wotudo : Windows Mobile

Bing on WM6.x gains spoken turn by turn directions

paulfo — Mon, 24 May 2010 10:21:53 GMT

The bing application for Windows Mobile 6.x has gained some enhancements recently – most notably free voice guided turn-by-turn navigation. I had originally installed the Bing application via the Marketplace but was able to upgrade the app using the http...(read more)

To kill a mobile OS

paulfo — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:38:19 GMT

Way back in the last millennium, when I was previously focused on Mobile phone application development a representative from Nokia came to one of my Tech Ed Chalk and Talk sessions to discuss the Armageddon scenario of a virus targeted at a single mobile...(read more)

Windows Mobile 7 gossip – custom UI

paulfo — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:57:40 GMT

Reading between the lines Long Zheng suggests Microsoft will be collaborating closely with mobile operators to allow custom UI for Windows Mobile 7 devices. Zheng has dug up a job advert which support this. I can tell you that in the UK we’ve had...(read more)

Windows Mobile ‘6.5.1’

paulfo — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:34:41 GMT

Long Zheng has an interesting post on Windows ‘6.5.1’ over on IStartedSomething ....(read more)

A fun Windows 7 party!

paulfo — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:25:47 GMT

Just catching up on the latest Redmond activities of Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe. Sounds like they are having a fun trip! Really enjoyed reading their write up of a Windows 7 party . And hey! CoPilot works well on my upgrade HTC Touch Pro 2 Windows...(read more)

sidebar: Project Mobile AR

paulfo — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:12:31 GMT

As discussed at the recent OTA09 event, I’m working to build out an AR platform on Windows Mobile. This is a ‘skunk works’ project filling my waking hours between work and the family. Currently, I’m exploring the DirectShow capabilities of the Windows...(read more)

Augmented reality on Windows Mobile

paulfo — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:56:16 GMT

At Over The Air 09 my overnight coding challenge was to make a modern location aware version of the cult classic ‘whack-a-mole’. It was to go like this: hit play, and a map of your immediate 50 square metres appears on your device with you at the centre...(read more)

Widget development in Windows Mobile 6.5

paulfo — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:34:14 GMT

I had two sessions to present at Over The Air 09 . The first was all about the new Widget runtime included in Windows Mobile 6.5 . The runtime brings a Microsoft implementation of W3C Widget support to Windows Mobile for the first time. Our implementation...(read more)

OTA09: Widgets in Windows Mobile 6.5

paulfo — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:30:40 GMT

Just finished my first session at OTA09 on the new Widget framework built into Windows Mobile 6.5. Thank you to everyone who attended the session I really enjoyed our discussions – its always great fun to be able interact at these sort of things.

As promised I have packaged my slides as a PDF file which can be downloaded here.

Now onto building my next session - Building an augmented reality game. Tonight I have to pull this all together and have a game for tomorrow!!! If anyone would like to contribute ping me (Twitter @paulfo).

Here’s to a great party tonight (and some serious coding)

Augmented reality game challenge

paulfo — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:04:49 GMT

I’ve set myself a small challenge. I am attending the Over The Air event this Friday/Saturday. in theory, I’m manning the Microsoft stand and delivering a couple of sessions while I’m there. But, this is a codeathon event, so along with all the other delegates I thought I’d give myself a challenge to code up during the ‘small hours’.

Basically, I have a second session to deliver on the Saturday morning. Now, the chances of getting an audience to a session on Windows Mobile development (yawn) on a Saturday morning after everyone has been up all night coding their competition wining project is pretty slim.

So here is the plan. My second session is going to be on the application I am going to (hopefully) finish off over Friday night. I will be starting the app before Friday but I have so much to do a lot is going to be left to the Friday night.

What is the app? A-ha. I have decided to build an ‘augmented reality game’. Many years ago – circa 2004 - a chap called Joe Finney popped down from Lancaster University to give a short talk and demo to the MS department I was then working in. His talk was awesome – like, I’ve not forgotten it!! – primarily because he demonstrated ‘Real Tournament’, a computer game played in the real world using a Pocket PC wired to a GPS and some accelerometers – all mounted on a modified ‘Supasoaker’ :-D. The gist being, as you move around the real world, a virtual world mirroring the real world played out on the PDA screen. In this virtual world were monsters to slay, and treasures to collect.

I loved it. I even planned my own implementation of the electronics, but never got to build it. However, now our mobile devices are as good as Joe’s enhanced PDAs. They have GPS and G-Sensors. We have real world mapping services we can call upon, all we really need is the game logic and the points of interest data to locate treasures and monsters :-)

I doubt the Met will be chuffed if I start walking around London with a modified ‘Supasoaker gun’, so I’ll confine my game to the PDA device. But I have all sorts of grand ideas incorporating VoiP IVR applications and electronic graffiti for clues. The ability to zap opponents via BlueTooth as well as treasure hordes to collect and dragons to slay.

I’m looking to Windows Azure to provide me with a server platform (free at the moment!) together with the Bing Maps API (virtual earth free too) to provide detailed virtual world aerial views. Coupled with the hardware in my HTC Touch Pro 2 - its going to be awesome.

See you there.

Widgets!

paulfo — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:28:56 GMT

I’ve been lucky enough to obtain my very own HTC Touch Pro2 running Windows Mobile 6.5 :-)

Its been awhile since new gadgets landed on my desk – so to say I am keen to play with it, would be an understatement. It is also exciting to be back in the world of mobile development. I did a fair amount in the late 90’s and early 00’s but have been away doing other stuff for most of the last five years.

Windows Mobile 6.5 has many interesting features – including new UI stuff – but it also has a built in Widgets platform. Widgets are very much in on the mobile device these days. Everyone is doing them! And so are we now.

What are Widgets. They are best described as local HTML/AJAX and JavaScript pages. They install using a compressed file – not a .CAB, but a .Widget. The zip file contains localisation directories,together with image, CSS style sheets and script resources and of course the HTML page that pulls everything together. They run in the mobile IE (mIE) sandbox but have some special Widget JS objects which let you get to some of the device detail – including some events and soft key definitions. This enables the Widgets to look very much like native applications – but they aren’t. They are local web pages which can consume web services asynchronously using the XmlHttpRequest object; they even have a limited amount of local storage (each field limited to 4000 characters).

As web pages, they are easy to script and play nicely to the broad web developer skill set that exists. But because they ‘run’ locally, they can operate with more apparent integration to the device than starting a web browser and selecting a favourites link.

There are also some disappointments. Running in the mIE sandbox prevents Widgets from getting to any of the cool new device functionality – like the GPS or G-Sensors. You do get device rotation events which enables you to restructure your display for portrait or landscape viewing – this can be done very simply by switching between alternative CSS style sheets.

In theory, IDispatchEX COM components and ActiveX controls can also be hosted in a Widget, but I haven’t seen any examples as yet. I wonder if the Widget installer can register COM objects? Looking at an architecture diagram for the Widget platform there is a Security Broker between the ScriptEngine and plugins such as the Flash player, Windows Media, MSXML etc. I need to do some more research here to see how to create such plugins as I would really like to use the GPS from my Widgets!

Widgets will come into their own with the opening of the Windows ® Marketplace for Mobile. This is a gallery of applications directly accessible to Windows Mobile 6.5 devices via what appears to be a widget which is part of the Windows Mobile 6.5 implementation. Developers of Widgets can publish their creations directly onto the Marketplace to sell them. So along with XNA Community Games for Xbox Live, we now have a (or at least very shortly will) mobile applications marketplace where developers can sell goods for real money!

I think this is all very positive stuff. There a couple of rough edges: your device can’t install Widgets via any other means than the Marketplace application unless you enable the WMWidgetInstaller application via registry settings. Easy for us developers to do, but not so for the great unwashed. The Marketplace will go live when the Windows Mobile 6.5 devices are released to the shops – 6th Oct.

Also the OMTP’s BONDI project which provides Widget infrastructure for Windows Mobile 6.0 and Windows Mobile 6.1 is rather cut off and left drifting. Although, looking through the list of planned developments for BONDI, not many seem to have progressed beyond the drawing board.

Codeplex already has some nice utilities to help you build your Widgets. Some templates for VS projects as well as Expression Web. A packager application that creates your config.xml file which describes your Widget for you. Unfortunately, the current version requires some tweaking as it fails to include the config.xml or the icon files you need within the ZIpped package file – which is also called .wgt rather than the required .Widget. But these are easily solved and importantly there are a number of Widget examples provided in the Codeplex download – good for getting started with.

With so many service APIs now available (Bing has a whole stack of stuff to play with) building Widgets is productive, useful and fun!

I will be presenting a short session on Windows Mobile 6.5 Widget development at the Over The Air event this Friday/Saturday.

Windows Mobile 6.5 phones soon!

paulfo — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:40:00 GMT

The next version of Windows Mobile could be available on new devices as soon as Oct 6th. Devicewire are already taking pre-orders for the HTC Touch2. Although the probably the first Windows Mobile 6.5 device in the UK, it doesn’t have any of the cool new hardware I’m looking forward to; namely accelerometer and GPS. Its with these new sensors that devices start to get interesting again for application developers.

More details on Windows Mobile 6.5 can be found on the team blog and in Press Pass.

Windows Mobile 6.1 Home Screen Demo

paulfo — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:27:00 GMT

A quick video of the new Windows Mobile 6.1

Cool Stuff!