Constanze's Mobile Musings

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: Part 2 of the Gesture API MSDN Webcast is coming up on 9/2/2009

croman — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:35:55 GMT

Please mark your calendars for part 2 of our mini-webcast series on the Gesture API. On Wednesday, September 2, 2009, at 10 AM, Alex Yakhnin and Ron Buckton will dive further into the Gesture APIs that are available on the Windows Mobile 6.5 platform.

During this webcast, Alex and Ron will show you how you can make use of the Gesture API when creating your managed applications, and we work through the code samples and a sample library that simplify the access to these gesture APIs.

To register for the webcast, click on the following link: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032422150&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US.

Also, to access the managed wrapper for the Gestures API, please go to: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/gestureswm.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: September WE-DIG meeting is coming up on 9/2/2009

croman — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:37:41 GMT

Please mark your calendars for the September meeting of the Windows Embedded Developer Interest Group (WE-DIG). On September 2, 2009, at 6:30, Paul Yao, Embedded MVP, and author of numerous programming books, will be giving a talk on “Energy Efficiency for Server, Client, and Embedded Systems.”

In his talk, Paul will show how software developers can contribute to building energy efficiency into their products. This talk provides several methods, all built around the idea that by measuring the energy costs, you can help contribute to using fewer energy resources.
In addition to addressing IT equipment, Paul will also touch on ways to improve energy use in every part of your life.

Paul’s talk will be held at 6:30 PM at the Redmond Campus in Studio F (formerly 118), in the Mt Si Room.

Ready to Port your iPhone App to Windows Mobile?

croman — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 09:00:15 GMT

If you’ve been curious about porting an iPhone app to the Windows Mobile platform, then I have exciting news for you! We have just published a new technical article on MSDN titled Porting the Amplitude Application from the iPhone to a Windows Mobile Device – a Case Study which outlines the real-world experiences of a developer who ported the popular Amplitude application.

Amplitude picks up any sound in a user’s surroundings through the microphone and then amplifies the sound, rendering it into a rich graphical representation on the device. Amplitude can be used to amplify any sounds, such as human or animal heartbeats, that usually wouldn’t be picked up by the human ear. Amplitude provides a cool user interface featuring an oscilloscope that allows users to view and visually quantify, signal voltages, as you can see the volume of the sound that you are listening to.

Amplitude is well suited for a porting project because it combines a rich user interface with features such as alpha blending and transparency with specific audio and sound requirements, which makes it challenging to port the app but, at the same time, provides a number of helpful learning experiences.

Luke Thompson, a software developer with Gripwire.com, a Seattle-based mobile and social application development company, took on the challenge to find out what it takes to port the iPhone version of Amplitude to a Windows phone. The case study now published on MSDN outlines Thompson’s experience, and provides some key takeaways for developers who want to get into the porting business.

Thompson’s account of his porting experience is especially interesting because it outlines the Community resources he has used to get the information he needs. In his conclusion, Thompson credits the Windows Mobile Developer Community for helping him resolve the issues he encountered along the road, stating that: “The large development community, both within Microsoft and outside, and the various whitepapers, blogs, virtual labs, websites, and other online documentation, offered a wealth of information that provided direction and greatly facilitated problem resolution. The only real challenge was assuring total portability between screens, and that was assured by utilizing the concept of aspect ratios.”

Although Thompson did encounter some roadblocks while porting the Amplitude app to Windows Mobile, he was able to successfully resolve all issues and get the application to work on a HTC Touch Pro phone that runs on a build of the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system. One of Thompson’s main takeaways was that the Visual Studio 2008 Development Environment really made a difference for him because it provided most of what he needed at one place, such as the security certificates (certs.cab) for installing the application on your device. Thompson noted that the MSDN Virtual Labs were especially helpful in getting him started with the development process.

When porting the app from the iPhone to Windows Mobile, Thompson had to pay attention to major differences in the OS, such as the fact that the iPhone does not support running applications in the background, while background operation is a requirement for all Windows Mobile applications. Adjusting the screen orientation as well as accommodating phones with keyboards was another area which required additional investigation, which led Thompson to MSDN, which ended up providing a workable solution.

Porting the UI posed some challenges, especially since the UI for the Amplitude app on the iPhone makes use of transparencies and alpha blending. Since some of these functionalities are not available in the .NET Compact Framework, Thompson had to look for community resources to find the information he needed to complete this task. When searching for a resource, Thompson discovered the UI Framework, which is posted on Code Gallery and turned out to be a major asset for Thompson’s porting efforts.

Thompson depended on community content as well to help him port the audio and sound features of the Amplitude app to Windows Mobile. The Code Project turned out to be especially helpful for Thompson efforts, as he found an article that explained how to create a framework for implementing audio effects in C#.

Thompson’s case study shows, that even though there are some challenges in porting a multimedia-rich application from the iPhone to Windows Mobile, the task can be accomplished, especially with the help of developer-friendly tools like Visual Studio, the richness of community content that is available for Windows Mobile, and last but not least by planning the project ahead and doing all the necessary research in advance. Thompson’s experience should save you time as you port your own applications to Windows Mobile. With Windows Marketplace for Mobile getting ready to open its doors to millions of potential new customers, the opportunity is compelling.

Windows Mobile 6.5 Dev Camp is Coming to Seattle on 8/19

croman — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:46:19 GMT

Are you ready to learn about how to develop for Windows Mobile 6.5? We have good news. On August 19, 2009, the first in a series of barcamp-style events for the is coming to Seattle.

WinMoDevCamp is a series of upcoming not-for-profit gatherings to develop applications for the Windows Mobile 6.5 OS. The event is currently being planned in 6 cities around the world. Our first Windows Mobile Developer Camp event has been scheduled for August 19 in Redmond, Washington at the Microsoft Campus.

Dates will soon be announced for the following additional cities: Austin, London, New York, San Francisco, and Singapore. We will also encourage other mobile developers to host their own events on the same dates. The soon-to-be-released http://winmodevcamp.org website will have facilities for local events to organize as well.

To sign up for this free event, visit this website: http://winmodevcamp-seattle.eventbrite.com/

Date and Time: 8/19, 8 AM – 6 PM
Location: Microsoft Campus in Redmond, Washington in the Cascade Auditorium

New Marketplace Video by Todd Brix now available on the Windows Mobile Team Blog

croman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:07:40 GMT

In less than 2 weeks, Windows Marketplace will open for submissions. Just in time for the opening of Marketplace on July 27th, Todd Brix, Senior Director for Mobile Platform Services Product Management at Microsoft, has published a blog post on the Windows Mobile Team blog that provides details about Marketplace, including a Channel 9 video.

Check out this blog post at: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsphone/archive/2009/07/14/get-ready-windows-marketplace-for-mobile-offers-millions-of-potential-new-customers.aspx.

Watch the video at: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/MaxZuck/WindowsMarketplaceForMobile/.

Please note that the Windows Mobile Team Blog has moved to a new location and has a new look and feel. We would love to have your feedback on these changes, so please send us your comments!

Also, for additional information check out the Developer Portal at: http://Developer.Windowsmobile.com.

Gesture API Documentation for Windows Mobile 6.5 is now available on MSDN

croman — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:01:13 GMT

Are you ready to start using the Gesture API for Windows Mobile 6.5? We have good news for you. We have just released a documentation set on how to use the Gesture API on Windows Mobile 5.4 on MSDN. This documentation set provides an overview on Touch Gestures, the Gesture API, an overview of the Physics Engine, which calculates the animation points in response to a touch gesture, as well as the Physics Engine Reference.

Check out the Gesture API documentation at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee220920.aspx.

Please make sure to use the Send Feedback link on top of each page to provide feedback to us.

Join us for the July WE-DIG meeting and a cool talk on Robotics

croman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:43:16 GMT

It’s time again for our monthly Windows Embedded Developer Interest Group (WE-DIG) meeting. On Wednesday, July 1st, at 6:30 PM, John DeCuir from Microsoft will be giving a cool talk on Robotics. John used to work on Sony’s Aibo Robot Dog and he will be sharing his lessons from working on this project with us. Please join us for this exciting session. It will be held at the Microsoft Campus at Studio F (formerly bldg 118), in the Mt Si Room. Pizza will be provided plus you will have the change to win some cool prizes.

Hope to see you guys there!

New UI Controls are available through Bee Mobile

croman — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:01:05 GMT

I just found out about some really cool UI controls for Windows Mobile devices that are available through a company called Bee Mobile, so I thought I’d share them with you.

This first control I’d like to share is a control with touch scrolling support, called iWheel. This control is similar to the wheel control seen in a number of iPhone applications. The iWheel control is not only limited to picking date or time, developers can set custom items in each cylinder. You can also customize the number of cylinders.

Bee Mobile also provides the following transparency-enabled controls, so you can implement a cool transparency effect in your application:

· TCheckBox

· TLabel

· TForm

· TImageButton

These controls take into account the alpha channel of images in order to give a transparent effect. The TCheckbox also allows the developer to specify a custom image for the checkbox itself.

You can also create a cool-looking glass button with the transparent image button control.

All the controls provide design-time support, so you can see the same result on your device as you see in your Visual Studio's designer.

Bee Mobile also provides a cool-looking ProgressBar control .You can either customize the color palette used to paint the ProgressBar or you can have it automatically adapt to the current color theme.

Bee Mobile also offers a user-friendly Open/Save dialog control and a ColorPicker set.

All these controls are available for Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile 6. You can download them for free on a trial basis. For more information, visit Bee Mobile’s website at http://www.beemobile4.net.

Learn about Windows Mobile 6.5 Application Development at Mobile Developer Day

croman — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:12:53 GMT

My friend and Microsoft MVP Michele Locuratolo passed this info on to me, so I thought I would share it with the Windows Mobile Developer Community. Do you speak Italian and want to learn about Windows Mobile 6.5 Development? On July 7, 2009, Microsoft is hosting a one-day event in Milan, Italy that teaches you all the necessary skills you need for developing applications for Windows Mobile 6.5.

To register for this event and view the full agenda, click on this link: http://www.microsoft.com/italy/mobiledev09/.

Hope some of you guys can make it!

The Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Toolkit is available for Download

croman — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:47:28 GMT

A lot of you guys have heard about the new features that will be available through Windows Mobile 6.5. Now you can start developing and testing for this version with the new Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Toolkit, which is available for download now: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=20686a1d-97a8-4f80-bc6a-ae010e085a6e.

The Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Toolkit includes the following:

Emulator images for the following SKUs:

Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional Square Emulator
Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional QVGA Emulator
Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional WQVGA Emulator
Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional VGA Emulator
Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional WVGA Emulator
Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard Square Emulator
Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard QVGA Emulator

Emulator images are available for the following locales:

0804 CHS Chinese Simplified
0409 USA English
0407 GER German
040c FRA French
0410 ITA Italian
0c0a ESN Spanish

A new native Gesture API which enables applications to handle touch gesture input (this API is available for Windows Mobile Classic and Professional SKUs only).
Samples
Documentation and header files

To use the Windows Mobile 6.5 Toolkit you will also need to install the Windows Mobile 6 SDK.

Get Ready to Write your First Windows Mobile Widget for Windows Mobile 6.5

croman — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:41:47 GMT

Quite a few folks have been asking about information on how to write widgets for Windows Mobile after attending Jorge Peraza’s Widget talk at TechEd 2009 and other events. Now, that the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Toolkit has been released, you are ready to get started with Widgets for Windows Mobile 6.5.

Jorge has posted a great article on the Windows Mobile Team Blog, which contains all the information you need to get started with writing widgets. Check it out: http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2009/06/04/getting-started-with-widgets-on-windows-mobile-6-5.aspx.

Join us for the June Windows Embedded Developer Interest Group Meeting this Week

croman — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:59:45 GMT

Please join us for the June Windows Embedded Developer Interest Group (we-dig) meeting this week. On Wednesday, June 3, at 6:30 PM PST, Aslan Kukunyants from BSQUARE will talk about System Configuration for Windows Embedded Standard. Aslan will show how to build custom WinPE images (WAIK) with custom Shell and how to drive the automated deployment process.

In his presentation, Aslan will also demo working with AMT Commander tools including automated deployment to target machine via Ethernet using Intel AMT technology. Aslan Kukunyants is the Lead XP Embedded developer at BSQUARE with over 100 XPE projects. He is also the primary trainer for XPE & Windows Embedded Standard.

The meeting will be held on the Redmond campus in Bldg 118/Mt Si room. Free pizza will be provided and you will have the chance to win some cool prizes.

New Forum for Windows Marketplace for Mobile has been Launched on MSDN

croman — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:35:30 GMT

With the launch of Windows Marketplace for Mobile, we have launched a new forum on MSDN. This forum is intended to answer any of your questions that are related to Windows Marketplace for Mobile and will be moderated by members of the Windows Marketplace for Mobile team. To visit the forum and get ready to post your question, please click on this link: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/mktplace/threads.

Windows Mobile Track for RampUp has been Launched

croman — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:08:00 GMT

Are you interested in learning about Windows Mobile Application Development from the ground up? We have good news for you. This morning, we have launched the MSDN RampUp track for Windows Mobile Application Development. You can access this track here. The Windows Mobile RampUp track consists of 7 modules, each of which takes you one step further to master Windows Mobile Application Development. Here is an overview of the 7 modules:

Level 1: Mobile Development Introduction
In this module, we will discuss how to install the development tools in the correct order. Then we’ll concentrate on the differences between developing desktop applications and developing Windows Mobile applications. Once you have all the tools installed, we’ll talk you through developing your first Windows Mobile application.

Level 2: Device Emulators
We’ll begin this module with an overview of different releases of Device Emulator. You will learn about specific features of Device Emulator 2.0 and Device Emulator 3.0. You will also get a guided tour around Cellular Emulator which allows to emulate cellular connectivity in conjunction with Device Emulator. As part of new features of Device Emulator 3.0 you will also learn about using Device Emulator Manager to control individual Device Emulators, either from inside Visual Studio 2008 or from within a desktop application through a COM object.

Level 3: Mobile Windows Forms Development
This module will start with an overview of basic Windows Forms Development, including information about different out of the box available User Interface Controls for both Windows Mobile 6 Professional and Windows Mobile 6 Standard devices. We will then move on to the challenges around developing a single application that can run on different devices with different form factors and how applications can adapt to different device capabilities by isolation of specific code and creating a factory model (define an interface for creating an object, but let subclasses decide which class to instantiate). Since your applications will always run on battery powered devices, you will also get a number of tips on how to be friendly to the battery to extend battery life as much as possible.

Level 4: Advanced Mobile Windows Forms Development
In this module, we’ll look at different possibilities for creating your own User Interface Controls, derived from existing controls or developed from Scratch. You will also learn how to re-use existing functionality that is available through Pocket Outlook (contact lists, appointments etc.) inside your own application. More and more Windows Mobile Devices ship with integrated GPS hardware. With Windows Mobile 5 and Windows Mobile 6 devices it is really easy to retrieve GPS location information and test location aware applications as you will see. Finally we’ll do an overview of a number of diagnostic tools that are available as a separate download: The .NET Compact Framework 3.5 Power Toys that will help you to find performance bottlenecks inside your applications.

Level 5: SQL Server CE Introduction
When working with data and mobile applications, SQL Server CE is a great way to quickly get productive. This module will begin with an overview of SQL CE. You will learn the basics around dealing with data on Windows Mobile Devices. Along with the introduction in SQL Server CE, and you will get information on how to access data programmatically inside your own managed applications.

Level 6: Security and Deployment
When developing Windows Mobile applications, there are different security policy considerations. This talk will cover some of the prominent security and deployment considerations for applications to run on Windows Mobile devices and how to make use of certificates to make applications trusted.

Level 7: Mobile Web Development
After a quick overview of mobile web development, we will discuss different options for developing mobile web apps, and different devices to support. We will also discuss advantages of these different technologies. From there, we’ll concentrate on web based applications, take a look at Visual Studio 2008 support and will focus in on ASP.NET 2.0. You will see how to identify on which device your application will run and what devices will support AJAX. You will also learn how to setup your device to get AJAX support working.

Thanks to everybody who contributed to this great content.

Make sure to sign up and check it out for yourself!

TechEd Online Video on Windows Mobile has been posted

croman — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:39:07 GMT

I wanted to thank everybody who participated on Monday’s panel discussion on “Windows Mobile Application Development” at TechEd Los Angeles. The video has already been posted, so please check it out:

http://www.msteched.com/online/view.aspx?tid=5f438fc9-4865-4f53-825b-30cf4519ce48

Thanks,

Constanze