Some projects integrating windows phone with Kinect emerge

Some projects integrating Kinect on the PC and windows phone have begun to appear on the internet.

By Sushovan De

App Hub no longer requires GeoTrust verification for students and individuals

This news was first reported by Tom Warren on 19 July, but there was a lot of misgivings about accuracy of that article at that time due to lack of a source. Well, Tom seems to have been vindicated now, as WMPU reports that the App Hub Registration Walkthrough has been updated, stating that individuals and students (wait… aren’t students individuals also?) will no longer be required to go through a GeoTrust verification process. As a student in the US whose GeoTrust verification was processed within the hour, I don’t think this will make much of a difference to me… but this is definitely good news for people elsewhere where GeoTrust was causing unnecessary delays. It should also let students unlock their phones immediately after registration (which was earlier delayed till someone submitted their first app.)

By Sushovan De

App hub refresh: new look and feel, reports, private beta publishing

Microsoft has refreshed the look and feel for the App Hub website. The new features are: at-a-glance reports of all your apps, a new, cleaner status board for apps in submission, the ability to see how many times your app has crashed recently and the biggest feature of them all: publishing apps as private beta apps to people of your choice. Developers are required to agree to a newer terms of service before entering the site.

By Sushovan De

Abolade Gbadegesin offers deep technical perspective on mango

We got our hands on mango and I have to admit - I'm in awe. It's nearly perfect and I am not the only one saying this, mind you. Anyways, we have the perspective of end users and bloggers but what about developers? They love the updated Mango SDK. We won't dive into the technical details because Abodale Gbadgesi, who played a key role in developing Windows phone OS, just posted a fantastic video on Channel 9 highlighting technical achievements and know hows concerning Mango update. Developers should definitely watch the Silverlight video after the break.

By Rahul Mathur

Remote screen capture for Windows phone (Homebrew)

We previously covered On Device screen shot from XDA user Finnix. Now a developer from China has created a homebrew solution which enables real time remote screen capturing capability between PC and your Windows Phone.

Windows Phone Hacker has more information on this:

 The application is relatively simple: download the ZIP that contains both the phone and desktop applications. Then, deploy the phone application, and enable Jaxbot's dehydration hack. After that, connect your phone to your computer, run the desktop server, and enter your computer's IP address. Voila, your computer will now display whatever content is displayed on your phone, and you can use a screen recorder of your choice from this point on.

Click here to download the zip file.  

By Rahul Mathur

Mango beta to be released to developers on June 22? (Update: False Alert!)

Today has been an exciting day so far, if you exclude the fact that I have been studying for my exam all day.

 Mango pre release or Mango beta was previewed by bunch of US blogger (covered here) thus massively disappointing non US bloggers, like me, but according to a Neowin scoop, we won't have to wait for long. Microsoft is planning to push the Mango beta on June 22nd or June 23rd, most probably June 22nd which is tomorrow. So if you are registered at MSDN which also means you are a developer, then time to gear up and leave your emulator - time to test on a real device. The update will be pushed out via the Microsoft Press Pass website. 

 The report claims that the the news is solid and not a rumor (more confirmation). Microsoft is set to make an announcement related to the following news sometime in next 24 hours. We'll keep you updated on official news or announcement.

Update: I am afraid guys, no update will be pushed out this week according to a tweet from Brandon Watson:

1 tweet today on this topic - @winrumors and neowin are not correct. Press reviews of consumer features are only thing happening this week.

Disappointing. 

By Rahul Mathur

Chevron WP7 Labs will unlock your Windows Phone device for a small fee

Chevron WP7 is probably the best thing that has happened to the Homebrew community (currently in small numbers at XDA). Chevron WP7 enabled users to developer unlock device their device to sideload applications. The idea was nobel. Not everyone could pay $99 to test their application. It was a bit too much. So the team came out with this hack, exploited a void and made a break through. The Chevron WP7 unlocker gave birth to  several other hacks as well, most of them still prominent on first page of Windows Phone XDA thread. Sadly, the unlock couldn't last for long. Microsoft fixed the bug in upcoming update making Chevron WP7 absolutely useless. The developers killed the project. But now the team behind the unlocker along with Microsoft's support are back with Chevron WP7 Labs which was announced in Windows phone dev podcast. More from the blog:

By Rahul Mathur

'Serious' developers to get mango powered developer devices soon

Winrumors broke news stating that developer devices running Mango will be available this week. Brandon Watson replied to a developer who was inquiring about the availability of developer devices running Mango, he tweeted :

We will have devices for serious developers who take the time to reach out to MSFT and get to know their local mobile champ.

Good news for you if you are a serious / dedicated developer with plenty of community ( #wp7dev) engagement experience and constantly helped and promoted the #wp7dev community. So if you are one of em, get ready to get your hands on some sweet sweet Mango.

By Rahul Mathur

Windows Phone Sauce Developer Labs

Microsoft Released Windows Phone 7 on October 26th last year with only 1000 applications available in the Marketplace. Around 2 weeks ago , we reported that the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace crossed 20,000 apps roughly in 219 days. These figures clearly show the efforts put in by Redmond are paying off .



With the Mango SDK already available, 500 new features, 1500 new APIs and Microsoft working to bring Mango to Developers before consumers - Developing for Windows Phone 7 all of a sudden has got everybody interested.

We at Windows Phone Sauce have decided to start a Windows Phone Development Series in the coming weeks that lets you develop apps for Windows Phone 7 right from the scratch. Join us as we get our hands dirty with code.

Watch out this space for more updates

By Rahul Mathur

Microsoft Releases Developer Tool To Port Android apps To Windows Phone

Microsoft is working hard to get as many developers on board as possible. Not only that they are trying to make it as easy as possible for developers to port their applications from different platforms. After launch of iOS porting tools, Microsoft has just released developer tools to help port applications from Android to Windows Phone. The tools don't simply port applications from one platform to other, instead it eases the process my providing a list of API mappings.

The tools are available for free of cost and there is a guide along with it. So if you are an Android developer looking to give Windows Phone a try, these are just the right tools to get you started.

via RWW 

By Rahul Mathur

Check if your application meets the Windows Phone certification criteria

Punit Ganshani from ganshani.com has posted an immensely useful service for developers. He has created a test that evaluates whether your application is ready to be certified. The test will ask you some questions which are essential requirements to clear the marketplace certification test and then email you the results with feedback. It's essential to read the guidelines before you submit the application. If you have missed a few points there, the test mentioned will be very helpful. It will give you an idea of what you know and most importantly, what you need to know. If you are submitting an application for the first time, I highly recommend that you take this test first.

Detailed description of the test:

Take this short test to evaluate whether your application is ready for certification. Please note that your application details (name, version, etc) are not captured in this test, however your responses may be recorded and stored for analysis purpose. The test is only indicative of how fair your application will do in the certification process.
The test will also give you hints & suggested applications/frameworks to achieve some functionalities
Once you appear for this survey, you will receive a mail with the survey results telling you how ready you are for WP7 Application Certification.

Source: Ganshani 

By Rahul Mathur

Microsoft working to bring Mango to developers before consumers

This has to be the best news of the day! Joe belfiore just tweeted :

@0xMW We are working on a plan for DEVELOPERs to be able to get Mango for phones before we launch -- but for end-users: this fall.

Yes, Microsoft is working to provide Developers an early access to Mango, which is a great idea since developers know their tech well and can act as great testers resulting in ironing out issues before the final release which is also beneficial for the company as well as consumers. Also, developers prefer device over emulators - who wouldn't ? So this sounds just about the perfect move to make developers oh so happy. Today, seems to be a fine day for developers, first the launch of beta tools and now this announcement. 

By Rahul Mathur

Windows Phone 7.1 beta developer tools now available for download

This must be an exciting time to be a Windows Phone developers. Mango update gives developers tons of new opportunities to target a large audience in coming months. Before you begin exploring the Mango SDK, make sure you take a look at updated Windows Phone development Docs.

Contents of  developer tool kit : 

The Windows Phone Developer Tools includes the following

• Microsoft Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1 (Beta)
• Windows Phone Emulator (Beta)
• Silverlight 4 SDK and DRT
• Microsoft XNA Game Studio 4.0 Referesh Windows Phone Extensions
• Microsoft Expression Blend SDK Preview for Windows Phone 7.1
• WCF Data Services Client for Window Phone 7.1

Download link for Mango / Windows Phone 7.1 beta developers tool

#wp7dev - Time to dive deep into the SDK. Let's make some awesome apps !

By Rahul Mathur

Microsoft Releases Developer Tool To Port iOS Applications To Windows Phone

There's no doubt that Apple currently leads the appstore race, atleast in terms of numbers, but Microsoft seems to be determined to do everything they can to woo developers for their WP7 platform. They have announced an API mapping tool : iPhone/iOS to Windows Phone API mapping tool.

Announced on the Windows Phone Developer blog, the tool is described as a sort of translation dictionary for quickly porting snippets of iOS code to C# equivalents.

With this tool, iPhone developers can grab their apps, pick out the iOS API calls, and quickly look up the equivalent classes, methods and notification events in WP7. A developer can search a given iOS API call and find the equivalent WP7 along with C# sample codes and API documentations for both platforms.

For the current version, three types of APIs are supported : Network / Internet, User Interface and Data Management. Though they do not plan to provide mapping for all the APIs that iOS has, they do plan to improve and expand the scope in later versions.

Microsoft has also published a 90-page+ whitepaper titled "Windows Phone 7 Guide for iPhone Application Developers". Microsoft has also given devs an option to suggest which APIs they would like mapped and they have also begun a series of "developer stories" in which devs share their experiences and reason for porting apps to Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft is definitely following its "Developers! Developers! Developers!" motto and the upcoming Nokia-Microsoft dev engagement initiatives are only going to boost developer interest in Windows Phone. You can get the tool, whitepaper and other resources at the source link.

[Source via ZDNet]

By Akshay Bakshi

Visual Voicemail for Windows Phone 7

TheBeO, a member of the SmartFrance.Info forum has developed, Visual Voicemail, an application for Windows Phone 7 for people who want to add a graphical element to their voicemails. Right now, the app is only available to people with dev access to their phones or those who have chevroned their devices, though it will be coming to marketplace with the Mango update.

The app has just reached version 1.0 status and is development is far from over but the developer has promised to make the WP7 version on par with its Android and iOS counterparts. Its features are :

- Retrieve messages and backup for offline listening

- Playing with Play / Pause

- Management of the slider control playback

- Removal (archiving) the messages

- Deletion of archived messages (thus canceling all, on the phone)

- Updated indicators "read" on the server

- Indication of new messages

- Recall the corresponding

- Send an SMS

- Registration number in contacts

TheBeO has a no. of updates planned and you can view all of them and download the app here.

[Source]

By Akshay Bakshi