Mike Ormond's Blog

Musings on mobile development and Windows Phone 7 in particular.

Fancy some help to port your Windows Phone app to Windows 8?

Over the weekend of 15/16th June we’ll be running an exclusive 2 day event designed to help you get...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 05/22/2012

Windows 8 Camp in a Box

If you’ve recently attended one of our Windows 8 Events or Windows 8 Camps (London, Edinburgh,...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 05/21/2012

Act quickly to get your Windows Phone app showcased

The Appvertise campaign from Windows Phone and Nokia is a great opportunity to have your Windows...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 05/11/2012

Windows Phone–Skype Beta

Today we also announced the availability of a beta of the much anticipated Skype app for Windows...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 02/27/2012

New Phones, New Markets

Hot off the press from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is the news that Windows Phone will be...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 02/27/2012

More Windows Phone Events (UK)

We have another couple of free Windows Phone events coming up – one in London and one in Bristol....

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 01/10/2012

Star Chart–A Definitive AR App for Windows Phone

I asked San Shepherd, co-founder of Escapist Games Ltd, a few questions about Star Chart, a high...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 12/07/2011

The AdControl Requires Certain Capabilities

In my post last week I talked about the Advertising SDK and using the AdControl in our applications...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 12/05/2011

Windows Phone eBook 1st Edition Published

“It was with a sense of trepidation that I blogged a request for people who might like to help...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 09/22/2011

Plug for our Windows Phone Online Conference

Just a quick plug for our upcoming online conference (Wednesday 5th October) which is themed “Design...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 09/20/2011

Mango Jump Start Training Recordings Available

The Windows Phone “Mango” Jump Start Training with Rob Miles and Andy Wigley that took place on...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 09/09/2011

Free GUI Isolated Storage Explorer Tool

Those fabulous (and generous) guys over at Appa Mundi have created a free GUI version of the...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 09/01/2011

Windows Phone “Mango” Jump Start Training 23rd/24th August

Building on the success of the original Windows Phone 7 Jump Start training, the dynamic duo* will...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 08/19/2011

Publishing a Mango Update to an Existing App

Assuming you’ve published Windows Phone applications to the Marketplace, you’re probably wondering...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 08/19/2011

Finding Your App Purchase History

I’d never given this any thought until I had to do a hard reset on my HTC Trophy just before we made...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/29/2011

Windows Phone Mango Feature Videos

[Cross posted from the MSDN UK Team Blog] Nice idea this one – ask the people who created specific...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/28/2011

Windows Phone “Mango” Is Done

Or, more correctly, it has been release to manufacturing (RTM’d) – ie the development team have...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/27/2011

Windows Phone App Submission and Languages

You’ll have noticed we’ve made some improvements to App Hub recently. And if, like me, you’ve tried...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/22/2011

Windows Phone Status Bar Symbols – What on Earth?

Having been berated on Twitter this morning for failing to be intimately familiar with the symbols...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/15/2011

Orange Selects, Free Apps and Mango

If you have a Windows Phone and you’re on Orange, you’ll hopefully have heard that they’re...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/14/2011

Tech.Days Live Video: From Zero to Hero - Getting your Apps on Marketplace

Oops – somehow this one slipped through the net. Brandon talks about Marketplace, recent and future...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/13/2011

Tech.Days Live Video: Expression Blend 4 – Design, Develop, Deliver

Brennon Williams takes a look at user-centred design, Expression Blend, inspiration, SketchFlow and...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/12/2011

Tech.Days Live Video: SQL Server Compact and User Data Access in Mango

In this session, Andy Wigley takes a look at the new local database features in Windows Phone Mango....

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/12/2011

Tech.Days Live Video: Liven up your WP7 Apps with sweet Mango sauce

Jaime Rodriguez explores some of the new features in Mango by taking an existing application and...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/12/2011

Tech.Days Live Video: What's New in Silverlight in Windows Phone Mango

Oren takes us on a tour of some of the upcoming Silverlight features in the Mango release of Windows...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/12/2011

Tech.Days Live Video: Lap Around Mango

Brandon Watson takes us on a tour of the upcoming release of Windows Phone “Mango” with a strong...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/11/2011

Tech.Days Live Video: Differentiating your Application - Integrating Platform Features and the Cloud

In this session Ian Blackburn talks about Love Clean Streets and its use of platform features and...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/08/2011

Tech.Days Live Video: Blending Delicious User Experiences for Windows Phone 7

The VerySoftware team share their experiences in building successful applications for Windows Phone...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/08/2011

Tech.Days Live Video: Building a Data Intensive Application

Rich Griffin and Ollie Riches explore the use of data in a real-world application and how libraries...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/08/2011

Tech.Days Live Video: Managing Data - Strategies for Mobile Applications

In this session, Andy Wigley looks at accessing, storing and manipulating data in mobile...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/08/2011

Tech.Days Live Video: Banishing the Slow and other cheesy cliches

In this session, Oren Nachman walks through some common performance pitfalls on Windows Phone (and...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/07/2011

Tech.Days Live Video: Creating a Beautiful Windows Phone 7 Application

In this session, Gergely Orosz talks about Cocktail Flow and some of the lessons they learned in...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/07/2011

Tech.Days Live Video: Windows Phone – State of the Union

It seems like an age since “Tech.Days Live” when we had two full days of Windows Phone sessions. All...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/07/2011

SketchFlow Templates for Windows Phone

Yes, you can now get SketchFlow templates for Windows Phone (or sketchy styles as they’re known) and...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/05/2011

All the latest Mango Goodness

I’m sure most of you reading this will already know we released Beta 2 of the developer tools for...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 07/04/2011

TaxiRoute – A Windows Phone Application

Some time ago, at a Windows Phone User Group meeting in Cardiff, I saw Trevor Daniel talk about his...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 06/06/2011

Mango Developer Tools

On the off chance you haven’t heard, we shipped the first beta of the next release of the Windows...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 06/01/2011

Revisiting Plans A, B & C (native VHD boot)

I’d been round in circles a few times and had eventually settled on a technique that involved a 2nd...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 05/19/2011

UK Tech.Days Windows Phone Agenda – What Lies Ahead

I posted the Day 1 agenda as there was some new information that hasn’t yet been published on the UK...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 05/18/2011

UK Tech.Days Windows Phone Agenda – State of the Nation

When you’re organising an event, things change rapidly. Sometimes it’s just not possible to keep the...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 05/18/2011

Windows Phone Sessions at MIX11

I’ve just spotted a great index of recordings of the Windows Phone sessions delivered at MIX11 on...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 05/18/2011

Windows Phone Emulator is doing a complete OS boot…

If this starts happening whenever you launch the Windows Phone emulator Can I suggest following the...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 05/12/2011

Disk2vhd and native boot – Or how to capture and use an OS snapshot

I keep returning to this issue and this time I think I might have cracked it. Here’s my problem: I...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 05/12/2011

If you’re building Windows Phone apps and you’ve not heard about “Spring Cleaning” then take a...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 05/11/2011

Bagging the MIX11 Videos You Want

If, like me, you weren’t lucky enough to be at MIX this year, chances are you’ve got a bit of...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 05/04/2011

Windows Phone 7 Help for iOS Developers

If you’re from an iPhone / iOS background and you’re looking at Windows Phone 7 for the first time,...

Author: MikeO [MSFT] Date: 05/04/2011

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