So you want to create your dream app with Windows Phone

First thing first. Go directly to the link on this page and download the developer tools(this is a beta). You can use it with VS2010. How? May be I will write about it in my next post. Make sure you read the documentation and the guide.

You want to build a web site for Phone browsers. You can do it, and you can find the details at the same link.

You can get a bunch of other resources here as well.

http://developer.windowsphone.com/windows-phone-7/

Must read article if you are developing for Windows

Connection string is the entry point to develop any data-centric application that includes handheld or mobile platform. It really is the first step. If you are accessing SQL Server Compact then this article tells you all that you need to know about connecting to SQL Server Compact from Visual Studio, be it the latest VS2010 or an older data tecnnology.

Check out this article and let me know if you liked it.

http://www.packtpub.com/article/connecting-microsoft-sql-server-compact-3.5-visual-studio

After connecting you can develop a Pocket PC forms application as shown in this article on the same site:
http://www.packtpub.com/article/pocket-pc-application-visual-studio-2005 


Here is an abstract of the above article:
This article by Dr. Jayaram Krishnaswamy teaches how you may create a .NET Compact Framework (CF) 2.0 forms application. This can be used with Pocket PC 2003, or later devices. In the absence of a device being available for testing, the emulator is the next best thing. The application will be tested on one of the many emulators available in Visual Studio 2005. You may try other devices as well just by choosing the item in the Device Emulation Manager described in the article.

You better get started on XAML

Microsoft Windows Phone is getting serious

A new training kit was released recently.
You have to know XAML if you are thinking of developing for Windows Phone. No XAML No Windows Phone.

The program comes with an emulator built in. In earlier versions you needed to download emulators and it was an hassle.

I tried out a couple of samples provided in the kit. Here is a slightly modified Hello World sample screen shots.
This is the UI you design in the Main page which is in XAML

The
keyboard is built in.













You enter your text in the text box after bringing up the emulator and type in your text using the soft keyboard. You may need to navigate to have the full functionality of the keyboard.
You get somehting like this typed in.
There is a little bit of code behind to hook it up to the click event.

Now I click. Voila! the phone displays the message.

Some problems never go away

I have had continuous problems with the Tilt's display and hang ups.
You need to reset by taking out the battery and putting it back. This is not a solution. This can happen when someone s trying to reach you and it drives you crazy. I want to send it back to AT & T. I will work on it. The pictures tell the story.

Right in the middle of an incoming call (nothing works):

Adding a Video Clip to your Tilt

In three steps you will see how you can add a video clip to your AT & T Tilt

Step1: Import Clip
Import the Video you created to Microsoft Windows Movie Maker. I have Version 5.1 (Build 2600.xpsp_Sp3_gdr.090206-1234: SP3). Use File | Import into Collections... My computer is a laptop, Toshiba Satellite P105-S6134 with SP3.


Step 2: Edit the clip

Edit the movie. You can add a title and select a smaller portion of the video if it is too big.


Step 3: Save File

Click File | Save Movie File...
Here are some screen shots







Save them to the format shown.



When it is saved connect your AT & T Tilt to the desktop/laptop. Drag and drop the saved file to the Tilt.

That is all folks!

Here is a small movie I created

Tilt's Built_in camera

Actually it is pretty good.

Here is a sample. This video was captured with tilt. The scene is from the recently held Code Camp 2009.1 held at De Vry University in Philadelphia.

Well sometimes the video upload icon disappears from the Posting page. You can see the video on my other blog:


http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2009/04/codecamp-philly-april-2009-de-vry.html

Scrolling so rough!!

Scrolling screens in AT&T Tilt is very rough. Compared to dragging screens up and down, or from right to left in the more recent cell phones is so neat that should you think twice about buying AT & T. Well, I bought it because it was cheap and had the right OS on it.