- Posted by christhi on July 14, 2010
Beta is here! This means we are getting closer to release, which means it is time you start building your Windows Phone applications ASAP. Just in case you are asking, here is a great resource to help you get started building great Windows Phone applications.
As part of our efforts to help developers jumpstart their development of Windows Phone applications, we released a refresh of the Windows Phone Training to meet the changes in the Windows Phone Beta tools release. You can download a local copy of the training kit, or you can go to the online version on Channel 9.
More information about the new tools can be found here
This release of the WP training kit includes all the labs from the previous release (updated to the Beta tools) and all the videos from the previous release. In addition we added two new labs:
- Using Windows Phone Launcher and Choosers In Your Applications
- Understanding the Windows Phone Application Lifecycle (handling Tombstone)
A new functionality in this Beta release tool is the exposure of APIs for using Windows Choosers and Launchers. The launchers and choosers framework enables Windows Phone applications to provide a set of common tasks for users, such as placing phone calls, sending email, and taking pictures. The “Using Windows Phone Launcher and Choosers In Your Applications” lab covers some of these new launchers and choosers. The emulator doesn’t provide the full Windows Phone user experience, and therefore we don’t cover all the available choosers and launchers in the API. But there is more than enough for you to learn about this topic.
Understanding the Windows Phone Application Lifecycle (handling Tombstone)
As you probably already know, Windows Phone allows only one application to run at any given time in the foreground, and no 3rd party applications are allowed to run in the background. Therefore when a user navigates away from your application, either to a chooser like picture chooser, or to a launcher like phone call, Windows Phone operating system terminates your application.
Tombstoning is the procedure in which the operating system terminates an application’s process when the user navigates away from the application. The operating system maintains state information about the application. If the user navigates back to the application, the operating system restarts the application process and passes the state data back to the application. This lab explain in great detail what tombstoning is, how it works, and what you should be handling in your application
Another area of improvement in the API is Push Notification Services. We’ve upgraded the lab to work with the updated Beta API and while doing so gave it a nice facelift. This lab features an end-to-end scenario for a simple weather application that registers to receive Push Notifications as well as a WPF client application that mimics the 3rd party backend server.
On top of that, the training kit includes four additional labs (all refreshed and up-to-date with the latest Beta tools):
Hello Phone - This lab aims to be the classic “Hello World” application, introducing you to the tools and procedures required to build and test Silverlight for Windows Phone applications. During the lab, you will see how to use Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phones, Expression Blend to build and design your Windows Phone applications, and how to deploy and debug your Windows Phone application on the Windows Phone Emulator
Building Your First Windows Phone Application – This lab introduces you to the basic building blocks of any Windows Phone Silverlight application. During the course of this lab you will create a simple puzzle game. The lab takes you through the different stages of starting a new project, adding controls and code behind, and testing and debugging. Unlike the Hello World lab, this lab focuses more on phone-related topics like navigation, using pages, frame and navigation services, multi-touch, and isolated storage.
Windows Phone Navigation and Controls – This lab introduces you to the Windows Phone layout system, the phone’s chrome, and few new controls. The lab explains the basics of navigating between different screens (pages) in a Windows Phone Silverlight application. During the lab you will build a navigation application that switches between various screens, with each screen displaying different phone functionality, such as playing an audio or video file.
Game Development with XNA Framework for Windows Phone – This lab introduces you to XNA game development on Windows Phones, as well as to the basics of XNA game development. During the lab you will build a simple XNA game application that introduces key concepts in XNA game development and learn how to use Microsoft Visual 2010 Express for Windows Phone to build and design your XNA games for Windows Phones
- Posted by christhi on March 25, 2010
Microsoft User Experience Kit launched today at SXSW
Today at SXSW, of which Microsoft Silverlight is a major sponsor of the Interactive Festival, Microsoft User Experience Kit is targeted at technical and creative leads who want to better understand the tools, technologies, and scenarios that span Microsoft’s User Experience ecosystem. Key topics range from “Building Immersive Multi-channel Solutions using Expression Studio” to “High fidelity and high Performing Desktop Touch Applications using Windows 7” to “Web Branding and Audience Targeting using SharePoint”. The kit’s contents can be browsed online and/or downloaded for offline use. It includes videos, presentations, sample code, and much more. Get the kit at http://uxkit.cloudapp.net!
The UX Kit is unique because while many technology-specific repositories exist, this is the first kit that helps “map” the Microsoft ecosystem, technology, and tools stack to that of the user experience, agency, and creative world.
Included in the UX Kit is a range of collateral and resources including: videos, reference implementations, sample code, live demos, installable tools, presentations, whitepapers and more. Featured technologies include Silverlight, Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows 7 Touch, Microsoft Surface, Windows Phone, SharePoint, Expression Studio, and Microsoft Advertising. Topics covered on the kit range from Rich Media Delivery using Silverlight and Deep Zoom to Multi-Channel Digital Marketing using Windows 7, SharePoint, Windows Phone, and Surface.
·
FAQ
Why another kit? There are many technology specific repositories but nothing that helps “map” the Microsoft ecosystem, technology, and tools stack to that of the user experience, agency, and creative world.
What is in the kit? Collateral such as videos, reference implementations, sample code, live demos, installable tools, presentations, whitepapers and more.
What technologies and tools are featured? Silverlight, Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows 7 Touch, Microsoft Surface, Windows Phone, SharePoint, Expression Studio, and Microsoft Advertising to name a few.
What topics are covered? Topics range from Rich Media Delivery using Silverlight and Deep Zoom to Multi-Channel Digital Marketing using Windows 7, SharePoint, Windows Phone, and Surface.
How do I “get the kit”? By following the link here! The kit’s browser is fully written in Silverlight and hosted on Microsoft Azure.
When can I “get the kit”? The Microsoft User Experience Kit will be launched on March 15th at South by Southwest in Austin and go live right here. – http://uxkit.cloudapp.net
- Posted by christhi on July 10, 2009
No use rehashing what the silverlight team and blog have already kind provided for us but if you haven't heard Silverlight 3 and Expression 3 with Sketchflow have been release as of 12:30am CST today! To get started go to
http://silverlight.net/getstarted/ from here you can download an evaluation of Expression 3 and even get Sketchflow. For those since Mix who have been dying to see play with Sketchflow here is your chance. Enjoy.
- Posted by christhi on July 7, 2009
Today, July 7th, at 12PM CT, 1PM ET – We are broadcasting the Michael Jackson memorial, live in HD from the Staples Center in Los Angeles using IIS Smooth Streaming and Silverlight to the world. This is the same technology (IIS Smooth Streaming and Silverlight) that was used to bring you the Olympics.
http://inmusic.ca/news_and_features/Michael_Jackson is the link to the page where the embedded player experience and is the URL you should share and use.
- Posted by christhi on June 3, 2009
One of the best quotes we got during Internet Week while hosting the Microsoft Experience in New York City and our reception party was "you can tell this is a party thrown by a new yorker and doesn't seem like a Microsoft party" which we took as a serious compliment. We didn't want to throw a run of the mill corporate party but wanted it to truly seem like a art exhibit deliving digital art with a mix of technology such as surface, touchsmarts, etc. The party was a hit in fact the quote I just mentioned came from Mark Cuban himself. Yes he graced his presence at our party, seemed to enjoy himself, and was really a great guy (very friendly and unpretentious).
Here is to a great week of demos and New York vibe.
- Posted by christhi on May 28, 2009
Are you a blogger, press, or simply interested in seeing some of Microsoft’s latest technologies such as Windows 7, IE8, Silverlight 3, Surface, and much more. Come visit me at 414 W 14th Street in New York City starting June 1st. I can help arrange discussions with top local agencies, hardware partners, and of course Microsoft evangelists to review these technologies with you in a open forum.
If you are a local startup in New York come get signed up for the BizSpark program (www.microsoft.com/bizspark) on the spot from one of our evangelists. BizSpark will provide qualified startups with free software, support, and visibility for 3 years.
As a venue for thought leadership, the Microsoft Experience space can host at least one presentation, speaking panel, or activity per day of Internet Week. Sample topics and activities are:
· Designing Multi-Touch Experiences for the Web and Desktop
· How Technology Enables Art and How Art Influences Technology – Artist and Partner Panel
· Coming of Digital Age: What is Your Agency’s Mix of Traditional vs Digital? – Partner Panel
· In-Game Advertising Presented by Massive and Microsoft Advertising
· Silverlight 3: Ready for Prime Time
· Surface is a Big Table with Big Experiences - Partner Pane
· Opening Night Reception
· Weekend Evening Reception and XBOX 360 Rock Band or Gaming Competition
· Webby Awards Pre-Event Reception
- Posted by christhi on May 11, 2009
with pixel shaders in silverlight 3 effects such as blurs and drop shadows are literally one line of xaml markup – no code required. More advanced effects can also be applied by writing your own pixel shader or leveraging the already converted WPF Pixel shade library for SL which can be found at http://wpffx.codeplex.com/
<Page
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="300"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<StackPanel Margin="8" Grid.Column="0">
<TextBlock Text="This text should be blurry" FontSize="20">
<TextBlock.Effect>
<BlurEffect />
</TextBlock.Effect>
</TextBlock>
<TextBlock Text="Shadow on Text" FontSize="20">
<TextBlock.Effect>
<DropShadowEffect ShadowDepth="5" />
</TextBlock.Effect>
</TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
<StackPanel Margin="8" Grid.Column="1" Orientation="Horizontal" VerticalAlignment="Top">
<Ellipse Height="100" Width="200" Fill="Blue" Margin="10 0 0 0">
<Ellipse.Effect>
<DropShadowEffect ShadowDepth="10" />
</Ellipse.Effect>
</Ellipse>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
</Page>
- Posted by christhi on April 16, 2009
For those who didn’t make it to Mix 2009 or those who want to get a short “elevator pitch” version of the what sketchflow is and does I put together this screencast for you. In it I review the top features in sketchflow as announced at Mix. Sketchflow is currently not part of the blend 3 preview so hopefully this will help provide a closer look at what you can expect from this really cool rapid prototyping tool. As you can see you can now produce prototypes that won’t require interpreting what the designer had intended nor wasting work as now you can move from thought to sketch to production level detail in one tool much without writing one line of code!
- Posted by christhi on April 8, 2009
if you are looking to build office applications in Silverlight such as an mail client, word processing, et al check out http://divelements.co.uk/silverlight/. Yes the following screen shot is actually running in a browser using Silverlight. Very nice. Add Silverlight 3 to the mix and you can run both in browser and OOB in offline scenarios and go so dynamically given the new network awareness APIs in SL3.
- Posted by christhi on March 31, 2009
For those not taking Expression Blend serious you will now have to take another look at Blend as SketchFlow (just announced by Mix last week) now provides the ability to create rapid prototypes along with the documentation. You can rapidly create a storyboard of screens while adding notes in the process and the tool automatically provides the transitions. No code needs to be written to create a fully functionaly prototype! You are even given a set of controls that actually look like they have been drawn by hand to simulate an actual white board session. Everything you build in SketchFlow is a usable artifact in blend as user controls in XAML and code are created for you behind the scenes. This is extremely powerful as your designers can now design without worrying about code wireup yet you are able to pass on content designers generate, in the overall process, during the "buildout" transition. You can even import your exisiting visual comps from Photoshop into SketchFlow and it will convert the raster image into a vector (even leveraging the layers you have setup). I'll be blogging about sketchflow and how it fits into your overall application lifecycle management discipline in future posts. For more on where this fits into the lifecycle you can catch my session from Mix online at:
http://videos.visitmix.com/MIX09/c02f
