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Get your Windows 8 App into the Windows Store

Written on May 10, 2012 by in Win8

Windows 8 is coming in the near future. You can download, use it, and develop apps for it today.  As of May 2012, the Windows Store is not open for everyone to deploy.  However, we are looking for the first wave of great applications which highlight the power of Metro and Windows 8, especially from developers who want to get to market first and build their brand.

In order to submit your application today you need a token.  This is something I can help you get.

  1. Create a great application or game.
  2. Let me know about it by contacting me via my email.  Daniel.Egan@microsoft.com (Put Win8App in the subject)
  3. I’ll help you register so you can get your application through our Application Accelerator Labs, where the app will get reviewed to confirm it’s complete and conforms to the Metro guidelines and certification requirements.

This is a great opportunity to not only be first to market with your app, but also to get feedback from a Microsoft Services Engineer to make your app great. If you are serious about creating an application, this is a chance that you probably don’t want to pass up.

In addition, our team is holding a series of events and office hours to help you.  We want to make sure you have what you need to be successful. Come learn more about how to build apps for Windows 8, or show up and build your app with one of our evangelists or others in the community.

Windows Developer Camps (to learn about Windows 8 development):

Windows Application Accelerator Labs (to build your app):

  • Redmond, WA.  May 15 – 17, 2012. Register
  • Mountain View, CA.  May 22 – 24, 2012. Register

Note that to get a Windows Store token, you’ll still need to contact me daniel.egan@microsoft.com  to get your app reviewed.

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Windows Phone Unleashed

Written on March 16, 2012 by in Events, Windows Phone

 

imageWant to learn how to build a windows phone application (Become a WP7Dev).  Then join us for the Windows Phone Unleashed Series.  The content was created by Daniel Egan (me) and Bret Stateham.

Windows Phone Unleashed is put on by the community.  It is an all day event with 3 instructor led sessions paired with Hands On Labs that when you are finished complete the Coffee Findr application. At the end of the day there is a app contest with Prizes.

You can download the finished app from the Marketplace .  From this application you will learn the following skills.  Check it out now.

Register for an Event Near You.

  • Working with Live Tiles
  • Periodic Execution
  • Pulling Data from Rest Services
  • Deserializing Json
  • Binding data to your UI
  • Using Bing for Maps and Directions
  • Using Isolated Storage and  SQL CE on the Phone
  • Navigation
  • And much much more

We also have TWO different events this time…. We have also added a Games Development Unleashed Event.  So look for an event near you.  But register quickly… seats go fast for this FREE event.

Register for an Event Near You.

(If you have been to an Unleashed Event before. This is NEW content)

 

Agenda for both types of events

 

Line of Business Apps

Introduction to Windows Phone 7 Programming

In this session, we start with a discussion of windows phone, the architecture changes made from 6.5 to 7.0, the hardware specifications and then move into the beginnings of building a WP7 application including…

  1. Application life cycle
  2. Hardware Foundation
  3. Files associated with project template
  4. Splash screen and the importance of 1 second / 19 second loading
  5. Application Bar
  6. Panorama and Pivot controls
  7. MVVM
  8. Marketplace

Connecting to Services

In this session, we will discuss how Cloud Services help to bring power to the phone. We will be binding to a rest based services and show how to search and display the information received. In this session we will also talk about Navigation, passing information between screens, while working with List and detail information.

  1. Navigation
  2. Location
  3. JSON Deserialization
  4. Bing Maps
  5. Isolated Storage
  6. Binding Sample Data
  7. Navigation

Recording Data

In this session we will be adding to our knowledge and learn the importance of live tiles. We will show you how to set up a periodic agent and how to set up and read and write to a SQL Database on Windows Phone.

  1. Live Tiles
  2. SQL CE
  3. Background Processes and Periodic Agents
  4. Launchers and Choosers

Games Development

Introduction to XNA

XNA Game Basics

  1. What is XNA
  2. Game Development Tools
  3. XNA Game Projects
  4. XNA Game Loop
  5. Debugging Games

Working with Images, Sounds and Text

  1. Working with Textures
  2. Playing Songs and Sound Effects
  3. Drawing text with SpriteFonts

Getting User Input

  1. Getting input on the phone
  2. Using the Accelerometer
  3. Using Touch

Game State Management

Managing Game Play

  1. Keeping Score
  2. Tracking Health and Lives
  3. Adding Levels

Managing Screens

  1. Creating Multi-Screen games
  2. Loading content in the background
  3. How to pause the game

Managing State

  1. Phone Application Lifecycle
  2. Supporting Fast Application Switching
  3. Persisting and Restoring State

Silverlight and XNA Integration

  1. Introduction to Silverlight
  2. Silverlight and XNA Integration
  3. Creating a Silverlignt and XNA Game

Advanced XNA Games

Marketplace and Advertisements

  1. Understanding the Windows Phone Marketplace
  2. Submitting your Game to the Marketplace
  3. Adding Advertisements to your game

3D Games

  1. 3D Support in XNA
  2. Creating a simple 3D Game

Multi-Platform Games

  1. Building Games for Phone, PC and XBOX
  2. Other Multi-Platform options

Cloud Integration

  1. Using Windows Azure
  2. Social Gaming Toolkit

 

Remember… Daniel Egan knows Windows Phone Smile

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Making WPConnect Easier to use

Written on March 4, 2012 by in Windows Phone

If you are building a Windows Phone application and you are using your phone to debug AND you are using the Photo Chooser or or the Camera Launcher task you may have found out that it will not let you access the camera or pictures while you are connected to Zune.

But, you have to be connected to Zune to debug on the phone.  Well, kind of.  The Windows Phone Team put out a tool called WPConnect.exe that allows you to dubug on the phone without having Zune open.

Here are the steps.

  1. Connect your phone
  2. Make sure Zune launches and connects to your phone.
  3. Shut down Zune
  4. Using a Dos Prompt, Navigate to
    1. (for 64 bit machines) C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.1\Tools\WPConnect\x64
    2. (for 32 Bit machines) C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.1\Tools\WPConnect\x86
  5. Type WPConnect.exe

It will then tell you that you are good to go.

NOW FOR THE EASY WAY

I got tired of having to navigate using a command prompt (Too may keystrokes) and I use this often enough to matter, so I created a shortcut for the Dos Prompt that takes me right to my designated spot in one click. Here is how you do it.

1. Right-click in the open space of your desktop and click New > Shortcut.

2. For the location, type or copy and paste the following:

%windir%\system32\cmd.exe /k

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3. Click Next.

4. For the name, type something descriptive, like “Command Prompt for WPConnect” then click Finish.

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5. Right-click on the new shortcut and choose Properties.

6. Change the “Start In” field to whatever directory you want the command prompt to start in.In my case, I want it to start in the 64 bit folder we talked about above:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.1\Tools\WPConnect\x64"

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Be sure to include the quotation marks, and of course you would need to customize this file path to your own system (32 or 64).

Now when I want to use WPConnect.  I just use the pined shortcut

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and Type WPConnect.exe

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Hope that helps Smile

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Installing Windows Phone on Win 8

Written on March 2, 2012 by in Win8, Windows Phone

If you have installed windows 8 and want to do development on windows phone using the Windows Phone developer tools, you will need to have an actual device since the emulator at this point does not play nicely with the Hyper V installed on Windows 8.  But since I installed it on my main machine, I still want to do phone dev on it.  If you try to install the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 http://bit.ly/wptools1  you may run into the following error.

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If you have this error come up, here are the steps to get around it.

Download and install the latest version of the Games for Windows – LIVE http://www.xbox.com/en-US/LIVE/PC/DownloadClient

image_thumb[23]

image_thumb[24]

Click on CLOSE when it ends.

Rerun the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 setup and choose to repair it.  This will re-run the previously failing XNA  Game Studio installers.

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To learn more about why this works, or if this does not fix your issue, Check out Aarons blog post on getting it to work on Windows 8 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2012/02/29/10274694.aspx

When done you should see this.

image_thumb[1]

And you are good to go (with a real device that is)… I am working on seeing if I can get a work around for the emulator.  I will let you know.

Daniel

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Hello World on IPhone, Android, and WP7

Written on March 2, 2012 by in Windows Phone 7

although I am not going to add this to the series I am doing “Tale of three platforms” (mostly because I did not do the video).  I thought I would share this with you. My buddy timothy Strimple @tstrimple pointed it out to me.  It shows what it takes to do Hello World on all three platforms.  As a matter of fact, that is exactly where I am at in the series.

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Install Windows 8 From USB

Written on February 29, 2012 by in Win8, windows 8

If you want to install the Windows 8 Developer Preview from a USB, you can follow the instructions below.

 

Download the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool [USB Download Tool]

 Download Windows 8 Developer Preview from Windows Developer Center. Make sure you are downloading the iso image.  If you are not sure  if your processor is 32-bit or 64-bit ready, getthe 32-bit .iso file.

Insert a USB drive into your computer. (It must have 8GB or greater storage capacity ).

Install the Windows 7 USB Download tool you downloaded from the MS Store

 

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Launch Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool you installed.

When it launches select the ISO file you downloaded earlier by clicking on “Browse”.

 

 

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Select the USB Drive you inserted earlier. It must be 8GB or over and everything will be erased.

 

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Let it run its course….

 

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Once the tool is done, you will need to restart your PC with the USB plugged in.

On start up, you will need to enter the BIOS utility of your computer and boot from the USB. This is different for different computers.  If you need help, just do a  search for Entering Bios for your specific PC.  In BIOS you need to make USB one of the bootable drives.

Once booted from the USB drive; follow on-screen instructions to install Windows 8 Developer Preview.

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WP7 Sample Database : Part II

Written on February 27, 2012 by in Windows Phone 7

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Last week I told you about a great post that a fellow evangelist on my team (Jerry Nixon) put together on the Windows Phone 7 Database.  Here is his follow-up post.

Storing Windows Phone application data is a pretty normal requirement. If you want it to persist across sessions, or even phone reboots, you really have three options:

  1. Save to the Cloud
  2. Save to Isolated Storage
  3. Save to Local Database

Each is correct for certain scenarios. But in this article, I will ONLY walk through the Local Database. This is an enhanced version of SQL CE – meaning your SQL skills are an asset. And, if you don’t….

READ MORE

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Skype Beta for Windows Phone

Written on February 27, 2012 by in Windows Phone, WP App of the Day

 

The wait is over… Skype for windows phone (beta) is finally here.. head over to the Windows Phone Marketplace to download it. http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/c3f8e570-68b3-4d6a-bdbb-c0a3f4360a51

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T3P #1 Setting up for IPhone Dev

Written on February 21, 2012 by in TaleOf3Platforms

 

The Tale of 3 Platforms Series (T3P) is the story of creating the same application NATIVELY on each platform IPhone, Windows Phone, and Android. (If you are looking to use phone gap for cross platform, check out my other series Phone Gap Tutorials) As we build the application we will talk about tips, tricks, and try to get the app to work on each platform the same way.

The first thing i had to do was go out a buy myself a Mac.  Something that was good enough to do dev on without breaking the bank.  I found a great deal at Best Buy (open box AND Rebate) for a MacBoo Air.  Installed Bootcamp (And Windows 7) and we were on our way.

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On a side note before we begin, I will say that it has been interesting to get back up to speed on a Mac. I have owned them in the past, but when you need to actually do things on one (besides email and web) it can be a real time drag to get comfortable.  For example, I needed a blog post editor like Live Writer, (since I am doing this post from the Mac). It turns out that Live Writer is the MAN (or errrr ummm the Writer).  I am using MarsEdit right now but can’t see spending the $40 it costs when my trial is over when it is so weak compared to Live Writer. There are a couple that are supposed to be better but they don’t work on Lion.   Another thing that took me a while is Screen Capture.  I figured out how to finally do it on a Mac : Ctrl +Cmnd+4+tab+stand on your head,  but it only allowed me to copy to clipboard or to desktop, no edit.  As you can see above, sometimes you need to blot something out.  Anyway, after some searching, I found a program called Skitch that is free and seems to do the job.   So I think that I have now realized that I am going to be dealing with a few non-dev issues before I can really get a nice dev flow going.

In addition to the above… I came to realize that I did not have enough room to do bootcamp on this machine.  This was the first thing that was really easy to fix (Thanks to my buddy Scott Cate) I just had to go to Finder and open up the bootcamp assistant and then three steps later, the mac had reclaimed the space.

 

OK… Back to our IPhone Setup.

The first thing I did was to sign up as a developer at apple. https://developer.apple.com/ .  This cost $99 dollars and took a few emails and about a day or so before I was “part” of the developer program.  On the developer site, there are Getting Started Videos and Getting Started Documents.  The videos seemed to be for development topics like “implementing in app purchases” or “Game Center Essentials”. So I went to the “Getting Started Documents” section. There I found the “Start Developing IOS apps today” document.  This looked like the right place.

Start Developing with IOS

 

The first page stated :

As you proceed through the road map, you will use Xcode and the iOS SDK, Apple’s tools for app development. You will learn the basics of programming with Objective-C, the language that powers all iOS apps and frameworks, and will explore the Cocoa Touch frameworks. You will create a simple iOS app and learn how to test it on a device. Finally, you will learn how to submit an app to the App Store.

 

Seems easy enough…

So first I went to the App Store to Download XCode

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But when I tried to install it, it said Sorry Charlie.

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As you can see above… I have 10.7.2.  So I need to update the mac os.

 

OK… Mac updated to 10.7.3 now… I went back to the App Store to Install Xcode and now it lets me install.

 

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Once this is complete, there is a Developer Folder on my Desktop with all the tools I need for development (I think) :) .

In the next post we will start with a simple Hello World app before we move on to Android.

Other Posts in this Series

(This list will automatically grow as I write them)

 

 

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Can your phone do Mach 5

Written on February 20, 2012 by in Cool Technology

Now I admit, this is a really cheezy video… but it does go to show you the quality workmanship of the Nokia phones…. So I ask you, can YOUR phone do Mach 5?

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