General

Windows Phone Mango 7.1 SDK Beta 2

TechTwaddle — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 16:56:46 GMT

http://techtwaddle.net/2011/07/03/windows-phone-mango-7-1-sdk-beta-2/

Windows Phone Mango Developer Tools

TechTwaddle — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:54:32 GMT

http://techtwaddle.net/2011/05/25/windows-phone-mango-developer-tools/

MIX’11 : Windows Phone Sessions

TechTwaddle — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 15:32:32 GMT

http://techtwaddle.net/2011/04/24/mix11-windows-phone-sessions/

Windows Phone 7: Freeing up space after installing the pre-NoDo update

TechTwaddle — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:58:07 GMT

I just published a post on my blog at http://www.techtwaddle.net, here’s the link,

http://techtwaddle.net/2011/03/12/windows-phone-7-freeing-up-space-after-installing-the-pre-nodo-update/

What happens when you delete all the start screen tiles?

TechTwaddle — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 13:11:06 GMT

Note: I am currently in the process of relocating my blog from http://www.geekswithblogs.net/techtwaddle to my new address at http://www.techtwaddle.net I suggest you point your feed readers to the new address as I slowly transition to my new shared-hosted, ad-free wordpress blog :)

Well, the start screen disappears and all you see is the application list, which normally shows up when you scroll to the right. Pretty interesting I thought. So the start screen is basically a shortcuts screen on steroids, much nicer looking and with tile notifications.

My shiny new gadget

TechTwaddle — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 15:23:12 GMT

About 3 months ago when I had tweeted (or twit?) that the HD7 could be my next phone I wasn’t a 100 percent sure, and when the HTC Mozart came out it was switch at first sight. I wanted to buy the Mozart mainly for three reasons; its unibody construction, smaller screen and the SLCD display. But now, holding a HD7 in my hand, I reminisce and think about how fate had its own plan. Too dramatic for a piece of gadget? Well, sort of, but seriously, this has been most exciting.

So in short, I bought myself a HTC HD7 and am really loving it so far. Here are some pics (taken from my HD2 which now lies in a corner, crying),

Most of my day was spent setting up the device. Email accounts, Facebook, Marketplace etc. Since marketplace isn’t officially launched in India yet, my primary live id did not work. Whenever I tried launching marketplace it would say ‘marketplace is not currently supported in your country’. Searching the forums I found an easy work around. Just create a dummy live id with the country set to UK or US and log in to the device using this id. I was worried if the contacts and feeds from my primary live account would not be updated but that was not a problem. Adding another live account into the device does import your contacts, calendar and feeds from it. And that’s it, marketplace now works perfectly. I installed a few trial and free applications; haven’t checked if I can purchase apps though, will check that later and update this post.

There is one issue I am still facing with the device, I can’t access the internet over GPRS (see update below). Windows Phone 7 only gives you the option to add an ‘APN’ and nothing else. Checking the connection settings on my HD2, I found out that there is also a proxy server I need to add to access GPRS, but so far I haven’t found a way to do that on WP7. Ideally HTC should have taken care of this, detect the operator and apply that operators settings on the device, but looks like that’s not happening. I also tried the ‘Connection Settings’ application that HTC bundled with the device, but it did nothing magical. If you’re reading this and know how to fix this problem please leave a comment.

The next thing I did is install apps, a lot of apps. Read Engadget’s guide to essential apps for WP7. The apps and games I installed so far include Beezz (twitter app with push notifications), twitter (the official twitter app), Facebook, Youtube, NFS Undercover, Rocket Riot, Krashlander, Unite and the list goes on. All the apps run super smooth. The display looks fine indoors but I know it’s going to suck in bright sunlight. Anyhow, I am really impressed with what I’ve seen so far.

I leave you with a few more photos. Have a great year ahead. Ciao!

Update:

Well, turns out that the Vodafone Live GPRS Plan is not supported by HD7. I had to switch to a different plan, Vodafone Mobile Connect (VMC), which is much much more expensive than the first (about 4 times as much). Anyways, I have it working now.

Dictionary Web Service

TechTwaddle — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 18:05:41 GMT

Today I came across this web service called aonaware which serves up word definitions from various dictionary databases, so I wrote up a quick windows phone 7 app to check it out and it's kinda neat.

Here's a video of the app running on the emulator, I'll write a post soon.

Just another post

TechTwaddle — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 14:38:48 GMT

It’s been a while since my last post so I thought I’ll write a filler. Forgive me but I’m going to start off with some rant. My windows mobile marketplace account hasn’t been accessible for a couple of weeks now. Every time I try logging in I get this annoying error which says,

“WE’RE SORRY. AN ERROR HAS OCCURRED.

We encountered an issue connecting your App Hub account with your Xbox Live Profile.
Please visit Xbox.com and update your contact information.
After you have updated your contact information, please return to the App Hub (https://users.create.msdn.com/Register) to continue.
View App Hub FAQ
A09/S3D4”

The error code at the end keeps changing all the time, heck, I don’t even know if it’s an error code. As suggested, I updated my contact information on xbox.com, made sure that all the information at billing.microsoft.com was alright but still no luck. A little bit of searching on the help forums revealed that many other people were facing the same problem. And I thought Microsoft screwed up big time while migrating the mobile marketplace to the new and “improved” App Hub. What’s worse is that I can’t even see my existing app on the marketplace and I have no idea about the download figures, not that I am making thousands off it but still. And then yesterday I got the Windows Phone Newsletter for October, and it was reassuring in some ways. It said,

“On October 11, we told you about App Hub, the single destination for both Windows Phone and Xbox Live indie developers. Although App Hub is now open for all developers to explore, only a small number of developers are currently able to submit Windows Phone 7 apps or games. On November 3, Windows Phone 7 app submission will be open to all registered Windows Phone Marketplace developers.” (emphasis mine)

Early October I had got a mail from Microsoft for early access to the App Hub. But I screwed it up by forgetting to attach the app screenshots (how difficult can mail attachments be!). Anyways, come November 3rd I hope all issues are resolved and access to marketplace is restored so that I can view the existing app and submit the new app I’ve been working on.

Update
Well, November 3rd has come and gone and nothing has changed. Still can't access the Windows Phone 7 dashboard at AppHub. I have contributed to an existing thread showing my concern, here's the link,
http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/62093/397994.aspx#397994

Update 2
More forum threads here and here.

In other news, the windows phone developer tools got an update, this October update includes,

A new Bing Maps Control that improves map performance during user gestures.
The Capability Detection Tool, which scans your application and reports on detected phone capabilities that will be applied during ingestion to marketplace.
The WP Connect Tool, with which you can create a connection between the Windows Phone and your PC without requiring Zune to be running, so you can debug media APIs.

You can download the update from here. Details about the Capability Detection Tool and the WP Connect Tool can be found here and here. I haven’t installed this update as I don’t see the need yet.

And finally, “Programming Windows Phone 7” that Charles Petzold has been working on is now available for download and it’s free! You can download the pdf along with the sample code from here.

This is one book which I plan to read from start to end thoroughly. I have read the first two preview versions and highly recommend this to anyone serious about developing for Windows Phone 7. On being asked, Charles said that a print-on-demand soft cover version will be available soon which, of course, I plan to buy.

Windows Mobile Marketplace: Getting started, App statistics and other details

TechTwaddle — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:31:37 GMT

If you follow me on twitter then this should not be news to you, the Mobile Minesweeper game that I’ve been working on (and off) forever has finally made it to marketplace and is available for download. There were a few surprises for me in store during the entire process. First, the amount of time it took for the app to be approved, one attempt and one working day! And second, the number of downloads! The app has been downloaded over 10,000 times since I made it available on the marketplace 10 days ago, even though the app is free I never expected so many downloads and it came as a pleasant shock. In this post I’ll share some resources that helped me to get started with marketplace and prepare for the entire process. And also some statistics related to my app.

Where do I begin?

To submit apps, you need to register for the marketplace and get a developer account. Go to http://developer.windowsphone.com and click on “Register for the marketplace”. Using this developer account you will also be able to submit apps for Windows Phone 7 when the marketplace opens for submissions early October. Here is a nice walk through the registration process,

Windows Marketplace for Mobile Developer Registration Walk Through

There are a few minor differences between the slides shown above and the present process, but it’s easy to figure out. So far, the marketplace experience for me has been really smooth. Apart from the initial hiccup during registration where my credit card wouldn’t work, app submission and an update have gone through without any problems.

Submitting apps to marketplace

Your application must meet all the application submission requirements and pass several test cases (like 2 hours of hopper test) to be certified. The Windows Mobile 6.5 Application Certification Requirements are available here (pdf) for download, and I suggest going through this document at least once. Here is a walk through the application submission process,

Windows Marketplace for Mobile Application Submission Walk Through

Another great resource is Joel’s article on marketplace, a must read;

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/windows/WiMoMarketPlc.aspx

App Statistics

From the start, I designed the app to support 3 resolutions 240x320, 240x400 and 480x800. I think that these are probably the most popular resolutions for windows mobile devices. The only other hardware requirement is that the device should have a touch screen. I had submitted the app for the US catalogue first, and after it passed certification I submitted the same for other English markets which include Australia, Canada, UK, India, and Singapore. Here are a few numbers,

EN-US Catalogue – available for 10 days

AU, CA, UK, IN and SG Catalogue –available for 8 days

Clearly, US is by far the biggest market, no surprise really. If you happen to try out the app, do let me know what you think. Any suggestions or feedbacks are welcome. Goodbye. Until next time.

HTC HD2, Accelerometer and Windows Phone 7

TechTwaddle — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:06:51 GMT

I had an idea and after 5 hours of work I have a demo to show you guys. Check out this video below. It shows how the accelerometer data is read from an HTC HD2 and being used on the Windows Phone 7 emulator! I just finished this up today and will be posting details and the source code soon. Apologize for the bad quality of the video, I really need to get a better cam. But hey, I had to talk, record and demo all at the same time!