Channel 9 - Entries tagged with Windows Mobile

Bytes by MSDN: Loke Uei Tan and Tim Huckaby discuss the evolution of Windows Mobile

Bytes by MSDN — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:46:00 GMT

Get a glimpse into the inner workings at Microsoft as Loke Uei Tan and Tim discuss how Windows Mobile evolved and how the user experience is carefully guarded. Loke is the Senior Technical Product Manager with the Developer Experience team and shares how Microsoft encourages developers to build apps for WP7, while maintaining a consistent consumer user experience.

Click here to download the Windows Phone 7 Toolkit

About Loke Uei Tan
Loke Uei Tan is the Senior Technical Product Manager, Mobile Developer Experience at Microsoft, a role he has worked in for seven years. He is currently responsible for engaging and developing relationships with ISVs and developers to build innovative and unique solutions for Windows Mobile.

Loke Uei has actively executed a worldwide Mobile Embedded & Developer Conference series across nine countries. Prior to his career with Microsoft, he was in software development for several leading software development companies in Malaysia. Loke Uei has been in the software business for 20 years.

Loke Uei blogs at http://blogs.msdn.com/lokeuei and participates actively in the social media scene at http://twitter.com/lokeuei.

About Tim Huckaby
Tim Huckaby is the Founder of InterKnowlogy, experts in Microsoft .NET and Microsoft Platforms, and has 25+ years experience including serving on a Microsoft product team as a development lead on an architecture team. Tim is a Microsoft Regional Director, an MVP and serves on multiple Microsoft councils and boards. Currently, Tim is focused on RIA & Rich Client Technologies like WPF, VSTO, Surface, Silverlight, Windows 7 Touch, and Windows Phone 7. He has been called a "Pioneer of the Smart Client Revolution" by the press. Tim has been awarded multiple times for the highest-rated keynote for Microsoft and numerous other technology conferences around the world and is consistently rated in the top 10% of all speakers at these events. Tim has also done keynote demos for numerous Microsoft executives including Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

Loke Uei Tan and Tim Huckaby recommend you check out

Bytes by MSDN: Page Brooks and Rob Cameron discuss Silverlight Development for Windows Phone

Bytes by MSDN — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:20:00 GMT

Rob Cameron speaks with Page Brooks, Senior Software Developer at ACS Technologies and Microsoft MVP, about Silverlight development for Windows Phone and the transition to mobile development.

Click here to download the Windows Phone 7 Toolkit

About Page

Page Brooks is a Senior Software Developer for ACS Technologies, the leading provider of information management solutions for churches, schools, and other faith-based organizations. With over 10 years experience in Web development, Page enjoys delivering successful Web products that make a difference. Page holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Francis Marion University and is a Microsoft Silverlight MVP and a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD). As an active member of the .NET community, Page is a co-founder of the Pee Dee Area .NET User Group in Florence, SC and can also be found at many of the regional developer events throughout the Carolinas. www.pagebrooks.com.

About Rob

Employed by Microsoft since 2001, Rob Cameron is an Industry Architect Evangelist with Microsoft Corporation based out of Atlanta, Georgia. As part of Microsoft's Communication Sector Developer & Platform Evangelism team, Rob focuses on development tools and technologies focused on mobile devices, gaming, and embedded devices for telecommunications, cable, and media & entertainment companies. Rob co-authored several titles including Building ASP.NET Server Controls, Pro ASP.NET 3.5 Server Controls and AJAX Components, Silverlight 2 Recipes, and most recently Silverlight 3 Recipes. He has a master's degree in information technology management and a bachelor's degree in computer science. Visit Rob's blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/RobCamer.

Stuff Page and Rob recommend you check out

Bytes by MSDN: Loke Uei Tan and Rob Cameron discuss the Mobile Platform

Bytes by MSDN — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:18:00 GMT

Join Rob Cameron, Architect Evangelist at Microsoft, as he talks with Loke Uei Tan, from the Mobile Developer Experience team at Microsoft, about the latest announcements for the mobile platform and essential resources for developers.

About Loke

Loke Uei Tan is the Senior Technical Product Manager, Mobile Developer Experience at Microsoft, a role he has worked in for seven years. He is currently responsible for engaging and developing relationships with ISVs and developers to build innovative and unique solutions for Windows Mobile.

Loke Uei has actively executed a worldwide Mobile Embedded & Developer Conference series across nine countries. Prior to his career with Microsoft, he was in software development for several leading software development companies in Malaysia. Loke Uei has been in the software business for 20 years.

Loke Uei blogs at http://blogs.msdn.com/lokeuei and participates actively in the social media scene at http://twitter.com/lokeuei.

Stuff Loke recommends you check out

Bytes by MSDN: Kurt Brockett and Rob Cameron discuss Mobile Development from an Agency Perspective

Bytes by MSDN — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:14:00 GMT

Kurt Brockett, Director of UX Evangelism at IdentityMine, joins Rob Cameron to share the agency perspective on mobile development and discuss how touch development has evolved.

About Kurt

Kurt Brockett has a few different roles for IdentityMine. One part Computer Engineer, one part business development and sales with a tad of product manager mixed in. Educated as a computer engineer, Kurt spent 6 years in QA and Product Management at Veritas, Sonic Solutions, and Roxio through numerous acquisitions. He joined IdentityMine in 2007 and has been helping the company move and stay at the forefront of UX and NUI technologies. His main focus at the company now is business development while managing their community involvement via their /forward blog property and various social networks.

Stuff Kurt recommends you check out

Bytes by MSDN: Andre Vrignaud and Rob Cameron discuss XNA & Mobile Development

Bytes by MSDN — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:48:00 GMT

Listen in as Rob Cameron chats with Andre Vrignaud, Senior Technical Evangelist at Microsoft, about the exciting announcements around the commonalities between XNA and mobile development.

Click here to download the Windows Phone 7 Toolkit

About Andre

Ozymandias is the Xbox Live gamertag of Andre Vrignaud, as well as his platform to speak to gamers and the game industry directly. Andre has worked at Microsoft since 2002, helping manage the overall gaming platform strategy for Xbox, Xbox Live, and Windows. Recently he's started thinking more about mobile gaming as well. This means his job is to look out ahead one to five years and try to project where Microsoft, our competition, and the game industry in general will be. He takes that thinking, the work many other folks do internally, and coalesces it into a roadmap that he takes out to Microsoft game developers and publishers. Of equal importance, he also helps take feedback Microsoft hears from those partners and makes sure the right teams internally have it so they can react appropriately.

Andre has been working in the game industry for over 20 years. He started out as a tester (back in the days when you could start as a tester) at Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI), where he worked on a variety of AD&D games as well as one of the first MMOs to ever be released – Dark Sun Online. After SSI he joined the Total Entertainment Network (TEN) where he helped build one of the first online gaming networks. In fact, TEN is one of the major reasons he joined Microsoft as Xbox Live is, in many ways, a modern version of what they tried to do with TEN (except that now we have a much larger audience, huge broadband penetration, and Daddy Warbucks backing us up.) TEN died a horrible start-up death due to being too early and eventually became Pogo (which was then was acquired by EA to be their casual games arm). After TEN he worked at Intel where he managed their PC games strategy, coincidentally was involved with some of the early Xbox/Intel negotiations, and finally had the opportunity to join the Xbox team back in 2002.

About Rob

Employed by Microsoft since 2001, Rob Cameron is an Industry Architect Evangelist with Microsoft Corporation based out of Atlanta, Georgia. As part of Microsoft's Communication Sector Developer & Platform Evangelism team, Rob focuses on development tools and technologies focused on mobile devices, gaming, and embedded devices for telecommunications, cable, and media & entertainment companies. Rob co-authored several titles including Building ASP.NET Server Controls, Pro ASP.NET 3.5 Server Controls and AJAX Components, Silverlight 2 Recipes, and most recently Silverlight 3 Recipes. He has a master's degree in information technology management and a bachelor's degree in computer science. Visit Rob's blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/RobCamer.

Stuff Andre and Rob recommend you check out

Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (Session 12 of 19): Working with Media

MSDN Online Media — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:20:00 GMT

This session covers using media in your Windows Phone 7 applications and games. Topics include media in XNA overview, displaying pictures, and playing music.

The Windows Phone 7 Jump Start video training is for all developers interested in developing applications or games for the new Windows Phone 7 Platform. The ~14 ½ hour course is based on the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit and taught by Microsoft MVP's and Microsoft Press Authors, Andy Wigley and Rob S. Miles. The Designing for Windows Phone 7 session is taught my Microsoft Design experts, Jon Harris and Bryan Agnetta. The training is wrapped up with an audio podcast with a panel of Microsoft experts answering the questions posed throughout the training.

For copies of the student files and links to demo code, you can go to the Windows Phone 7 Born To Learn Forum (http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/wp7/m/default.aspx).

Updated! Session 1: Introduction
Session 2: Building a Silverlight Application, Part 1
Session 3: Building a Silverlight Application, Part 2
Updated! Session 4: The Application Bar
Session 5: Building XNA Games for the Windows Phone 7 Platform, Part 1
Session 6: Building XNA Games for the Windows Phone 7 Platform, Part 2
Updated! Session 7: Isolation Storage
Updated! Session 8: The Application Lifecycle
Updated! Session 9: Launchers and Choosers
Updated! Session 10: Push Notifications
Session 11: Marketing your Windows Phone Applications
Session 12: Working with Media

New Sessions:
Session 13: Panorama and Pivots
Session 14: XNA Deep Dive, Part 1
Session 15: XNA Deep Dive, Part 2
Session 16: Location and Bing Maps
Session 17: Optimizing for Performance
Session 18: Designing Apps Using Expression Blend & Metro
Session 19: Ask the Experts podcast

Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (Session 11 of 19): Marketing Your Windows Phone Application

MSDN Online Media — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:20:00 GMT

This session targets developers interested in marketing their games and applications. Rob and Andy cover the Windows Phone 7 marketplace, registering as a developer, how you get paid for your applications, packaging your applications for the market and publishing them to the marketplace. They finish up with how to use the Windows Phone for development.

Updated! Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (Session 10 of 19): Push Notifications

MSDN Online Media — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:20:00 GMT

This session covers server-initiated communications, enabling background scenarios, preserving battery life and the user experience, as well as learning how to prevent polling for updates. Beginning with Start Tiles 101, you’ll work through types of notification, notification data flow, cloud service notifications, response messages and more.

Updated! Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (Session 9 of 19): Launchers and Choosers

MSDN Online Media — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:20:00 GMT

This session goes through the Windows Phone execution model in terms of Launchers and Choosers. Learn how to effectively managing tombstoning with Launchers and Choosers. We cover types of Launchers and Choosers as well as programming them.

The Windows Phone 7 Jump Start video training is for all developers interested in developing applications or games for the new Windows Phone 7 Platform. The ~14 ½ hour course is based on the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit and taught by Microsoft MVP's and Microsoft Press Authors, Andy Wigley and Rob S. Miles. The Designing for Windows Phone 7 session is taught my Microsoft Design experts, Jon Harris and Bryan Agnetta. The training is wrapped up with an audio podcast with a panel of Microsoft experts answering the questions posed throughout the training.

Watch these entertaining sessions and complete the labs found on Channel 9 (http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/WP7TrainingKit/) to gain development skills using both Microsoft XNA and Microsoft Silverlight.

For copies of the student files and links to demo code, you can go to the Windows Phone 7 Born To Learn Forum (http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/wp7/m/default.aspx).

Updated! Session 1: Introduction
Session 2: Building a Silverlight Application, Part 1
Session 3: Building a Silverlight Application, Part 2
Updated! Session 4: The Application Bar
Session 5: Building XNA Games for the Windows Phone 7 Platform, Part 1
Session 6: Building XNA Games for the Windows Phone 7 Platform, Part 2
Updated! Session 7: Isolation Storage
Updated! Session 8: The Application Lifecycle
Updated! Session 9: Launchers and Choosers
Updated! Session 10: Push Notifications
Session 11: Marketing your Windows Phone Applications
Session 12: Working with Media

New Sessions:
Session 13: Panorama and Pivots
Session 14: XNA Deep Dive, Part 1
Session 15: XNA Deep Dive, Part 2
Session 16: Location and Bing Maps
Session 17: Optimizing for Performance
Session 18: Designing Apps Using Expression Blend & Metro
Session 19: Ask the Experts podcast

Updated! Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (Session 8 of 19): The Application Lifecycle

MSDN Online Media — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:19:00 GMT

This important session covers what you as a developer need to include in your application development process in order to get your application through the marketplace certification process. It covers how applications work in the Windows Phone environment, the application lifecycle, lifecycle events and using Local Storage state object. The goal is to help developers ensure that users have a good experience with the application.

The Windows Phone 7 Jump Start video training is for all developers interested in developing applications or games for the new Windows Phone 7 Platform. The ~14 ½ hour course is based on the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit and taught by Microsoft MVP's and Microsoft Press Authors, Andy Wigley and Rob S. Miles. The Designing for Windows Phone 7 session is taught my Microsoft Design experts, Jon Harris and Bryan Agnetta. The training is wrapped up with an audio podcast with a panel of Microsoft experts answering the questions posed throughout the training.

Updated! Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (Session 7 of 19): Isolated Storage

MSDN Online Media — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:19:00 GMT

This session covers how to get your phone application to persist data so that you can avoid inappropriate tombstoning. It covers topics such as loading and storing data, application settings and saving data in settings, serialization and threads all supported again with demos and scripts.

The Windows Phone 7 Jump Start video training is for all developers interested in developing applications or games for the new Windows Phone 7 Platform. The ~14 ½ hour course is based on the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit and taught by Microsoft MVP's and Microsoft Press Authors, Andy Wigley and Rob S. Miles. The Designing for Windows Phone 7 session is taught my Microsoft Design experts, Jon Harris and Bryan Agnetta. The training is wrapped up with an audio podcast with a panel of Microsoft experts answering the questions posed throughout the training.

Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (Session 6 of 19): Building XNA Games for the Windows Phone 7 Platform, Part 2

MSDN Online Media — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:18:00 GMT

This session on building XNA for games covers managing voices and XNA sounds in Silverlight. Rob and Andy then move on to Touch Input in XNA by covering the topics of getting inputs, iterating through inputs, and creating flicks.

The Windows Phone 7 Jump Start video training is for all developers interested in developing applications or games for the new Windows Phone 7 Platform. The ~14 ½ hour course is based on the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit and taught by Microsoft MVP's and Microsoft Press Authors, Andy Wigley and Rob S. Miles. The Designing for Windows Phone 7 session is taught my Microsoft Design experts, Jon Harris and Bryan Agnetta. The training is wrapped up with an audio podcast with a panel of Microsoft experts answering the questions posed throughout the training.

Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (Session 5 of 19): Building XNA Games for the Windows Phone 7 Platform, Part 1

MSDN Online Media — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:18:00 GMT

This session goes deeper into XNA game programming for the phone. Topics include display orientation, monitoring performance, using the Accelerometer, using touchscreen, advanced XNA sound playback, and controlling media playback with XNA.

The Windows Phone 7 Jump Start video training is for all developers interested in developing applications or games for the new Windows Phone 7 Platform. The ~14 ½ hour course is based on the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit and taught by Microsoft MVP's and Microsoft Press Authors, Andy Wigley and Rob S. Miles. The Designing for Windows Phone 7 session is taught my Microsoft Design experts, Jon Harris and Bryan Agnetta. The training is wrapped up with an audio podcast with a panel of Microsoft experts answering the questions posed throughout the training.

Updated! Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (Session 4 of 19): The Application Bar

MSDN Online Media — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:18:00 GMT

This session covers how to instantiate the application bar, the Application Chrome, System Tray and the Application Bar in XAML. It concludes with a demo using Microsoft Expression Blend for enabling the application bar and including application icons and menu items.

Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (Session 3 of 19): Building a Silverlight Application, Part 2

MSDN Online Media — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:18:00 GMT

This video extends session two and begins with an introduction into Databinding with a dive into the Listbinding template. Rob and Andy follow by covering Page Navigation, handling the hardware Back key, and finally creating orientation-aware pages.

The Windows Phone 7 Jump Start video training is for all developers interested in developing applications or games for the new Windows Phone 7 Platform. The ~14 ½ hour course is based on the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit and taught by Microsoft MVP's and Microsoft Press Authors, Andy Wigley and Rob S. Miles. The Designing for Windows Phone 7 session is taught my Microsoft Design experts, Jon Harris and Bryan Agnetta. The training is wrapped up with an audio podcast with a panel of Microsoft experts answering the questions posed throughout the training.

Watch these entertaining sessions and complete the labs found on Channel 9 (http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/WP7TrainingKit/) to gain development skills using both Microsoft XNA and Microsoft Silverlight.

For copies of the student files and links to demo code, you can go to the Windows Phone 7 Born To Learn Forum (http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/wp7/m/default.aspx).

Direct link to the source code for this video can be found at : http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/wp7/m/classresources/56356.aspx

Updated! Session 1: Introduction
Session 2: Building a Silverlight Application, Part 1
Session 3: Building a Silverlight Application, Part 2
Updated! Session 4: The Application Bar
Session 5: Building XNA Games for the Windows Phone 7 Platform, Part 1
Session 6: Building XNA Games for the Windows Phone 7 Platform, Part 2
Updated! Session 7: Isolation Storage
Updated! Session 8: The Application Lifecycle
Updated! Session 9: Launchers and Choosers
Updated! Session 10: Push Notifications
Session 11: Marketing your Windows Phone Applications
Session 12: Working with Media

New Sessions:
Session 13: Panorama and Pivots
Session 14: XNA Deep Dive, Part 1
Session 15: XNA Deep Dive, Part 2
Session 16: Location and Bing Maps
Session 17: Optimizing for Performance
Session 18: Designing Apps Using Expression Blend & Metro
Session 19: Ask the Experts podcast

Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (Session 2 of 19): Building a Silverlight Application, Part 1

MSDN Online Media — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:17:00 GMT

This session is where the coding begins. Andy and Rob walk through building your first application with Microsoft Silverlight. It includes responding to event controls, Windows themes and styles, and customizing text input.

The Windows Phone 7 Jump Start video training is for all developers interested in developing applications or games for the new Windows Phone 7 Platform. The ~14 ½ hour course is based on the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit and taught by Microsoft MVP's and Microsoft Press Authors, Andy Wigley and Rob S. Miles. The Designing for Windows Phone 7 session is taught my Microsoft Design experts, Jon Harris and Bryan Agnetta. The training is wrapped up with an audio podcast with a panel of Microsoft experts answering the questions posed throughout the training.

Watch these entertaining sessions and complete the labs found on Channel 9 (http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/WP7TrainingKit/) to gain development skills using both Microsoft XNA and Microsoft Silverlight.

For copies of the student files and links to demo code, you can go to the Windows Phone 7 Born To Learn Forum (http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/wp7/m/default.aspx).

Updated! Session 1: Introduction
Session 2: Building a Silverlight Application, Part 1
Session 3: Building a Silverlight Application, Part 2
Updated! Session 4: The Application Bar
Session 5: Building XNA Games for the Windows Phone 7 Platform, Part 1
Session 6: Building XNA Games for the Windows Phone 7 Platform, Part 2
Updated! Session 7: Isolation Storage
Updated! Session 8: The Application Lifecycle
Updated! Session 9: Launchers and Choosers
Updated! Session 10: Push Notifications
Session 11: Marketing your Windows Phone Applications
Session 12: Working with Media

New Sessions:
Session 13: Panorama and Pivots
Session 14: XNA Deep Dive, Part 1
Session 15: XNA Deep Dive, Part 2
Session 16: Location and Bing Maps
Session 17: Optimizing for Performance
Session 18: Designing Apps Using Expression Blend & Metro
Session 19: Ask the Experts podcast

Updated! Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (Session 1 of 19): Introduction

MSDN Online Media — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:17:00 GMT

This introductory session covers the Windows Phone 7 Overview, the Developer and the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, options, how to become a developer, setting up your system, and an intro to creating Windows Phone applications.

The Windows Phone 7 Jump Start video training is for all developers interested in developing applications or games for the new Windows Phone 7 Platform. The ~14 ½ hour course is based on the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit and taught by Microsoft MVP's and Microsoft Press Authors, Andy Wigley and Rob S. Miles. The Designing for Windows Phone 7 session is taught by Microsoft Design experts, Jon Harris and Bryan Agnetta. The training is wrapped up with an audio podcast with a panel of Microsoft experts answering the questions posed throughout the training.

Watch these entertaining sessions and complete the labs found on Channel 9 (http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/WP7TrainingKit/) to gain development skills using both Microsoft XNA and Microsoft Silverlight.

For copies of the student files and links to demo code, you can go to the Windows Phone 7 Born To Learn Forum (http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/wp7/m/default.aspx).

Updated! Session 1: Introduction
Session 2: Building a Silverlight Application, Part 1
Session 3: Building a Silverlight Application, Part 2
Updated! Session 4: The Application Bar
Session 5: Building XNA Games for the Windows Phone 7 Platform, Part 1
Session 6: Building XNA Games for the Windows Phone 7 Platform, Part 2
Updated! Session 7: Isolation Storage
Updated! Session 8: The Application Lifecycle
Updated! Session 9: Launchers and Choosers
Updated! Session 10: Push Notifications
Session 11: Marketing your Windows Phone Applications
Session 12: Working with Media

New Sessions:
Session 13: Panorama and Pivots
Session 14: XNA Deep Dive, Part 1
Session 15: XNA Deep Dive, Part 2
Session 16: Location and Bing Maps
Session 17: Optimizing for Performance
Session 18: Designing Apps Using Expression Blend & Metro
Session 19: Ask the Experts podcast

MySquare: Up-and-Coming Foursquare App for Windows Phone

Sarah Perez — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:36:00 GMT

For those of you using Windows Phone, your only option for a dedicated Foursquare mobile application so far has been Wimosquare, still in beta. But now, there’s a new Foursquare client in development, reports Pocketnow, who spotted the mention of the app over on the XDA-developers forum.

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!

Kin Theme for Windows Mobile

Sarah Perez — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:23:00 GMT

If you have a the HTC HD2, you can now skin your phone with a new Kin-inspired theme, courtesy of Jaxbot on the XDA-Developers forum. Called KinLauncher, this theme for Windows Mobile has been configured specifically for HD2 phones, but is being tested now by forum members for use on other devices.

Included in the theme are customizable buttons for Messages, Phone, Email, Browser, Music, Camera, Settings, Alarm Clock, Recent and The Spot. Unlike the Kin, however, the tiles are not dynamically updating in this version, although that may be added in the future.

For now, it’s more about achieving the Kin’s look and feel, not its functionality. As Engadget explains, it’s a “Kin-esque homescreen, but not much else.” That’s as the developer intended, though. But now that he realizes the demand for this, he replies on the thread, “apparently there's a market for such, so I'll work on some improvements, such as message notifications, the Loop, Facebook links, etc.”

Zillow Comes to Windows Mobile

Sarah Perez — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:32:00 GMT

Real estate service Zillow has just come out with an app for Windows Mobile phones, reports PocketNow. This popular application, available both on the web and multiple mobile platforms, lets home owners and potential home buyers look up what homes are for sale and check out the home prices in any given area.

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.

Ping 58: Gates & Cloud Computing, Bing for Mobile, Microsoft concept Phone

Laura Foy — Mon, 17 May 2010 21:04:00 GMT

We got a ton of great feedback and suggestions last week- please keep them coming! Here's the low-down for what 'Softies were talking about this week.

New type of Cloud Computing?
Bing for Mobile
Microsoft Concept Phone
Office 2010 Launch

Office Mobile 2010 Available for Free

Sarah Perez — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:40:00 GMT

Office Mobile 2010 is being made available for free for all Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. This download includes the new mobile versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and SharePoint Workspace. With the updated mobile Office software, users have more touch-friendly programs and more features, notes the Windows blog announcement, even improved editing capabilities and SharePoint integration.

With the new software, you can easily send files via email, of course, but you can also save and share them with SharePoint Server 2010 via the new SharePoint Workspace Mobile 2010. You can also update Excel data on the fly, sync your mobile copy of OneNote with OneNote on your PC, copy and paste across applications, and a lot more.

Users interested in trying the new mobile Office software can download it for free from the Marketplace on your phone.

John Ayres of Symon Communications talks with Jared Bienz at MIX10

John O'Donnell — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:07:00 GMT

John Ayers from Symon talks to Jared Bienz from Microsoft about building powerful mobile applications. John talked about their mobile player and plans to use Windows Azure for scale.

Enjoy the show!

John O'Donnell Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell
http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde
http://www.twitter.com/jodonnel

Todd Sutherland from Symon Communications talks mobile with Jared Bienz at MIX10

John O'Donnell — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:25:00 GMT

Todd Sutherland from Symon talks to Jared Bienz from Microsoft about building powerful mobile applications. Todd spoke about their mobile digital signage player and plans to port it to Windows Phone 7.

Enjoy the show!

John O'Donnell Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell
http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde
http://www.twitter.com/jodonnel

Windows Mobile Gets an IMDB App

Sarah Perez — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:20:00 GMT

IMDB, aka The Internet Movie Database, is now available on Windows Mobile Phones thanks to an independent, 3rd-party developer who posts under the name of Blade0rz on the XDA-Developers forums.

Interestingly enough, he created the app by parsing the iPhone IMDB API for information instead of the IMDB web pages themselves.

Included in this application are the following features:

User Ratings and Reviews
External Reviews
Search for Movies/TV/Video Games/Actors
DVD Covers
Actor Headshots
Trivia
Quotes
Photos
Top 250
Coming Soon List
Videos/Trailers
App-to-Date Support
TV Episode Listings
Parental Guide Info
Movie Certificates

He also says the app has been designed for touch-friendly interfaces and is screen/orientation independent.

The app requires the .NET framework 3.5 and can be downloaded (for free) from here. (Will require forum sign-in first).