tip!

Windows Phone app makes fives times more than iOS version - A developer case study

By Daniel Rubino, Saturday, Dec 3, 2011 at 2:50 am

We like single case studies. You get exceptional detail and that personal touch. We also know you can't extrapolate the result to every similar situation, but they are useful for drawing some conclusions. For example, a few months ago, we wrote about about a Mortal Kombat guide for Windows Phone versus its Android version (Part 1, Part 2), with the former having a higher return in ad-revenue. Now we turn to a case with iOS.

The story is told by Anlock, who specialize in child-learning apps for mobile platforms. They make the same apps for both iOS and Windows Phone except that the iOS version is "more enhanced". They were making only iOS apps but were persuaded to try their hand at Windows Phone--since they had all the content, porting was easy. On both platforms their apps received the same 4 and 5 star reviews and both were even featured at some point in the Marketplace and App Store. The only difference between the two, really, was Anlock tried an "extensive advertising campaign" with iOS (that failed) whereas on WP7, they had no out-of-pocket advertising program. So what was the outcome?

"In terms of ranking, our WP7 app has been number 1 in the US in the Kids + Family category for the past three months in the Marketplace. As for the iPhone app, it has been ranked in the top 400 in Games\Educational for more than 2/3 of the entire time frame, reaching the top 100.

The end result? As said, FIVE time more sales of our WP7 app vs. our iPhone app."

The next question of course is, why the difference?

Telerik Whitepaper: Market your Windows Phone app [Developers]

By Rich Edmonds, Friday, Dec 2, 2011 at 9:31 am

Telerik, the company behind the RadControls developer tools and the Windows Phone Task app, have just published a whitepaper that will aid any developer who has recently submitted their Windows Phone app to the Marketplace. The free document runs through how to effectively present your application with a well designed landing page, upload YouTube videos (with some SEO tips), monitor the analytics, as well as covering some in-app tricks.

The 13 page whitepaper will help provide developers (who have no marketing experience) the knowledge to kick off promotion campaigns on the web that will drive in traffic, while optimising the app to reach full potential. Head on over to Telerik (source below) to check out the free resource.

Source: Telerik

Microsoft User Community "You've Got Game" sweepstakes

By Rich Edmonds, Thursday, Dec 1, 2011 at 6:38 am

Microsoft is launching a developer competition with some exciting prizes. Should you have one or more game titles on the Windows Phone Marketplace then you will be in with a chance on getting your hands on a Dell Alienware M18x gaming laptop (3 winners chosen by random) or an Xbox LIVE Gold Card (25 winners selected on a weekly basis). Oh, and if you're a developer who has used Windows Azure to develop your game, you'll receive two entries for that title.

So check out the Microsoft User Community Facebook page for more information and to enter the competition (you have to "Like" the page to be able to enter). Be sure to read through the rules when you get a moment (note that this competition is available to the U.S. only). The entry period to submit your application is from November 30th to February 29th. See the below chart for more detail regarding the sweepstake stages.

Source: Facebook (Microsoft User Community)

3rd party Pandora SDK now available for Windows Phone developers

By Daniel Rubino, Wednesday, Nov 23, 2011 at 7:11 pm

A few weeks ago, Windows Phone and Silverlight developer Justin Angel (see site) made a proof-of-concept app for Pandora Radio--the famed music streaming randomizing service--on Windows Phone. We gave it a spin and due to its popularity, Justin agreed to not only make the app, but make an SDK for developers. The latter would allow others to make 3rd party Pandora apps for the platform as Justin laid out the instructions for the backend/streaming part.

Now, the Metro Pandora SDK is finished and available for others to go take a gander at. We could imagine all sorts of cool applications of this, including other media streaming apps incorporating Pandora as a "feed". And now that the groundwork is laid out, Justin can presumably start working on the app itself, which we imagine will raise a few eyebrows at Pandora. Of course if the Marketplace rejects or pulls it, like Cracked Reader, there is always the burgeoning Homebrew scene which will gladly take it.

Source: Codeplex

Big App on Campus campaign

By Rich Edmonds, Tuesday, Nov 22, 2011 at 7:52 pm

Introducing the Big app on Campus campaign where Microsoft and the Windows Phone team is out to reward student developers for all the time and effort poured into the platform. They are partnering with the band The Gracious Few to create an awesome experience for ten lucky students at SXSW. The lucky chosen few will attend a private concert, receive backstage passes, go to a private dinner with the band, and be interviewed on national radio about their apps.

If that wasn't enough, two $15,000 cash awards are to be given to the developers for the two apps that will be named "Big App on Campus" (one award going to the top free app and the other for the top paid app). The campaign is open to U.S. college and university students who build apps for Windows Phone. Each app created from August 1st 2011 until February 14th 2012 can be entered and students can submit multiple entries. Submissions are due by February 14th and the campaign ends on March 13th.

How will the submitted apps be judged?

Innovation (40%): How innovative is the app? Does it do something new or does it accomplish something in a new way?
Experience (40%): Does it feel seamless and like a native experience on Windows Phone? Does the app have a polished feel?
Potential (20%): Does the app have potential in the market (lots of users, making money, both) or not?

Public voting will include the combination of number of app downloads and Facebook "likes" accumulated. To enter, you'll need a submitted and approved app on the Marketplace and complete the entry form. Be sure to check out the official rules.

Source: Windows Phone Developer Blog

31 Days of Mango app now in the Marketplace [Developers]

By Daniel Rubino, Tuesday, Nov 22, 2011 at 7:22 am

We mentioned how developer Jeff Blankenburg was doing a 31-Days of Mango tutorial via his blog a few weeks ago. The idea was to publish a tutorial about specific app development on Windows Phone every day, giving a kind of boost for newbies out there as well as some tips for those with previous experience.

Now you can take the whole series with you on the go via the app, which is kind of meta when you think about it. The app does fetch for $0.99 and considering all the knowledge you're getting, seems like a fair offering for the man. Pick it up here in the Marketplace.

Nokia to aggressively target U.S. and competitors

News

By Rich Edmonds, Wednesday, Nov 16, 2011 at 10:00 pm

Nokia has a not-so-now secret plan, which they aim to stick to when battling it out against Apple and Google's Android. We've witnessed the opening page of this design in the past few weeks with the scale of the advertising and how the two first handsets are priced. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecoms Conference in Barcelona, Stephen Elop had a quick interview with Reuters.

"In the early days our first competitors are the other ecosystems. You see us pricing the devices so that that we can get what we think will be a good volume."

The Lumia 710 is being priced at €270, while the 800 is available at €420 (and was released today in Europe). With giving away 25,000 devices to developers, the manufacturer hopes the attractive prices and relationship building will pay off with sales. It's always been about volume with 2012 being the year when Nokia opens up the flood gates for Windows Phone. Elop moved onto explain that both high and low priced handsets will be brought to the table to combat other platforms.

"Our intent is to go very aggressively to the U.S. market."

Good news for our U.S. friends, Nokia will be hitting the shores hard, and if what they've done in the UK is anything to go by, there should be some exciting devices on the way. Also, Elop mentioned they have no plans for any Windows 8 tablets, but do find the prospect interesting.

Source: Reuters