wpdev

Why Windows Phone? This is not a new question, but a question or topic that I get involved a lot.  Why do you have a Windows Phone? Why do you build apps for that platform? You should be learning Java and Objective C and putting your apps on iOS and Android; that's where the users are. That is the message from the media, family, tech pundits and co-workers. And the numbers say that as well; the latest report shows that Android holds a ridiculous global market share of 80%, Apple with 12% and Windows Phone at 4% respectively.  So why should I build an app for Windows Phone first? Its about visibility. Visibility Apple has more than 1...

In Part 1 I covered a simple implementation of the Authentication feature and portable class libraries from the Azure Mobile Services SDK.  However, as mentioned in the "Good & Bad So Far" section; there is not a whole lot of code reuse other than the Azure endpoint and secret key.  Let's refactor a bit by adding some interfaces, conditional compile statements and the MVVM Light Event Bus to help the same solution operate cleaner. The "after" code for part one is available here. Building Our Core PortableAzure.Core is our Portable Class Library that is being shared with the Windows 8 and  Windows Phone project in the attempt to reuse as much code as possible.  However,...

Azure Mobile Services is undoubtedly one of the best platforms to emerge from the Azure group over the last year. If you are a mobile developer and not taking advantage of it; I encourage you to do so.  There are many video and blog posts available to get you started at http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/ . One of the features you may not be aware of is Azure Mobile Services is a Portable Class Library (PCL) available through nuget. If you are not familiar with PCL's see my "Move Your ViewModels" series. There is a caveat however when using Azure Mobile Services in your PCL; although all of the data calls to the services are...

Find Amber Available for Windows Phone Find Amber has finally been approved and is now available in the Windows Phone Store! This project is close to me, and not in a "I have lost a child" way thank God. But I do have children and if something were to happen to any of them I can't imagine what it would be like. There are ways to get this information but generally it is slow to deliver. Television, Radio, etc. but these delivery mechanisms are allow but allow for detail. In contrast, there is a text message service and/or the road signs that are available which solves the speed of delivery but the content is lacking. My solution was to...