Carmella Ryen Macababbad designed and developed the Password Protector app for the military to efficiently meet the secure access guidelines of the organization and empower the personnel with an easy-to-use app. She talks about her approach and Windows 8.1 in this video.
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In Windows Phone 8.1 we delivered broader developer integration endpoints in the operating system. Developers can now deliver applications that plug into several aspects of the People Hub. In this short video, Cliff and I walked through the three new specific extensibility points. Here are some links for more detail: Cliff's blog on Social Extensibility in Windows Phone 8.1 Official Documentation on Social Extensibility in Windows Phone: Integrating with the Me card in a Windows Phone Silverlight 8.1 appImplementing contact bindings in a Windows Phone Silverlight 8.1 appImplementing online media extensibility in a Windows Phone Silverlight 8.1 appJeff Wilcox's source for a stub applica...
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This week we've got Matt Hidinger, Program Manager for the Live Tile Platform on Windows, to chat with us about the new features of Live Tiles in Windows and Windows Phone, and What Developers Need To Know (TM). Here are some related resources you may be interested in: Matt's talk from Build 2014 Tile Template Catalog Great Official Live Tile Samples from Microsoft: (1) App Tiles and Badges, (2) Secondary Tiles, (3) Periodic Background Agent for Tiles and Toasts, (4) Pinned Site Comprehensive overview of Tiles, Notifications, and Action Center in Windows Phone, from the Windows Phone 8.1 Jumpstart Training. Please let us know if you have any questions! LL @larryalieberman
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This week, Lead Program Manager Tim Heuer joined us to talk about all the announcements from Build 2014 with regard to Windows Runtime XAML, (as well as the unified Windows platform in general) As you more than likely know, XAML is the specific schema of XML leveraged by several different Microsoft programming languages and frameworks for declaratively creating user experiences. Tim was behind an enormous amount of work that took place to drive this release of the universal XAML for Windows Runtime framework in this last release of Windows Phone, (8.1), as well as the current version of Windows (8.1 update) for PCs, laptops and tablets. In this interview, he walks us through an awesome demo...
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The most compelling mobile applications take advantage of notification services in order to dynamically update based on external criteria. On Windows Phone, Live Tiles are perhaps one of the most distinct features that drive app adoption, so its critical to understand these how these services work, and how you can use them to drive these dynamic experiences. Thomas took time from his extremely busy schedule to walk through some of the most exciting new aspects of the Windows Notification Platform that were announced at Build this month, and demonstrate some of the newly supported developer scenarios. Here are some links to relevant related material touched on in the conversation: Thomas's f...
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At Build 2014 we announced the ability to build universal app projects in Visual Studio that can be leveraged to easily deliver apps for both Windows Phone and Windows PC/Laptop/Tablet. This new offering makes it easier than ever to share your business logic, and also does a few interesting things to help you with tailoring your UI as well... but there is still more you might want to do to maximize your users' experience in your application. Peter Torr gave a great talk about this topic at Build 2014, where he asserted, "we shouldn't be talking about DPI or resolution anymore, but rather about _effective_ resolution". Today we met with Peter to get more detail on what he meant by ...
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At Build 2014 we announced the ability to build universal app projects in Visual Studio that can be leveraged to easily deliver apps for both Windows Phone and Windows PC/Laptop/Tablet. This new offering makes it easier than ever to share your business logic, and also does a few interesting things to help you with tailoring your UI as well... but there is still more you might want to do to maximize your users' experience in your application. Peter Torr gave a great talk about this topic at Build 2014, where he asserted, "we shouldn't be talking about DPI or resolution anymore, but rather about _effective_ resolution". Today we met with Peter to get more detail on what he meant by ...
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This week we talked about publishing applications for Windows Phone for the Enterprise. There are a few different possibilities to start distributing your applications to your users. In the video we talked about three different possibilities: Through the store As a beta Private distribution Through the storeWhen distributing application through the store the process is exactly the same as apps for consumers. You build your app and submit it so Microsoft can certify the application. If you access corporate data you need to make sure Microsoft has access to a test account which they need to validate the application. Testing is the same as any other application and you need to fulfill all stor...
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This week we are meeting again with our big friend Rob Tiffany. This time we talk about NoSQL. It's an easy way to store your data offline on your phone. During this conversation Rob explains what NoSQL is, why you would use it and what the challenges are. Below are the code samples how to perform the CRUD operations on your in memory classes. Define Table schema (Entity)
publicsealedclassCustomer
{
publicint CustomerId { get; set; }
publicstring FirstName { get; set; }
publicstring LastName { get; set; }
}
Define Table (Generic List to hold collection of Customer objects)
publicstaticList<Customer> Customers { get; set; }
Create Table
Customers = newList<Customer&...
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This week we are meeting again with our big friend Rob Tiffany. This time we talk about NoSQL. It's an easy way to store your data offline on your phone. During this conversation Rob explains what NoSQL is, why you would use it and what the challenges are. Below are the code samples how to perform the CRUD operations on your in memory classes. Define Table schema (Entity)
publicsealedclassCustomer
{
publicint CustomerId { get; set; }
publicstring FirstName { get; set; }
publicstring LastName { get; set; }
}
Define Table (Generic List to hold collection of Customer objects)
publicstaticList<Customer> Customers { get; set; }
Create Table
Customers = newList<Cust...
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This we week we meet again with Rob Tiffany. This time we talk about MEAP. We discussed what a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform consists off and how it maps to Microsoft products. As always, when you want to get started on Windows Phone in the Enterprise the Windows for Business is the right place to start. Rob wrote some interesting articles on his blog about MEAP Building Microsoft MEAP: IntroductionBuilding Microsoft MEAP: AdaptersBuilding Microsoft MEAP: Scaling Out SQL Server 2012We did talk about a lot of different technologies in a few different products. SQL Server Integration ServicesInternet Information Services (IIS)Microsoft AppFabric CachingSQL Server ReplicationWindows A...
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This we week we meet again with Rob Tiffany. This time we talk about MEAP. We discussed what a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform consists off and how it maps to Microsoft products. As always, when you want to get started on Windows Phone in the Enterprise the Windows for Business is the right place to start. Rob wrote some interesting articles on his blog about MEAP Building Microsoft MEAP: IntroductionBuilding Microsoft MEAP: AdaptersBuilding Microsoft MEAP: Scaling Out SQL Server 2012We did talk about a lot of different technologies in a few different products. SQL Server Integration ServicesInternet Information Services (IIS)Microsoft AppFabric CachingSQL Server ReplicationWindows A...
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Today we were joined by Rob Tiffany, who gave us the overview of what Mobile Management in the Enterprise means. First a shout-out to the Hour of Code we mentioned in our video. We talked about EMM, MDM, MAM, MIM and MCM. Here are links to some resources that go more in depth on the topics we discussed. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments! The Windows Phone for "Business" page Microsoft Mobility Management (EMM) is Here blog post from Rob Tiffany From Tech Ed North America 2014 Rob Tiffany on Windows Phone Enterprise Development, (The Phone That Has Everything the Enterprise Needs: Windows Phone 8).Alan Meeus on Windows Phone Security, (Mobile Security in the...
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At the end of August 2013, we gathered a crew of technical experts and headed to the Unity Unite 2013 event in Vancouver, British Columbia, where we worked hands-on with developers for three days in our Porting Lab. By the end of the lab, we had helped developers port about 80 apps from iOS, Android, and other platforms to Windows Phone or Windows Store. We asked with several developers to give some advice on how to become a game developers. In this video you'll hear what advice they give on how to become a game developers. Interviewees are: Bobby Speck, rsspeck.comJosef & Isaac Waller, Sirius Applications, TakeOffJodon Karlik, Coding Jar, Fling Theory (Windows Phone, Windows)Ziba ...
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At the end of August 2013, we gathered a crew of technical experts and headed to the Unity Unite 2013 event in Vancouver, British Columbia, where we worked hands-on with developers for three days in our Porting Lab. By the end of the lab, we had helped developers port about 80 apps from iOS, Android, and other platforms to Windows Phone or Windows Store. We asked with several developers to give some advice on how to become a game developers. In this video you'll hear what advice they give on how to become a game developers. Interviewees are: Bobby Speck, rsspeck.comJosef & Isaac Waller, Sirius Applications, TakeOffJodon Karlik, Coding Jar, Fling Theory (Windows Phone, Windows)Ziba ...
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At the end of August 2013, we gathered a crew of technical experts and headed to the Unity Unite 2013 event in Vancouver, British Columbia, where we worked hands-on with developers for three days in our Porting Lab. By the end of the lab, we had helped developers port about 80 apps from iOS, Android, and other platforms to Windows Phone or Windows Store. We spoke with several developers attending Unite about their porting experience. In this video you'll hear what they had to say about their porting experience. Interviewees are: Jodon Karlik, Coding Jar, Fling Theory (Windows Phone, Windows)Josef & Isaac Waller, Sirius Applications, TakeOffBobby Speck, rsspeck.comMike Desaro, Prime31Zib...
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Today we were joined by Matthijs Hoekstra, who gave us the lowdown with regard to how Windows Phone meets the needs of the enterprise developer. Here are links to some resources that go more in depth on the topics we discussed. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments! The Windows Phone for "Business" page From Tech Ed North America 2014 Rob Tiffany on Windows Phone Enterprise Development, (The Phone That Has Everything the Enterprise Needs: Windows Phone 8).Alan Meeus on Windows Phone Security, (Mobile Security in the Enterprise: Windows Phone 8 Answers the Call)Matthias Shapiro on Building for Both Windows and Windows Phone, (Build it Once for Both: Writing Code ...
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Download the Multilingual App Toolkit for Windows and Windows Phone. One of the exciting things about Windows Phone development is the extraordinary reach that Windows Phone apps have across the world. Windows Phone apps can be made available in 191 markets across the world and we've seen great adoption of Windows Phone in many different languages. In fact, the Windows Phone app market in China is bigger than it is in the US. This means that for Windows Phone developers to reach the largest possible audience for their application, they need to adopt some localization best practices. This is where the Multilingual App Toolkit (MAT) comes in. Using MAT, developers can access ma...
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Today we talked about a tactic you can use to help you maintain a closer relationship to the people using your app, as well as help you get ratings and reviews. Nokia's recently released an excellent code sample that makes it easier than ever to subtly prompt your user on a periodic basis, to rate your application. We took a quick look at how easy it is to add the control to an existing application, and also talked a little bit about the Nokia DVLUP site. Here are some detail on the items we discussed: Detail on the "Marketplace Review Task" that enables you to launch the Windows Phone Store on the right review page for your application. Nokia DVLUP site List of countries in which...
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Today we talked a tactic you can use to help you maintain a closer relationship to the people using your app, as well as help you get ratings and reviews. Nokia's recently released an excellent code sample that makes it easier than ever to subtly prompt your user on a periodic basis, to rate your application. We took a quick look at how easy it is to add the control to an existing application, and also talked a little bit about the Nokia DVLUP site. Here are some detail on the items we discussed: Detail on the "Marketplace Review Task" that enables you to launch the Windows Phone Store on the right review page for your application. Nokia DVLUP site List of countries in which DVLUP...
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This week, Matthias gave us a quick introduction to Windows Azure Mobile Services (WAMS) for Windows Phone Developers. Lots of folks we talk to find the prospect of building a server component to their Windows Phone app a bit daunting, but Azure Mobile Services opens up a whole new universe of possibilities in terms of the experiences you deliver to your customers: Data Storage, Authentication, and Push Notifications. In this video, Matthias provides some more depth on adding Authentication and Push Notifications for Windows Phone apps. In many ways, this is an extension of the demo that Nick Harris performed in the video Windows Phone - Getting Started With Windows Azure Mobile Servic...
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In IWP61: Building for Windows Phone and Windows 8 - The Basics, Matthias Shapiro and Matt Hidinger talked about how to build apps for both Windows Phone and for Windows 8, how to use an architecture that allows the developer to share as much code as possible between them. In this edition, Andy Wigley and Mike Taulty from Microsoft UK dig deeper into one particular area: writing shareable HTTP networking code using the HttpClient API. HttpClient is a new API originally released for Windows 8 Store apps and .NET Framework 4.5, but is not included in the Windows Phone 8 SDK. This and other differences in the networking APIs for Windows Phone SDK and the Windows 8 (Windows Store Apps) SDK make...
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In IWP61: Building for Windows Phone and Windows 8 - The Basics, Matthias Shapiro and Matt Hidinger talked about how to build apps for both Windows Phone and for Windows 8, how to use an architecture that allows the developer to share as much code as possible between them. In this edition, Andy Wigley and Mike Taulty from Microsoft UK dig deeper into one particular area: writing shareable HTTP networking code using the HttpClient API. HttpClient is a new API originally released for Windows 8 Store apps and .NET Framework 4.5, but is not included in the Windows Phone 8 SDK. This and other differences in the networking APIs for Windows Phone SDK and the Windows 8 (Windows Store Apps...
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One of the exciting elements of building for Windows Phone is that properly designed and architected Windows Phone apps are already on their way to being Windows Store apps. This week, Matt Hidinger joins us to talk about how we can leverage .NET technology to build apps for both platforms while sharing code. In addition to his discussion here, you can also see Matt's Build 2013 talk in which he dives deeper into his Real World Stocks app. Build For Both: Windows and Windows Phone - Matt Hidinger Real World Stocks source (Windows & Windows Phone) One thing I've learned from talking about Build For Both is that you can never have enough samples or enough guidance. So in addition to...
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We talked about imaging extensibility some more this week, specifically with regard to the samples we've provided for Windows Phone developers who want to add imaging scenarios to their apps. Here are some details about the content we talked about, where to go to get more information and the specific examples we discussed: Developer Documentation Resources on Camera/Imaging Scenarios Camera and Photos Photo Extensibility Lens Applications Rich Media Extensibility Great Sample Code on Camera/Imaging Scenarios (from the Windows Phone SDK Team) Basic Camera Sample Photos Sample Basic Lens Sample Photo Extensibility Sample Camera Color Picker Sample Camera Grayscale Sample Great applications th...
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Download the project seen in this video here. Two weeks ago, Nokia announced their Lumia 1020, which, in addition to being a fantastic all-around device running the best mobile OS on the market today, has an astounding 41 megapixel camera sensor. In addition to this new device, Nokia also announced the public beta of the Nokia Imaging SDK. The Nokia Imaging SDK is a really amazing library and almost instantly became one of my favorite packages for Windows Phone development. It works with any Windows Phone, not just the Nokia Lumia line. The SDK features 52 easy-to-use filters for mobile imaging and is able to apply them quickly and (my favorite part) with extremely low memory usage. Honestl...
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One of the most beautiful design aspects of the Windows Phone OS is the use of motion design. Windows Phone is alive with motion, which acts as a huge differentiator in quality applications. Unfortunately, motion design can be very painstaking work and difficult to implement. Fortunately the Windows Phone Toolkit has everything we need to implement powerful animations that bring your Windows Phone apps to life. In this video Shawn Oster walks us through the steps of adding the Windows Phone Toolkit and utilizing the transitions and tilt animations to make your app feel like a native part of the ecosystem. To summarize our conversation, you can very easily add the basic page transition anima...
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One of the most beautiful design aspects of the Windows Phone OS is the use of motion design. Windows Phone is alive with motion, which acts as a huge differentiator in quality applications. Unfortunately, motion design can be very painstaking work and difficult to implement. Fortunately the Windows Phone Toolkit has everything we need to implement powerful animations that bring your Windows Phone apps to life. In this video Shawn Oster walks us through the steps of adding the Windows Phone Toolkit and utilizing the transitions and tilt animations to make your app feel like a native part of the ecosystem.
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In this week's Inside Windows Phone we talk about Location and Mapping in Windows Phone 8. In this video we cover The basics of location and mapping The power of Windows Phone location and mapping APIs including simple ways to do distance calculations, reverse geocoding (get an address from a latitude/longitude), mapping routes (both walking and driving) and how to point users to download offline maps to drive a powerful mapping experience available worldwide even in the absence of network connectivity. All code from this video is available here. Getting started with location in Windows Phone takes about 5 minutes. Windows Phone Location and Mapping in 5 Minutes Minute 1: Enable your a...
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In this week's Inside Windows Phone we talk about Location and Mapping in Windows Phone 8. In this video we cover The basics of location and mapping The power of Windows Phone location and mapping APIs including simple ways to do distance calculations, reverse geocoding (get an address from a latitude/longitude), mapping routes (both walking and driving) and how to point users to download offline maps to drive a powerful mapping experience available worldwide even in the absence of network connectivity. All code from this video is available here. Getting started with location in Windows Phone takes about 5 minutes. Windows Phone Location and Mapping in 5 Minutes Minute 1: Enable your a...
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In the world of Windows Phone development, the cornerstone app architecture is called MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel). In this video, I talk through some of the structure of an MVVM application to talk about how we build MVVM apps for the phone to take advantage of benefits like data binding, commanding and ViewModel portability. MVVM is an enormous topic. In addition to this video, you should take a look at the following articles, videos and blog posts to learn more about the why and the how of MVVM. These two posts are targeted at Windows Phone Mango (7.5) but all the code carries across to Windows Phone 8 as well. Getting Started with MVVM in 10 minutes Building a Reusable ICo...
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One of the really exciting things about Windows Phone development is how enormously flexible it is. With Windows Phone 8, in addition to supporting native (C++) and managed (C#) development, the platform is the perfect place to develop apps using HTML5. Jeff Burtoft, an HTML5 technical evangelist with Microsoft, joins us this week to talk about the flexibility and cross-platform power of HTML5 in the context of Windows Phone. The in-depth example that we cover in the video is a project called YetiBowl, and standards compliant HTML5 game that runs flawlessly on the web, as a Windows 8 app and as a Windows Phone 8 app. Make sure you check out Jeff's 4 part series on creating the HTM...
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Download the sample project seen in this video. Data binding is one of the fundamental concepts for good Windows Phone application design but can be difficult to grasp for newcomers. The core concept is this: No one wants to manually update the user interface elements. I want my UI to automatically reflect the state of my application and data binding helps us do this. We can work exclusively on our Windows Phone UI, bind the values in the UI and then work on the inner logic of the application knowing that all the updates are being reflected to the user. Because of the power in the model you see in this video and post, there are some really great "fringe" benefits in terms of inter...
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What code samples do we have and how do you get them? We try to create and maintain a large number of code samples covering a wide array of developer scenarios. In this episode we're going to spend some time going over a few of the samples that are available, as well as some ways to find them. Here are links to some of the resources we discussed: Matthias's blog post that highlights some awesome Windows Phone samples, and where to get them The Windows Phone Dev Center samples page - the complete list of samples created by the Windows Phone developer content team, by developers for developers The Lens sample (check out Lenses for Windows Phone 8 for an overview and walkth...
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Most developers we talk to have told us that they love using third party class libraries, because they really accelerate their ability to add functionality and polish to their applications. The 'Coding 4 Fun' Toolkit is a powerful set of controls and libraries that you can leverage for free, to add rich features and functionality to your XAML Windows Phone application. Today we talked to Clint Rutkas, the creator of this toolkit, about some of the thinking behind it, and some of the cool things you can do with it. Here are some links to related information we discussed: Coding 4 Fun on CodePlex Clint Rutkas' page on Channel 9 Windows Phone Development for Absolute Beginners Portable HttpCli...
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We're excited to announce the public availability of Unity for Windows Phone! I spoke with Microsoft Technical Evangelist Vlad Kolesnikov about how developers can get started right now building games for both Windows and Windows Phone using the Unity game developer ecosystem tools. We first took a look at the first game in the Windows Phone store built using the Unity tools: Drift Mania Championship, (available here), and then dove right into using the tools to build a basic game. Look for more information about all of our GDC 2013 announcements in our Official Developer Blog. Questions? Tweet to @LarryALieberman
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I met up with my colleague Jean- Christophe Cimetiere at GDC today, where he demonstrated the Moga Controller working with Windows Phone. Find out more about the Moga controller at http://www.mogaanywhere.com/. Questions? Tweet to @LarryALieberman
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If you've ever gone to the Windows Store's website, you've noticed that we promote certain apps and games in our Store. You may have asked yourself, 'how do they pick the apps and games that they showcase?' Our objective is to showcase the apps and games that are the best, so the natural question is: 'what constitutes "the best"'? Kami LeMonds, from the Windows Phone Apps Merchandising team joined us today to discuss the criteria used in assessing application quality. For more detail, see Kami's blog post from this week: How to get your app promoted in the Windows Phone Store. Questions? Tweet to @LarryALieberman
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This week we spoke to Eric Bennett and Josh Debner from the Windows Phone camera team. Eric and Josh work on the new developer feature, Lens apps, and wanted to walk us through what it is and how it works. Here are a few links to some of the resources we mentioned during the course of the conversation: MSDN library documentation on Building Lens apps for Windows Phone. Eric's BUILD talk on Building Lens Apps. Lens Design Guidelines on MSDN Lens Code Sample on the MSDN Code Gallery Questions? Tweet to @LarryALieberman
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This week, Taqi Jaffri joined me to go over some of the new developer features in Windows Phone 8. Previously, Peter Torr joined us to talk about exactly _what_ Windows Phone 8 is, and why it was such an enormous shift from an architectural perspective, but I realized that we didn't really get a chance to talk about the new developer features. Here are some links to related information: Introduction to Windows Phone 8, and its new end user features, (Meet Windows Phone 8) Implementing the new WP8 live tiles in your applications, and the new tile templates, (in MSDN Library, and at BUILD) Lock screen notifications and wallpaper provider, (in the MSDN Library, also see the live tiles se...
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Today we talked with Product Manager Bernardo Zamora, who moonlights as a Windows Phone developer and has published many successful apps and games! Bernardo took us through the basics of In-app purchase on Windows Phone. Here are some additional resources for you, with regard to some of the topics we discussed today: The launch of Windows Phone 8, that took place on 10/29 Windows Phone at the BUILD keynote, from 10/29 The Windows Phone sessions at BUILD, all available for on demand viewing Download the new Windows Phone 8 SDK ... and here are some more resources specifically about IAP on Windows Phone... IAP in the Windows Phone official documentation Mock IAP Library, required for testing ...
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Windows Phone 8 is an enormous new release of Windows Phone that opens up a new universe of possibilities for developers... but what does this mean for you? Program Manager Peter Torr ran API review for Windows Phone 8, and he has the answers. Peter and I spent some time today talking about: Exactly what Windows Phone 8 actually is; How it puts Windows and Windows Phone on the same 'shared core' How we focused on driving application compatibility for all existing Windows Phone applications What new programming approaches are now available What this means for you, the developer For more in depth information, see our keynote and sessions from the BUILD event!
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Native C++ Game Development is one of the most requested features that we're delivering in Windows Phone 8, and in this episode of Inside Windows Phone, we asked Sam George to give us a whirlwind tour. Native C++ programming enables: Writing of high performing games for the phone using D3D Sharing of a tremendous amount of code across Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 in game development Easy porting of games from other platforms to Windows and Windows Phone using common C++ class libraries Using middleware engines such as Havok and Unity, to make it easier than ever to bring games to Windows and Windows Phone
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No feature exemplifies the unique and powerful approach of Windows Phone like Live Tiles, and in Windows Phone 8, Live Tiles are even more flexible and powerful. In this session, Thomas walks us through all of the new attributes of Live Tiles, and how to take advantage of them in your applications. He'll also walk us through custom notifications, as well as how your application can now become a custom lock screen wallpaper provider.
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For Windows Phone 8, we've released a new SDK that provides a free version of Visual Studio 2012 and Expression Blend, along with a new set of emulators. VS 2012 brings a lot of new features to the table. In this video, Steve and I discussed what's new in the new SDK, and how you can take advantage of these new features to get started building apps and games for Windows Phone 8.
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Windows Phone 8 adds the ability for developers to sell additional features within the context of theirapplication, using 'In App Purchase.' Since Windows Phone 7 applications work on Windows Phone 8, we've also delivered the ability for you to add a few WP8 features to your WP7 app, which will run only when the application is run on a WP8 device. In this talk, Saral will walk us through exactly how you would add In-App Purchase to your WP7 game, so that it will appear when the app is used on WP8. Download the code sample for this video here.
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It's been a while since we've discussed building great user experiences for Windows Phone, so we thought we'd check in with designer Jon Bell, who works on the Windows Phone UX team. Jon's day job is designing the "communication experience." Jon's made a lot of observations about the thousands of apps we see submitted to Windows Phone and had a lot of great points to share about what constitutes an outstanding app. Here are a lot of other great resources to look through as you think about Windows Phone application design: Windows Phone Official User Experience Guidelines Jeff Wilcox's "Metro" Design Guide for Developers Windows Phone Design Presentations 2010 Design Day ...
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Just last week we took the wraps off the new Windows Phone Developer Center, an enormous new release of our developer portal, that replaces the old App Hub. We thought we'd talk to Dev Center Program Manager Ash Wahi, to get the full scoop on what's new and different on the Dev Center. For more information, check out What's New in the Dev Center. As always, please let us know if you have any questions! Larry Lieberman, @larryalieberman
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Today we talked to Nikola Mihaylov, a developer in the Expression Blend team. Nikola is the developer of Fantasia Painter, an extremely highly ranked photo editing app for Windows Phone. Nikola walked us through his app, and talked a bit about how he implemented various aspects of the app. He describes himself as 'obsessed with performance,' and had a few very interesting practices to share in that regard. Per our usual practices, here are some relevant and interesting links: Fantasia Painter in the Windows Phone Marketplace, (Free and Paid) Performance Considerations for Windows Phone Developers in the MSDN Library Mike Battista's recent posts on WP app optimization: &nbs...
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Today we spoke with the awesomely last-named Brandon Furtwangler, about his incredibly successful Windows Phone game, Taptitude. Brandon is 1/4 of the independent company Four Bros Studio LLC. The Furtwangler clan has recently received quite a bit of press attention, (Business Insider, WM Power User, Mobility Digest), due to the success they've had with using the Microsoft Ad control in their Windows Phone App. We came to the conclusion it would make a lot of sense to talk to them about how they did it, and they graciously agreed. Here are some more relevant links for your enjoyment: Taptitude on the Windows Phone Marketplace Taptitude...
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This week we spoke to Erik Porter and Nathan Heskew, the developers of the popular Twitter client for Windows Phone, Rowi. They walked us through their app and gave us a lot of insight into what goes into building a world class Windows Phone application. Here are some links to related information. Rowi on the Windows Phone Marketplace; Rowi Lite on Marketplace The Silverlight Toolkit for Windows Phone on Codeplex Information about the Listbox performance enhancements in Windows Phone 7.5 Cert requirement (2.7.1) about using Location and having a Privacy Policy Information about best practices when virtualizing list boxes in Silverlight for Windows Phone Coding 4 Fun Toolkit for Windows...
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Welcome to Inside Windows Phone #35, in which we speak with Microsoft Advertising Program Manager Ali Heron about how to make money with your Windows Phone application. Here are links to some of the things we talked about: Pubcenter, where you set up your account Official documentation for using the Ad Control in Windows Phone applications, in the MSDN Library Sample code for using the Ad Control, from the MSDN Library Latest version of the Ad SDK, on MS.COM downloads Article on details about using the Ad Control from MSDN Magazine, written by some of our engineers. Case study of MS Ad Control vs. Others Questions? @larryalieberman
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Do you like phone applications that consume data? I know I do. Jason Short knows a lot about building phone applications that consume data. I got a chance to talk to Jason about this in detail a couple of weeks ago, and in all the rush around our refresh release, had to postpone posting it until now. Extra special extra Inside Windows Phone this week, folks. We took time to speak with Software Developer Jason Short about his experience building applications for Windows Phone. Jason's talk at XAPFEST Wade Wegner's C9 Show on Azure, Cloud Cover AgFX on Codeplex Shawn Burke's weblog, (primary on AgFX) The Jeff Wilcox's weblog Information about using a background agent conditionally based...
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This week we spoke to Dev Plat Program Manager Mike Battista about how we extended the great Windows Phone experience to run on more affordable hardware, and what it means for software developers. And what does it mean? Tremendous new opportunities! Given these changes, we felt you would like more information about exactly what we did to accomplish this, and what YOU can do in order maximize the impact of your applications on these new devices. Here are some more links to relevant additional materials on this release: Joe Belfiore on the Windows Phone Developer Blog, about "Getting ready for 60% more customers" Mike Battista on the Windows Phone Developer Blog, about "Optimiz...
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Today we talked to Carlo Rivera. Carlo is a software developer who spends his days working on the somewhat successful Microsoft Office line of products. At night he transforms into a Windows Phone developer, and he's come up with some unique ways to maximize advertising revenue on free apps. We didn't get the chance to talk very long, so really you should consider our talk merely an introduction for Carlo's presentations that he's delivered: Carlo at XAPFEST on "Create & Submit a WP App to the Marketplace in 30 Minutes" (starts at Time Index 8:48) Carlo at XAPFEST on "Making Money with Free Apps" (starts at Time Index 00:38) Here are some other relevant material...
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This week we spoke to Jean-Christophe Cimetiere, @jccim, the man responsible for the Windows Phone Developer Partner Program. JC's been hard at work putting together some useful new resources for Windows Phone developers, such as our Partner page on the App Hub, (available at http://create.msdn.com/en-us/resources/partners). He also works very closely with each of partners to ensure they're about to bring you the most compelling middle tier solutions possible. One of JC's partners is a company called Telerik, that produces a series of third party controls for Windows Phone that can radically accelerate your development cycles. JC recently sat down with one of their developers and we've got ...
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Arturo Toledo is back on Inside Windows Phone! After three months of travel, Senior UX Designer Arturo Toledo has returned to Redmond Washington, bringing his tales of what constitutes great user experience design on Windows Phone. Arturo and his colleague Corrina Black were part of a global Windows Phone UX Tour. In this talk, he and I talk a bit about the tour, and the new "31 Weeks" blog series he's just started. Here are a bunch of relevant links to the material we discussed in this session: Arturo's first visit to Inside Windows Phone Nokia Design Video with regard to the Lumia 800, (in-depth 8-minute video documentary) Video from the Nokia Lumia 800 Launch in London with Dea...
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This week we brought back Mega Senior Product Manager Extrodinaire Ben Lower. Our goal was to provide you with an update on a lot of the new Windows Phone developer resources we've released in recent weeks. We got off track a little bit, but here are some links that will take you to some of the amazing new content we featured. Windows Phone NYC Mash Up Video Nokia Lumia Live ft deadmau5 lights up London with amazing 4D projection Jeff Blankenburg's "31 Days of Mango", (Jeff asked me to also mention: It's also available as a Windows Phone app and as an e-book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble). Windows Phone Silverlight Toolkit NuGet Package Installer Localization - Docs on MSDN Lib...
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This week we talked to Software Developer Jeff Wilcox. Jeff is a dev lead in Windows Phone Engineering, who is also the creator of a very successful Windows Phone app, Fourth & Mayor.Jeff joined us today to share many of his 'best practices' around building applications for Windows Phone. Here are some links to a number of the items we talked about on today's episode. More information on the Nokia Windows Phones released at Nokia World Jeff's weblog (homepage) Jeff's app Fourth and Mayor, in the Windows Phone Marketplace Download our developer tools at the Windows Phone App Hub Jeff's recent talk on Windows Phone performance, at the Microsoft Build Conference Jeff's post about res...
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In our travels, we've heard that most mobile applications aren't very good. This is probably related to the fact that most applications, in general aren't very good. Here at Inside Windows Phone, we're all about fighting this. At Microsoft we have an amazing team that spends all their time thinking about how to build OUTSTANDING applications: the Patterns & Practices Team, (the P&P Team). This week, we speak with Eugenio Pace and Francis Cheung from the P&P team, to find out about all the amazing things they are building to show you how to build amazing solutions using Windows Phone. Here are some important links related to the topics we covered this week! Current Patterns &...
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In this edition of Inside Windows Phone, we welcome Microsoft's resident Ninja Ben Lower to the stage to talk about all the things we're doing to help student developers get started building outstanding apps and games for Windows Phone. Here are a bunch of links to the various things we talked about: TouchDevelop. An amazing platform on top of Windows Phone for programming, directly ON your Windows Phone. Check out their complete website, or download the app directly. XAPfest. Xapfest is a periodic training event led by Ben, in a number of different venues. You can watch a video of a XAPfest presentation here. Update to Mango. We've published many resources about how to update your applicat...
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This week we talked to Program Manager Shawn Henry. He works on the Application Platform team, and is responsible for driving many of the application platform features that developers take advantage of to build applications for Windows Phone. Early in the lifecycle of Windows Phone, Shawn built an application called "One Bus Away" that leverages features that many different types of applications use. Through the course of building and releasing the application, Shawn and his collaborators hit quite a few of the issues that many of our developers hit. In this episode, Shawn walks us through the things they hit and how they addressed them. You can find out more about One Bus Away on...
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Today, Arturo Toledo talks about his experiences as a new member of the Windows Phone User Experience team. Arturo dove in head first, and recently built his first Windows Phone app. In this presentation he regales us with all of his learning in the last few months about what it takes to deliver an outstanding Windows Phone application. For those of you who are interested, I've posted Arturo's PowerPoint presentation here. Here are some links to key UX resources for Windows Phone application development: Windows Phone User Experience Guidelines, at http://wpdev.ms/wpuxguide Bryan Agnetta on Windows Phone User Experience, at Build 2011, http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/APP-83...
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This week on IWP, we talk to the man with the plan, Microsoft's own Steve Bell. When you submit a Windows Phone application to publish, we run it through a certification process in order to ensure that it meets minimum quality and content requirements, to ensure a great end user experience. For more information on the certification process, please check out the following resources: Registration WalkthroughSubmission WalkthroughCertification RequirementsCertification Guideline Cheat Sheet on Silverlight Show Let us know about any topics you want to watch us dive deep into. You can reach us on twitter via @jaimerodriguez, @larryalieberman or email via http://blogs.msdn.com/jaimer
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This week on Inside Windows Phone, we got to talk to Program Manager Peter Torr about Multitasking in Windows Phone Mango. Peter goes in depth on the different types of Multitasking, including Fast App Switching, Background Notifications, Background Transfer Service, and Background Agents. Peter goes _way_ in depth on how background agents work, and how you use them. Here are some other resources on Multitasking and Background Agents: Email transcript of some of the topics discussed in this videoDarin MIller at MIX 2011 talking about Windows Phone Multitasking, in generalPeter at MIX 2011 talking about Windows Phone MultitaskingMSDN Library on Windows Phone MultitaskingHow To play Bac...
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Windows Phone Mango is almost here and we are rebooting the show to get you ready for it. Larry Lieberman, Product Manager in Windows Phone developer marketing, is joining as a host for the show so we can get you shows more often (yay!) In this episode, we provide a high level overview of some of what we think are the most exciting new features for developers in Mango; some of the issues and concerns that you should be aware of in preparing your applications for Mango, and some of the application compatibility issues you should be aware of. As of 10 PM on 8/22, the RC of the developer tools is now available here, Mango submission is also available for registered developers, the...
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Tidy is a "to-do list" prototype application that leverages a lot of the new features Windows Phone mango release. If you like the walk-through, the Windows Phone Mango training kit has hands-on-labs that show step-by-step instructions for building it. In the training kit, you will find the following (and other) labs: Local database hands-on-lab. Tidy uses SQL CE as its data store and the hands-on lab will show you how to attribute the object model to create LINQ to SQL mappings. How to create databases at run-time, and how to query the database. Alerts and Reminders hands-on-lab. Tidy allows you to create reminders for a task. The hands-on lab shows you how to q...
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In this episode Luke Nyswonger, the doc lead for Windows Phone, does a walk-through of all the great improvements they made to the docs in the Mango beta release. Pay attention so you don't miss: A great "What's new" page that you can use to get to all the feature overviews, code-samples, etc.. The samples and how-to walkthroughs are now a bit more scenario oriented. For example, their sockets demo is a full blown tic-tac-toe game, their tiles sample has every possible tile option, etc. They moved the User experience Design guidelines from a PDF to an HTML format and they literally doubled the amount of content...
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One of the most anticipated/desired features in this mango release is sockets (for network communication). In this episode Ayman Afanah and Gustavo Sandoval give you a few demos of what you can do with sockets communications and they discuss the features and compare what is in Windows Phone in relation to other frameworks such as .NET and Silverlight on the desktop. Expect to be pleased with the feature set Related:Source for the demos shown in the video Jaime's blog for more Mango goodness
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Search extras allow applications to integrate and add value to the search experience in Windows Phone. For example, after and finding a movie, search extras can launch the iMDB application to see reviews, buy tickets, etc.) In this episode of the Inside Windows Phone show, Jared Brown ( Program Manager responsible for Search extras and Bing integration on WIndows Phone) introduces the feature end-to-end, first with some demos and then with a walk through on how an application integrates with extras. Relevant links:MSDN documentation for search extras (has the doc mentioned in the video) Code sample for a search extra - you can use this in emulator. Do a search for e...
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The Windows Phone codenamed "Mango" release brings new camera APIs for developers to preview the live camera stream, capture videos, seamlessly integrate with the camera's hardware buttons. In this episode of Inside Windows Phone, Shamik Bandyopadhyay (Program Manager for camera on the phone) and Ayman Afanah ( Program Manager for Silverlight on the phone) show you demos that demonstrate the new camera features and walk you through the APIs that you will be using to integrate camera into your apps. Relevant links:Source for the demos in this video. Mango training kit with "photofun" hands-on lab demonstrating photo featuresJaime Rodriguez's blog (for more upcoming ...
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