- 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 July 12, 2010
Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta ReleasedJUL1220
10
0
First things first: go get the Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta. It has arrived!
It’s time to get serious about building the actual apps and games for Windows Phone 7 that consumers will be looking for starting this holiday season.
One of the things I really want to do is just take a step back and congratulate the entire Windows Phone 7 team. They have done an amazing job of delivering code month after month on our path to releasing later this year.
Here’s a link to the release notes for the beta, but I wanted to talk about a few top level items:
- Microsoft Expression Blend for Windows Phone – Blend is now integrated completely into the Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta.
- Developer Registration Utility – Now you can unlock you Windows Phone 7 device for development purposes.
- XAP Deployment Tool – if you want to deploy XAP files directly to an unlocked device, now you can.
- The Windows Phone 7 API – we’re getting close to completion. Many namespaces that were previously distributed over several different DLLs have now been consolidated into one. In addition, there have been realignments and changes in several other namespaces as well. Push Notifications, Accelerometer and App Bar APIs have all been updated.
- Additional Controls – There are some additional controls coming in the next few weeks (i.e. Panorama and Pivot) which didn’t make the beta release. They are coming soon.
- Control Templates – Silverlight for Windows Phone control templates have been updated to match evolutions in the overall OS.
Get Trained – Windows Phone 7 Jump StartWindows Phone 7 JumpStart is a FREE virtual live class for developers interested in developing applications and games for Windows Phone 7. We’re providing this in partnership with our MS Learning team. The course is organized into four virtual instructor-led sessions that are of 3-hour duration. They will be presented by forthcoming MS Press authors and MVP's, Andy Wigley and Rob Miles. It will provide developers a jump start for developing Windows Phone 7 applications. The Labs will be completed offline with office hours access to the instructors.The dates for these course sessions are:
- July 20 – 8am: Session One: Getting Started with Microsoft Windows Phone and Silverlight
- July 20 – 1pm: Session Two: Programming Game Applications with XNA
- July 22 – 8am: Session Three: Programming Applications with Silverlight
- July 22 – 1pm: Session Four: Review and Wrap Up
Go register for the course now!Devices for DevelopersWe made a promise last month that we would be getting pre-production preview devices to developers this month. We are keeping that promise. In fact, the very first preview devices were awarded last week to a pair of pretty amazing high-school students who won the Windows Phone “Rockstar” contest as part of the Imagine Cup. When we saw what they had done, we knew we had to get them preview phones.Starting next Monday (July 19th), we start shipping the devices more broadly. Sadly, we will not be able to meet all of that demand. We are planning to set up deploy and test labs in major cities to make it a little easier for everyone who wants to have access to a preview phone to have it. More on that soon.Lastly, to get your name in the queue, assuming you haven’t already sent in an email, you can now send an email to wp7req@microsoft.com. A field representative will get back to you as soon as possible. Again, these are preview phones, so they are limited in quantity. When you send email, please include the following information:
- Your name
- Company name, if applicable
- What city/state/country you are located in
- App(s) you plan on developing (category and brief description)
TwitterAt some point, we had to mention Twitter, right? We strongly encourage developers establish a connection with their local field evangelist, since they will be the ones ultimately putting phones into the hands of developers, but they can also point you in the right direction for solving problems, get you connected to other partners, and generally help out. To make it easier to get to know your local evangelist, we’ve set up this list - wp7dev/champs (http://twitter.com/wp7dev/champs).You can also follow other members of the team based on their area of coverage:
- 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 February 26, 2009
Why is it is ready
1. Large Screen. Look it is much easier to communicate with a larger screen. Nuff said.
2. Excellent User Experience and Interaction Design. Much easier on the those non-technical users: read reduced training and increased productivity.
3. GPS and Mapping. It just works and as good as any car-based GPS I've used minus voice.
4. 10’s of thousands of downloadable applications many of which can be used for business such as Microsoft Tag, Jaadu Remote Desktop, etc.
5. Exchange Support. Not perfect but its there.
6. Web Surfing. See points 1 & 2.
7. Wi-Fi Support. No more lugging laptops to coffee shops.
8. Social Networking easier for the traveler. I no longer have to be at my desk to tweet or blog.
9. MobileMe support for those without Exchange.
10. International Language Support.
Why it is NOT
1. Ease of typing – lack of tactile keyboard.
2. Battery Life. 4 hours! Come on.
3. Apple Store is not really made for business applications – restricted application approval impedes production as well as limits enterprise mobile management solutions.
4. iPhone Application Development is not agile enough. Managed code please.
5. Limited Calendar Features – Such as meeting creation. Sort of hard to create calendar events when you can’t invite anyone from your organization
6. Lack of Enterprise Volume Pricing. Still too expensive for most orgs, especially these days.
7. Lack of Central Administration Tools. See Windows Mobile.
8. No cut and paste. Can live without this but it would be nice.
9. Security: Lack of Remote Kill Option. Apple come on.
10. Native Popular Office Application Support such as Powerpoint without converters such as Acoolsoft PPT to MPEG-4 or iClickr (http://www.senstic.com/iphone/iClickr/iClickr.aspx). Too much of a headache.
- Posted by christhi on December 16, 2008
MS Live Labs Releases Seadragon Mobile iPhone app
There are have been rumors of us creating solutions for the iPhone and I've had many folks approach me with questions of its validity. I think this is a great move for us and in no way invalidates the importance of the Windows Mobile platform. "Playing nicely" with other platforms is something we are doing very well as of late and this is, in my opinion, aonther giant step in that direction!
To summarize, Microsoft Live Labs released a demonstration of Seadragon Mobile, http://livelabs.com/seadragon-mobile for its first mobile platform, the iPhone, on Saturday Dec 13. For background, Microsoft Live Labs has been experimenting with Seadragon technology on different platforms to validate the experience for as broad an audience as possible. This technology is an experiment from Live Labs, and in the future the group intends to bring it to Windows Mobile as well. Seadragon is a way to see incredible detail from graphics and photos, regardless of the size of the screen, size of the file, or bandwidth of the network. At the core of its mission, Microsoft Live Labs is an applied research organization which advances the state of the art of Internet technologies and enables new scenarios for users. Bringing Seadragon technology to other platforms including Photosynth, Deep Zoom in Silverlight, Microsoft Surface, the recent release of Seadragon Ajax http://livelabs.com/seadragon-ajax/, and now the Seadragon Mobile viewer for the iPhone, are examples of Live Labs delivering on its mission and continuing to release and test the validity of its experiments with end users to collect feedback on the models and influence the next generation of Microsoft products and services.
While the Seadragon Deep Zoom technology used in Live Labs’ application for the iPhone has the same technological roots as Silverlight Deep Zoom, Silverlight Deep Zoom was not used for the Seadragon application for the iPhone. There is yet no comment on whether SilveLight will or will not be ported to the iPhone at this point.
FAQ
What is Seadragon Mobile? Seadragon Mobile is an experiment from Microsoft Live Labs in bringing Deep Zoom imagery to new platforms. Deep Zoom imagery is a way to see incredible detail from graphics and photos, no matter the size of the screen or size of the file—a multi-gigabyte image would display just as fast as one taken with a camera phone.
What specifically can end users do with the Seadragon Mobile viewer on the iPhone? The Seadragon Mobile iPhone app is a demonstration which will allow end users to view a collection of approximately 50 sample images using Seadragon technology zooming capabilities as well as view Photosynth collections in 2D on their iPhone.
Why is Microsoft Live Labs developing for the iPhone? As part of the Microsoft Live Labs core mission, we aim to test the validity of new technologies and models with end users. We have been experimenting with Seadragon for some time now on a variety of different platforms and have already developed versions for the PC, and for Microsoft Surface. The iPhone is just one of many platforms we are experimenting with to deliver the power of Seadragon technology to as many people as possible.
Why isn’t Microsoft Live Labs developing Seadragon Mobile apps for Windows Mobile? The Seadragon Mobile iPhone app is a demonstration from Live Labs, and the technology requires the GPU processors supported by the iPhone. This release is meant to be an experiment on Seadragon’s first mobile platform and does not mean Microsoft intends to productize this specific experiment. Since initial prototyping of GPU on the iPhone, Windows Mobile has brought popular phones to market with GPU such as the HTC Diamond. GPUs on the HTC phones represent continual innovation in the Windows Mobile space by our OEM partners. Similar to other Live Labs experiments and to demonstrate the validity of the technology on mobile platforms, in the future, Live Labs intends to bring Seadragon technology to Windows Mobile. As we’ve seen in the past, Live Labs has developed other technologies for Windows Mobile including Deepfish, a mobile browsing experience.
How do you compare Seadragon Mobile to other technologies available such as Apple’s ZUI in the iPhone or their Opera Mini browser; the zoom technology for phone interface Zumobi? Seadragon Mobile is a zooming interface which essentially solves the problem of searching and scrolling through reams of information on the Web by fluidly moving through large amounts of data as fast as possible. In contrast, other domain-specific applications and Web browsers aren’t optimized for displaying large images over slow connection or allowing for quick and intuitive manipulation that the Seadragon Mobile experience delivers.
Does this mean that Microsoft Live Labs will continue to look for ways to develop apps for the iPhone in the future? Live Labs has no commitments at this time to develop future iPhone apps. For this specific iPhone app release, bringing Seadragon technology to a variety of other platforms including Photosynth, Deep Zoom in Silverlight, Microsoft Surface, the recent release of Seadragon Ajax http://livelabs.com/seadragon-ajax/, and now the Seadragon Mobile viewer for the iPhone, are examples of Live Labs continuing to release and test the validity of experiments and demonstrations with end users to collect feedback on the models and influence the next generation of Microsoft products and services.
How can I get Seadragon Mobile? You can install Seadragon Mobile two ways, either by accessing the App Store on the iPhone or on your computer through iTunes at http://www.itunes.com/app/seadragonmobile.
Does Microsoft’s efforts to build an application for the iPhone over Windows Mobile mean the company does not believe in future success of the platform?
We’re very excited about where we’re at today; several anticipated Windows Mobile phones hit the market in Q3 and Q4, including the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and Samsung Omnia, and we expect them to drive strong sales across the holiday season and into 2009.
Windows Mobile has launched 30 new phones this year alone from different handset makers, mobile operators featuring various form factors, including the Samsung BlackJack II, HTC Touch Diamond, and Palm Treo 800w.
Live Labs is a research organization that has always experimented on multiple platforms. Their offering for a competitor to Microsoft does not represent a shift in their strategy or the company’s.