DevFish.NET

Periodically I’ll hold office hours either in-person, or via Skype or regular phone. During these sessions any Florida developer can chat directly with me re Windows 8 or Windows Phone type developer issues, and I’ll help you the best I can. I’ve been on the road a great deal lately, and haven’t been able to do as much “in the Tampa office” type sessions as I like. Sooo…

Before the next meeting of the Tampa .NET Microframework Group ( http://www.meetup.com/Tampa-Bay-NET-Microframeworks-Developer-Group/ ) I’ll be holding office hours at the Microsoft Tampa Office. Feel free to come by if you want to work on your Windows Phone and Windows 8 Apps, or just want to hang out and code come on by. I’ll have the Siesta Key room open from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Then hang out for the Tampa .NET Microframework programming group after that.

For information on other office hours you can engage with me on or attend, check out http://ohours.org/jhealy .

WHO: Windows 8 and Windows Phone Developers in Florida

WHAT: Office Hours to work on your Win8 or WinPhone apps

WHEN: Thursday, March 28, from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM

WHERE : Microsoft Office Tampa, Siesta Key Room, 5426 Bay Center Drive, Suite 700, Tampa, FL 33609 [ map ]

Afterwards, hang on with the hardware oriented types at the Tampa .NET Microframeworks Developer Group - http://www.meetup.com/Tampa-Bay-NET-Microframeworks-Developer-Group/ from 6:00 onwards…..

GDC 2013 Announcements for Windows Phone

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:37:02 GMT

Lots of goodness at GDC last week. Here’s a couple high level links to get you going….

Remember, if you’re got writing #windowsphone apps, you can get $100 per via Keep the Cash - http://dfwiki.devfish.net/dotneterati.Contests.ashx?HL=contests

Also, sign up for http://www.dvlup.com and get some NOKIA incentives too! Microsoft employees are eligible so use your phone dev skils to get some points and goodies.

Mailing list for FLORIDA ONLY Windows Phone Devs is at http://fla-wimo-dev.groups.live.com . If it won’t let you request membership, email me and I’ll wire you up.

WP Dev Blog Announcements - http://blogs.windows.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2013/03/27/new-middleware-makes-porting-games-to-windows-phone-easy.aspx

Cocos2d Updated - http://www.cocos2d-x.org/projects/cocos2d-x/news

Unity

go live license
open beta for wp8
games: drift mania 2, fling theory, orcs must survive from echoboom
Announce - http://blogs.unity3d.com/2012/10/30/unity-windows-phone-8-demonstrated-at-microsoft-build-conference
Introducing Unity for WP8 - http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Inside+Windows+Phone/IWP50-Introducing-Unity-for-Windows-Phone-Devleopment

Marmalade

Go live license
Two ios/android ports
6th planet (monokube) and propel man ( spiel studio )
Announce - http://www.madewithmarmalade.com/windows-phone-8

Havok - showing off new graphics engine - go live license coming soon - http://www.havok.com/solutions/mobile-game-developers

New Games for WP - http://blogs.windows.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2013/03/27/a-raft-of-games-arrive-for-windows-phone-8-including-chaos-rings-and-gravity-guy-2-a-platform-exclusive.aspx

PowerA

MOGA controller
Bluetooth
Phone hooks into top of controller
Coming soon with Windows Phone SDK - http://www.mogaanywhere.com/
I hit them on twitter for an ETA but we’ll see.

Useful link of the day - Windows phone dev center customer support - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=256412

GameMaker Appathon starts April 13 2013

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:58:55 GMT

I’ve become a huge fan of YoYo Games’s GameMaker product recently. GameMaker is a great tool for producing high quality, cross platform, 2d type games in a fairly fast manner.

Accordingly, I’m happy to point out the YoYo Games Windows App-a-thon on April 13-14 - http://www.yoyogames.com/promotions/wp8_appathon .

How exactly does it work?

USA residents only. Sorry.
Update your app using GameMaker: Studio and send YoYo a ticket via the Helpdesk with your name, email address, mailing address and screenshots of the APPX/XAP for your game by the end of the App-a-thon on April 14th 6pm PST
You'll receive a Windows Phone and/or a Windows Store promo code via email for a one-year account subscription once your game has been verified.
As soon as you receive your promo code(s), please create an account by joining the Windows Dev Center here and/or Windows Phone Dev Center here, so you're ready to submit and publish your game.
The first twenty GameMaker: Studio™ developers who submit any combination of TWO Windows 8 or Windows Phone apps to the Windows Store and/or Windows Phone Store and send their name, email and AppIDs via Helpdesk by the end of the App-a-thon at 6:00pm PDT April 14th are eligible for a $500 Visa gift card! AppIDs submitted must be available to the public in the Windows Store and or Windows Phone Store by May 7th, 2013.
Note the EARLIEST they can be published to be eligible is April 15th, 2013, the latest is May 7, 2013.
Update and publish your game to the Windows Store or the Windows Phone Store and send a ticket via Helpdesk by May 7th at 6:00 PM PST to receive your Windows 8 Pro upgrade.

The fun part is you can combine with offer with other offers like

Keep the Cash ( for pros ) - http://build.windowsstore.com/keepthecash
DVLUP ( for Windows Phone Apps ) – http://www.dvlup.com
Community Affiliate Incentives - http://blog.tattoocoder.com/2013/02/develop-windows-8-windows-phone-apps.html

…for a nice 2x or more double-dip on prize money…

More info on YoYo and GameMaker can be found here –> http://dfwiki.devfish.net/technology.GameMaker.ashx

Let me know if you enter and win!

Virtual App-a-thon for Construct2 -Win8-WinPhone

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 17:05:56 GMT

The Pennsylvania DE, Lindsay Lindstrom ( http://blogs.msdn.com/b/lindsay/ , https://twitter.com/lindsayinphilly ), is hosting a virtual hackathon around building Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps using Construct2 ( http://www.scirra.com )this Saturday. Construct2 provides a free tool with some limits that will let you build and publish Windows Phone and Windows 8 apps. During the hackathon you will learn to build apps using Construct2, then publish them to the Windows Phone and Windows 8 stores. Note once published you can submit for some neat (aka $$$) incentives like :

AppMadness for Students – $100 per app until April 11 – Windows 8 only – Students only - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/devfish/archive/2013/02/20/student-windows-8-app-madness-bounty-program.aspx
Keep the Cash – $100 per app for Windows Phone or Windows 8 – until June 30 - http://build.windowsstore.com/keepthecash#fbid=N6ptq4cInFA
Apps for Cash Sweepstakes via Shayne Boyer - http://blog.tattoocoder.com/2013/02/develop-windows-8-windows-phone-apps.html
Note I keep a full list of active contests on my wiki at http://dfwiki.devfish.net/dotneterati.Contests.ashx .

From Lindsey’s promo email…

Join us for the Gr8 St8 Student App-a-thon, a virtual hackathon on April 6th. We will walk you through building an app with a template, and publishing it to the store - in less than an hour, so you can win $100 per app! Instructors will be on hand via Skype/Email/Twitter to answer questions and help you along the way!

Register at http://gr8st8.eventbrite.com. Join us for the Gr8 St8 Student App-a-thon, a virtual hackathon for students on April 6^th.

Thinking that writing an app for Windows 8 is hard? Overwhelmed with lots to learn? Not relishing long nights spent in Visual Studio?

At the App-a-thon, we are going to use Scirra's Construct 2 and some ready-made customizable templates to take advantage of the Windows 8 App Madness Challenge campaign (see event page for details), where you will win a $100 gift card for every Windows 8 App that you publish. With the provided templates and instructions, you will be able to create and customize an app in 1 hour flat. Got some more time? Make some more apps!

Scirra's Construct 2 is a free, event based, game development IDE supporting Windows 8. We will show you how to build a fun game and take it all the way to the Windows Store. As an added bonus, all our virtual participants will be entered into a raffle to win an Xbox 360 and other prizes.

Register at http://gr8st8.eventbrite.com

SuperScript and Subscript in XAML

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:50:58 GMT

A gent up on StackOverflow recently asked a question about how to super and subscript using XAML - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16147423/how-to-superscript-some-text-in-a-textbox-textblock-control-in-windows-phone-8 . I posted a reply to stackoverflow and also blogged it at my msdn blog here - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/devfish/archive/2013/04/22/superscript-subscript-in-xaml.aspx . If you're interested in reading the very simple response, check it out. Enjoy!

IDFLinkable 2013-04-23 : Views from the fish fry

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:46:57 GMT

Links and apps and Florida flavor I’ve found interesting since the last time I posted this!

GENERAL

Construct2 GitHub Repository for C2 templates by Jim O'Neil - https://github.com/jimoneil/Construct-2

Functional Programming in Csharp - free ebook - by Oliver Storm - http://it-ebooks.info/book/1419/
Unity 4 ( for Windows Store Apps ) early access program - http://blogs.unity3d.com/2013/03/07/unity-4-early-access-for-windows-store-apps/
YoYo Games / Gamemaker blog - http://www.yoyogames.com/tech_blog
Gamemaker Networking - http://www.yoyogames.com/tech_blog/11
Gamemaker Upgrade to Master is only $199 - http://www.yoyogames.com/news/145
Kodu App Challenge for Students 11 to 18 - http://www.imaginecup.com/IC13/Competition/Kodu

WEB

http://www.modern.ie - Tester for Internet exporer - run your own site through it

WINDOWS 8

Dots - http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-US/app/dots/eaa5a9c1-45f2-49e6-af4c-e52936b05c41 - by Audrey S at FSU
Taylor Series Math - http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-US/app/taylor-series-math/5ffd7c5c-9f1c-47fa-a7f2-3dc38554c1eb - by PerAstra at University of Florida

How to create a WinRT WRL C++ Component from scratch that can be consumed by .NET components - http://blogs.interknowlogy.com/2012/04/11/how-to-create-a-winrt-wrl-c-component-from-scratch-that-can-be-consumed-by-net-components/

Windows 8 Game Walkthrough using Construct2 - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/maria_naggaga/archive/2013/03/21/an-app-time-story-build-an-app-before-you-go-to-bed-and-earn-100-by-the-morning.aspx

WINDOWS PHONE

FastestWays -WP8 - Route info using "waze" server for traffic info and such - source code available - via Justin Angel - https://fastestways.codeplex.com/

Pray the Rosary - http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=9ace4806-1569-49d8-aaa4-756736c99850 - David Lafontant of FSU - to match his Win8 app

Portable HttpClient for .NET Framework and Windows Phone - .NET Fw 4.0, WP75 and higher, Portable class libraries - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bclteam/archive/2013/02/18/portable-httpclient-for-net-framework-and-windows-phone.asPx

Style Application in Visual Studio 2012 - http://www.billreiss.com/applying-styles-to-windows-phone-text-in-visual-studio-2012/ - @billreiss

FLORIDA FLAVOR

Broward County Sex Offender - Conrad Salazar - http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/app/bso-sex-offender-locator/64d6554f-9aed-49e5-922f-c5958c2741f3
Dzone Windows Phone App - Shayne Boyer of Orlando - http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=a6e847da-f52a-48b3-b030-eb775b4d90d2
FilmWave by Neuralnet - http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/app/filmwave/dd1466d4-c656-4912-85a4-035649f91e50
Miami Train Tracker - Win8 - Conrad Salazar - http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-US/app/miami-train-tracker/d09e6ce8-7ce3-465a-bb32-f23d14b629b1
Sharks Attack by Litte Ozzie - http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/app/sharks-attack/0879ccb0-a9bc-46ad-8fc7-f75fea0181e6 - BSA Tampa
Missing Alert by Lane Williams of Fort Myers - Win8 - http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-US/app/missing-alert/ed3460a2-1577-44ee-881b-edf9aede35a4
Pirate Plunder 2 by Glow Puff - LINK HERE
Pray the Rosary - David Lafontant of FSU - http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-US/app/pray-the-rosary/015b959f-f061-4e46-92c3-30aa381c332b
Unit Circle for Win8 by Tier0 Productions - http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-US/app/unit-circle/00435dd3-ac5c-458a-8559-15c13279662d

Windows Azure Developer Challenge

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 21:44:36 GMT

CodeProject is running a Windows Azure Developer Challenge. From April 15 to June 24 there are five programming challenges that can earn you a spot for prizes and such. There are over $16k in prizes up for grabs, with 65 changes.

The two week sprint challengesa re

1. First Challenge: Getting Started. April 15 - April 28
2. Second Challenge: Build a website. April 29 - May 12
3. Third Challenge: Using SQL on Azure. May 13 - May 26
4. Fourth Challenge: Virtual Machines. May 27 - Jun 9
5. Fifth Challenge: Mobile access June 10 - June 24

Full rules, details and other goodies are on the website at http://bit.ly/codeprojectazurechallenge .

Keep us posted if you win something!

Windows Phone Training Kit - April 2013 Update

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:14:08 GMT

The updated Windows Phone 8 Training Kit is live!

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=38782

This kit contains 20 Hands-On Labs and a set of 6 presentations that can be used to drive code camps or for general training purposes.

HANDS ON LABS include:

Hello Windows Phone
Windows Phone Navigation and Controls
Windows Phone Screen Orientation
Persisting to Windows Phone Storage
Using Background Transfer Services in Your Application
Windows Phone Application LIfe Cycle-Tombstoning
Using Local Database in Windows Phone
Using Tiles and Notifications in Windows Phone
Live Tiles
Using Push Notifications in Windows Phone
Changing the Lockscreen Background in Windows Phone
Voice Commands
App-To-App Communication in Windows Phone
Choosers in Windows Phone
Launchers in Windows Phone
Access Azure Cloud Services from Windows Phone 8 Devices
Running Tracker Application
In-App Purchase and Trial Conversion for Windows Phone
Porting Windows 8 Applications to Windows Phone

Ready to go PRESENTATIONS include:

Fundamentals
Developing for WP8 and Windows 8
Developer Lap Around
More than an App
Sensors
Store and Monetization

All of these make a great complication to the AppBuilder site –> http://bit.ly/30tolaunch … Windows Phone is great, love to see ya’ll produce some great apps for it!

KeepTheCash for Apps - Until June 30

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:31:17 GMT

The developers out there are publishing some really great Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps. I’m very lucky in that I get to see many of the great products that devs produce.

So what’s holding you back? Need some incentive?

Until the end of June we’ve got an incentive of $100 for each Windows 8 or Windows Phone app that you publish. Up to 10 for Win8, and 10 for Windows Phone before June 30th.

$100 per app makes for a nice incentive for pushing out those apps you’ve got 75% of the way through.

For rules and more, checkout the blog post at https://build.windowsstore.com/keepthecash .