Nikita Polyakov

Windows Phone Camp – Tampa – December 5th 2009 – Pre-RSVP Open

2009-10-28T12:39:01-12:00:00

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

Presenting at Tampa Code Camp 2009 - Saturday November 7th, 2009

2009-10-09T03:57:59-12:00:00

Saturday November 7th, 2009, I will be presenting at Tampa Code Camp 2009.

This Code Camp is second behind infamous South Florida Code Camp in number of attendees…close to 500 planning to attend.
So be sure to register to get your spot and in-person must be present to win raffle prize opportunity: http://www.tampacodecamp.com/

Hope to see you there. Be sure to ask to see my Windows Phone.

Here are the abstracts on the sessions I will be presenting:

Windows Phone Widgets

Intro on how to build Windows Mobile Phone Widgets. Level 100.

In this presentation I will discuss the strategy, scenarios and applications of how an online presence, RIA application can be extended to a Windows Phone near you!

I will explain how to design and develop a widget. Also how to carry over your excising talent, assets and expertise in Web space to mobile application world.

Windows Marketplace for Mobile

In this session, Nikita Polyakov (Mobile Developer MVP) and Kevin Wolf (Mobile Device Collector) will introduce you to what it takes to get your Windows Mobile Application or Widget published to Windows Marketplace for Mobile. We will cover signing up for the program and any special requirements for your software as well as the steps involved to submit your application.

Presenting at SW Florida Code Camp - October 3, 2009

2009-09-30T02:35:28-12:00:00

This weekend, October 3, 2009, I will be presenting at SW Florida Code Camp.

Hope to see you there. Be sure to ask to see my phone, I have something really cool to show you.

Here are the abstracts on the sessions I will be presenting:

Windows Phone Widgets

Intro on how to build Windows Mobile Phone Widgets. Level 100.

In this presentation I will discuss the strategy, scenarios and applications of how an online presence, RIA application can be extended to a Windows Phone near you!

I will explain how to design and develop a widget. Also how to carry over your excising talent, assets and expertise in Web space to mobile application world.

Windows Marketplace for Mobile

Windows Mobile Development – Beginning Widget Development, Widget Emulator Project

2009-09-27T01:40:45-12:00:00

Continuing to share some helpful mobile development tools I find. In this post, Widgets. [If you attended one of my community talks, this is the blog post I mentioned.]

The best resource for the Widget's details is the blog and MSDN page. That is what I used to prepare for my presentation and write a few widgets.
The Widgets are incredibly simple. I was suprised once I read up on everything I can find. That is it. It’s all there is. Incredibly simple in v1 of Widgets for Windows Phone OS.

1. Setting up and Getting started blog post: http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2009/06/04/getting-started-with-widgets-on-windows-mobile-6-5.aspx

2. Follow the new Windows Mobile blog – they have a running serious on Widget development that would be repetative to repeat here for now:
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsphone/default.aspx

3. Comprehensive official Widget MSDN article detailing the Widget API: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd721906.aspx

So what do I do original, you ask? I use a modified version of this:

Widgets Emulator by Mikael Söderström
This tool has been an extremely helpful tool in building Widgets’ UI for different resolutions & layouts. I simply code around the Widget API requests for now with if (false==devmode) { } kind of stuff so I can test all the UI and web code. To think of it, menu’s and API calls are not pivotal to what your app does for the most part. I am still tweaking how I work with this Emulator. I want to do some things differently or contribute to this project. But nevertheless this is stellar tool for UI testing. Thank you Mikael!

http://widgetemulator.codeplex.com/

Read: http://weblogs.asp.net/mikaelsoderstrom/archive/2009/08/05/windows-mobile-emulator.aspx

Testing your Windwos Mobile apps on Windows Mobile Phone 6.5 - Video

2009-09-23T05:34:14-12:00:00

Channel9 posted my presentation from Episode 4 of the TV Show Russ Tool Shed presents... "It's All About The Tools"

Tool Shed Tooltip #26 - Mobility and the Mobility Market Place

I don’t physically have test devices, how do I develop for so many different screen sizes on mobile devices? How do I make money selling my application for a mobile device? Can I develop for Windows Mobile 6.5 now?
Lean the answers to these questions and more and join Nikita Polyakov, Microsoft MVP Device Application Development.

http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/toolshed/Tool-Shed-Tooltip-26-Mobility-and-the-Mobility-Market-Place

Feel free to rate and leave comments.

Speaking at Jacksonville Code Camp and Tallahassee Code Camp - Widgets for WindowsMobile 6.5

2009-08-27T15:17:08-12:00:00

I will be speaking at next few Code Camps in FL.

Writing Widgets for WindowsMobile 6.5
“How to write a basic widget & use Widget API. How to use AJAX to talk back to your .NET application.”

Here are the dates:

1. Jacksonville Code Camp - Saturday, August, 29, 2009

http://www.jaxcodecamp.com/Agenda.aspx/SessionDetail/7fd6692b-440c-4c22-aecc-de49d11f839b

2. Tallahassee Code Camp - Saturday, September 5th, 2009

http://www.tallycodecamp.org/2009/sessions/Widgets

3 SW Florida Code Camp - Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 ???

Rumor has it SW FL code camp has a session submitted too:
http://codecamp.swfldev.net/Speakers.aspx Page 2

Find out more about Widgets here. Spoiler alert – they are awesome!

Windows Mobile Development – Widgets Anatomy, Control Toolkits, iPhone Converts, WinMoDevCamps

2009-08-18T13:26:30-12:00:00

Here are some useful links to things I recently found:

Single most important file in the Windows Mobile 6.5 Widget – The Manifest file, great article:
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsphone/archive/2009/08/12/widget-anatomy-the-manifest.aspx

Control Toolkit of Interest to iPhone developers looking to port their apps to Windows Mobile Marketplace:
http://fluid.codeplex.com/

Speaking of iPhone ports, here is a great article:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee355030.aspx

Another interesting CodePlex project is showing use of .NET CF in a great tutorial app controlling the camera:
http://winmocamera.codeplex.com/

Also, get ready to for Mobile Camps:

WinMoDevCamp - Windows Mobile Developer Camp

Wednesday, August 19, 2009 from 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM (PT)

Redmond, WA
http://winmodevcamp-seattle.eventbrite.com/?ref=twittershare

Breaking News!: Might as well start keeping weekends in early December clear for Windows Mobile DevCamp Tampa, FL. You will want to be there! Rumors? Questions? -> @NikitaP

Happy Mobile Coding!

Tampa NerdDinner 8/12

2009-08-11T14:55:19-12:00:00

Tampa NerdDinner tomorrow night http://www.nerddinner.com/874

Sorry for late notice. Please ReTweet and spread the word.

NerdDinner: Tampa Bay MS Developers @ Green Iguana

When:

Where: 1200 N West Shore Blvd, Tampa, FL, USA

Description: Tampa Bay Microsoft Developers. Lots of Developer Evangelists from Microsoft are rumored to be in the area. This is a casual event. Tweetup at 8PM. Invite your nice friends. Don't forget that everyone is responsible for paying for their own meals. URL for hCalendar

Tool Shed: Episode #4 - It's All About The Tools - posted

2009-08-03T13:41:23-12:00:00

Tool Shed: Episode #4 - It's All About The Tools is now posted:
http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/toolshed/Show-Episode-4-Its-All-About-The-Tools-TV-Show/

You can find me 2/3 into the video. Thank you to Russ and the rest of the crew and speakers.

In this video, you will find tools to help solve these common developer challenges…

·       I've got an HD WMV file, but it does not play properly when streamed over the internet.

·       My browser-based blog posting tools are clunky and difficult to use - there's got to be an easier way!

·       I don’t physically have test devices, how do I develop for so many different screen sizes on mobile devices?

·       Are you tired of writing wire up code, based on events in WPF or Silverlight, like storyboard1.Begin() on a mouse click event?

Remember, you have to know the code to get into the shed. KNOW THE CODE. Get some popcorn and enjoy the show! Russ

Windows Mobile Marketplace is open for Submissions - Race to Market Challange

2009-07-28T20:14:47-12:00:00

[ From the official blog post: The Race to Market from the Windows Mobile team. ]

On July 27th, 2009 - a historic moment for all Windows Mobile developers:

Windows Marketplace for Mobile is accepting application submissions from all 29 supported countries.

Registered developers and ISVs can now upload their application, game or widget to the Windows Marketplace platform and we’ll begin certifying those apps according to the process, policies and guidelines we’ve published.

We certify apps on a First In, First Out (FIFO) basis. Certification should normally take about 10 business days initially and you can always check on your application during the process through our Developer Dashboard.

To better market your app, you can provide us with all the product information and promotional materials you’d like us to use to describe and showcase your application for the more than 30 million Windows Mobile devices out there.

And an official contest:

Race to Market Challenge

Prizes; 4 Microsoft Surface tables (Developer Edition), online marketing & promotion of your app and challenge trophies for the mantle.

Applications will be judged on:

Most downloads of a free app

Most valuable app (downloads x price)

Most useful (as judged by Microsoft panel)

Most playful (as judged by Microsoft panel)

Contest runs from launch to Dec 31, 2009.

Further details are available at http://mobilethisdeveloper.com.

So get going!

Reinventing TampaUX - 7/29 at 7PM - Microsoft Tampa

2009-07-28T09:02:56-12:00:00

TampaUX.NET Next Meeting:

7/29 at 7PM: Reinventing TUX - Our Website... and Our Identity

Big things in the wind. Besides a new location, we are making a slight URL change to www.TampaUX.net.

With a new web address, we decided that a new design was in order, so our next session will be all about reinventing our web site and setting it up for future development by YOU!

Speakers:

Roy Lawson

Shawn Cady

Jay Kimble

Nikita Polyakov

Kevin Wolf

NEW Location:
Microsoft Corporation 5426 Bay Center Suite 700 Tampa, FL 33609 Map

Speaking at Lakeland.NET Speaker Idol 7/21 and Tampa.NET 7/22 at "It's All About the Tools" TV Show

2009-07-17T21:55:43-12:00:00

This week I will be speaking on Windows Mobile Development at:

Tuesday July 21st

Lakeland.NET in Speaker Idol
Do you have the chops to compete head to head against other speakers on topics relating to .NET? Now is your chance to prove it! All welcome!

Wednesday July 22nd

Tampa.NET at live taping of "It's All About the Tools" TV Show.

Its all about the Tools - Expression 3, Windows Live Writer, Mobility and more - Russ Fustino, Bill Reiss, Nikita Polyakov and Stan Shultes

Be part of the TV Live studio audience (signed release waivers will be required) for the filming of Episode 4 of Russ’ Tool Shed presents “It’s All About the tools – TV Show”

So come out and enjoy some local events and be sure to talk to your local MVPs, Influentials and other Superheroes - ask them lots of questions - they like it. Secretly.

Also:

Wednesday July 29th

All new TampaUX.NET meeting, my other passion.
Come all, bring your designer friends and co-workers!

PS: I might be speaking at JaxCodeCamp on August 29th on "Windows Mobile 6.5 Widgets"

Windows Marketplace for Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 - in addition to 6.5

2009-07-14T11:20:56-12:00:00

Breaking news!

In a recent blog post: Get Ready; Windows Marketplace for Mobile Offers Millions of Potential New Customers

Windows Mobile Marketplace is confirmed to be released for Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1 OS by the end of 2009.

The Windows Mobile 6.5 version will of course still ship as part of the OS in fall. [*see footnote]

Here are the major details, as listed in the blog

To recap the Windows Marketplace for Mobile announcements at Worldwide Partner Conference:
1.       Application Submission Opens on July 27th: Windows Marketplace will open for application submissions from 29 supported countries July 27^th.
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.

[* WM 6.5 Phones will not ship with Marketplace on Verizon phones, as VZ says that they know best and will provide their own Marketplace on "all" of their phones, more on that here. Hope this will be pulled. One will be able to download and install Marketplace, but is a disheartening news to developers as details of what VZ is thinking for it's store strategy is unknown.]

Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard Review

2009-06-04T13:23:46-12:00:00

This review is based on Emulator Image. Not a real phone experience.

Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard is a Non-Touchscreen version of Windows Mobile 6.5 OS.

Why Standard?? It is still very popular today due to its ease of one handed navigation though real buttons, instead of touch controls on touchscreen based phones. Entire OS is fine tuned to let a user access most features one handed though tactile feel. After sometime using the phone most common operation do not require looking at the phone - which is Impossible with touchscreen based phones. I have been using this as my favorite OS for almost 5 years, with breaks to suffer WM Professional devices. Also, this was first real Smartphone from Microsoft; not a Pocket PC Phone Edition ;-)

Samsung Jack is first announced 6.5 Standard Upgradable phone, and it is a beauty to hold and use, also has a really fast 528 Mhz CPU. The 6.5 update date or price [if any] have not been announced.

To preface the review: WM 6.1 Standard UI and UX was so far ahead of WM 6.1 Professional, there is little left to change.

So what’s actually new?

-New Default Style & Home Screen Time-out mode

New Black Default theme, goes with same look that WM Pro 6.5 chrome does, but is not as exciting on WM Standard.
Because WM Standard does not get highlight effect or new upsized Menus, it’s just for product styling consistency.

There are 4 new wall papers, that came with Emulator. You see water in my screen shots, others make text unreadable, with out black text theme.

-IE6Mobile

Due to no touch screen, we have SkyFire-like navigation with mouse cursor on the page:

The mouse in the screenshot is actually there. When you type into textboxes, you are actually typing into them.

User must hit a softkey once to see the chrome. Then again to select a menu item. Clicking on Zoom, brings up the zoom bar.

To navigate across the the page when zoomed in, use the Up Down Left Right rocker, moving the mouse close to the edge of the screen.
You will only have to be in the right not that far off the center of the page to start scrolling. There will be an indicator where on the page you are.
It’s impossible to Print Screen so no screen shot, sorry. It’s very intuitive though and shows you where on the page you are.

Bing is the default search engine, right now. And looks fairly good on the device.
Also in the menu up and down arrows [indicating that more menu items are then screen shows] looks different, and we finally have “Exit”, no more “End Task”!

A new address bar icons. The progress bar is light blue behind the address text, left to right progress.

Browsing Modes:

To quickly switch from Desktop to Mobile UAs, check out Menu -> View. [Thanks Alpha for letting me know ]
But I really don’t like how there isn’t a fast way to switch desktop to mobile version. Desktop is default mode.
It takes 6 clicks and navigation steps needed to get to this part:
Here is where you can switch the default browsing mode:

And Favorites Home screen Item, let’s you quickly navigate to selected sites from your IE Favorites list.

-Widgets Support

Widgets install almost like apps, download the .wgt file or get it from Marketplace, locate it on device and run.

[ The green check icon is mine, and does not indicate anything related to being Certified or Approved. ]

Unfortunately, for some strange reason, I am not able to see the Icons form the Widget.
Even the built in Live Search Widget does not show it’s own Icon, hoping it’s an Emulator bug.
This was confirmed to be a bug in Emulator version. WM Standard uses .ico files. Read more here.

I will do a Widgets Tutorial soon. For now read this one: Getting started with widgets on Windows Mobile 6.5

To remove a Widget, simply go to Remove Programs in general Settings Menu of the phone itself.

I also noticed that I was able to install same Widget, twice and have both of them…Devs - read up on fix for that here.

-Windows Mobile Marketplace

Screen shot says it all at this point. It did open in IE btw…

-Minimal UI Refresh

Reworked a few elements in menus and settings, new Loading/Busy Icon, very Windows 7 Beta boot-up like:

What can I still do:

-Run 6/6.1 Standard Apps, like Live Search Mobile, Google Maps, SkyFire and others.

-Change the style and home page back to WM 6.1 look. I enjoy the Grey and Samsung Green on BlackJack II.

What I could not find:

-How to change my Start Menu Style to be a scrolling list in All Programs, not having to press “More” for next page. This might be something that is only specific to my BlackJack II with WM 6.1 and not the OS itself.

-Widgets are only listed in the Start Menu Program List. Not very differentiating at all, especially when custom icons did not work. [Once again, hoping it’s an Emulator bug]

Overall:

As an upgrade from 6.1 it’s 3.5 out of 5 stars.
As a Smartphone OS, it’s now 4.5 out of 5 stars!

All in all, I like it!

And I want it on my BlackJack II. There is no compelling reason why I would need new hardware for it. Especially since AT&T seems to have locked the Samsung Jack phones down so harshly.

Mostly because there is not much new for WM 6.1 Standard owners, but Standard already had it so good :-)

In fact that is actually the problem - 6.1 Standard was so polished, that not much needed to change.

I like the addition of IE6Mobile.

But it seems a little buggy in the Emulator, Ex: I could not type digits in it at all !?!

But I had trouble pulling up some mobile sites, this is most likely due to new Browser ID, so I simply get rejected and re-directed to search engine.
Hope this goes away soon. Or is an issue because I am browsing though Cradled Emulator…

And of course lack of Silverlight or Flash still puts IE6Mobile behind newer Mobile Browsers.

I’d be happy to use 6.5 Standard on a device like Samsung Jack [ if that device comes App unlocked AT&T :( ]

Widgets:

Love them. But, they can’t be added as Favorites on Sliding Panel home screen, this would have been huge!!!

I created a favorite pointed to the file, but it opens in IE, as expected. Safe to say this is IE Favorites home screen tab, bummer!!!

The widget is usable, but one looses the custom soft key menus and it just feels wrong.

Here are some more screen shots:

Default Color Theme, Sliding Panel Homepage, Water wallpaper:

Here is something new – Display time out, there are no icons shown, just Wallpaper:

This is how the default emulator looks like, when it’s first booted up:

Anyways, let’s hope next version would look more like this:

Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK Developer Tool Kit

2009-06-04T08:58:00-12:00:00

Available now!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=20686a1d-97a8-4f80-bc6a-ae010e085a6e#filelist

[ Wondering what's a DTK? Read: SDK, DTK, DRK: WTF?! ]

Overview

The Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit adds documentation, sample code, header and library files, emulator images and tools to Visual Studio [2008] 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.

NOTE:

Don't forget that this is a DTK - which only contains Samples and Emulator Images.

You will still need a Windows Mobile 6.1 SDK that contains necessary information for Visual Studio to work with Windows Mobile projects and base set of tools like Cellular Emulator.

Download the Windows Mobile 6 SDK from:
http://developer.windowsmobile.com
or:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=06111a3a-a651-4745-88ef-3d48091a390b&displaylang=en

Official clarification: [ Wondering what's a DTK? Read: SDK, DTK, DRK: WTF?! ]