Backstage at MED

Windows Phone Camp in Tampa Bay, Dec 5th

It’s official - Windows Phone Camp is happening in Tampa, FL on December 5th 2009 !!!

The event will be similar to a CodeCamp, not BarCamp style event. There will be a schedule with tracks, topics and speakers.

Also with enough interest – even OpenSpace/Collaboration area and a Consumer track were attendees can learn and see changes in Windows Phone 6.5 that improve the phone experience.

Being the first Windows Phone/Mobile focused event in the area we need your help:

1. Please pre-RSVP so we can place an order for an appropriate amount of food and plan the seating. If we show lots of interest it will be easier to get additional prizes, more speakers and sponsors for the event making it even better for all of us.
2. Please help us spread the word!

Official site: http://www.windowsphonecamp.com

Blog for updates: http://www.windowsphonecamp.com/blog

Link to the pre-RSVP-ing

Are you a dev in UK? Samsung Application Store wants your app! They’re giving a device for free for it!

Got this from Samsung today :

To celebrate our first anniversary, Samsung Application Store has extended an invitation to our developers who are located in either France or the UK, and primarily develop on the Windows Mobile platform. This is a great way to start developing on Windows Mobile 6.5 with a brand new target device.

Interested? Then attend our UK Developer Day (with food and drinks) and discover how to port your app to the Samsung Omnia II, and then distribute it on our store.

We are offering you a device to keep, just for porting your existing Windows Mobile app to the Omnia II and making it available on Samsung Application Store. Why? Because we want to help developers like you grow their business.

You will need to attend our UK Developer Day where the devices will be available for you to collect at the event.

There are a limited number of seats available for this event, so unfortunately we won't be able to accept all developers. Instead we will be choosing developers based on their responses to our online registration form. Complete this form at the link below.

http://bit.ly/SamsungDevDayNov09

Samsung Application Store UK Developer Day
Monday 02 November 2009, 6pm to 10pm
Bonetti Suite, Chelsea FC, Fulham Road, Chelsea. SW6 1HS

 

so there :) sign up now if you’re interested.

Windows Mobile Twitter Apps

Alright, here’s a list of the 8 9 12 13 (currently) Twitter Applications for Windows Mobile that I know of. if you’re one of the authors, send me updates and if you’re building one, send me a copy too! Will update this list frequently.

#1: TinyTwitter (http://www.tinytwitter.com/)

Features: Very functional, GPS,  quick.

#2: Pocketwit (http://code.google.com/p/pocketwit/)

Features: Very pretty, GPS, Maps support, URL shortening, twitpic, search.twitter, themes

#3: Twobile (http://www.infinitumsoftware.com/twobile)

Features: Twitpic, GPS, URL shortening

#4: CETwit (http://www.kosertech.com/blog/?page_id=5)

Features: Twitpic, GPS, URL shortening, retweet, skweezer, ping.fm

#5: Twitula (SkyDrive)

Features: functional, better UI

#6: Twit Today (http://dalelane.co.uk/page.php?id=1047)

Features: homescreen plugin

#7: Twikini (http://www.trinketsoftware.com/twikini/)

CJ from Trinketsoftware is a master developer. he churns out apps amazingly quick and his latest is Twikini. it’s a very lightweight, simple, yet powerful twitter application for Windows Mobile devices.

checkout screens here :

#8: peSHIr (http://peshirtweets.peshir.nl/) *updated*

Jarno Peschier from peSHIrTweets just released another Twitter Client because he wanted it to work for him. download directly from http://peshirtweets.peshir.nl/. His program Icon is Hilarious :) UI is a little basic though.

Features: URL shortening, Web shortening, GPS and Fuel Frog (track fuel usage)

9: Quakk (http://www.anthonyburns.co.uk/Quakk/)

Quakk was originally released a while ago (February 2009) and is the latest on my list of twitter apps. I like it because, again it’s simple and fast. Built on NETCF 2.0. It shows you what kinds of apps can be built using C#.

Features: BARE BONES Simple. Tweet, @replies and DMs.

10: Twaddle (http://twaddle.mobi/)

Twaddle is the latest Twitter client for Windows Mobile. It’s still pretty raw but I like how 'it’s coming together. Give it a spin.

Notifications look good :)

 

Wish they had a DISMISS ALL function.

11: MoTweet (Panoramicsoft.com)

MoTweet is the latest in the series of Windows Mobile Twitter apps and it looks REALLY good. checkout some of the screenshots below. it also supports multiple accounts.

 

 

12: mTweet (http://mtweet.friikki.info/)

Another Twitter client for Windows Mobile, called mTweet from Austria. First run took a while to extract my tweets and refreshes take a while to complete. App is also a little unstable at it’s current state.

It could be the connection but here is a screenshot from mTweet:

 

here are the list of features :

Load timelines for user-tweets, friend-tweets and public-tweets

Tweet messages

Delete tweets

Send direct messages to users

Follow users

Reply to existing tweets

Re-Tweet to existing tweets

View/Edit your user profile

Update your version of mTweet with the built-in auto-update function

Pretty basic but let’s see how it will improve in the future.

 

13: TouchTwit (http://touchtwit.net)

This is the latest twitter client for Windows Phones that I’ve seen and it’s frankly very powerful.

here’s the list of features :

• Rich Text Timeline
• Browse your friends and followers
• Manage conversations with @replies 
• Manage multiple Twitter accounts easily
• Show Tweets with conversation View 
• Send direct messages to your friends
• Upload pictures 
• Show your location on Google maps
• Record and upload videos 
• Save your favorite searches
• Follow and unfollow people 
• Fullscreen photo view of many photo websites
• Delete tweets 
• Twitter Trends
• URL shortening 
• Block user
• Mark tweets as favorites 

 

Checkout PocketNow’s video review:

First-Person Makerbot CNC Unboxing Video

Got my Makerbot a week ago and filmed the whole unboxing thing using my ContourHD Helmetcam. It’s featured on Makerbot.com’s Blog.

I recorded this in the middle  of the night so apologies for the volume, I had to speak softly so I don’t wake my kids.

Clarification: Submitting Apps to additional regions through Marketplace

We presented a session at TechEd Australia yesterday about Windows Marketplace for Mobile and we took many questions from all the interested developers in the audience. One of the questions was about the cost for submitting your application for sale in additional countries. Here’s the answer we gave :

1. We said that the first $99 gets you 5 application “slots” that you can submit apps to. Each application after the first 5 would cost $99/each.
2. Unlimited updates for each of these slots.
3. If you need to submit that app for sale in other countries, it would cost you a “slot” which is $99 *THIS IS WRONG*

The right answer is :

• Each additional locale will only cost $10.
• so if you’re selling your app in 5 countries, it’s one slot for the first locale $99 + $10 for each country ($10x4=$40). Total $139. and not thousands as previously described.
• http://developer.windowsmobile.com/Help.aspx?id=b97186b6-a019-4067-8ce9-83610086b817

 

Our apologies for not clarifying that fact earlier. Must be a brainfart on our part :)

 

thanks all for spending your time listening to us and have a great TechEd.

GoMaps Indoor Navigation

This has always been a problem for Microsoft (or any big company). we have so many buildings and rooms in our campus, sometimes it’s a chore to locate a meeting room or a person you’d like to meet. We have to work in 10-15mins of travel time before and after meetings just to ensure we arrive anywhere on time.

GPS Navigation software helps with locating buildings, but will not work indoors, for obvious reasons. So how do you provide similar guided walkthroughs of a buildings floor plan so that one can find a desired location?

Enter GoMaps. working in conjunction with Steven Shafer of Microsoft Research and Gavin Jancke of Microsoft Tag, we put together a prototype application that uses MS Tag to locate your position, in combination with MSR’s Facilities Framework.

checkout the video demonstration I made with Todd Bishop from TechFlash during our Seattle DevCamp recently.

There are so many other applications of this technology for other industries, like university campuses, large factories, government buildings etc.

I’m on Bytes by MSDN!

Nora Kelly and Erin Dolan from MSDN together with Geoffrey Emery (from TechZulu) interviewed me while I was at TechEd this year in LA. Geoff had a lot of funny questions but were edited from the video.

Gave my recommended apps that I use for working with Twitter on my Windows Phone.

Click on the video to watch it on MSDN.

and the recommended list of links :

Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit

HTC Touch Diamond

HTC Touch Pro

Toshiba TGO1

Windows Mobile Developers

Windows Mobile Team Blog

Windows Mobile Marketplace News

Windows Mobile Widgets

Pocketwit

Twikini

The Race is On!

We’re launching the Windows Marketplace for Mobile’s Challenge today, it’s called Race-To-Market for a reason. This is the first time we’re launching a huge application marketplace for our mobile users and getting in now is like selling your products in a brand new mall with millions of users waiting in line to come in and buy your stuff, as opposed to trying to sell your products in a cluttered and packed mall.

I would say that this is a once-in-a-Marketplace opportunity that all developers and ISVs should take advantage of, and yes, even you successful Apple, Android and RIM developers. What’s there to lose? Port your successful app over now and sell them early on our Marketplace, make more money, earn more popularity.

The contest is designed to be easy, just submit your app to the Windows Marketplace for Mobile and you’re done. checkout the rules & regulations at : http://mobilethisdeveloper.com and you might end up winning a Microsoft Surface table as a bonus!

I’ll be building my own app too so see you in the Marketplace. :)

Marketplace will be available on WM6.0 and WM6.1 devices :)

I’m sure you’ve heard about the announcements we made today, if not, here’s a summary :

1. Application Submission Opens on July 27th: Windows Marketplace will open for application submissions from 29 supported countries July 27th.
2. Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 Support: Windows Marketplace will be available for Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 by the end of 2009 (in addition to Windows Mobile 6.5 at launch in the fall).
3. Business Center: Windows Marketplace will feature a "Business Center" category for business applications.
4. Developer Contest: Microsoft will be disclosing the details of a Windows Marketplace developer contest on July 27.

I personally think the biggest news here is that we’ll have WM6.0 and WM6.1 support. that means you get to reach all the millions of Windows Mobile users by just building an app and submitting it to the marketplace. If you have an app today, get it ready, if you don’t, quickly build one and submit it end of this month.

Todd Brix is our Senior Director who’s in charge of Product Management and he kicked things off on the Windows Mobile Team blog this morning : http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsphone/default.aspx

watch Todd’s video here :

 

Windows Mobile 6.5 – Dev Training for folks in Australia!

Registration for #2 in the Codemason’s Guild Live Meeting Series (Jumpstart) is now open.

This Friday at 1pm is the 2nd in our series of 3 Live Meetings to help Australian developers get started developing for Windows Mobile 6.5 – and to get those apps in Marketplace (Windows Marketplace for Mobile – Open for Developer registration) to distribute/sell to the millions of Windows Mobile users globally.

These Live Meetings run through July, every second Friday starting at 1pm. So grab some lunch, your favourite beverage, and get ready to learn.

July 17 1pm - Getting started developing for Windows Mobile 6.5: developer tools, technologies, debugging and testing
Learn how to get started developing for Windows Mobile 6.5, what can be done with the new technologies and how to use your existing skills to start coding apps for Windows Mobile 6.5 phones via Windows Marketplace.

Registration Link : http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/InviteOnly.aspx?EventID=69-37-B7-CD-C8-36-0B-BE-A3-7D-8A-9E-99-94-9E-CE&culture=en-AU

DonK

 

Why I’m feeling good about Bing

I know I work for Microsoft, so I might be biased, but please tell me how Google search is better in this one specific case?

Google’s seem to have more ads! while Bing’s has the useful left nav bar and the easy math that they’ve already done to remind my family that they have 6 days to get me presents ;)

there are others features that are unique that you can see here : http://www.decisionengine.com/Default.html

 

So what do you think?

Omniano “The Band” for" Windows Mobile

Ever wished you could use your mobile device to play musical instruments? Check it out! it’s a Piano, a Flute and a Drum Kit all in one app.

Watch the video demo here :

 

Someone named Sheon from Korea made this and released it on his blog.

Make sure you download and install v1 (http://sheon.tistory.com/20) before overriding the exe file for v1.1.2. (http://sheon.tistory.com/21)

Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit released on MSDN!

* CLARIFICATION *

This is NOT the full SDK. This tool kit complements the actual Windows Mobile 6 SDK that you can download from here :  http://bit.ly/CBHWc

 

Woohoo! it’s finally done!!

 

The Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit adds documentation, sample code, header and library files, emulator images and tools to Visual Studio that let you build applications for Windows Mobile 6.5. This document contains important information about this package. For general information about writing software for Windows Mobile, please see the Windows Mobile Developer Center. The Windows Mobile 6 SDK must also be installed in order to use any of the Windows Mobile 6.5 Gesture API or samples. Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit comes with the following Emulator Images:

• 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

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

A new set of APIs is being introduced that will enable application developers to take advantage of the new Windows Mobile 6.5 touch gesture framework. The gesture APIs allow an application to handle touch gesture input and provide a visually consistent experience with the rest of the device UI. Note that the gesture APIs are only available on the Windows Mobile Classic and Professional SKUs. The headers and libraries are installed in the Windows Mobile SDK\Pocket PC\ folder. Samples that make use of these APIs are installed into the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit\Samples\ folder.

Get it now from here : http://bit.ly/hyjP4

Remember to install this first : http://bit.ly/CBHWc

Kinoma Releases new update with Social features

adding support for Twitter and Facebook status update support.

Checkout the new list of features :

 

Cross-social sharing – Kinoma Play’s unique approach to supporting social media services and social networks breaks down the barriers between them and is key to its “share everything with everybody” approach. Users can share YouTube videos on Facebook, share Facebook photos on Twitter, share tunes via SMS, and more — because everything’s a first-class citizen, they can do it in a way that would otherwise be clumsy or impossible.

 

Your mobile media home – Users can now create personal Home screens for fast access to their favorite stuff. Exclusive ZoomLinks let users jump instantly to almost anything — individual items, entire albums, even to specific features of any Kinoma Play application. They can make pages that collect friends’ Flickr photostreams, YouTube favorites and Twitter tweets, pages of “presets” to live radio streams and podcasts — the possibilities are infinite.

 

Twitter – Allows users to tweet about the music, videos and podcasts they love on the world’s largest microblogging site. They can update their status, and photo-blog their day for friends, family and followers all around the world with built-in TwitPic integration. There’s even built-in search so users can see what the world’s saying about breaking news, or about themselves.

 

Facebook – The world’s largest social network is also the world’s largest photo sharing site, and Kinoma Play is now the easiest, most convenient way for users to update their status and instantly share the pictures that tell the story of their life.

 

App stores — Kinoma Play’s built-in store allows users to download and update their Kinoma Play apps. With two clicks they can install the Mobihand Store app to buy Windows Mobile apps for their phone, check out screenshots and YouTube video demos before they buy, and even download free trials.

 

YouTube — Kinoma Play is now the world’s most comprehensive mobile application for YouTube, the world’s largest social video site. There’s an all-new user interface and tons of features — upload, browse, search, play, favorite, rate, comment, share and lots more.

 

Last.fm — It’s the music service that “learns what you love” and now Kinoma Play lets users share their love of music with the world. Users can automatically “scrobble” while they listen, see and read about favorite bands and artists, find more artists like the ones they love and connect with what their friends are listening to as well.

 

News Reader — Kinoma Play’s new built-in news reader application lets users read their favorite blogs and other news right within Kinoma Play, and play associated video, music, podcasts and pictures as well. By subscribing, they’ll automatically be notified about new posts as they become available.

 

Cloud media playback and management — Kinoma Play users get 1GB of free space from cloud storage and sharing pioneer Box.net when they sign up within Kinoma Play — that’s enough space for over 250 songs. That lets users easily move media between their phone and PC, stream their own music, pictures and video without using valuable space on their phone, and share files and folders with friends.

 

Flickr and Picasa — They’re two of the world’s largest photo-sharing sites, and they’re built right in. With Kinoma Play, the phone is an “infinite photo album” of personal photos, photos from friends and family and the most interesting photos taken by people around the world. Even upload new photos on the fly in just seconds.

 

Go buy it now at : http://kinoma.com/play/

and follow their twitter accounts @kinoma and @kinomatips

Twikini 1.0 released, now with special pricing for starving bloggers!

CJ just pinged me to let me know Twikini has hit v1.0 and it’s final. Woohoo! here are the new updates in v1.

Official version 1.0 (May 20, 2009)

• New: Added Public timeline. Now you can read tweets from total strangers!
• New: Fast account switching - now you can quickly switch between multiple Twitter accounts without reentering the password.
• New: 2 new themes - Lounge and Cool Water.
• Improved: Start up time will be faster because we eliminated one unnecessary Twitter API request for authentication.
• Improved: Finally fixed the auto refresh issues. Auto refresh should work whether your device is turned on or in standby.
• Improved: Added a 2-minute option for auto refresh.
• Improved: The title bar of the tweet dialog will show you which account you're tweeting from (to prevent accidently tweeting from the wrong account).
• Improved: You can now manually delete the image cache from Options.
• Bug fix: Fixed problems with tweets in languages like Thai, Russian, Chinese, Japanese etc. You can tweet in whichever language your device uses (not just English).
• Bug fix: Fixed problems with encoding special characters like ? and % in tweets and DMs.
• Bug fix: "&gt" and "&lt" were showing up in the timeline instead of > and <.
• Bug fix: If you were in the Sent Items view, it would not refresh after you sent a DM.
• Lots of performance tweaks and miscellaneous improvements.Note: although this is the "final" v1.0 release, Twikini will continue improving just like before. We have more features to add and lots of ways to improve further.

and the new “pricing model”.

• $4.95 (value shopper)

  Get Twikini plus any other Trinket Software app for just $4.95. That's saving more than 50%, and our other apps are also useful, fun and well designed just like Twikini!

  Continue

• FREE! (starving blogger)

  If you have a blog or website and post something about Twikini, we'll give you a free copy. Tweets on Twitter don't count.

  Continue

• $9.95 (business user)

  If you use Twitter for work or to grow your business, and find Twikini to be a valuable tool, please consider this option. Your increased support will encourage improvements and expedite new features.

  Continue

 

Go download yours now, and give CJ some props for making this fine app!

http://www.twikini.com/Twikini/Purchase.aspx