Random .NET Ramblings

I can’t say how excited I am about the impending release of the Windows Marketplace for Mobile! I am soooo tired of hearing from my family and friends (yes I have a few) about how awesome the iPhone is. Yes there was a time when people could not believe what a PocketPC or a Windows Smart Phone could do but what is going to make Windows Mobile cool again? Developers! Developers! Developers! As this blog post To Partner or Not To Partner points out Windows Mobile greatest strength and biggest weakness is it’s partners.

I think that once we have some cool rude sound making apps on the Windows mobile platform like iFart (my sons favorite application). To help this I will start covering some topics about development on the Windows mobile platform using the Compact Framework, I have been working with the CF since before it’s 1.0 release and while I have not delivered a solution with it for many years I am always playing with some type of application.

A great place to start is with Rajen Kishna’s blog posting Creating your first Windows Phone (WM 6.5) application once you have this setup you will be all set to start creating some kick a@@ apps!

And just for some fun, this is out dated but I still love this entry iPhone vs Windows Mobile, Email Smackdown and I have to admit I like the new text messaging display of the iPhone, that and the apps are the only thing I like about it. Now with the Marketplace and better class of devices to hit soon I think even my family and friends will have less dig at me about. ;)

Last week I presented to to about 30 to 40 people in Irvine about developing applications for the Mobile platform using the Compact Framework. The audience was great, lot's of good questions and interactions, I had promised to post all the content after the class and while this fulfils the terms of that statement I am sorry it has take me this long.

There are still some Mobility Metro events scheduled see Loke Uei Tan's blog entry More Mobility Metro events for more information. I talked to Loke this week and he has assured me we will be doing more of these events in a few more months as well.

Have you been thinning of ways you could create solutions for your customers or company on the Windows Mobile platform? Well you are in luck! I am going to be running two Mobility Metro Events in the Microsoft offices San Diego and Irvine on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 and Thursday, April 24, 2008. I will post the full details below... I hope to see you there!

The content for the mobility touchdown events that I was at in Los Angeles and Las Vegas has been updated and is available for download from Q4Tech's web site at Mobility touchdown content. If you attended any of the events around the world you will want to get the final content as all the bugs were fixed as the content was bending given.

For a review of what the Mobility touchdown events were see the MSDN blog http://blogs.msdn.com/mobilitytouchdown.

Just incase you had not seen this back in November Q4Tech released to CodePlex an implementation of the Patterns & Practices Mobile Updater Application Block. I have seen it used and it's quite feature complete, I hope to have my line of business application demo back online soon and have it using this block.

A area of development that miss not working with as often as I would like is programming for Windows CE. I did a lot of development for CE with the Compact Framework before I joined Microsoft and have contented to develop some small proof of concept applications to show what is possible but as always if not part of your day to day job you tend not to keep up and that is where I am at with this (and many other) topic.

I recently found the HopperRX blog that has a bunch of good advice and tools to help develop applications for CE I hope it can help any of you keep up as well.

There is going to be a online guided hands-on webcast titled "Creating Managed Applications for Windows Mobile 5.0 Powered Devices"

For more information see the MSDN event site for the event MSDN Webcast: Guided Hands-On: Creating Managed Applications for Windows Mobile 5.0 Powered Devices (Level 200).

This is the first time I have seen this type of training offering offered and am quite interested to see how it is received so please let me know if you attend it.

I am sure you all have been waiting like myself for the final version and now it's here!

Mobile Client Software Factory

Go get it!

The PAG group has just released a CTP of the Mobile Client Software Factory. I have yet to read and play with the code but I am told it is great.

Please let me know what you think of it if you decide to play with it.

OK I know this is going to be a pain in my side but I want to do it so I can stay current on Compact Framework development. On the suggestion of Scott Kerfoot I have stated to develop a small test Compact Framework application. I have setup a new site to host it and it’s Web Service. Check it out!

Pubs Demo