Wanted: New Developers for Windows Phone Mango

If you haven't noticed yet, Windows Phone 7.5, codenamed "Mango", has been out for a while. However, you might have noticed that compared to Android or iOS, Windows Phone hasn't been given much love when it comes to development for it. It's sad because Windows Phone is a platform that delivers. However, you can change that.

Windows Phone needs new developers and new programs to help it to grow and mature. If you have been thinking about developing for Windows Phone, but haven't done it yet, now is the time. If you are new programmer, this is a good time for you to get your program ideas out there and established in the world of technology. Windows Phone mainly uses Silverlight for graphical user interfaces. Silverlight is similar to html, so if you've done any html coding, you should have some idea of how some things works since the structure of XAML, which is the markup language that Silverlight uses, is similar to html. For the internal guts of the program, you use either C# or Visual Basic. If you've programmed in Java before, the concepts are mostly the same, with a few minor differences between java and C#. It is possible to use C# (or Visual Basic) for modifying the graphical user interface of your program in addition to Silverlight. This is useful for situations such as adding components to the user interface on the fly.

To give you an incentive to develop for Windows Phone, Microsoft has launched the APPortunity Contest. You could win one of five Samsung tablets. Each time you publish a program to the Windows Phone Marketplace (for Mango), you get an entry into the contest. If you publish 5 programs to the marketplace during the contest, you get FREE ADVERTISING for ANY program of YOUR CHOICE. The free advertising will run on the Windows Phone Application Network for around 60 days and includes 25,000 impressions.

This contest runs from Now to December 31, 2011.

Important:  To submit your program to the Windows Phone Marketplace,either click on the picture above or go to :


       http://bit.ly/MangoOffer

and enter the code:

        E8YRA


I wish everyone well in this contest. If you don't have the SDK already, you can download it at: http://bit.ly/GoMango

There are more details in this contest to come. To help you stay tuned for further announcements, you can subscribe to my rss feed or follow me on twitter (username is @rctechgeek).


Update (1-14-2011): I have some important updates to the contest that you will like, especially with students. The link that was here is currently down, but I will have it up in an hour or so.

Update (1-21-2011): I have finally fixed the page with some contest updates that was messed up. You can see the update here.

A Tribute to Steve Jobs

We all have recently been given the sad news that Steve Jobs, one of the co-creators of Apple Inc., has died. I have decided to take this article and make it a tribute to Steve Jobs by giving a summary of his legacy in the technology world.

 Steve Jobs, along with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, created Apple Inc. in 1976. In 1984, the company put out its first personal pc and advertised it during the super bowl with its "1984" commercial. In May 1985, Steve was fired from Apple. Steve said that being fired (from Apple) was the best thing that could have happened to him.

From here, Steve founded NeXT Computer Inc. in 1985. The computers made here ran a version of Unix with the NeXT desktop environment.

While he was with NeXT, Jobs bought Pixar from  Lucasfilm's computer graphics division. When Toy Story came out, it made Pixar very popular. After Toy Story, Pixar put out many popular and well-received movie. When the contract between Pixar and Disney was nearing it's end around early 2004, there was a failure in trying to negotiate a new partnership, forcing Jobs to look for a new partner with which to distribute Pixar's films. In 2005, Bob Iger replaced Michael Eisner and things were quickly back in order between Disney and Pixar again.In 2006, Disney bought Pixar and gave Jobs a seat on the Board of Directors.

Eventually, Apple bought NeXT in 1996. After Apple CEO Gil Amelio was ousted, Steve took over the post of CEO. Jobs also changed the licensing scheme for Mac OS, killing off any hope of legal "macintosh clones" and making Mac OS X run only on macintosh computers (made by Apple).

Jobs was the one who came up with the idea for the iPod, which first came out in 2001. At first, it was for Mac OS X systems only and Windows was not supported due to the fact that iTunes was only made for Mac OS X. Eventually, Apple decided to make a version of iTunes for Windows and this made the iPod available to more people.

In 2007, Apple came out with the first generation of the iPhone. This changed the idea that smartphones were for everyone and not only for their original target audience, mainly professionals and software developers/technology geeks. Unfortunately, this also started the phenomenon of people buying smartphones from cell phone carriers and later complaining that the smartphone is "too advanced for me".

Steve Jobs was also an advocate for recycling e-waste. He responded to poor e-waste recycling programs by saying that any Apple store would accept iPods for recycling for free. Later, in 2006, this was expanded to any customer who buys a mac as well.


In August 2011, Steve resigned from Apple due to health problems. He still kept a post on the Board of Directors for Apple, and his influence on the company was still well and alive. On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs passed away at the age of 56.

Let me now close with some thoughts of mine: The company that Steve helped to found, Apple, is still alive and going strong and will probably be going strong for many years in the future. Even if you don't like Apple, you must admit that Steve was one of the ones that really impacted the landscape of the world of technology. I wish Steve's family well in this sad time in their lives.

Steve Jobs, rest in peace. Réquiem ætérnam dona eis Dómine; et lux perpétua lúceat eis. Requiéscat in pace. Amen.



Edit: I found an obituary that Bloomberg (mistakenly) published (and quickly rescinded) about Steve Jobs back in 2008. Perhaps you will find it interesting. Here's the link: http://gaw.kr/qJ5wYd

Microsoft makes porting programs from Android and iOS to Windows Phone easier

To help get more programs on to the Windows Phone Marketplace, Microsoft has recently been targeting developers of Android and iOS programs. To make things easier for those developers to port their programs to the Windows Phone platform, Microsoft has come out with documentation which maps the APIs found in Android and iOS to the applicable ones in Windows Phone. It even links the applicable Windows Phone API to the documentation page on MSDN. What's more is that if you see something wrong, missing, or you know of something better than what's given, you can tell Microsoft and the documentation will be changed.

This resource also has the reverse effect as well. Mobile developers who are starting out in the mobile world programming for Windows Phone or are students can use this resource to make programs for Android or iOS, assuming you have all the needed hardware and tools to make them. I know that once I finish my BSA Eagle Tracker program, I am going to work on porting it first to Android, and then to iOS. This API mapping guide makes it a lot easier for me to find the applicable API in the new platform and use it.

With Mango coming, I think that Microsoft is trying to make this the best update yet, complete with many feature updates and additions, bug fixes, and many new programs making their way onto the marketplace (in this case, from Android and iOS to Windows Phone).

The link to Android to Windows Phone documentation: http://wp7mapping.interoperabilitybridges.com/Home/Library?source=Android
The link to iOS to Windows Phone documentation: http://wp7mapping.interoperabilitybridges.com/Home/Library?source=iPhone

As an Android or iOS developer, do you think this is useful and will use this to start making programs for Windows Phone? Windows Phone developers, do you plan on using this resource to port your programs to Android and iOS for maximum exposure? Feel free to tell me via the comment box or on Twitter (username is @rctechgeek)

Who says that Microsoft always copies from Apple?

With the announcement of iOS 5, the fanboys and other sheeple are going crazy as usual. As for me, I'm not impressed with the new features. We've all heard the old accusation that Microsoft always copies Apple, right? Well, in this case, the tables are turned, where many of the new features Apple is including in the next version of iOS are already present in Windows Phone. Perhaps if I explain myself more, you will see what I mean.

With this new version, Apple is touting the new "independence" from the laptop or desktop. Part of this is with their new iCloud service. Well, Windows Phone already has integration with Windows Live, with full integration with Windows Live coming with Mango. IOS devices can now update only the parts of the os + utilities that have updates instead of the whole thing. From the beginning, Microsoft has implemented a system for Windows Phone 7 which only update the parts which have updates (and analysis shows that parts of this update system were part of the os even as early as Windows Mobile 5, although in an inferior form).

The next one, Apple's new Game Center. Well, with the popularity of Xbox Life on the Xbox, adding Windows Phone to the mix can only make it better, giving you Xbox Live capability on the go. With the Game Center, Apple is trying to copy Xbox Live.

Apple is also touting the ability to sync over wi-fi. Well, you can already do that with Windows Phone 7 and the existing desktop Zune Client.

Apple has finally integrated tabbed browsing into Safari, about time(!). Internet Explorer in Windows Phone 7 has had this capability (standard) from the start (and I believe Android has also had this too).

Integration with Twitter is apparently coming in iOS 5. As for Windows Phone 7, this is coming with Mango, along with full Facebook integration as well.

The iPhone can now see things in year view. Microsoft already had this with made agenda, day, week, month, and year views being part of the calendar in Windows Phone 6.5 (and in versions of Windows Mobile from Pocket PC 2003 (SE?) on). Windows Phone 7 has all of this implemented in the calendar, but year view is very obscure. iCloud will allow you to share calendars with friends and family. I believe Windows Life already lets you do that.

One feature that Apple (I admit) does have that Windows Phone does not is the capability to mirror your media so that you can show it on a television. I do hope that Microsoft includes this capability in the future.

With the latest version of iOS, Apple is touting many new features. What many people don't realize is that a lot of these features aren't as new and "groundbreaking" as Apple (and its fanboys) makes it out to be. What I am doing is merely doing is highlighting some of those differences and showing where some of them can be found in Windows Phone. My hope is that this will dispel some of the hype and make people do their homework to see if this newer version will meet their needs or not (and if it does meet their needs, is getting it really worth it?).

So do you think that Apple's newest version of iOS is worth it? Do you have any other thoughts as to the reality of this update to iOS? Make your thoughts know here (in the comment box) or on Twitter (url for twitter is @rctechgeek).