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Once you have built your app or game and have published it into the Windows Phone Marketplace, you’re likely going to want to monitor the uptake of your app via download and (potentially) revenue statistics.  You are also going to want to find ways to market your app to people who may not know about...

You know the projects you’re currently working on and the technologies you use to get them done. But what about future projects? What would they be using? The people that can answer that are the developers and architects that not only keep themselves up to date with technologies of today, but that also...

A good number of us from the team are in Redmond this week on our annual pilgrimage to the mothership (Microsoft Headquarters) for training, so content from me will be a little lighter than usual. As a result, I wanted to share with you a set of links and resources that are new to help you learn more...

If you’ve built modern mobile apps, you probably already know that coming up with the idea for the app/game and coding it is really only half the battle .  Success is largely determined in the marketing strategy you adopt for your app.  There are quite a few strategies that you can take and...

On this D³: LIVE & INTERACTiVE special, the crew travels to the East of Toronto .NET User Group in Pickering, ON for a special presentation by Gladstone Grant, VP Developer & Platform Group at Microsoft Canada (my boss’ boss) ( LinkedIn , Twitter ). Gladstone talks about Microsoft’s overall technology...

If you waited on reading my 5-part Metro and Mobile app design series until the final post, there’s great news in that you can now read each of them online.  Also, if you want an overview of the developer perspective of Windows Phone, from a development standpoint as well as a Marketplace and marketing...

When you look at successful mobile apps and games, there are a few common traits that you will notice in them. They all achieve a certain set of goals that may be subtle or completely obvious (or both!). If you harness the power of motivation for your app user, you have created an experience for your...

Happy New Year! With 2012 upon us and a fresh outlook on what a new year can bring, you might have a few ideas up your sleeve for apps/games that you’ve always wanted to build. Windows Phone should definitely be one of the platforms you target for your upcoming masterpieces; given the momentum the app...

  January 4, 2012 | 12:00 PM ET | Add to Outlook >>   Tune in on January 4 to Developers, Developers, Developers: LIVE & INTERACTIVE . Windows Phone experts Atley Hunter, Barranger Ridler , and Paul Laberge will be on the show to chat about Windows Phone and the Developer Movement...

As 2011 comes to a close and 2012 about to begin, now’s the time to start thinking about starting something new. Whoa! I can’t believe it. 2011 is already coming to a close. Where did this year go? Looking back, there were some really amazing things that happened. Just off the top of my head: Windows...

Microsoft Canada has launched the follow-up campaign to the Mango App Challenge , the Developer Movement .  Like the Mango App Challenge, the Developer Movement is a contest for you as a developer to build great apps and get great rewards as a result, but it’s more than that.  It’s more than...

One of the more complicated concepts in phone development, regardless of the platform you are targeting, is multi-tasking.  The nature of a mobile device is to be resource-limited.  It’s not a PC where you have a significant amount of CPU, memory, storage and other assets to tap into in your...

One of the great features of Windows Phone is the natural feel of the left-to-right (or right-to-left) scrolling of apps and hubs.  There’s a good reason for this flow – the Windows Phone team looked into the behaviour of how users interact with the phone and figured out that the anatomy of the...

As you may know, the Microsoft TechDays Conference took place in Montreal last week and we have landed an interview with Louis-Philippe Pinsonneault, a local Montreal developer.  He is a really nice guy and a great developer.  I was very happy to finally meet him in person after chatting with...

I’ve been on the road for the better part of the month of November, meeting with developers and IT Pros across the country and it’s been a blast.  Because I’m the guy on the MS Canada evangelism team most focused on Windows Phone, more often than not those conversations trend towards mobile. ...

After having the pleasure of talking about technology and connecting with people in Toronto and Vancouver – it’s now Montreal’s turn. Techdays Montreal is coming quickly and the whole team is giving 200% effort to finish things up with a Bang. This year – lots of diverse sessions...

If you’re looking to start learning Windows Phone 7.5 development, this could be the perfect place for you to start!  Jeff Blankenburg from Microsoft has compiled (or rather, at the time of publication of this post is compiling ) a series of 31 tutorials on how to implement Windows Phone 7.5 Apps...

Although many of the attendees from TechDays Toronto already know this, for those of you attending TechDays in Vancouver or Montreal (or maybe this is added incentive to register for Techdays in those cities…), our great partner Telerik has generously supplied every attendee with a free license...

A couple of weeks ago I introduced the Mango App Challenge – in essence, a contest for you to develop and publish 2 Windows Phone apps to the Marketplace and in return we’d give you a free phone.  Well, so far the contest has gotten a lot of entries (but there’s still plenty of phones left to give...

Now that I’ve caught your attention with the title of this post, I want to introduce you to a really great promotion we are holding at Microsoft Canada for you as a mobile app developer (by the way, when I write “app”, I actually mean “app or game”). One of the biggest comments that I get when talking...

By now, you may have seen that TechDays 2011 is now open for registration . TechDays is Microsoft Canada’s premier, in-person training event that is reaching 3 cities (Toronto – October 25-26, 2011, Vancouver – November 15-16, 2011 and Montreal – November 29-30, 2011) with 2 full...

By now, many of you have probably s een the news that carriers around the world will start pushing updates very soon and through the next couple of months.  It’s exciting because many that have seen and used the Mango update for Windows Phone in its beta format have seen it to be a very usable,...

Even ten years ago, “experience” was not really something that was given much thought in building software. More often than not the primary goal of a piece of software was simply to display results, or data. How the data or results were displayed was more often a function of technical specifications...

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post referencing how you as a developer don’t have to be torn between building mobile experiences in HTML5 or native phone apps.  In fact, with the upcoming Mango release for Windows Phone, the “better together” story is a strong one that allows you to take advantage of...

Everyone knows how competitive the mobile space is.  There are a wide range of platforms available for you as a developer to adopt and build your mobile app masterpiece, each with their pros and cons.  So Microsoft introduces a new mobile platform (Windows Phone 7 and now the upcoming Mango...