Are you a Canadian developer working on a Windows Phone 7 app that’s done or nearly done? We want to help you get a head start on everyone else. Contact me – Joey deVilla – by Monday, October 18th (and sooner is better) and let’s see what we can do to make your app one of the first in Windows Phone Marketplace!
Just a reminder: there are a couple of Coffee and Codes this week…
Come on down, see a real live Windows Phone up close and personal and deploy your apps to it!
You’re building apps for Windows Phone 7. You’ve tested them as much as you can on the emulator. You now need to test them on a real device. We can help!
Getting your hands on a Windows Phone is a very hard thing to do. Even those of us who work inside the company are having trouble getting our hands on them because there just aren’t enough advance devices to go around. We have a small pool of phones and a big number of people who need to test their apps on them, so we’ve had to get creative in order to help people test.
First, there’s Coffee and Code. Coffee and Code has traditionally been an event where we take advantage of our mobile worker status and work out of a café, where we’re easily accessible. Lately, we’ve been using them as a chance for you to drop by, impromptu, take a look at our Windows Phones and even deploy apps to them for some quick testing. These are pretty informal, with no appointment required, and first-come-first-serve.
Then, there are the Deployment Clinics. These are a little more structured – you book an appointment to drop by one of Microsoft Canada’s offices and spend some quality just-you-and-your-app time with a Windows Phone. You have to book time in advance, and you have the phone all to yourself for the appointment.
Take advantage of these opportunities to test your WP7 apps on a real phone!
Here’s the schedule for the upcoming Coffee and Code and Deployment Clinics:
| What | When | Where |
| Coffee and Code (Drop in) |
Thursday, October 14 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. |
Ottawa Bridgehead Coffee 109 Bank Street (at Albert) |
| Coffee and Code (Drop in) |
Thursday, October 14 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
Downtown Toronto Starbucks at King and Yonge |
| Deployment Clinic (Book an appointment) |
Friday, October 15 | Downtown Toronto Microsoft office Ernst & Young Tower, TD Centre, 12th floor |
| Coffee and Code (Drop in) |
Thursday, October 21 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
Downtown Toronto Starbucks at King and Yonge |
| Deployment Clinic (Book an appointment) |
Monday, October 25 | Mississauga Microsoft Office 1950 Meadowvale Blvd (Off Mississauga Road, just north of Highway 401) |
| Deployment Clinic (Book an appointment) |
Wednesday, October 27 | Vancouver Microsoft Office 1111 W. Georgia, 11th floor |
| Coffee and Code (Drop in) |
Friday, October 29 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
Downtown Toronto Timothy’s 255 Front Street West |
| Coffee and Code (Drop in) |
Thursday, November 4 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
Halifax Location TBD |
| Coffee and Code (Drop in) |
Thursday, November 11 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
Ottawa Location TBD |
| Deployment Clinic (Book an appointment) |
Friday, November 12 | Montreal Microsoft Office 2000 Ave McGill College, 4th floor |
| Coffee and Code (Drop in) |
Thursday, November 18 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
Downtown Toronto Starbucks at King and Yonge |
| Deployment Clinic (Book an appointment) |
Friday, November 19 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
Montreal Microsoft Office 2000 Ave McGill College, 4th floor |
| Coffee and Code (Drop in) |
Thursday, November 25 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
Montreal Location TBD |
| Deployment Clinic (Book an appointment) |
Monday, November 29 | Ottawa Microsoft Office World Exchange Plaza (100 Queen Street), 5th floor |
| Deployment Clinic (Book an appointment) |
Wednesday, December 1 | Calgary Microsoft Office Atlus Centre (500 – 4th Ave. SW), 19th floor |
| Coffee and Code (Drop in) |
Thursday, December 2 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
Downtown Toronto Starbucks at King and Yonge |
| Deployment Clinic (Book an appointment) |
Friday, December 3 | Calgary Microsoft Office Altius Centre (500 – 4th Ave. SW), 19th floor |
| Coffee and Code (Drop in) |
Thursday, December 9 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
Winnipeg Location TBD |
| Coffee and Code (Drop in) |
Thursday, December 9 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
Downtown Toronto Starbucks at King and Yonge |
| Coffee and Code (Drop in) |
Thursday, December 16 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
Calgary Location TBD |
| Coffee and Code (Drop in) |
Thursday, December 16 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
Downtown Toronto Starbucks at King and Yonge |
To book an appointment, drop Samantha Wong a line and she’ll set you up.
Rather than tell you how great-looking and clever the new ads for Windows Phone 7 are, I thought I’d show them instead. Here’s the first one, which features Donovan’s song, Season of the Witch:
Here’s the other one, which asks this question: “Really?” (In case you were wondering, the tune is In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg.)
The message in both these ads is pretty simple: Smartphones eat up a lot of your attention and time. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was one that didn’t do that?
There are lots of little goodies in Windows Phone 7 that address this issue. The ones I can think of off the top of my head include:
In all these cases, it’s about getting what you need from the phone, as quickly as possible.You should ideally be able to “glance and go”: fire up your phone, get the information you need, then put it away and go do what you set out to do. The phone is supposed to augment your life; it’s not supposed to be your life.
And therein lies the hint for your app designs. If you’re designing an informational, non-game app for Windows Phone 7, take a cue from its “glance and go” philosophy and ask yourself this: What one question does my app answer for the user, and does it answer this question quickly?
Examples of questions that apps can answer include:
If you’re thinking of building a WP7 app, think of a question it can answer for the user, provide the answer and then get out of the way. Let that be your guide and you just might code up a winner.
It’s Canadian Thanksgiving today, which means it’s a day off here, but it’s a regular working day for our American neighbours, and it’s the day that a lot of big announcements about Windows Phone 7 get made at an event in New York City.
As Mary Jo Foley points out in her article on today’s event, today is about announcements and not about phones hitting shelves, but the day when you can go buy a WP7 phone isn’t far off. You’ll find out more about the phone today starting at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, and I believe a lot of your questions will be answered. (And if you have questions, you can always ask us, either here on the blog or in person at the various TechDays, Coffee and Codes or other opportunities to have a face-to-face chat with us.)
I think you’ll find that Windows Phone represents a tremendous opportunity for phone app developers and designers. Consider that:
Keep an eye on the announcements coming out today, and if you have any questions, ask away in the comments!
Hey, Canadian mobile developers:
And finally, if you’re planning on submitting a Windows Phone 7 app to Marketplace, get in touch with me! I want to hear from you, help you through the process and help publicize your app. Just drop me a line – the email address is joey.devilla@microsoft.com.
A test version of Smiles running on my WP7 device.
In between chatting with developers who dropped by today’s Coffee and Code in downtown Toronto and getting some work done, I’ve been playing Smiles (pictured above), an incredibly cute and incredibly addictive puzzle game by London, ON-based development shop Sykhronics.
Here’s a video of Smiles’ gameplay in its “Drop” mode:
Mike Kasprzak of Sykhronics was kind enough to send me an early test version of Smiles to show off the Phone’s game capabilities as well as the level of “polish” that Windows Phone 7 developers should be aiming for in their apps. Mike’s got some pretty high standards and is working to make sure that Smiles for WP7 meets them, and it shows! Even in this test version, Smiles looks and feels like a polished arcade classic, and when it’s done, it’s going to be a must-buy.
Keep writing those apps, and aim high! We’ll do what we can on our end to help out, which includes: