Any Windows Phone 7 Device can be Unlocked for Development Purposes

If you’re a developer and looking for a better test experience than the emulator offers, then you’re in luck. The latest word coming out of a developer conference call is that any Windows Phone 7 device will be un-lockable through a special portal provided to developers. Each developer will be allowed to unlock up to 5 devices.

Unlocking the device will not remove the carriers lock, but it will remove the restrictions around applications being installed only though the marketplace. Consider this the same thing as jailbreaking your iPhone or rooting your Android device. Although, for now this is just for development purposes. I imagine it won’t take long for the community to figure out what change is being made and then provide their own lockdown removal.

Time is ticking along and we’re getting closer to the release of Windows Phone 7. While Microsoft is still saying “Holiday 2010”, it’s expected to hit around the fall. As you very well may expect, we will be keeping our eye’s on the launch and we’ll bring you all the details.

Source = Windows Phone Thoughts

The Future of Windows Mobile for Rugged Devices

“When you’re out shopping, chances are you’ve seen store employees using devices to price merchandise or assist you in checking you out. Received a package recently? The delivery person probably scanned it with a similar device. The people responsible for tracking inventory in a warehouse are also using a device to help manage their business. In any case, these devices are known in my world as ‘handheld terminals’ or ‘ruggedized devices’ because they’re built to be used in adverse environments and industrial settings.”

David Wurster does a great job of describing where you’ll find ruggedized devices and what they are being used for. He continues on in a post over at the official Microsoft blog to describe the future of Windows Mobile and Windows Embedded. While you may not be aware of these devices, a great number of them are powered by some form of Windows, like Windows CE, Windows Mobile, or even Windows Embedded.

In the past the Windows Embedded Business (WEB) has controlled Windows CE and all the embedded efforts. Windows Mobile was part of the Mobile Communication Business (MCB) at Microsoft. Moving forward, Windows Mobile will be brought under the WEB group. The MCB will be left to control the more consumer products like Windows Phone 7, while WEB will continue to provide solutions for industrial devices. 

Since Windows Phone 7 was announced, there has been some uncertainty in the rugged space about what will be powering the next generation of devices, because Windows Phone 7 is much to consumer and lacks the development freedom that Windows Mobile and CE have provided. David’s post helps to clear that up and define what we can expect in the coming months. 

Zune HD Development Takes a Dramatic Turn with OpenZDK

Some interesting news for XNA and Zune developers – all Zune models including the HD, have been hacked allowing applications to run directly on top of the Zune firmware and with full access to everything XNA has to offer.

In the past, 3rd party applications had limited access to what XNA had to offer. Not only do apps have full XNA access, but they also will have internet access, and hardware based 3D acceleration.

This is all pretty new, so there isn’t much in the way of apps available yet. However, OpenZDK is available and provides some examle programs that you can try out including a 3D demo showing what’s possible with hardware acceleration. Head over to ZuneBoards and get all the latest details!

Oh, and in other Zune news, the new 64GB models have started shipping. You can order a customized version from Zune Originals for $349.99. (Image below shows the Halo 3 ODST artwork, a $15 addition)

Apple Announces Multitasking in iPhone OS 4.0

Yesterday was Apple’s big announcement – iPhone OS 4.0. There was a bunch of new features announced, including the long awaited – multitasking. If you want to follow the announcement, check out live.gdgt.com.

There’s a lot of focus on multitasking these days, so I wanted to run through what Apple announced and what it means for developers and the applications you use every day. Apple’s focus was to find a way to allow multitasking but without allowing background processes that end up killing your performance and battery life.

“How are we adding multitasking while preserving battery life and performance. We looked at tens of thousands of apps in the app store, and we’ve distilled the services those apps need to run in the background. So we implemented those services, and we’re providing those services as APIs to developers so they can add multitasking while preserving battery life.” – Scott Forstall, SVP of iPhone Software via live.gdgt.com

The announcement goes on to define the seven (7) background services they are providing – Background audio, Voice over IP, Background location, Push notifications, Local notifications, Task completion, and Fast app switching. These are the only multitasking services exposed to the developer. Let’s quickly run down what each one of these can do for you:

[ ..Read More.. ]

Free Resources Available for Windows Phone 7 Series Developers

There’s been a lot of news around Windows Phone 7 Series as of late and while it’s not expected to be available until later this year, Microsoft has begun to share resources with the developer community so that they can get a jump on application development for the new platform. Things have changed from the past model where you were able to side load (by using Active Sync or Windows Mobile Device Center) applications on your device. With Windows Phone 7 Series the only way to get applications installed on your device is over the air using the Marketplace. Another big change is the development tools required to build an application. With WP7s, it’s all about Silverlight and XNA. Both of which were not even a choice on the previous platform. And of course cost of developing for WP7s is a lot less than before. Microsoft has made the development tools freely available.

Now’s a good time to get your feet wet on development for WP7s.  You still have time before devices ship, so you can make sure that your application will be in the marketplace and read for customers when the devices start to ship late this year.

Here’s a list of the current resources available:

• Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone 7 Series (Link)
• Windows Phone 7 Series eBook (Link)
• Windows Phone 7 Series Developer Documentation (Link)
• Windows Phone 7 Series Icon Pack (Link)

Microsoft Shares Windows Phone 7 Series Developer Story at MIX

At MIX10 today, Microsoft unveiled the developer platform for the upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series devices. Windows Phone 7 Series was announced at Mobile World Congress last month and devices are expected to be available by holiday 2010.

Mobile development for Windows Phone 7 will be based on Silverlight and the XNA Framework. This will provide a rich environment for internet based applications and game development. As expected, Windows Phone 7 will use the mobile marketplace to deliver applications to the device and providing developers with a 70% revenue share for applications sold.

Perhaps the single best piece of news is that Microsoft has listened and will be providing free Windows Phone Developer tools. For those that have been in the Windows Mobile space for a while, you will recall that there was a free tool that allowed you to develop directly for mobile. Around the release of version 5, it was removed and replaced with Visual Studio – and not the free version. This has been a pain point for many developers over the years and it’s something that I repeatedly brought to Microsoft’s attention whenever possible. Thankfully, they have seen the light and returned to providing free development tools for the mobile space. Expression Blend for Windows Phone and a preview of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone will be available as a download from http://developer.windowsphone.com.

The full press release can be found after the jump.

[ ..Read More.. ]

Setting up Windows Mobile Device Emulator

When you’re developing for Windows Mobile, you need to think about the various flavors and screen sizes that the platform is available on. If you’re not able to stock each of the possible configurations for testing, then you might want to consider using an emulator. By installing the standalone device emulator, you can easily test your application across various flavors of Windows Mobile without the large investment in purchasing devices.

For many, the issue with emulators is how to get your data or application on to it. So I thought I would run through installing emulators as well as how to copy your applications to the emulator. Before we begin, you’ll need to download the following things:

• Microsoft Device Emulator 3.0 – Standalone Release (Download here)
• Windows Mobile Emulator Images – Pick any 1 or all of the following:
  • 6.5 Standard and Professional (Download here)
  • 6.1 Standard and Professional (Download here)
  • 6.0 Standard / Professional (Download here)
  • 5.0 Smartphone (Download here) / Pocket PC (Download here)

Once you have the emulator and all the images downloaded we can begin the installation. The first thing you need to do, is install the device emulator. Once that’s installed, you can move along to installing the emulator images that you want to use. I have found that installing 6.5 over 6.1 tends to break the emulator image. This can be fixed by running repair on the 6.1 image. If you’re only installing 6.5 images then you don’t have to worry about that.

[ ..Read More.. ]

WinMoDevCamp Comes to Toronto

With the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft is taking the developer story on the road. The show has already hit in Seattle and San Francisco and will be taking place in New York, London, Tokyo, and Toronto. Attendees will be able to create new applications, meet and work side-by-side with team members from the Microsoft Mobile Developer Experience team, gain assistance in migrating existing mobile applications from iPhone, BlackBery, Palm Pre to the Windows Mobile platform, create applications to support Windows Enterprise Applications, and interact with various wireless carriers.

WinMoDevCamp will be hitting Toronto on November 11th. Representatives from Bell, Telus, Rogers, and the all new WIND Mobile will be on site. You can register here for the Toronto event.

Race To Market Contest for Windows Marketplace for Mobile

Microsoft has opened the doors for application submission for it’s upcoming Windows Marketplace for Mobile. If you’re a Windows Mobile application developer, or you have an interest in writing for WinMo, now’s the time to get your application coded and submitted. Why should you bother? Well, you’re application will get listed in the Marketplace when it goes live reaching 30 million customers. And if that wasn’t reason enough, you could win one of four Microsoft Surface Tables! That’s one really cool trophy – you’ll be the only person around with one of these in your living room.

Microsoft’s on-device application store will be coming to Windows Mobile 6.5, 6.1 and 6.0 devices. It will be pre-loaded on 6.5 devices and will be available as a download for 6.1 and 6.0 platforms.

For those developers that don’t already have Visual Studio and are looking to get started with Windows Mobile development, you’re going to find that Visual Studio Express doesn’t allow for Windows Mobile development. You’ll need to buy the full version or download the 60 day trial version.

The Race to Market Challenge runs until Decemeber 31, 2009. But don’t wait and forget about this unique chance. Submit your application now. You can read more information about the Race to Market Challenge and what you need to do over at www.MobileThisDeveloper.com and on the Windows Mobile Team’s blog post here.