If you’re interested in the knowing what phase the moon will be in on a given day – whether you’re into astronomy, astrology or just trying to figure out if more fights and arrests happen during a full moon – the upcoming Windows Phone 7 app Deluxe Moon by Lifeware Solutions looks like a gorgeous way to find out.
They sure do love their comics in France, where they’re called BD (bandes dessinees, meaning “drawn strips”). I grew up reading translated versions of Asterix and Tintin, and later enjoyed Jean “Moebius” Giraud’s works, which took comics to wild new places (which as you might have guessed, included Metal Hurlant, which came to North America as Heavy Metal).
Hence it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a team in France built the Ave Comics app, shown in action above, which lets you preview, purchase and read digital versions of comics.
I’ve been busy with all sorts of stuff, so I ‘m a little late with an announcement you might have seen elsewhere online: IE9 Platform Preview 4 has been released!
If you want the full story, check out IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch’s blog entry over at IEBlog, where he goes over the latest platform preview of our browser in detail. I’m just going to give you the major points, such as IE9 PP4’s Acid3 test score:
…plus how IE9 PP4 stacks up against its previous incarnations and browsers built by the Esteemed Competition, according to the WebKit SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark test…
…and that there are a new batch of demos showing HTML5 compliance, hardware graphics acceleration, JavaScript speed and the really wacky things you can do with IE9 if you use a little imagination, such as a game that melds “Hamster Dance” with Dance Dance Revolution:
It’s one thing to talk about the goodies in IE9 PP4, but it’s an entirely different thing to experience them. Take the latest version of IE9 for a test drive – go and download it now!
As you take this version for IE9 for a spin, you might want to start thinking about getting your sites, whether they’re already up or in the works, ready for the next big leap: IE9’s transition from “Platform Preview” to “Beta”. That’s coming soon.
Here are some things to think about, as suggested in IEBlog:
Today (Thursday, August 5) and today only, Manning’s offering their SharePoint books, in both electronic and dead-tree form, at half price:
Just enter the promo code in the Promotional Code box when you check out at manning.com. I got an email saying the promo code is dotd0805ccb; Bil Simser reports that the site says the promo code is dotd0805. Try them both!
Last night, I attended my friend Alexa Clark’s photo exhibit, which took place at Camaraderie, a downtown Toronto coworking space for indies and entrepreneurs. This sort of event at this sort of location tends to bring out techies with an interest in design and designers with a technical bent, and they all came up to me with the same question: So, do you have one of those Windows phones?
I pulled out my Samsung “Taylor” phone, let people take try it out, and here were the responses:
Here’s what Wayne Lee, one of the people behind Camaraderie, tweeted about the phone:
Charles Petzold – the guy who literally wrote the book on Windows programming – is working away on Programming Windows Phone 7 and has released another free preview version of the book. The first preview had 6 chapters; this latest version weighs in at 11 chapters and 265 pages.
Here’s the current table of contents:
This preview is free-as-in-beer, and the final ebook, which comes out October 28th, will also be free-as-in-beer!
Get your hands on the book and associated downloads:
Glow Air Hockey is a game Social Indulgence that lets you play air hockey game against the phone or a friend. There’s a little more information about the game at Glow Air Hockey’s page.
(In the video above, the red dots are the players’ finger positions as shown in the emulator; you won’t see them when you’re actually playing the game on the phone.)
BulletAsylum by UberGeekGames is a gorgeous game for Windows Phone 7 that’s part Missile Command, part Geometry Wars and all awesome. It’s written using XNA and coming soon to both WP7 and Xbox live and coming out later this year.
Here’s their blurb:
BulletAsylum is a new spin on the classic defend-the-city-from-meteors genre. Simply touch the screen on a WP7 device, or push the thumbstick on the Xbox 360 to create a literal fireworks show out of your enemies with an impenetrable wall of firepower. Instantly purchase new towers and cities without breaking up the action. Split your fire in two directions by touching the screen in two places or using the right thumbstick. Unleash the screen-clearing Overdrive when you’re in a tight spot.
Today, Tuesday August 3rd, is your last chance to register for TechDays Vancouver at the early bird price of CAD$349.99 (plus taxes). The deadline is tonight at 12:00 midnight Eastern (that’s 9:00 p.m. Pacific); once this passes, the registration fee for TechDays jumps up to its regular price, which is almost twice the early bird price.
If I were a gangsta rapper (and it in fantasies, it’s one of a dozen of interesting things I do on the side), I’d say “Don’t procrastinate, registrate!”
But seriously: this year’s TechDays is a big all-out production that brings together content from the big conferences like TechEd, MIX and PDC, hooks up local heroes to present and augment it, and serves it all up close to home at a very affordable price (especially affordable at the early bird rate). It’s also a chance to get to know both us and your peers in the tech community.
Once again, “Don’t procrastinate, registrate!”. Register for TechDays Vancouver now!