Frank La Vigne

Best Windows Phone 7 Apps and Games in Development (Aside from Mine, of course) ;)

Frank La Vigne — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:14:00 GMT

One of the hurdles Microsoft has to overcome in order for Windows Phone 7 to be successful is a variety of high quality software available for the device.

There’s certainly a lot of compelling content for the other two major platforms and for Microsoft to be a serious contender, there has to be a a lot of great apps available for it.

Based on this list Pocket Lint has compiled, it looks like WP7 is well on its way to a great selection of cool apps and games.

Here’s the list:

Seesmic for Windows Phone 7
This will bring the Seesmic experience on Windows Phone 7 and lets you gather in your Twitter, Facebook, and the thousand other social networks into one application. You'll be able to do all the usual things, plus it will work seamlessly with the Windows 7 and Mac versions of the software. Where it takes things one step further is full integration of other services in the phone like Bing maps.
Twozaic for Windows Phone 7
There isn't an integrated Twitter support in Windows Phone 7 from day 1, but that doesn't mean that there won't be Twitter apps to tweet from. If Seesmic isn't your cup of tea, one alternative will be Twozaic that offers a more simplified Twitter experience judging from the demo pictures. The most interesting element to the app will be the "Cloud view" that shows 20 tweets in a mosaic layout, with 3 levels of importance, currently based on the number of followers and favourites.
Foursquare on Windows Phone 7
There might be plenty of talk about Facebook Places, but Foursquare is still popular, and still getting plenty of check-ins. Come Windows Phone 7 launch day you'll be able to check-in via your Windows Phone 7 phone thanks to the Foursquare Windows Phone 7 app. It will come with Bing maps integration, all the usual Foursquare features and make checking-in something pretty easy to do. You'll even get directions of how to find your friends nearby.
Graphic.ly for Windows Phone 7
How much do you like comic books? If it's a lot then this is going to be the app that you'll want to look out for come launch day. Graphic.ly lets you carry your favourite comics, buy comics and of course read comics on your new phone. The interface is all very Windows Phone 7, but also very comic book friendly allowing you to select your comic, and touch to read swiping through the pages. You'll be able to deep zoom into the images, and even comment on individual images to share with other Graphic.ly friends.
Netflix for Windows Phone 7
One for our American friends, but Netflix will let you stream movies and television shows over the air directly to your Windows Phone 7 handset to watch, as long as you've got Wi-Fi access. If you're a member, that means never having nothing to watch on the go. That's pretty impressive.
Shazam for Windows Phone 7
We know you like a good music track as much as the rest of us, and have no doubt seen Shazam working on an iPhone, BlackBerry or Android device. Thankfully Shazam is in development for Windows Phone 7, meaning if you switch to the new Microsoft mobile OS you'll still be able to find out what that track is in the background.
Flickr Uploader for Windows Phone 7
Judging by most of the leaked hardware doing the rounds on the Internet at the moment, all the launch phones are going to come with 8-megapixel cameras. That means plenty of potential when it comes to snapping shots on the go. But what do you do when it comes to sharing those images. One Windows Phone 7 app in development is the Flickr Uploader that will let you upload images directly to Flickr to share with your friends. It's simple, but will it let you share that picture of the weird dude sitting opposite you in the restaurant wearing a tea cosy on his head?
USGA Golf for Windows Phone 7
Do you play golf? Thought you did. Then you'll probably want to get the USGA golf app for Windows Phone 7, if it makes it to the App store. Created by Microsoft's Jeff Arnold, Lead motion designer for Windows Phone 7, the app shows what is possible for golfers who've got a Windows Phone 7 phone. The app lists virtually all the golf courses of America and then based on that choice will give you all the details of the course you are about to play. This isn't a game mind you, but an aid to the course you are about to play in real life. The app tracks players you've played against in the past, lets you step up new players and basically track all your shots, how you did, what your scorecard looks like out on the course using the phone, data in the app, and your GPS location. It will be time to ditch the pencil.
TouchCall for Windows Phone 7
An incredibly simple app that will let you create shortcuts to six phone numbers on a single screen, allowing you to touch the relating button to phone them. If it sounds simple, that's because it is, but who said apps had to be confusing.
Halo Waypoint for Windows Phone 7
There are over 63 games available for Windows Phone 7, and the Halo Waypoint Windows Phone 7 app will act as a hub for all things Halo on your phone. According to Microsoft, Halo fans will want it because you'll be able to get videos, comics, news, and plenty of other stuff on your phone on the go.
Crackdown 2 for Windows Phone 7
Set in the world of Crackdown 2, you've got to fight off zombies using towers to defend your pile. The interesting thing here is that you can use Bing maps to actually defend certain places in particular; like your house, your office, or your favourite pub.
Wall street for Windows Phone 7
This look like one for the Gordon Gekko fans of this world, bringing you all the stock market data that you could want using the Yahoo's Stock tracker service. The app will let you drill down to get more information, graphs and company news while also giving you an overview on the world's biggest markets while you're at the country club sipping a gin and tonic.
Marathon for Windows Phone 7
If you're training for a marathon or just like running this is going to be an app to put on your list. Using the GPS on board in the camera, it will help track your run so you can keep an eye on your training. The software lets you set goals, will map your course and give you announcements to whether you are ahead or behind your target time. You'll even be able to run against yourself thanks to a ghost mode.

Technorati Tags: WP7,WP7Dev,Windows Phone 7

Bob Martin on Cleaning Your Functions and Arguments

Frank La Vigne — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:29:00 GMT

He may be talking specifically about Java in his books and talks, but .NET developers can learn a thing or two from (Uncle) Bob Martin, of Clean Code fame.

On this page at JavaLobby, you can watch two videos of Bob Martin talking about cleaning your function and arguments.

The mindset of "I'll clean it up later" can kill a business. A company's productivity will gradually decay as the system gets messier and messier, and when the business is forced to do a large-scale redesign, it rarely succeeds. This presentation is heavy on the code, and it will take you through its cleanup step-by-step. It's a great experience to see Martin present at a conference because the audience is directly involved in the example where you help Martin clean up a module. Interesting astronomy facts precede each talk.
Clean Code I: Arguments from Mike C. on Vimeo.
Another audience-challenging presentation by Bob Martin examines the process of cleaning up Java functions. This talk starts with a pop quiz - you have three minutes to examine a two-page Java function and figure out what it does. Examples of great Java functions and poor Java functions will be examined for the audience's review. Martin will help you learn the process by which an expert coder would approach, analyze, and refractor this code. You'll discover how large functions should be and how they should be named and documented. You'll also learn how many indent levels it should include and how it should deal with exceptions, arguments, and return values.
Clean Code III: Functions from Mike C. on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags: Bob Martin,Clean Code

FaceBook Mobile

Frank La Vigne — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:18:00 GMT

This probably isn’t what comes to mind when you hear “the mobile version of Facebook”

Why would anyone take a perfectly good Caprice Classic and do that? Or is this a hoax?

[found via AllTop]

Gradients in Live Meeting

Frank La Vigne — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:58:00 GMT

I’ve seen this problem before in Live Meeting and I’m somewhat surprised that it’s still as issue.

This makes demonstrating Blend online in real time a little less appealing.

Technorati Tags: Bug,Please Fix,LiveMeeting

Crazy Week and a Life Lesson

Frank La Vigne — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:44:00 GMT

Last week, my wife’s grandfather passed away. At least he got to meet my son – his great-grandson.

Here they are together at Easter, hence the bunny hat on the baby. ;)

The important lesson I took away from last week was the importance of family and that life is too short to be concerned with problems that, in the cosmic scheme of things, are actually quite petty.

Technorati Tags: Deep Thought,RIP

Interesting Presentation on Creating a Mobile Application

Frank La Vigne — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:38:00 GMT

As August draws to a close, we’re getting closer to the September 16th date of the Windows Phone 7 developer tools RTM.

Here are some ideas to make better apps.

Smartphone App Development

View more presentations from Danielle Gatsos.

Technorati Tags: WP7Dev,WP7,Windows Phone 7

Evolution of an Interpreter

Frank La Vigne — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:34:00 GMT

I stumbled across this video lecture on functional programming on Channel9.

Very interesting stuff. (and it’s only one in a series)

In part 3 of the Advanced Functional Programming lecture series, Dr. Lämmel focuses on the domain of language interpretation as a method of understanding some important functional programming techniques. As a side effect, some basics of programming language theory are also informally presented.

Technorati Tags: functional programming,lambdas

Web Site Back Up

Frank La Vigne — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 14:37:00 GMT

Yet another service outage courtesy of WebHost4Life.

They’re working really hard to win the PEPCO* Service Reliability Award.

* PEPCO is the local power company in DC and MD. They’ve come under fire after recent outages. They’ve never been known for the reliability and it’s only gotten worse lately. Much like WebHost4Life.

Unit Testing Apps on Windows Phone 7

Frank La Vigne — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 19:55:00 GMT

Roger Peters (@SmartyP) wrote a blog post on how to unit test Silverlight apps on Windows Phone 7.

Definitely worth a read.

Technorati Tags: WP7,WP7Dev,Windows Phone 7

Inking on Windows Phone 7

Frank La Vigne — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 19:47:00 GMT

Much to my delight, the InkPresenter control works on Silverlight for Windows Phone the same way as it does for regular Silverlight.

In fact, I was able to take sample code from one of the apps in my book and create a simple drawing app in a few minutes.

Now, all I need is an actual phone to play with. :)

Technorati Tags: Windows Phone 7,WP7,WP7Dev

Great Article on Writing a Bing Maps Location-Aware App for Windows Phone 7

Frank La Vigne — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:14:00 GMT

I came across this great article on how to create a location-aware Bing Maps application for Windows Phone 7 and it’s too good not to share.

Technorati Tags: WP7,WP7Dev,Windows Phone 7

Beaker’s Ballad

Frank La Vigne — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:12:00 GMT

Muppets + YouTube = Pure Awesome.

Best line: “Let’s Digg this until we bury it!”

Codecs Supported in Windows Phone 7

Frank La Vigne — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:09:00 GMT

Wes Yanaga points to a list on MSDN of supported Codecs in Windows Phone 7

Here’s the list along with the caveat that “this information contains pre-release information and is subject to change in future releases.”

Audio

WAV

MP3

WMA

AAC-LC

HE-AAC v1

HE-AAC v2

AMR-NB

Video

WMV (VC1) Simple, Main and Advanced Profiles
MPEG-4 Part 2 – Simple
MPEG-4 Part 10 (MPEG-4 AVC, H.264) Level 3.0 – Baseline Profile
MPEG-4 Part 10 (MPEG-4 AVC, H.264) Level 3.0 – Main Profile
MPEG-4 Part 10 (MPEG-4 AVC, H.264) Level 3.0 - High Profile
H.263

Images

JPEG, PNG, GIF (both GIF87a and GIF89a), BMP, TIF

I’ve been wondering about this myself for a while and it’s good to have this (more or less) nailed down.

Technorati Tags: Windows Phone 7,WP7,WP7Dev

Windows Phone 7 Jump Start Sessions Now Online

Frank La Vigne — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:39:00 GMT

If you missed this week’s Windows Phone 7 Jump Start live seminars, then you’ll be happy to learn that the entire 12 hour course is now available for download.

From the Microsoft Press blog:

The 12 hours of Windows Phone 7 Jump Start sessions—four virtual sessions to provide developers a jump start for developing Windows Phone 7 applications, presented this week by Microsoft Press authors Rob Miles and Andy Wigley—have concluded. If you missed the sessions, you can watch them via the links below. (Please note that higher quality videos of the sessions will be available in August, after some production work.)
Recording Links:
July 20 – 8am (PST): Session One: Getting Started with Microsoft Windows Phone and Silverlight
AM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072010&pw=webcast
AM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072010-1&pw=webcast
AM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072010-2&pw=webcast

July 20 – 1pm (PST): Session Two: Programming Game Applications with XNA
PM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072010-3&pw=webcast
PM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072010-4&pw=webcast
PM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072010-5&pw=webcast

July 22 – 8am (PST): Session Three: Advanced Windows Phone Development

AM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072210&pw=webcast
AM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072210-1&pw=webcast
AM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072210-2&pw=webcast

July 22 – 1pm (PST): Session Four: Selling Your Windows Phone Solutions & Wrap Up
PM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072210-3&pw=webcast
PM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072210-4&pw=webcast
PM: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/view?id=Win7072210-5&pw=webcast

[found via Microsoft Press]

Technorati Tags: WP7,WP7Dev

CapArea.NET Silverlight SIG Meeting Tues July 20

Frank La Vigne — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:53:00 GMT

If you look closely at the screenshots from my WP7 app, you’ll see that we’re having Joel Cochran present on Blend 4 at the July meeting of the CapArea.NET Silverlight SIG.

Joel Cochran is an Expression Blend fanatic and a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (WPF). He has been developing in C# since 2003 and is a self-proclaimed "Blend Evangelist". A frequent speaker at User Groups and Code Camps, he enjoys teaching and writing about .NET and other topics. You can find him online at http://www.developingfor.net. Joel has served as the Director of Operations for Stonewall Technologies, Inc., an ISV, in Staunton, VA, since 2000.
An introduction to using Blend 4 to develop WPF and Silverlight applications. This presentation will highlight the changes from Blend 3 to Blend 4 while providing plenty of room for open discussion.

Technorati Tags: Blend,Blend 4,Joel Cochran

Sneak Peek at CapArea.NET Silverlight SIG Windows Phone 7 App

Frank La Vigne — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:48:00 GMT

I’m currently working on a few sample apps, but the first one to come out will be one that tracks all the CapArea.NET Silverlight SIG meetings. (@SilverlightDC)

The app shares the same codebase as the web version, which is a nice plus for WP7 development. A lot of your existing Silverlight code will work.

The UI still need some work: I want to add mapping, countdown function and more, but this should be enough to get the word out. :)

Technorati Tags: WP7,WP7Dev,Windows Phone 7

Three Platforms: Three Initialization Mechanisms

Frank La Vigne — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:21:00 GMT

While tinkering on a Windows Phone 7 application, I noticed that the starting point in the UI was defined in XML, specifically in the WMAppManifest.xml file. (look for it in the Properties folder)

This differs dramatically from Silverlight’s approach, which is to define the starting point in code, specifically in the App.xaml.cs code behind.

WPF has an altogether different approach: define in the App.Xaml via mark up.

I guess everyone wanted to be unique. ;)

Windows Phone 7 Beta– Tools & Training Kit

Frank La Vigne — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:12:00 GMT

I saw this on the Public Sector Weblog and though it was worth sharing:

We have recently released the first beta for the Windows Phone 7 Development Tool http://developer.windowsphone.com we have also released a revised and rich Training Kit (download a local copy of the training kit) that will help you quickly ramp up to start building citizens-oriented solutions.
If your organization is currently developing or considering developing government solutions for Windows Phone 7, please contact me at joel.reyes@microsoft.com I am the Windows Phone 7 resource assigned to work with Government developers (agencies and Partners) to help them make the best of building solutions for Windows Phone 7.

Get the training kit. There’s a lot of goodies in it that will get you up to speed with Windows Phone 7 Development.

Technorati Tags: WP7,WP7Dev,Windows Phone 7

Pictures from the WPC 2010

Frank La Vigne — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:09:00 GMT

Last week the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference was in DC and I had the opportunity to present on Windows Phone 7 development along with Andrew Duthie.

Aside from the cloud and WP7, there was an strong undertone of Tablet and touch technologies in action.

Here’s some of the cool hardware that caught my eye.

As for the booths, I have to say 3M had the best technology demo I’ve seen in a long time.

They’re selling a 60 point touch screen monitor for around $1500. Part of their demo includes a 6 screen “smart wall” type set up.

Very sci-fi.

Touch screen in action: find your way through the WPC10 via an interactive map.

Other hardware toys:

A 3D multi-monitor setup.

More multi-monitor fun:

Getting Started with WPF 4

Frank La Vigne — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:37:00 GMT

Lately, everything around here has been all about Windows Phone 7, but let’s show WPF some love.

Ted Hu, a Senior Program Manager for the WPF Team, has compiled a great list of new features in WPF4 and some introductory training material.

As for the new features:

Cached Composition
LayoutRounding
CleartypeHinting
BindableRun
Selection and Caret Brushes
Windows 7 Shell Integration
Progress Bars
New XAML/BAML Parser Engine
Visual State Manager (VSM)
UIAutomation Virtualizatoin
.NET Framework 4 Client Profile
Controls for Rich Client apps

Animated Easing Function
New Text Rendering Stack
Custom Dictionaries
Windows 7 Multitouch
Icon Overlays
Thumbnail Toolbars
Data Binding Support for DLR
HTML-XBAP Script Interop
SynchronizedInput Pattern
Full Trust XBAP Deployment
Windows 7 and Office Ribbon Control
Pixel Shader 3 Support

Check out his blog post for demos, slides, and code.

Technorati Tags: WPF4,XAML

Making an Offline RSS Reader for Windows Phone 7

Frank La Vigne — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:28:00 GMT

JOSUEYERAY has written a great article on Windows Phone Development on CodeProject on how to build an offlne RSS reader.

Definitely worth checking out.

Technorati Tags: Windows Phone 7,WP7Dev,WP7

Smart People on TV Use Microsoft Tech ;)

Frank La Vigne — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:50:00 GMT

Turns out the character on the Big Bang Theory aren’t LAMP fan boys after all.

From the looks of their bookshelf content, they’ve been studying for the MCTS exams.

[hat tip to Roberto Hernandez]

Windows Phone 7 Will Support Remote Wipe

Frank La Vigne — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:22:00 GMT

According to Engadget, Windows Phone Live will provide remote wipe, location, and sync for your Windows Phone 7 device.

Andy Lees is mentioning at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference today that an all-new Windows Phone Live website will figure prominently into the Windows Phone 7 equation when devices launch toward the end of 2010. It looks like the site is divided into two, arguably equally important parts: a sync function, which lets you transfer photos directly from your phone (a la Kin Studio, perhaps?), move OneNote content, synchronize contacts, and so on, and a suite of tools for dealing with a lost or stolen device -- you'll be able to remotely wipe it, locate it, lock it, or just make it ring until you drive the thief out of his gourd.

Sounds like a nice integration with the cloud.

Remote wipe is a good idea, especially when you think of all the personal data we store on our phones.

It’d be nice to be able to have a web based utility to make the phone make a loud noise for those moments when you’ve lost it somewhere in the house.

Sure you can call it, but it usually goes to voice mail before I can track it down on the first try.

Technorati Tags: WP7,Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 Tools Beta Available Now

Frank La Vigne — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:08:00 GMT

This week has been crazy and all about Windows Phone 7.

I’ve presented twice this week on Windows Phone 7 at the Microsoft World Partner Conference Expo here in DC and I’m nearly ready to unveil my first Windows Phone 7 app. Stay tuned here for details.

If that weren’t enough WP7, the team has released the Beta tools for Windows Phone 7. It’s fully compatible with the RTM of Visual Studio 2010 and quite solid.

Now is the time to get into Windows Phone Development. If you’ve been holding back for fear of messing up your system with beta bits, wait no longer.

Pete Brown blogs:

Today we released the beta tools for Windows Phone 7. This is a strong, solid beta, just about feature complete. Heck, I'd almost consider it more of an RC when it comes to quality. If you've been waiting for a solid build before diving into wp7dev, this is the release for you.
The Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta includes the following:

Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone Beta
Windows Phone Emulator Beta
Silverlight for Windows Phone Beta
XNA Game Studio 4.0 Beta

Downloads:

You can download the Wp7 developer tools beta from silverlight.net.
You'll also want to check out the release notes for the release.

Technorati Tags: Windows Phone 7,WP7dev,WP7

19 Star Wars Facts You Didn’t Know

Frank La Vigne — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:59:00 GMT

Here’s a fun infographic about Star Wars.

[found via Forget Foo]