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Windows Phone 7 Development for Absolute Beginners

I just noticed this new C9 series yesterday and added it to my list of WP7 resources but think it’s worth a separate callout here. If you’re completely new to development (unlikely if you’re reading this) or you know someone who is but fancies getting started by writing an application for Windows Phone 7, then Windows Phone 7 Development for Absolute Beginners should fit the bill perfectly.

Clint and Bob take you through 64 separate topics walking you through how to get started in development using Windows Phone 7 as as the target platform. Some example topics include:

Installing Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
Overview of the Windows Phone 7 Emulator
Managing Project Files and Understanding Compilation and Deployment
Declaring Variable and Assigning Values
The if Decision Statement
Working with Strings
Understanding and Creating Classes
Understanding Namespaces
Working with Collections
Understanding the XAML Syntax
Adding Different Input Scopes
GPS, Location API and Calling Web Services

As you can see, it ranges from some very fundamental concepts to explaining capabilities specific to the Windows Phone 7 platform. It might even be worth dipping into if you’re familiar with .NET and just want to understand one or two specific areas.

Linked.NET Virtual Meeting with ScottGu

This Friday (tomorrow!) at 10am PST (so that’s 6pm if you’re in the UK), LIDNUG (Linked.NET User Group) are holding their next virtual meeting with Scott Guthrie. In fact this is their 7th “Talking Shop” meeting with Scott and it’s understandably very popular. The event is held via Live Meeting so no need to travel anywhere and you get the opportunity to pose your burning questions to a man who almost certainly has an answer.

Friday November 19th, 10am PST (6pm UK): “LIDNUG: Scott Guthrie Talks Shop VII”

Cloud Evening - An Invitation

UKAzureNet is relaunching under the new name of “Cloud Evening”. The first event is on Thursday 11th November at Skills Matter in London. The agenda looks like this:

6:00pm-6:30pm: Registration
6:30pm-7:30pm: Real world experience of a startup using Azure (by @RossDScott)

We've seen the demos, written the "Hello World" but is it really a good idea? This session will take you through the first 3 months of a new startup developing on the Azure platform.

- An introduction to the technical concepts (from a coding point of view)
- Cost driven development, a new way of thinking.
- Data storage, should I go with the easy option or change my relational mindset?
- What's it actually going to cost me?
- A few tips and tricks

7:30pm: Break for Beer & Pizza
8:00pm-9:00pm: PDC 2010 Round Up (by @MarkRendle)

Mark will give a round up of the Cloud announcements at this years PDC, plus a deep dive into some of the new capabilities of the Azure platform

There will of course be beer and pizza. If you’re interested in developments in cloud computing, take yourself along. You can register here.

Hurrah - PDC UK Event Announced in Readingmond

Ever wanted to share in the joy of attending PDC but just couldn't bear to be away from Twitter for the duration of the flight?
Ever been curious what developer evangelists such as MikeT and myself get up to of an evening?
Ever wanted the chance of a front-row seat for the Gu in 16:9 format?
Ever just wanted to find somewhere warm and welcoming to go on a Thursday night?

Your luck's in. Join us on the afternoon / evening / night of 28/29th October at our offices in Reading (Thames Valley Park) for an evening of futures, fun, frolics, frivolity, food, frameworks, fones, flouds, fliverlights etc!

For full details see this post on the UK MSDN blog.

If you can't make it to Reading, there are also events taking place at a number of universities around the country:

London South Bank University - http://pdcsouthbank.eventbrite.com/
University of Nottingham - http://pdcnottingham.eventbrite.com/
King's College London - http://pdckcl.eventbrite.com/
Cambridge University - http://pdccambridge.eventbrite.com/
University of Surrey - http://pdcsurrey.eventbrite.com/
University of Hertfordshire - http://pdcherts.eventbrite.com
University of Leicester - http://pdcleicester.eventbrite.com
Manchester University - http://pdcmanchester.eventbrite.com

For more details, see this post on the Microsoft UK Student Blog (these events aren't just for students - anyone can attend).

Windows Phone 7 - DDD Community Event, 7th October 2010 - Manchester

I'll be attending the DDD Community event on 7th October up in sunny Manchester (at least MikeT's promised it's always sunny up there). Here's the skinny:

This event is all about Windows Phone 7. One day of demo-rich presentations where you can learn about developing Silverlight and XNA apps for Windows Phone. Come along and get ready to share in the excitement of the launch of this brand new phone platform.  For the full agenda and how to register, visit: http://developerdeveloperdeveloper.com/wp71/

To save you a bit of time, here's the current agenda:

08:30 - 09:00 Registration, coffee
09:00 - 09:45 Keynote (Microsoft)
09:45 - 10:30 Understanding the Windows Phone 7 Development Tools and Getting Started (Maarten Struys)
10:30 - 11:15 Silverlight App Development on Windows Phone 7 (Andy Wigley)
11:15 - 11:30 Coffee
11:30 - 12:15 Integrating with the device capabilities (location, camera, contacts, phone) (Andy Wigley)
12:15 - 13:00 Raising the dead: Programming Silverlight Apps that survive Tombstoning (Andy Wigley)
13:00 - 13:45 Lunch (Not provided)
13:45 - 14:30 Games Programming on Windows Phone 7 with Silverlight and XNA - Part 1 (Rob Miles)
14:30 - 15:00 Games Programming on Windows Phone 7 with Silverlight and XNA - Part 2 (Rob Miles)
15:00 - 15:15 Coffee
15:15 - 16:00 TBC 
16:00 - 16:45 TBC 
16:45 - 17:00 Wrap-up

The location is ODEON Cinema, Printworks, Manchester

TechDays UK Windows Azure Online Conference - 8th October

The TechDays team here at Microsoft UK will be running an online Windows Azure conference on 8th October. You can find out all the details in Steve's blog post but here's the short-version skinny:
 
Date / Time: 8th October 0930hrs
Duration: 6 hours
Format: 3 tracks - high-level / medium / deep
Subjects: Windows Azure, SQL Azure, App Fabric, Case Studies, Guidance, Azure Tables (see Steve's post for full agenda and abstracts)
 
Note - the event was originally scheduled to run on 20th September. it has been moved to 8th October.

Windows Phone Developer Tools Final - 16th September

A new post by Brandon Watson on the Windows Phone Developer Blog announces that the final version of the Windows Phone Developer Tools will be available for download from 16th September. The final build will include the Panorama, Pivot and Bing Maps controls that everyone's been looking forward to.
 
Marketplace ingestion (the process for publishing your application for Marketplace) commences in early October so get on the bus (as it were) and you could be one of the first to have your application available for people to download / purchase. You'll need to register with Marketplace (£67+VAT in the UK entitling you to publish as many paid apps as you want and a maximum of 5 free apps).
 
Note also that the Windows Phone Marketplace policies have also been updated.
 
This is going to be fun!

Browser Upgrade Recommended

Hootsuite

I accidentally hit the "compatibility view" button in IE8 while running HootSuite and was pleasantly surprised with the result - a gentle encouragement to upgrade, a clear set of options (with links) or the option to just carry on in the knowledge that the site won't be as good as it could be. And with the HootSuite Dashboard visible in the background, it all feels like it's part of a single, integrated application.

IE9 Platform Preview 4 Available Now

IE9 Platform Preview 4 is available now at the IE9 test drive site. What's new in preview 4?
JavaScript is now natively integrated inside the browser (not bolted on the side)
  • Single shared DOM between IE and JavaScript engine
  • Improved performance improvements across the product
  • Increased support for standards and an improved Acid 3 score as a result
  • Additional tests submitted to the working groups at the W3C
  • Continue to address feedback from Connect
    There's also a boatload of new demos on the testdrive site.

    This is the last platform preview before the IE9 Beta and it's a good idea to start planning now for readying your sites for IE9:

    Test your site in IE9 Standards Mode
  • Send IE9 the same standards-based markup your site sends other browsers
  • Use feature detection, not browser detection to handle any cross browser differences in behavior or feature support
  • Report issues on Connect if your site doesn't look or work right, and you're giving it the same code as you're giving to other modern browsers
  • Consider the experience for IE9 Beta users if you find that sending the same markup creates more issues than you can resolve in your production site
  • Take advantage of HTML5, CSS3, SVG, DOM, ES5, and more…
    Lots more detail on this (and IE9 Preview 4 generally) on the IE Team Blog.
     
    Note: There's no need to uninstall earlier preview builds, Preview 4 will install over the top quite happily.

    • Visual Studio Keyboard Shortcut Posters

    From ScottGu's blog post. Given my inability to remember anything at all, this has to be the most useful thing I've come across this year. Available for printing in standard paper sizes (yes, not just Letter but A4 too) and in VB, C++, C#, F#. I'll have one of each I think – one for each wall…

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