Thought I would let everyone know that I am moving my blog to mixtio.wordpress.com. I would like to thank geekswithblogs for allowing me to use them for blogging. My personal site has also expired. Mixtio.com Mixtio’s Facebook pages are still around and will continue. Since my blog is more evolved around Mixtio, I wanted to consolidate some. Be sure to keep checking them out, and we also have a page on google+. Just look me up on their and add me to a circle. I added a page just for Mixtio.
Thanks all .
In my last blog I talked about a new WP7 utility application. My intention at the time was to build a Wi-Fi strength meter, but after some research, I discovered that Microsoft has that part of the phone sandboxed. Its not a big deal now, but I hope they unlock those features in a future update as it could lead to some real cool applications.
So what now? Well at first, I felt I was at a crossroads on application ideas. I still plan to release Mixtio Reader, but until I get some other issues worked out, I didn’t have another back up project. I took some time to reflect and then it hit me. Last year, I had plans to just build applications for Android. This was mainly due to be working in the environment at my regular job, and their cheap registration price. I was also looking at applications that were specific to tablets rather than phones. These type of applications are for Education.
For some reason I had completely forgot about these application ideas that I wanted to do for the Android tablets. Rest assured, I will be taking this route for Windows Phone 7 and possibly Windows 8. This brings me to what I am working on now. I have an application in development as we speak. I wont’ go into specifics right now, but I have started it and I am hoping to have it done in about 2 weeks.
This application is education related and should be useful from middle school thru college. That is kind of my focus for a small list of applications that I want to do in the Education section. There are a few already out that do the same thing so it is not anything new. Since there are a few applications out that do the same thing, I want to defiantly focus on user experience. This application will likely be free and I have plans to globalize it so it will work in a lot of different countries.
I also mentioned Window 8. I have the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 running in VM on my PC. I haven’t spent as much time with it as I want to, but I do see potential it porting the application to it. Especially for tablets as this information will be good for students to take with them. I also want to bring Mixtio Reader to Windows 8. This is another reason why I want to take time to ensure a quality eReader is release to both platforms. I will try to put out an update on this new Education application next week.
Stay Tuned.
I wanted to let everyone know that my flagship application Mixtio Reader will be delayed. I was shooting for the end of the first quarter, but it looks like it will take longer. Mixtio Reader will probably be released around the second or third quarter. I am working on this project in my spare time and with the scale of this project being what it is, its going slow. I am currently waiting on some third party sdk’s that will be used and the remaining parts are all custom. This was suppose to be my first Windows Phone application for the market, but with these delays, it will actually be my second or third.
What does this mean, second or third? Well I already planned a simple utility application that was suppose to come after Mixtio Reader, but I will now be focusing on getting it done and out the door as my first application. I project it only taking a couple of weeks to do so that’s good news. There is another concept application that I have been thinking of doing also. Not sure if it will go anywhere yet, so most likely, Mixtio Reader will be released second. I will brainstorm this concept application and if I think it will work, I will update you all with another blog post.
What is this new simple application? This one will be kept secret till release. Its not a game changer or anything mind blowing so no speculation needed. It’s a simple utility that most people can use around their house or business.
I guess there is a bright side to having Mixtio Reader be delayed. That would be that I have plans to push it to other platforms. I won’t go into too many details yet on it, but there are plans in the works to release it to 2 additional platforms. And for those of you with an iPhone will be disappointed as iOS is not one of the two platforms. I currently don’t have a mac, so until I do, I can’t promise any iOS applications.
Ok, so as the title suggests, I have decided to release the name of my upcoming Window Phone application. Mixtio Reader will take advantage of various cloud services to provide you with access to your books or documents. There will also be a shopping experience added so you can buy more books or download free domain books. There are a lot of other features that will be in Mixtio Reader, but I will hold on that information till closer to release.
So what have I been doing? Well, I redid my logo for like the thousandth time and finally came up with something real similar to the last one. You can see it on the facebook page and twitter. I took some time to design what I call a mock-up roadmap. It basically had most of the screen elements and lines that pointed to each screen like a map. I wanted to ensure that I wasn’t creating a navigation nightmare. It took a whole weekend and I can say that it defiantly made me think about the UI more and more.
Last weekend I started working on the company website. In the beginning I was going to design a WordPress theme,but I found out later that my host doesn’t work well with some of WordPress’s controls. I also picked my host before I realized that they didn’t have windows servers. I couldn’t beat the price, so its html, and JavaScript instead. The main page is up and running. The navigation at the top isn’t finished yet, but that’s what this weekend is for. I also added a link to google+ on my site so you can add it to your circles.
I also finally broke down and bought a Windows Phone. Granted it’s a first gen phone, but I love it. I bought the Samsung Focus. Haven’t installed an SD card yet, but may do it eventually. I was able to get most of the applications that I used on my Android phone, but not all of them. It is my primary phone and in June, I will most likely upgrade to the Lumia 900.
Now that I have all this done, I will finally begin working on my app. Atleast begin registering to get the api’s that I am using, get the trial of telerik controls, and begin building the UI. Probably looking at a April to May release depending on any issues. I will also publish a beta, so if anyone is interested. I will provide details and how you can reach me for it at a later time.
Its been a few weeks since I talked about my Windows Phone project. I bunch of things have happened during this time. I finished my primary requirements and began paper mock-ups of the screens. I say paper, but its really PowerPoint. I have done this technique for Android applications and found it very helpful. I also want to take this time to thank Michael Crump for assisting me with these mock-ups. He has given me some valued advice and my next revision of this mock-up will have additional screens.
Once I get through the next phase of my paper mock-up, I plan to move ahead with building it in Expression Blend and testing it with the emulator. By then I will discuss my project in more detail, including screenshots.
I also spent some time researching a company name. I made the decision that I wanted a company name to represent me on the windows phone market place. After much research and endless migraines, I finally got one and secured my domains for a company website, twitter handle and Facebook page. I will list them at the end of this post. The name of my new company is Mixtio Software.
I took some time tonight creating a logo. Since I don’t have Adobe Illustrator, I used Expression Design 4. It took a little getting use to but I made it work. This logo will change some when I get more time, but the concept is there.
Of course the gray is really transparent, but I guess my blog doesn’t know that. I will let you come up with an explanation as to what it means.
Mixtio Software Twitter Feed – please follow
Mixtio Software Facebook page – please like
Mixtio Software Website – Not much to see as I haven’t done the page yet, but keep it in mind and I will let you all know through my blog when its done.
Earlier this week Google’s Android team released a new section to their Developers website. It’s called Android Design. I had a chance to look most of it over yesterday and I must say that I am impressed. They have finally decided to put out some documentation for developers to follow for a more immersive design. They say that there is more to come, and I believe there will be. They already have a section for people to learn Android called Android Training. I can only imagine where they want to take this.
Android Design however is more for those of us who are building applications for Android 4.0 (ICS) and not for the older versions. You would have to dig into the developer website and spend a lot of time researching to find alternatives that can match some of the stuff discussed on Android Design. We at least have a foundation for future development or do we.
The answer is yes we do. Before Android 4.0, building an application for multiple handsets was kind of difficult. So many different screen sizes, densities and versions, usually ended up with some handsets being left out. This is the kind of experiences we as users have to deal with now. Hopefully this will change and developers will adopt this new design pattern.
I know that I as a developer, will follow this new design pattern, and if you plan to develop applications for Android, you should too. This Android design site has a lot of valuable information in it and I for one can’t wait to see what’s next.
What a better way to start of the year, but with a product that I recommend. I reviewed this product last year on my personal site and now almost a full year later, I still recommend this product. I develop for different platforms and different languages so it is important for me to keep my snippets organized. Visual Studio and Eclipse both have a way to store snippets, but what if your put into a situation where you may need one and find that its in the other IDE that you are working with. That’s where Snip-it Pro comes in.
Snip-it Pro is not IDE dependent so you can use it with most languages and any IDE that supports drag and drop. Snip-it Pro consists of two windows: the toolbar and explorer. The toolbar is located on the left of the screen by default and is where your snippets are stored. You can organize your snippets in Collections. There is also a section called Snipplr which I will discuss later.
The Snip-it Pro Explorer is where you edit or add snippets. Whenever you select a snippet from the toolbar, you will see the code show up in the explorer content tab. You will also see that it will maintain the format in which your code was originally written. You can also define your Collections here with the convenient button from the toolbar on the explorer. To save a snippet, all you need to to is click the + button on the explorer toolbar and paste your code into the content window. You will see a category dropdown list there as well. That is where you will pick the language that your code is in. This will ensure the formatting is correct. Above that is the Description, which is where you give it a name. Once your done, click the disk on the explorer toolbar and it is saved to your Snippet toolbar on the left.
Snipplr is a website dedicated to snippets of a large number of languages. Developers can submit their snippets to share with the developer community. Once you register at Snipplr you will get an API key. This is very important. You can add this API key to your Snip-it Pro product and by doing that, you will be able to submit your code to them and get code from Snipplr to your toolbar.
To publish your snippets to Snipplr, you have to have your snippet selected from the toolbar and displayed in the Snip-it Pro explorer. From the explorer toolbar you will see a globe that will allow you to publish it to Snipplr.
To get Snipplr Snippets to your toolbar, all you have to do is Fav a snippet on their website and your toolbar will update itself with the new snippet in its Category in your Snipplr Snippets Category.
With all these features, how can you not use it. Oh and before I forget, this is not just limited to Developers. Database Administrators can also use both the product and the website. If you want more information just go to Snip-it Pro’s website.
Its been several months since I last updated my blog. I don't really have an excuse other than just being busy. My gaming had taken alot of my time and well, I had to make a tough decision. When you really think about it, its not really a tough decision, it is just the right one. That decision is of course that my development is more important.
Enough of my excuses. I have began resource gathering and interface concepts for my first project. Its called Novus. Now this may or maynot be the final name of the application. I kind of like the name for some reason and decided to stick with it for now. I am also starting off this project for Windows Phone 7.5 instead of Android. This was a tough decision considering I write Android code every day, but I chose Windows Phone do to them having less applications than Android and I believe my application will have a good base to begin from. I will consider a port of my application to Android later in the year.
What can I tell you about Project Novus... I will start off by saying it will have both Drop Box and Skydrive support. There will also be a minor Facebook tie-in, but it is optional. I am hoping to complete this project by the end of the 1st Quarter of 2012, but like most projects, if its not done by then, well it will be ready when its ready.
I will also be bloggin alot more in 2012 then I did this year. When I am not talking about Novus, I will try to entertain you with my take on some technology whether its mobile, gaming, xbox, hardware, or what ever else I can think of.
See you all in 2012... Happy Holidays!!
I know I haven't been blogging like I should be. Been playing alot of PC games in my free time. I will dial down some of that for some upcoming projects. I will be doing mobile applications in both Android and Windows Phone. I will discuss my Android projects on my personal site blog, which you can access from the link on this post.
I currently don't have a Developers account to distribute my applications on the market. My plan as of now is to get my account in January. I will be in a better financial position at that time, and hopefully my projects will be ready for deployment by then. My first project is going to be database driven and that is pretty much the reason why I haven't done it sooner. I could have started it when the Mango beta drivers were out, but I decided to put it on hold till now.
I currently have ideas for atleast 2 Windows Phone applications. I am not really going to go into detail about them yet, as they are stil in the planning stage. I can say that the first application will be ad driven, while the second project will be a paid application. I will release some info as I get started with the first application. I have to spend some time working with Expression Blend, which may delay some of the development.
I may also be doing a Web project for a potential client. I havent had a chance to talk to them yet, so that may take presidence over the mobile apps. I was recommended to them from a friend, so till I make contact from them, I will be working on my first application planning.
I will say that I have about 4 projects planned for Android. Some of them are tablet related, so when Windows 8 comes out next year, I may consider porting them over for use on the slate devices.
As for tutorials, I will try to do some when I can, I have decided to keep my Android and Windows Phone tutorials separate, so if you want to see my Android ones, you will have to go to my personal blog site. I was really trying to figure out, how I wanted to run two blogs, and this is what I came up with.
I wanted to take this time to introduce myself. My name is Roger O'Dell Jr. My development training is in .NET, but my current job requires me to work with Java and Android. I have been doing mobile development now for almost a year. And what a year it has been.
I had the opportunity to go to a Microsoft Conference in Overland Park, KS last year. While I was there, I was one of the lucky few who was introduced to Windows Phone 7. Coming from an ASP.NET background, I found the new Windows Phone to be very fascinating. I was more of an Android guy at the time, and I still carry an Android Phone now. Later in the year, I began working for my current employer and this being my first official development position, I went in eager and hungry for code.
I had studied Java about 10 years ago, so I figured my C# skills would be enough to get me through the beginning as within about a week of working this new position, I was given my first Android application to build. It had been about 5 months since I wrote any code, so I just started a routine of drawing everything out on paper and going from there. I only knew briefly what Agile was or Scrum, mostly from user group meetings that I attended. My paper mockups are done, and I was ready to begin. I must have stared at the computer screen for about 30 min before I did anything. I felt as if everything I had ever studied about development had simply flushed away. Needless to say, I pushed thru it and about a month later, I finished my app and moved on.
What I am going to try to do with this blog is simply do some basic tutorials and things that I have picked up while learning Android. Now I know what you’re thinking, "Don't you know this is a .NET type blog site?" I haven't forgotten that, so I will also be doing the same tutorials and things in Windows Phone 7. This way you will be provided with different versions of the same basic idea. Now I am still a Junior Developer, so I will probably not do too many Advanced type ones here, but you never know what you find when you’re trying to get a mobile app to do what you want. I may occasionally talk about my experiences a well.
I also have a blog on my own website. I was originally going to do this exact thing, but I now might do a different type of blog there. I am a PC gamer so I may just take the time to do gaming blogs on that site. Feel free to visit it if you like. I will add it to my links section.
I also want to personally thank Jeff Julian from geekswithblogs.net for allowing me a voice in the .net community.