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

Camera Phone

joshholmes — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:17:56 +0000

I love having a camera on my phone. I’ve had the privilege of playing more golf this week than I did all of last year and on better courses than I’ve ever played in my life. I didn’t plan to play such nice courses and definitely didn’t foresee needing to take nearly as many pictures as I did take. The awesome part is that I have a camera on my phone, which on Windows Phone 7 I don’t even have to unlock to use.

The first course I played was the Tralee Golf Club which is an Arnold Palmer course that’s rated as one of the top 10 ocean golf courses in the world. I played this course with my team mate Michael Meagher here at Microsoft Ireland and our hosts at the Institute of Technology in Tralee. It was hands down my favorite course I’ve ever played. The picture here is on the tee box on 17. All I can really say is wow… You can see more photos at Tralee Golf Course on Flickr…

The next day I got to play the Seapoint Golf Course just north of Dublin. I played this course with my fellow evangelists Dave Northey and Jeff Blankenburg. Jeff’s visiting from the states speaking about WP7 and is a big golfer. I couldn’t resist taking him out. We caught some fantastic photos such as the rainbow photo in this post.

You can see more photos at Seapoint Golf Course on Flickr

Now, all that said – I’m going to have to take my proper digital SLR Canon Rebel next time I go golfing…

Josh Holmes » WP7

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

Camera Phone