December 2010 - Posts
I knew this was possible! WPCentral has released a video showing a software to download any app from the Marketplace, removing the DRM protection and download it to a Windows Phone device.
I saw already some russian website releasing direct links to different apps, this is another proof that Microsoft has really some work to do to secure the Marketplace and bring its developers base some new confidence.
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Here you can find third party sample code that may be helpful while developing your Windows Phone 7 application.
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Sketching an app is probably one of the most important first step when I work on an app or a website. Those sketch sheets published by Sara Summers will be useful to any Windows Phone 7 developer.
Grab them here in pdf format
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So for this tutorial we will be detecting pixel by pixel collision on multiple objects and responding to each. This builds on Pong Part 2 So be sure to read that first before proceeding. Download the assets here
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This is the first post in a week-long series on multitouch in Windows 7.
What is multitouch?
Most everyone is comfortable with using
a mouse to navigate on a computer. An alternate form of user input is
touch. For some time, we have had touch machines (such as tablets) that
allow us to substitute one finger on the screen for the mouse.
Multitouch takes this paradigm one step further: the computer can
recognize and respond to multiple touch points at the same time (for
instance, multiple fingers on the screen). Multitouch is a huge part of
the NUI (Natural User Interface) movement.
If like me you are living outside the US and develop apps for Windows Phone 7, you are out of luck with Microsoft Ads SDK. Thanks to Smaato, a first third-party solution is now available for the mobile platform.
According to many developers, it looks like the only model to release apps which will work in the coming months is to serve them as free with ads embedded.
Worth to give a try!
Press Release: Smaato introduces the widest range of
SDKs in the mobile business. SDKs for iPhone/iPad (incl. iAd), Android,
Symbian (Qt’, WRT and S60) and Windows Phone 7 are available free to
download at www.smaato.com/signup
Smaato Inc, the leading mobile ad
optimizer and mobile advertising company announced its new SDK for
mobile advertising platform SOMA supporting Windows Phone 7.
The new Windows Phone 7 SDK grants access to more than 50 ad networks
worldwide to serve display or text ads within applications and mobile
websites on Windows Phone 7 handsets. It is easy to use with the
Silverlight app and XNA projects and integration is done with just a few
clicks. All communications is done in the background to minimize the
disruption for the user.
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This post if for people who develop on Windows Phone 7 as a hobby or for
small fee. It's not intended to the big development shops, I am quite sure they
have all Microsoft tenderness.
I am angry at Microsoft attitude towards the developers community on the
Windows Phone Marketplace.
Don't waste your personal time just yet. Things have to be fixed fast if
MS want to keep up with the mobile market.
The Marketplace situation is abysmally bad. I spend a lot of my personal
time developing apps for Windows Phone 7 because I am a believer and I think
Microsoft has done a great job on the user side to provide a fantastic
experience.
On the developer side, it’s another story. Take the app hub and the
sales reports. Thanks god I am not doing this for money!
I have two apps on the market at the moment, one free and one available
for the modest sum of 0.99 euros.
Shocking results! The free app, according to the reports is doing quite
well, about 300 downloads and wait… the other one fotoIreland 2 downloads??? After a month and an half??
I installed before releasing the apps a tracking
code and know at any time roughly how many people have downloaded the app, and
for fotoIreland, we are talking about more than 500 downloads!
What the heck is going on. So I contacted immediately the support and
this is the stupid and laconic answer I got one day after:
Thank you for contacting Windows Phone Developer Support.
Please note that the reports on the Dashboard were just released, and they
may not be up to date with the latest changes. Please follow up on this in the
upcoming weeks.
Thanks,
The Windows Phone Marketplace Support Team
I have to say this is really bad communication!
Now different theories are emerging. I was told yesterday that it was
probably a mistake and it should be a daily figures which I could accept. Still
waiting for an official reply on this option.
Another more sinister possibility exist and I might open a can of worms
but I think it’s time we do something. It is likely possible that some windows
phone users have a mean of bypassing the purchase system and download apps for
free. Even better, using a direct link from the Microsoft Marketplace.
It's really easy, and I did it for my own app! I managed to download my
own application without paying a cent! I think it is time that Microsoft took
security a tad more seriously and stopped this lame schoolboy-level marketplace
software development. A touch of https, encryption, hell j LiveId security would
be useful. As for the lame naming convention of CurrentVersion.xap, that's a
joke, or I hope it is? Why not call it fadde56281dea.~ap, anything to make it
slightly harder.
A thread has been opened on the app hub forums. Please consider venting
your anger in the thread and if there is enough heat perhaps they will do
something before it is too late. Try it, google CurrentVersion.xap and see by
yourself. It won't take you too long to find this Russian website giving
listings of apps and meta XML containing their direct download links.
Microsoft should be ashamed of this mess!
Guys you have a fantastic new platform, you have
worked hard to get developers on board, and now you are screwing up things big
time.
What we want is a better Marketplace, better and more accurate stats,
and better communication channels. Don’t cheat with us.
Another annoying thing also is the paperwork required for pay out. I
sent the required form to the IRS department in US about 12 weeks ago. Still
waiting! You should provide some help on the matter for all non US developers,
I believe I am not the only one in this situation. I am tired to see on the app
hub every day the same silly message telling me that I can’t be paid because I
didn’t provided the right documentation, etc…
Come on guys, we need a cuddle!
Everybody is talking about the next Windows Phone 7 big updates. I am sure
it will be awesome (Copy & Paste) but please can we also have:
- Better screensaver management. Fed up about downloading apps to
realize screen goes blank and then have to restart everything. If I download something, I should have the option to keep the screen on.
- Apps updates are still buggy. Many times I receive an app update but the
update page download nothing. In this case uninstall and reinstall are my best
friends.
- Folders please. My app list start to be very long!
- Simpler way to answer a call. When the screen is locked and I need to
answer a call I have to slide up then click on answer. When you walk and carry
something, I don't want to be a yoga master to use my phone. On this one, my
wife is giving up on me not answering the calls. Microsoft please solve my
domestic issue!
- OS stability. I am not sure if it's the HD7 to blame for that one, but I
noticed recently some crash. Or sometime I can see that the hub tiles flicks
slightly, like a bad tuned analogue TV. At least the full shutdown function
works well.
- Wifi/Bluetooth/3G switch on the hub is missing. It's a real pain in the
butt to have to use the settings all the time to save the precious battery.
- Outlook direct connection. I think on this one we need to organize a
protest, maybe a it-in outside MS headquarters? I still can't believe that guys
you didn't include a connection to Outlook. Not all of your customers are
working in multinational companies with Exchange connections pouring out of
each cubicle.
- Camera. Not the important thing for me, because I give up with the poor
image quality of the HD 7, especially in low light conditions. The noise on my
pictures is too much and as an amateur photographer, I am ashamed to show
anyone any pictures. Also the settings should be saved. The last baby I
photographed has now a permanent grief against me after waiting for me fumbling
so long with the flash/no flash icon.
- Battery life. This one is hard to fix, but not so if HTC and others
could provide better batteries. Could do also with a rough estimate to tell me
how long I have before the phone goes off.
- Case. I am still looking around for an HD 7 case, in case someone read
this.
- Hub colours. Just tired of the uniform lime green, like to have a way to
create my own rainbow.
- Facebook Twitter multiple accounts.
- Tiles better synchronization. Take the Marketplace tile for example.
You have a lovely number telling you 3 updates are waiting for you to do
something then on the Marketplace, only 2 are available. Same for the Mail
tile. On my phone, when the screen locks, I am reminded that I have one email
to read. Since three weeks it's permanently there for no reason.
- FM radio. Something I discovered yesterday. If you use the radio with internal speakers and charge the phone in same time(not plugged in the pc but from the mains), for some reasons, a lot of noisy interferences happens, putting the app in the useless category.
I surely forgot other things to be fixed, but maybe if you have a minute can
you tell me what you would like to be fixed in the future on your Windows Phone
7?
A C# development environment running in Windows Phone 7, with build and
run functionality handled by an Azure-hosted web service. The C# editor
has syntax highlighting, auto-indentation and code snippets to save
typing on the little keyboard. There is also an MSDN search facility
which reformats the content to be more phone-friendly. Code can be saved
to the web service and accessed from your browser when you get to a
computer.
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Could be useful for Windows Phone development too!
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