Develop for Windows Phone 7.5 and Xbox Live Indie Games.

About Nick

Nick Landry (@ActiveNick) is a Senior Product Manager for Infragistics, the world leader in user interface development tools that empower developers to build and style immersive user experiences and rich data visualization in line of business applications across all .NET platforms, the Web and mobile devices (www.infragistics.com).

About Jerry

Jerry Nixon is a Microsoft Developer Evangelist in Colorado. He has been developing and designing on the Microsoft platform for 15 years. He speaks at universities, events and groups on Kinect, XAML, Windows Phone, and Windows 8. Most of Jerry's days are spent teaching his three daughters Star Trek character backstories and episode plots.

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(via PocketNow)

The new ShopSavvy app takes full advantage of WP7’s “Metro” UI and features sections labeled, “scan,” “deals,” “lists,” “settings,” and more, similar to their other applications. After a scan, it appears that there are also sections for comparing prices via the Web or locally and reading reviews, also like their other apps.

The company has uploaded a whole slew of photos to Flickr, showing off the UI. From the looks of it, it seems Bing Maps will be used to plot out the local deals, too.

You can see all the photos here. And if you want to be notified when ShopSavvy becomes available for WP7 you can sign up here.

Everything works in this current release, including the ability to perform check-ins, find friends and see what’s happening in a given locale, but the code is still in the process of being cleaned up, according to the app’s page on Codeplex.  But already this Silverlight-infused WP7 app is looking great, based on these screenshots. Also of note: the app has integrated Bing Maps functionality where you can get the name, address, phone number and Twitter account for a particular business. A “Get Directions” button will even tell you how to get there.

Can’t wait to see this one in action! If you’ve managed to get your hands on some early Windows Phone 7 hardware, the app is available for download from here now.

The up-and-coming app dubbed MySquare looks to have it all: check-ins, tips, friend lists, the ability to explore points and badges, GPS access, and more. It will be available in two versions: a free, ad-supported client and a premium, ad-free version with full map services integration.

MySquare is still in alpha, so if you want to be notified when it launches, you have to sign up here.

MySquare will work on Windows Phone version 6.0 and higher and requires a touch display. We hope they port this app to the new Windows Phone 7, too – it looks great!

The Silverlight technology brings the following features to these Nokia users (according to the Team blog post):

• Media: Hardware assisted Media playback of H.264 content. This gives a great media viewing experience using full hardware decode and hardware post processing.

• IIS Smooth Streaming: Enables users to access live and on demand media content streamed using IIS Smooth Streaming including multiple bit rate switching.

• Rich UI: Developers get access to the Silverlight V2 surface area to create Rich Interactive Web Applications.

• .NET Programmability: .NET Compact Framework class libraries and runtime.

But as an end user, you may want to know what exactly you can do with Silverlight on your Nokia phone. Well for starters, there’s a handy Bing app featuring News, Entertainment, Video, Sports, Weather, Money and Stocks info. There’s also an HSN app which lets you watch the Home Shopping network Live, On Demand while also providing quick access to the “deal of the day” and more.

Developers interested in building their own apps should check out the developer tools and device runtime.

From the home page, you’ll notice a “Social” option. You can use this feature to connect both your Twitter and Facebook accounts to the Bing app. After doing so, when you search for something using Bing, you’ll also see relevant results returned from your social network. For example, if you search for a movie, after the movie showtimes, the app will show what your friends on these networks have said about the movie itself.

Another new feature is visual scanning. Using the phone’s camera, you can scan the barcode of any product or the cover art of books, CDs, DVDs, or video games. This returns reviews, prices, and links to merchant websites, allowing you to perform comparison shopping right from your device.

Finally, the Movies section has been updated with more video and trailers and improved access to showtimes. The Shopping section has seen a few tweaks too, helping you find products, prices and links faster than before.

To get the new application, download it from iTunes now or just update the Bing app already on your phone.

In the new app, you can also manage your shared calendars, too, like family calendars, birthday calendars, holiday calendars, etc. You can even access public calendars available via the Internet.

To demonstrate this feature, the Windows Live team points out the calendar available via Mixin.com. Just click this link and you can access your Facebook events from within Windows Live Calendar. Or you can click here to subscribe to a World Cup calendar instead.

To try the new service, visit calendar.live.com from your phone’s browser.

Supported browsers include iPhone/iPod Touch with Safari 3.0+, Opera on Windows Mobile 6.1.4+, S 60/5th Gen+, Blackberry 5+, Opera, Palm, Android.

According to the Foursquare page for Bing:

“Bing maps and Foursquare have teamed up with Thrillist to create the Bing Home Turf Finder so you can find the best places in your city to watch your team dominate in South Africa. Don't forget to give a shout out to your favorite soccer team and let your friends know exactly where your loyalty lives.”

To find the appropriate venues where you can watch the World Cup in action, you can use the new HomeTurfFinder Bing Map app, which will launch around the same time.

In addition the shot at earning the special badge, any Foursquare user following Bing will receive special discounts when checking into those same venues. 

For smartphone app reviewers, this feature will be a blessing (to say the least!). If you’ve ever participated in the beta testing of a new mobile application, you know that there are complicated procedures for loading pre-launch apps onto your device, no matter what model phone or OS your device is. Most of the time, you have to physically connect the device to your PC then manually copy the file over to your phone in some way in order to test the new app.

With Windows Phone 7, those time-consuming procedures will be no more. Beta testers will be able to distribute applications to users, either globally or based on geographic area. The testers will then receive an email containing a “deep link” to the app hosted privately within the Windows Phone Marketplace. Following through on the link will allow testers to download and install the app over-the-air, just as with any other publicly available application.

In addition to private beta testing, these new procedures will help in-house IT staff distribute their own applications to end users without having to pre-load phones in advance with the apps their users may need.

This new functionality will arrive to the Marketplace this fall.

According to Zillow’s website, the new Windows Mobile application includes these features:

• See Zestimate value of any home
• Search homes for sale, Make Me Move homes, homes for rent, and more
• Filter searches by price, beds, baths, and more
• Search by monthly payment
• Full-screen color photos
• Save your searches
• View saved searches from your Favorites tab
• E-mail homes to a friend
• High-resolution aerial maps

The app is available now as a free download from the Windows Mobile Marketplace – just do a search for “zillow.”

Note that there appears to be a bug in the initial release: after installation, PocketNow says they couldn’t relaunch the app after closing it until they did a soft reset. Zillow will likely be fixing that very soon via an update.

To get directions using the mobile app, you select the new “Navigate” button. It can also help you find the fastest route, shortest route, the route that avoids traffic or tolls and more, just like Bing Maps on the desktop. (There’s a video of the app in action here).

The second new feature in the Bing mobile app is actually not really a feature, but a redesign of the app’s homepage itself. Now the most common searches, like Movies and Traffic for example, are buttons at the bottom of the page where they can be easily accessed.

To get the new Bing app for your phone, go to m.bing.com from your phone’s web browser. To see if your phone is supported, go here and check the list at the bottom of the page. 

The first beta will be available in just a few days, announces the Ruttensoft website where the work is being tracked. (The client is being developed by Fuze Mobility under Ruttensoft’s license.)

The beta will be free but the final version will cost $6.99 US.

Dropbox for Windows Mobile will support 6.5.x phones that have high-end VGA and HVGA resolutions only. Later, more resolutions will be added.

(Via Redmond Pie)

According to a company blog post from earlier this month, all the apps were built so the company could get a feel for the new tools and what’s supported in the Windows Phone framework. Their thoughts? “We’ve produced mobile applications, mostly in concept form, for Windows Phone Classic, iPhone and Android but never so quickly and not of such high quality and visual impression.” Seeing the designs produced by their team, they note that it has become clear to them “that this is not just another mobile application container.”

Hopefully the official apps from these companies will look this good!

The new AppLink program, downloadable on the Fiesta for now with other models to follow, allows drivers to access and control their Android and Blackberry phones using voice commands. With AppLink, drivers can control apps like Pandora internet radio, Stitcher “smart radio” and Orangatame’s OpenBeak app for Twitter, which are the first to become AppLink-enabled. (Yep, people will be tweeting while driving!)

Most other SYNC-equipped cars will get access to the technology sometime next year at which time other smartphones will also be supported, but there are no details yet on which vehicles or phones those will be.

First of all - and perhaps my favorite new feature of them all - is the bookmarking option. You can now bookmark things like maps, directions, websites, search terms, and even the weather. All of those bookmarks are then accessible right from the home screen.

You can also now share search results via email, copy and paste URLs, view and edit your search history, and set your phone’s location (or allow it to auto-locate). In addition, parents will appreciate the app’s parental control settings. Those who have young children will be glad that they can now set a “SafeSearch” level and create a passcode so it can’t be changed.

Finally, the new app supports older, 1st generation iPod Touches so everyone can now take advantage of Bing search on their mobile device.

To download the app, click here to grab it from iTunes or search for “Bing” in the App Store on your device. 

The answers will be revealed next month at the MIX10 conference. All those attending the event, a web conference intended for designers and developers, will receive free development tools and exclusive free support for Windows Phone 7 Series. There’s also a dedicated track on the Windows Phone 7 Series platform that runs throughout the event for mobile developers to follow. And if you register before February 21st, you can get $200 off.

So how excited are the developers? Well, as the first comment on MIX’s site about the offer reads, “Can't wait! Windows Phone 7 is made of win.” We couldn’t agree more.

Image credit: Engadget

End users can create their own Merlion-enabled apps themselves, too, using the Merlion Designer. With this tool, you select the visual portion of the original app you want available on your mobile device and then create an alternative layout designed with your phone’s dimensions in mind. Once the new interface has been created, the Merlion runtime is used to access the desktop app on the server via the new mobile GUI.

In addition, Merlion can increase productivity by automating repetitive actions like logging in or tasks that require multiple interactions. It also can make applications available across different mobile form factors and can allow applications that work on different OS platforms to operate in concert.

Merlion’s ability to create alternative interfaces to applications works for web-based applications, too. Also, it’s not limited to smartphones alone. It could be used to create apps that run on platforms that weren’t originally intended to run apps. For example, Merlion works on basic “feature phones” and handheld gaming devices like the Nintendo DS which supports Wi-Fi.

Pictured is an example of a modified version of the Windows Calculator app, redesigned using Merlin for use on Windows Mobile phone. More screenshots and other details about this project are available in the whitepaper here. 

Now those users can also access the 800 or so apps offered in the new “Windows Phone app store,” as some are calling it. That 800 represents over three times the apps available when the Marketplace launched a month ago, notes a post on the Windows Team Blog.  

In order to get started, users of 6.0/6.1 devices need to launch their mobile phones’ web browser and go to http://mp.windowsphone.com to start the download. Alternately, users can shop via the desktop website at http://windowsphone.com/getmarketplace which allows you to download and sync applications to your mobile phone wirelessly, thanks to a new feature launched just last week.

The first device to feature the new software is the Nokia E72. Meanwhile, Nokia E71, E75, and E63 users can download the “Nokia Messaging for IM” application from the company’s app store called the Ovi Store. Here’s the direct link for the download.

The topics appear across the top of the application and you can swipe through them using your finger. You can configure the app to just display the categories you care about, too, if you don’t want to see them all.  News items feature an image and headline which you can tap to read full story.

Also included are social networking features that let you share the news on Twitter or Facebook or save the link to your Delicious bookmarking account. You can email stories, too, if you would rather share privately.

Some users are already seeing the app listed under the “News and Weather” section of the marketplace while others (like myself) haven’t seen it show up yet. I imagine that it’s simply a case of the app being rolled out in stages, so it should be there for you soon if it isn’t just yet.

To do so, you’ll need to configure your account settings including your billing preferences and device settings. These options are available from the “Account Settings” link at the top of the page. If you’re not able to select your device, it’s because you haven’t yet signed into the Windows Marketplace for Mobile from your Windows phone yet. You have to do that first.

Once set up, you can browse by category or search through all the available applications for your phone. The site also highlights the most popular apps, the new apps, and showcase apps, just as the Marketplace on your mobile handset does too. When you find an application you want to buy, it can then be delivered wirelessly to your device.

To check out the new online Marketplace, go to: marketplace.windowsphone.com

Across the top of the app are search verticals “web,” “news,” “local,” and “maps.” Below those is a search box which appears to offer a voice-enabled search option too, based on the icon that appears in the screenshot.

Down at the bottom are other useful links including “Recent Searches” and a “Business Directory,” although there’s no word on what exactly that directory will look like just yet.

Beneath those two items, there’s a Bing search tip that reads “What movies are playing? Type movies + your zip code.” That’s handy advice since I’m always searching for movie showtimes when I’m out and about. (I’m just not one to buy tickets in advance.) I imagine this section of the Bing app will continue to be updated with new tips that rotate in and out upon subsequent launches.

Unfortunately, the screenshot was all the team would reveal for now, but they tell us more info is going to be forthcoming at this month’s Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco – specifically info about Bing and mobile devices. (Should I take that plural – devices – to mean other platforms, I wonder?) If you’re curious too, you can follow their blog, Facebook page, or Twitter account for more updates in the future.

The company touts the new service’s desktop-like IM capabilities which provide features like buddy lists, status updates, presence enablement, and the ability to find and invite friends to the service. In addition, the client application can run in the background, alerting you to new status updates or IMs even when you’re busy doing something else on the phone. 

The push IM service will make its public debut at the CTIA conference in San Diego October 7-8, but for now end users can preview the push IM services via the company’s beta program portal, a site designed for access via mobile phones.

(via PocketNow)