I haven't been updating my blog for quite a few months now. And there's a reason for that: I have been quite busy moving. I have changed jobs so now this is my team: More specifically I am now part of the Microsoft IT Engineering Architecture...

I've been helping these guys on the ImagineCup competition. Please come to check out their work with .Net Microframework to automate a remote controlled helicopter. And when there, please "Like" the page to show your support! :) http://www.facebook...

So I was getting very annoyed about a problem I was facing: Every time I attempted to hit F5 on a Azure Solution, Visual Studio 2010 that had an ASP.Net MVC 2 project as the start one, Visual Studio 2010 (even with SP1 beta) got frozen during the build...

I know I speak for many of us at Microsoft when I say: WELCOME NOKIA! We are very glad to work with you guys :) http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2011/feb11/02-11partnership.mspx

After playing a bit with a Windows 7 slate I decided to create a project, just for fun, to test a few ideas on it. Basically what I’m trying to create is a companion kind of tool that assists with common tasks related to using applications that...

We finally uploaded the BluesBox v2 to Marketplace. Should be available soon. Beyond Daryl "Mad dog" Ooh's new UI design, I also added a bit more functionality to support doing the background bass playing so two or more people can play together. ...

So a few of you have asked how to implement the bid functionality using the Trade Me API and I honestly didn't know because I never tried that myself. But Mr. Nikhil Ramrakhiani did it and was very kind to provide a code sample, which I'm making available...

Ok, so I'm finally doing what I've promised some time ago: Talk about some of our Windows Phone 7 challenge competitors! I'm my defence, I've been a bit busy these days so apologies for taking so long! I want to mention the top 5 finalists of each...

From now on I'll be maintaining this list of NZ made WP7 applications that are currently available in the Zune Marketplace. If you app isn't there, please let me know: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/velloso/p/wp7apps.aspx

In case you didn't see this, it's a free downloadable pdf format ebook, including source code samples: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2010/10/28/free-ebook-programming-windows-phone-7-by-charles-petzold.aspx

The beta of the Windows Phone 7 connector for Mac is available to download here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=1fe7ea0f-3ad6-4137-8397-d412a3792c33 It basically allows synchronization music, videos, podcasts and photos...

The Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) kicks off this Friday (29 October) morning and we would like to invite you to participate in this year conference LIVE in New Zealand. This year's PDC online event will include live streaming of the...

And I'm very keen to see what people have been building. Feel free to drop me an e-mail with your phone app details, videos, comments or questions: mateusv@microsoft.com Good luck! :)

Hi, An important correction since lots of people asked this specific question: If you want to be one of the first buyers in the world, you can order it from the internet from 12:01, BUT the phone will be shipped to you, not delivered right away...

If you didn't know that yet, it's now confirmed! So if you want to be one of the first in the world, the day is tomorrow (Thursday, 21st of October) and the time is 12:01am. You can do it from Vodafone website ( www.vodafone.co.nz ). If you do so,...

Don't panic! Usually these issues are very easy to fix: 1-Zune software isn't installed or wrong version: Usually if this is the case, when you plug your phone's USB cable, Windows won't recognize it. Check if your Zune software is 04.07.1404.00...

Record this date: 14th of October, 2010. A (not so) small step for a team, and a huge step for New Zealand: The first kiwi made app is just there, and free! The application is " The official all blacks app " and you can download to your Windows Phone...

Shame on me for not reading the API documentation. In my defense, I didn't have much time anyway! (Will keep using this excuse until the end of the days) :) If you downloaded my sample application, you found that my request token URL was looking like...

If you are building localized applications for Windows Phone you should read this article before submitting your app to Marketplace: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff967550(v=VS.92).aspx Basically there are things to keep in mind when it...

If you have 1 minute (it will probably be 5 seconds), please respond to this question: http://twtpoll.com/udd9wj

I always wanted to create a way of making it very easy for someone with very little music knowledge to play blues with their phones. Either a solo or with a background music or other phones. This is the first concept of what I had in mind: http...

An important lesson from using the SoundEffect and the SoundEffectInstance classes is how you load the wav files. The following code takes a while to run, so you shouldn't run it every time you want to play the same effect. Instead, load it once and...

No, we won't! Someone asked me this question after reading the terms and conditions of the competition, more specifically this part: "Microsoft will judge the entries and in its sole discretion select 10 finalists who will be announced on 8 November...

I received this e-mail today about things you should be double-checking before publishing your app at Marketplace: 1) READ the docs!!! Understand the application policies that represent the requirements all applications need to meet in order to pass...

Mr. Paul Stubbs posted a great article about writting apps on Windows Phone 7 for SharePoint integration: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/pstubbs/archive/2010/10/04/developing-windows-phone-7-applications-for-sharepoint-2010.aspx