IUpdateable from Eric Nelson (http://ericnelson.wordpress.com)

I needed to populate a database I’m designing with some test data and thought to myself “LightSwitch will be ideal to knock out some screens”. One hour later I got a LightSwitch screen to actually display! Until then all I … Continue reading → ...read more

Following on from nice touch #1… I disliked the way old versions of Blend relied on something as a subtle as a few pixels of colour to tell you something relatively important. Circa 2010 Circa 2013 although admittedly this doesn’t … Continue reading → ...read more

[Really I’m just testing out twitterfeed which has failed for me… but I needed something to post on ] I’m just skimming through some blend tips by Mike from 2010 and  spotted a nice touch in Blend for Visual Studio … Continue reading → ...read more

After 16 great years with Microsoft, Friday 21st is my last working day. I am spending it in our new home in the chilly North York Moors with the company of sheep, rabbits, grouse and a rather fine bottle of … Continue reading → ...read more

Smile … then chuckle at the last 10 seconds Windows 8 ...read more

During the last 6 months I have been working with  iOS developers building the first wave of Windows 8 applications for the Windows Store. Pretty much all of them have told me that they enjoyed making the transition to XAML/C#/.NET … Continue reading → ...read more

Those very nice people at Telerik have impressed me once again – so much so that it feels similar to the moment I woke up on Christmas day to find a TCR racing set under the tree (what an awesome … Continue reading → ...read more

[Windows Store Tips] When you submit to the store you get an opportunity to add promo images to your submission. It is tempting to skip over these as a) they are optional and b) they are in odd sizes! However … Continue reading → ...read more

[Windows Store Tips] Pete has a great check list to do before submission. It includes store colors and logo which have been so often missed – but not by you Nigel Sampson has also done a nice post about Logo … Continue reading → ...read more

Three positive stories. “Microsoft has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses” (Reported on November 27th) “Facebook data suggests Microsoft has sold 4.2 million Windows Phone handsets since October” (Reported on December 9th) “Teenage daughter dumps Blackberry for Lumia 610” (Reported … Continue reading → ...read more

In 1996 I was happily working on large Unix applications when I was approached by Microsoft to join a brand new European arm of the (then famous – apparently) Microsoft US Developer Relations Group as something called a “Technical Evangelist” … Continue reading → ...read more

If you attended the event yesterday in London then firstly, thank you for coming and secondly, you can find the slides we used attached to this post or via this direct link. The tips I listed in my part of … Continue reading → ...read more

Just stumbled upon ClassBrowserPlus – what a great app! Lovely clean UX with great detailed content And some very nice code samples Well done Russell! ...read more

[Windows Store Tips] When you create a developer account on the Windows 8 store you can either create a company account or an individual account. I have seen several companies get into a “bit of a pickle” with store company … Continue reading → ...read more

There appears to be a small myth that getting a Windows 8 store app on a Windows RT device  during development is complicated. I think this stems from a) some of the (quite complex) blogosphere posts on Windows RT and … Continue reading → ...read more

Last updated 24th October 2012. Ok, not quite 101 but I’m sure we will get there If I have missed something, please share with a comment. Enjoy! UX Frameworks – commercial · RadControls for Windows 8 – 15+ native controls … Continue reading → ...read more

[Windows Store Tips] Run it often The Windows App Certification Kit test is one of the first things that happens to your application during certification – and if you fail it, your submission fails. The good news is that the … Continue reading → ...read more

[Windows Store Tips] Before you start developing, before you start design, reserve your application name – or someone else will. You should also reserve any localized app names at the same time. This is bad: This is good: Read other … Continue reading → ...read more

[Windows Store Tips] Several of the teams we have worked with have delayed looking at the store submission process until the very end … and only then realised a) how much time and effort is involved to do it well … Continue reading → ...read more

[Windows Store Tips] If your application collects personal information or we think it might collect personal information then you need a privacy policy. The detail can be found at 4.1.1 Your app must have a privacy statement if it collects … Continue reading → ...read more

[Windows Store Tips] When you create a new Windows Store project in Visual Studio 2012 it “helpfully” turns on one Capability in the manifest – “Internet Client”. Which is great … if you use the Internet. But… having this turned … Continue reading → ...read more

I love Netflix. My family love Netflix. Awesome that it is now in the store… This is a great looking app – super fast. Well done to the team who built it: Semantic zoom Snapping Search ...read more

Yum Enjoy the energy! Learn more ...read more

In January (2012)I delivered the hugely fun Six Weeks of Windows Azure. There was a lot right in the format we went with as well as improvements and changes we could make/try – I even did a little retrospective on … Continue reading → ...read more

Just stumbled upon this Q&A with the Surface team from the 16th of October – makes for an interesting read. Enjoy. ...read more