Z & his Startup

Introducing FromHere Windows Phone Mango App

2011-09-09T06:48:44Z

We are glad to announce our first Windows Phone Mango 7.5 App published to Marketplace today, it’s called FromHere . Click to Download FromHere for Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango). Well, what’s it about? It’s based on the idea that from your current location, you can explore nearby coffee shops, restaurants, cash machines, gas stations, etc. Heck, you can even search for a keyword that’s not in the category to see if you can look up for something nearby. What if your favorite place is not listed? Well...(read more)

WP7 Intro to MVVM & Blendability by building Twitter App (Part 1)

2011-06-23T00:00:45Z

This is a recap of my session with the same name from Windows Phone 7 App Showcase organized by Microsoft Gulf . I can’t write a 1-hour-to-read article to replay the session, so I’ll do this in a Hands-On-Lab manner. Best way to understand is to read & code the example. What is MVVM? Model: Our application domain is a Twitter App. Our models will be an instance of a Tweet”, and Twitter service itself. Got it? Great, so you build your app based on an interaction of models. After you’ve written...(read more)

How to Trick your Windows Phone to get NoDo (March 2011) Update

2011-04-03T17:20:28Z

This is…I don’t know what to say cos it’s just sad. I don’t think we have to “trick” our Window Phone just to get an update, but here goes. It started with a Microsoft blog announcing that the Copy-and-Paste update is released. Then everyone started to use their Check Update on Windows Phone or on Zune Software to get the update. Result? I think only 1% of Windows Phone population got the update. The rest? Well they were frustrated and started writing comments on not getting the update. As of now...(read more)

WP7: Dissecting we.Muslim app | Part 7 – Prayer Times Calculator

2011-02-25T15:50:15Z

Given a Latitude Longitude Coordinate & UTC Offset, we can calculate Prayer Times in anywhere of the world… Previous parts in this series: Part 1 – Wireframe Part 2 – Composites Part 3 – Icon Sizes Part 4 – Proper Splash Screen Part 5 - Get Current Latitude Longitude Parth 6 - Get Area Name from Latitude Longitude There is already an excellent article on the calculation involved here http://praytimes.org/calculation , which I wouldn’t repeat. While reading the article & converting the codes...(read more)

WP7: Dissecting we.Muslim app | Part 6 – Get Area Name from Latitude Longitude

2011-02-20T20:30:25Z

Given a latitude longitude coordinate, let’s now resolve this to a meaningful Area, Country string. Previous parts in this series: Part 1 – Wireframe Part 2 – Composites Part 3 – Icon Sizes Part 4 – Proper Splash Screen Part 5 - Get Current Latitude Longitude In Part 5 we were able to use Location Services to give us the current coordinate in Latitude Longitude. This information is useful for calculating Prayer Times, but I wouldn’t say “The prayer times for Lat 24.47, Long 54.37 are…” Instead I...(read more)

WP7: Dissecting we.Muslim app | Part 5 – Get Current Latitude Longitude

2011-02-19T20:42:02Z

In this part we will use Location Services to get current coordinates. I’ve created a class that you can reuse and it works with the GPS Emulator too. Previous parts in this series: Part 1 – Wireframe Part 2 – Composites Part 3 – Icon Sizes Part 4 – Proper Splash Screen Set up GPS Emulator First click here to download GPS Emulator for Windows Phone 7. Next right-click your project and Add Reference to the GpsEmulatorClient.DLL file found under \GpsEmulator\GpsEmulator_AppHubReady\GpsEmulator...(read more)

WP7: Dissecting we.Muslim app | Part 4 – PROPER Splash Screen

2011-02-18T23:49:19Z

Prev Posts in the Series: Part 1 – Wireframe Part 2 – Composites Part 3 – Icon Sizes Notice that I put PROPER in All Caps. This is because there are 3 ways of showing Splash Screen and only 1 of them is correct (at least for my app). Let’s start with the wrong ones and finish up with the right one: 1. Splash Screen using SplashScreenImage.jpg This is made famous by Tim Heuer video . Basically you use a 480x800 pixels .JPG (yes, it has to be JPG!) and name it “ SplashScreenImage.jpg ” Then...(read more)

WP7: Dissecting we.Muslim app | Part 3 - Icon Sizes

2011-02-10T17:00:04Z

Prev Posts in the Series: Part 1 – Wireframe Part 2 – Composites Now, icons are the first thing users will see after buying your app, so make them look polished. Application Icon Application icon’s size is 62 x 62 pixels . If you don’t specify one, the Background/Tile Icon will be downsized as the app icon. To specify your app icon, after drag-n-dropping the AppIcon.png, make sure your AppIcon.png has these properties set: Then right-click your Project Properties and set the Icon from the dropdown...(read more)

WP7: Dissecting we.Muslim app | Part 2 - Composites

2011-02-08T23:43:19Z

Part 1 of the series shows how the Wireframe reminded me to prepare various codes (bearing calculation between two locations, getting travelling direction from GPS, etc.). In this second part, I only care about the design assets that will be used. Composites will help me on 2 fronts: The Demo Scenario: sometimes you want to show how cool your app is, but can’t wait until it’s code-complete. Stitching design assets properly and hardcoding stuff (eg. when I pick a city only Jakarta is available, and...(read more)

WP7: Dissecting we.Muslim app | Part 1 - Wireframe

2011-02-08T23:12:04Z

What app do you want to build? Draw it out on a whiteboard or Visio. When you put your ideas out, our brain cells engage and we can estimate the things we might need: buy 3rd party SDK, need an app server for push notification, learn new API, etc. This is the first part of a series titled “Dissecting we.Muslim app”. I will be presenting two sessions on Microsoft TechEd Middle East : Developing for Windows Phone 7 - End to End Understanding Marketplace and Making Money with Windows Phone 7 Applications...(read more)

WP7: People Hub & “Get in, Get out” concept

2011-02-08T19:07:08Z

What I like about Windows Phone 7 is the integration of Facebook into Contacts . In fact, it’s one of the first things WP7 ask after you turn on the phone for the first time: Let’s face it, the people in your contacts are the most you want to hear about . Among 1,000 Facebook friends you have, only a few will dwell in your mobile phone’s contacts. If I want to know what my CEO is doing, I could call him or send him sms: Hey, did you see that? I could also read hist latest Facebook status and...(read more)

Activate Azure Benefits from Bizspark MSDN

2011-02-02T21:27:10Z

If you’re one of the lucky ones who have MSDN Premium (Bizspark Members get MDSN Premium btw), you definitely should activate your Azure benefits. According to this link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/offers/popup/popup.aspx?lang=en&locale=en-US&offer=COMPARE I’ve just activated my Azure benefits, and is looking forward to create some sort of service running in the clouds that will be consumed by Windows Phone 7. Stay tune… Share this post: | | | |...(read more)

WP7 News Reader w/ Streaming Video Ads Prototype

2011-01-31T03:04:28Z

This was our Proof-of-Concept last year to Kompas. Big Thanks to Andra & Kresna for this. Last year was on emulator, lo and behold now we brought to you live on a real Windows Phone 7 device: Share this post: | | | |...(read more)

WP7 Top 7 Design Tips w/ Screenshots

2011-01-28T03:33:42Z

Design Tips from Windows Phone 7 Team that are currently published: Start tiles and splash screens are your first impression… Make them great No white background or blackground! Remember WP7 has default black color theme or alternate white color theme. Make sure your buttons are visible even when the keyboard is displayed Managing themes on WP7. Or how to build your application to respect system color changes Make sure your finger can hit the target and text is...(read more)

WP7 How to speed up Application Certification process

2011-01-28T03:11:03Z

Accelerate Application Certification Want to know where to focus your attention before submitting an application for Windows Phone 7 certification testing? Following are the top seven areas to pay close attention, which will help shorten the time for your application to pass certification and be published in the Marketplace: 1. Technical Support Information. Include technical support contact information, such as an email address or URL, within the application along with the application version number...(read more)