Josh Holmes » Windows Phone

The 12 Apps of Christmas

joshholmes — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 22:31:41 +0000

You know that I’m a Windows Phone/Windows 8/Azure evangelist for Microsoft Ireland. As part of that, I sometimes get to do fun things like run some fun Christmas promotions. This month we’re running a simple promotion called the 12 Apps of Christmas. Here’s the deal… Build an Windows 8 app get a phone.

Very simple offer, we have 12 Windows Phone Nokia Lumia 710s to reward those developers that have been very good.

To qualify you need to publish a Windows 8 Store app between December 7th and December 31^st and email appireland@microsoft.com with a link to your app and your name, address and phone number for delivery. If we have any in stock still, we’ll send one out tout suite…

Rules in brief:

1. You need to be an app developer with an Irish or Northern Irish developer account. This, unfortunately, doesn’t include Microsoft employees.

2. You app needs to be live in the Windows 8 app store before December 31^st.

Rules in not so brief (the lawyers heard I might be having too much fun and got involved…):

1. Instructions on how to enter form part of the conditions of entry. By participating entrants agree to be bound by these conditions.

2. The promoter is Microsoft Ireland Limited, of Microsoft Ireland Building 3, Carmenhall Road, Sandyford Industrial Estate, Dublin 18, Ireland.

3. Qualifying apps must be published to the Windows Store (previously called the Windows 8 app store) between December 7^th 2012 and 12 midnight GMT December 31st, 2012.

4. Publish 1 new apps to receive a Nokia Lumia 710 (subject to availability)

5. Nokia Lumia 710 phones will be distributed first whilst stocks. Once all phones have been awarded the promotion will cease.

6. The sooner you publish your new apps the sooner you’ll receive your Windows Phone (subject to availability).

7. Apps must be new and published to the public marketplace and excludes updates to existing apps.

8. App must meet the Windows App submission guidelines. There will also be a subjective criteria applied to exclude apps of very low quality that offer no value to Windows 8 users.

9. In exceptional circumstances apps that are not deemed of sufficient uniqueness or quality may be excluded. This decision is solely Microsoft’s to make

10. This offer is only open to developers based in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland who submit apps to an Irish or Northern Irish registered Windows Phone Marketplace account.

11. This offer is limited to the first 12 developers and is limited to 1 phone per developer.

12. There are a number of promotions in progress with Nokia and Microsoft in Ireland and the UK; the apps submitted for this challenge must differ from those submitted elsewhere. i.e. no double counting.

13. The promoter reserves the right to verify the validity of entries and to disqualify any entrant who the promoter believes either has tampered with the entry process or has submitted an entry that is not in accordance with these conditions of entry.

14. The prizes are not exchangeable, transferable or redeemable for cash.

15. The Prize does not include:

a. Any standard or other call or data costs billed by a mobile operator/service provider.

b. Any associated costs billed by a mobile operator/service provider.

16. Successful entrants will be notified via email.

17. The phone winner is liable for all taxes and benefit in kind that may be incurred as a result of the phone.

18. Subject to any applicable law which cannot be excluded, the promoter and its related bodies corporate shall not be liable for any loss, damage or injury suffered or sustained (including but not limited to direct or consequential loss or loss arising from negligence) arising directly or indirectly out of or in connection with the promotion or any prize.

19. Before the prize is awarded, the winner will be required to sign a form to release the promoter from and indemnify the promoter against, any and all liability arising from the use or participation in the prize.

20. Any costs associated with entering the challenge are the responsibility of the entrant.

21. The promoter’s (Microsoft) decision is final.

22. The promoter assumes no responsibility for, and the entrant releases the promoter from responsibility for, any failure to receive an entry or for inaccurate information or for any loss, claim, damage or injury to person or property (including computer systems and servers) as a result of the entrant’s participation in this promotion or the conduct of the promotion generally or as a direct or indirect result of an entrant’s error, any technical problem of any kind including communications or network failure, unauthorized access to, transferring or theft of data, whether caused by the entrant or associated with the equipment or programming used in the conduct of this promotion. If, because of any such problem, this promotion is not able to be conducted as planned and/or the promotion’s administration, security, fairness or integrity are compromised or affected, the promoter may cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the promotion and/or disqualify any entrant involved in interfering or tampering with the conduct of this promotion in any way.

Windows Phone Camp Online

joshholmes — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:57:04 +0000

The Denmark guys had a full two day conference staffed by corp speakers that they recorded and put on Channel 9. There’s a ton of great content here that you can check out.

Dev01 – Windows Phone 7.5 Overview for Developers

Ben Riga

Windows Phone 7.5 Overview for Developers

by Ben Riga

Dev02 – Building Windows Phone 7.5 Applications with Visual Studio 2010

Ben Riga

Building Windows Phone 7.5 Applications with Visual Studio 2010

by Ben Riga

Dev03 – Building Windows Phone 7.5 Apps with Silverlight

Ben Riga

Building Windows Phone 7.5 Apps with Silverlight

by Ben Riga

Dev04 – Windows Phone 7.5 Fast Application Switching, Tombstoning and Multitasking

Ben Riga

Windows Phone 7.5 Fast Application Switching, Tombstoning and Multitasking

by Ben Riga

Dev05 – Live Tiles and Push Notifications

Ben Riga

Live Tiles and Push Notifications

by Ben Riga

Dev06 – Building Games for Windows Phone 7.5 with Farseer Physics Engine

Ian Qvist

Building Games for Windows Phone 7.5 with Farseer Physics Engineby Ian Qvist, project manager of Farseer Physics EngineGet the slides and demo code from Ian’s blog here:http://ianqvist.blogspot.com/2011/12/xna-and-farseer-physics-engine-33.html Get more samples and the framework at…

Dev07 – Monetizing a Windows Phone 7.5 Application

Ben Riga

Monetizing a Windows Phone 7.5 Application

by Ben Riga

UX01 – METRO | the foundation

Arturo Toledo

METRO | the foundationby Arturo Toledounderstanding Metrolayout, typography and motionembracing the phone experienceNote!The screen capture video feed got interrupted and therefore we only have the "in person" video available for this recording.We apologize for the inconvenience!

UX02 – Think | sketch, wireframe, prototype

Arturo Toledo

Think | sketch, wireframe, prototypeby Arturo Toledo,creative brainstormingsketching and wireframing techniquesexploring potential with prototypes Note!The screen capture video feed got interrupted and therefore we only have the "in person" video available for this recording.We…

UX03 – Design | Visual, interaction, motion

Arturo Toledo

Design | Visual, interaction, motion

by Arturo Toledo, visual language and inspiration application patterns, controls and interaction design adding motion to reinforce function

UX04 – Refine | best practices

Jared-Potter

Refine | best practicesby Jared Potter,application design best practicesenhancing percevied performanceleveraging Windows Phone goodness (Tiles, Maps…)

UX05 – build | make it XAML

Jared-Potter

build | make it XAMLby Jared Potter,importing assets into Expression Blendlayout, text and animationUI controls, data binding and code

There’s a ton of great content there – enjoy!!!

Getting Started with Windows Phone

joshholmes — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:48:28 +0000

There’s a lot going on with Windows Phone development these days and the great news is that you’re not out in the cold on your own here. There are a ton of of great Windows Phone resources that will give you thoughts, ideas, code, sample images and much much more. This blog post is going to be a growing repository of resources that I have that are available to Windows Phone developers specifically in Ireland but many of these resources are available to anyone.

Groups

Windows Phone Ireland LinkedIn Group – this is the best way to stay informed about all of the events and promotions in Ireland!!! For example, we’ve got a number of testing sessions coming up as well as tons of training events.
Windows Phone Developer Users Group in Ireland – coming soon…

Windows Phone

Consumer site

Windows Phone YouTube Channel (Watch Social, App and Web videos)

WP Central – Independent Source on everything Windows Phone

Tools

Believe it or not, the tools are free.

Windows Phone Tools

Now, there are more complete versions of the tools (that do more than just phone stuff but everything that you need is free).

If you are in BizSpark or have MSDN – you get these more complete versions of the tools for free already as well. If you are a startup, sign up for BizSpark at http://www.bizspark.ie.

If you are a web consultant in a shop that’s less than 10 people, you can get these tools for free as well through WebsiteSpark at http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/support.aspx?tab=ProgramDetails.

Twitter Accounts you should follow

Windows Phone
Windows Phone Design Team
Arturo Toledo – UX Designer Developer Experience
Corrina Black – Windows Phone Design Lead for Developer Experience
Josh Holmes – yes, shameless plug
Jeff Blankenburg – Developer Evangelist in the US
Susan Todd – Design Research Developer Experience
Windows Phone Design Twitter List
Mike Kruseniski

Education

Jeff Blankenburg has a fantastic couple of series on Windows Phone development.

31 Days of Windows Phone
31 Days of Mango

Josh Holmes » Windows Phone

The 12 Apps of Christmas

Windows Phone Camp Online

Getting Started with Windows Phone

Groups

Windows Phone

Tools

Twitter Accounts you should follow

Education

Design Resources

Videos

BUILD 2011

MIX11

Design Talks

Channel 9

Windows Phone Design Studios Tour Decks