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Showing posts from April, 2015

Lumia 640 will be in a store near you soon

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5" Screen 8GB Memory 8 MP Camera Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 Processor 1.2 GHZ 2500 mAh Battery 4G LTE Network LED Flash Corning Gorilla Glass 3 HD Display All of the following built-in: Cortana OneDrive - 30GB free OneNote ready Office 365 Free Features like Action Center and Live Tiles are all there And all of your apps pre-installed  

Selecting in a List using WinJS 4.0 Preview

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List is a great way to show all the items you have and often you want to give the user the opportunity to Select one, multiple items using mouse/keyboard or touch on Windows 8.1 OS, or providing a control to place check marks for selection. Here is a selection of code from WinJS namespace: WinJS.Namespace.define("Sample.ListView", {     modes: {         readonly: {             name: 'readonly',             selectionMode: WinJS.UI.SelectionMode.none,             tapBehavior: WinJS.UI.TapBehavior.none         },         single: {             name: 'single',             selectionMode: WinJS.UI.SelectionMode.single,             tapBehavior: WinJS.UI.TapBehavior.directSelect         },         extended: {             name: 'extended',             selectionMode: WinJS.UI.SelectionMode.multi,             tapBehavior: WinJS.UI.TapBehavior.directSelect         },         multi: {             name: 'multi',             selectionMode: WinJS.UI.Selecti

New version of JavaScript library WinJS is now in preview

WinJS is a cross-platform JavaScript library for building HTMl5/CSS/JavaScript applications across devices. When it was announced first in 2014 it was Open Sourced. The version in preview is 4.0 . The feature set got beefed up with the following: ( http://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2015/04/01/winjs-4-preview.aspx ): Universal experiences: UI controls will scale or translate among various devices without having to go through significant rewrites. Addition of controls: ContentDialog, SplitView, AutoSuggestBox and ToolBar controls are now available; Hub and Pivot controls and other controls are updated. AngularJS Support: An AngularJS-WinJS wrapper allows WinJS-originated code to be used in AngularJS projects. ListView Improvements: "ListView is a signature control for WinJS," according to the Windows blog. As such, its capabilities have been streamlined to work almost identically from mouse- to touch-enable device: multi-selection, lists in alternating stripes, p

Why shell out a lot of money for Apple Watch?

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Chinese have a talent to come up with a product as if by magic. Not long ago the cheaper Chinese handheld phones killed Nokia in Asia and now they are about to repeat it for others. Unless you have Apple stock in your portfolio, look-alike watches from China (from YQT Electronics) are available for less than $60 and has built-in camera. These SIM card based watches can interface with real Apple Phones as well and play movies. http://www.china.org.cn/business/2015-04/25/content_35415678.htm A comparative picture from the above site. Read more here: http://www.industryweek.com/technology/powerful-alternatives-china-clock-ticks-apple-watch  

Project Fi challenges Verizon and AT&T

Google's Project FI takes off. This has been in the works for long and now it is ready. Are you paying for set bulk rate for data from the likes of AT&T and Verizon? Well it worked but not for those who want to pay for what they use. Project Fi does it for you what AT&T and Verizon do not. It will even reimburse for data not used. Right now you ask to be invited to join the program but later it is for all who want it. The free software model starting with Android was a huge success and as Android is a global market leader for smart phones it will be easy to get them on to Project Fi. The seamless transition from cellular to Wi-Fi is a very attractive feature, a feature that all smart phone manufacturers should emulate. Read more by following these links: http://www.cnet.com/news/google-bursts-into-the-wireless-industry-with-project-fi/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhuet/2015/04/22/google-unveils-wireless-service-project-fi/

Getting the Dream Factory backend -Part 2 Contd

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This post is continued from here: http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/04/getting-dream-factory-backend-part-2.html If you have seen this screen than you have created an instance of the DSP and you are the Administrator of this instance. Now you have to get the API-Key which when called from your side orchestrates the application. There are some restrictions regarding the name of Application ID you choose. I chose something I could remember. You also need to choose which kind of application you are going to create. There are two options. I chose the one that uses browser based using HTML/CSS. May be next time around I will play with native apps.   Click Continue. You are taken to the Home page of the instance as shown. The next choice to make is the location where you want to develop you application, the choices are locally on your computer or on another platform such as Azure, Amazon etc. Even if you have a subscription, my suggestion is to develop locally and when yo

Get a mobile backend for your App

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The Dream Factory provides RESTful services for your applications. Given a datasource, any datasource The Dream Factory generates a comprehensive, secure REST Api which will be your backend that you can use to build frontend applications. It provides for scripting and customization. You can get started at this site here: https://www.dreamfactory.com/adminlanding You can develop on your own computer or if you have a Cloud Platform subscription such as Windows Azure, Google or Amazon you can develop it there. You can create both browser based HTML/CSS JavaScript applications as well as native apps.   Next post: get started with the backend  

Health and fitness app: Full features with Windows 8.1 in Nokia Icon

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Nokia Icon's OS  was recently upgraded to version 8.1 from 8.0. This resulted in the Health and Fitness app having all its features enabled. With OS 8.0 Machine Data was not supported. You can see Motion Data item in the Settings page here: The Health and Fitness app requires a minimum charge of around 40% to produce correct  readings from its GPS. Here are some comparisons of the app before and after OS upgrade. All screen shots are for the same track but on different dates. With 8.0. Notice no step information. Also notice GPS is smoother and measures lower values.   Windows 8.1 was rolled out sometime today or yesterday. Higher reading for slightly lower duration. Charge on battery before starting 38% One more measurement this time at 97% charge at start.    

Creating an Azure Mobile App Service

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Read about the Azure new App Service here: http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/03/microsofts-rolls-out-new-azure-app.html and the pricing info here: http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/03/azure-app-svc-pricing-highlights.html You need to get to the Azure new portal here: http://portal.azure.com which takes you to the secure site here: https://portal.azure.com/1cfd8109-1cce-4dbb-9a1c-80d0ebd45766 # I assume you have an Azure subscription. The site appears as shown. NewPortal-01 The first thing you need to do is to click on +New at the very bottom at this secure site. Items that can be created in the new portal gets displayed as shown. NewPortal-02 Click on Web+mobile . The items related to the new apps appear as shown. NewPortal-03 Let us create a Mobile App to see what is needed. Click on Mobile App . New Mobile App window is displayed as shown. NewPortal-04 The exclamation mark in the Name field means that this has already been taken by Micros