Global Nerdy

If you’re around downtown Toronto tomorrow and want to get the latest on Windows Phone 7 development, come on down to the Metro Toronto .NET Users Group meeting tomorrow night and see Mark Arteaga’s presentation, Developing for the “Third Screen”: Windows Phone 7.

Here’s the abstract for tomorrow’s session:

For the longest time Microsoft has been talking about their “Three Screens and the Cloud” strategy but did not really have a compelling mobile story. With the arrival of Windows Phone 7, the third screen has arrived and with that the new Windows Phone developer story has arrived. During this session you will get a high level overview of the platform plus go into some of the new APIs available for Windows Phone 7. We will cover the new application model, Windows Phone 7 specific services, sensors, multimedia plus more! Come and learn how to build for the third screen, build for Windows Phone 7.

I keep up with mobile development by continually working with iOS, Android and Windows Phone programming, and I find that WP7 development still provides the best developer experience as well as a user interface that’s clean, beautiful, usable and no mere “me too” copy but its own thing. If you develop mobile apps, you should be developing for Windows Phone 7, and tomorrow’s presentation is a great way to get started!

Here are tomorrow’s meeting’s details:

• Who: A presentation on Windows Phone 7 development by Mark Arteaga, RedBit Development
• When: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 6:00 p.m.
• Where: KPMG, 333 Bay Street, 46th floor, Toronto
• How much: Admission is free – just register for the event

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

In case you missed it over the holidays, here’s a pointer to Lifehacker’s list of the best Windows Phone 7 apps, which fall into a number of categories: productivity, internet/communication, location-aware/social networking, utilities, music/media and food/shopping/entertainment. There doesn’t seem to be a games category, but that’s okay – it gives me an excuse to review (and therefore, play) some!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

The first release of Windows Phone 7 was only the beginning. The team’s been listening to phone users and responding by working on improvements to our phone OS. You’re going to see the results of their work over the next few months in the form of updates, some of which are listed below:

• Copy and Paste
  This is one feature that users have been asking for, and it’s coming soon. You’ll be able to tap a word, slide your finger to highlight any additional text and then tap the Copy icon to copy your selection. You can then paste the copy by tapping the destination spot, then tapping the Paste icon.
• Faster Launch and Resume Times
  Nobody likes to wait for an app to start (or restart after an interruption), and one of the soon-to-come improvements is shorter waits for app launch and resume.
• Better Marketplace Search
  Search in Windows Phone’s Marketplace has been improved so that it’s easier to find the apps, games or music you’re looking for.

These updates, announced today on the Windows Phone 7 Updates page, will be easy to get. Your Windows Phone will notify you when they’re available (assuming you haven’t turned this feature off). You then use the Zune software (it’s free) to download and install the update to your phone.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

If you’re new to software development and want to build apps for Windows Phone 7 – or if you know someone who fits this description – you should take a look at this 64-part series of short videos (none longer than a half-hour, most much shorter) titled Windows Phone 7 Development for Absolute Beginners.

When they put “Absolute Beginners” in the series’ name, they weren’t kidding. Over the series, host Bob Tabor from LearnVisualStudio.net covers such basics as:

• Installing, using and exploring Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone.
• Writing applications from the ground up: from declaring variables and assigning values to them to if statements to writing your own classes to working with .NET’s collections to exception handling.
• Taking advantage of Windows Phone features from Silverlight controls to isolated storage and tombstoning and task switching.

Phone app development is a great starting point for the beginning developer. Phone projects tend to be smaller by nature, making them perfect candidates for newbies or after-work “side projects”, and since mobile computing is all the rage these days, it’s more likely to keep a beginning developer interested enough to overcome the usual frustrations that go along with learning programming. I’ve tried out development on Windows Phone, iPhone and Android and find that Windows Phone is the fastest and easiest phone to develop for, and it’s a great environment for the budding developer. If you’re a budding developer who wants to get into the wild and wooly world of mobile or if you know one, Windows Phone 7 Development for Absolute Beginners is a great place to start!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.