1)Have you developed Apps for any other platforms before? If Yes What are they?

I have not developed apps for any other mobile platforms yet; Windows phone 7 is my first. I have however worked in the .net framework for about 3 years now, mostly class projects.

2)Why did you choose WP7 as a platform of your choice?

I chose WP7 as my platform of choice because it has an amazingly intuitive API; I am able to use my previous C# knowledge without a huge learning curve. Microsoft did a great job of integrating the windows 7 controls and platform into the already existing silverlight and xna frameworks. That being said the reason I decided to develop an app at all is because I wanted to develop something that I could learn a lot from, would be useful to people beyond myself, and wouldn’t take a full team of people to make. An app fit the bill perfectly, and WP7 seemed like the best platform.

3)Which one do you think as the single most feature you liked in WP7?

The feature I love most about WP7 is the very powerful graphics capabilities; I love the fact that you can use xna to develop a full 3D game and WP7 be able to run it without a problem, I think the WP7′s support for game development and its integration with XBOX live will bring a whole new age of mobile gaming.

4)Are you satisfied with WP7 Platform development tools?

I am very satisfied; there are a few things that I’ve gotten a little frustrated with, but they were all things that will make the actual phone work at it’s best and there was always an alternative way of reaching my means.

5)What are the Apps you are developing now in WP7?

Currently I’m developing an App that reads information from the World of Warcraft armory and displays it a format that is useful for raid leaders. I want it to give full information about the items the person is wearing, their talents, and the plan is to also aggregate everything in a score based on how well their items match up with their talents. I also want it to provide their guild information and a list of their recent in game activities.

6)In what way Microsoft can improve their WP7 or What does WP7 lacks from?

The only area I feel WP7 lacks in is the ability to customize the UI to the point that I would like, but at the same time not being able to gives the phone a sense of uniformity and familiarity to the end user which is more important.

7)Future Plans of you?

After I finish my current app I want to delve into XNA for windows phone 7.  I have done a little with XNA for the computer and xbox, but I’m really interested in working more directly with the touch screen input and accelerometer and seeing what I can make out of it. More distantly I want to graduate college with a degree in computer science and get a job in game development.

Apart from these questions, Other things you want to share with the community?

I am a College Student majoring in computer science, I’ve been doing basic programming since I was 13; I got serious about it and decided to make it my life in my senior year of high school. Ever since then I’ve set out to learn as much as possible.

My Twitter: www.twitter.com/hartra34

Thanks Harris for sharing with us.I also want to mention that,Harris is the first Student Developer we have interviewed so far.Best of luck for his future.

Our anonymous tipster has send us another screen shot, this time showing the Windows Phone 7 my phone page in a bit more detail than the blurry picture we had last time.

As can be seen from the screen shot, the range of services are the same as the current version of My Phone, but with a slight Windows Phone 7 accent.

Are our readers hoping for additional features? Let us know below.

Mobileburn is wandering the halls at CTIA and stumbled across the LG Panther (which they think is the LG Optimus 7, but we think is unlikely) at a LG DLNA display.

They were able to have a live hands-on demo and recorded the above video of DLNA in action.

At present it is not believed that DLNA is part of the core spec of Windows Phone 7, which does show that there is still room for OEM’s to differentiate themselves with improved features and functionality even on Windows Phone 7.

Mobileburn has some more picture of the LG Panther at their website here.

Adding to our list of Windows Phone 7 launch dates, ITnews in Australia reports that Microsoft let slip a December launch date for Windows Phone 7 in Australia.

The handsets are expected to be on sale in Australia by Christmas, with a "major launch" with Telstra planned in December.

The date adds to a rumoured 22 October launch in UK and Ireland and mid-November in USA.

Read more about ITnews’s Windows Phone 7 hands-on impressions here.

1)Have you developed Apps for any other platforms before?If Yes What are they?

This is my first app for any platform.  I have only developed internal-use software in my day-job (mainly in C#), so this is a new adventure for me!

2)Why did you choose WP7 as a platform of your choice?

I chose WP7 as it uses the .NET platform, which I use in my job as a software developer.  It was by far the easiest way for me to start developing a phone app as the Dev environment is familiar and easy to use and it utilises C#, so I’ve only had to learn about Silverlight, which was something I hadn’t used before.  The Microsoft platforms are really matured now and carry a lot of functionality.

3)Which one do you think as the single most feature you liked in WP7?

Although I can’t use them yet, the Panorama and Pivot controls give a great user experience and I am looking forward to utilising them in future applications.  I think Microsoft have designed a great style in the new platform, which hopefully will carry through into people’s apps.

4)Are you satisfied with WP7 Platform development tools?

The fact that Microsoft are providing developers the opportunity to use Visual Studio for free is enabling more and more developers to get involved, which is great.  The Dev environment and tools are very complete and have everything I need to aid me in the design and development of my applications.  There’s still a few bugs that I’ve encountered in the Beta tools and SDK, but hopefully they’ll all be addressed in the next release.

5)What are the Apps you are developing now in WP7?

At the moment I am focussing on just one application, My Car Buddy, which allows you to log journeys that you make on a regular basis, compare your journey against your best time, calculate fuel economy and store business travel journeys (for use in expenses calculations).  Shortly after releasing My Car Buddy, I will release My Walking Buddy and My Cycling Buddy, which are adaptations of the Car version, but optimised for the other modes of transport.  I also have a few other ideas floating about in my head, so I’ll be sure to let you guys know when they’re a bit further along the line!

6)In what way Microsoft can improve their WP7 or What does WP7 lacks from?

It’s too early to be too critical of WP7, as I think the make or break of it will be largely dependant on the Apps.  The platform itself looks great and they’ve taken a new approach to taking on a market full of iPhones and iPhone-like devices.  Without having used an actual WP7 at this stage, I can’t say whether it is lacking anything in particular.  I suspect the biggest gripe for the development community will be the lack of true Multi-tasking.  I know that it would be an advantage for my application to be able to run in the background while the user takes a call for example.

7)Future Plans of you?

As this is my first attempt at making a commercial application outside of my day job, I will be taking things slowly at first.  If WP7 is a success and my applications start to sell, I will be looking forward to continuing development on the platform.  I’m very excited about WP7 and I hope that I will be able to contribute something worthwhile to the community and the end-users.

8)Apart from these questions,Other things you want to share with the community?

I am really pleased with the response so far for my application.  I am still in the early stages of development, but it is progressing well.  The development community has been very good, there’s lots of documentation out there, and the forums over at http://developer.windowsphone.com have been great.  Hopefully people are starting to get as excited about WP7 as I am, as each day there’s some new piece of information released!

My Blog: http://blog.witheytechnologies.co.uk

Thanks Steven for sharing with us.Expecting more WP7 apps from your company.

A handy tipster sent us a screen shot from the Zune desktop software which conveniently reveals the UK pricing for the service, which is expected to launch concurrently with the phones in mid-October.

The service will cost ?8.99 for one month, or ?26.97 for 3 (which means no discount for a longer subscription), and like the US includes 10 free tracks, which at the current price for a CD makes the service more or less free if you buy music regularly.

I have had reservations about signing up to another subscription before, but at these pricing levels its pretty hard to resist. 

Do our readers agree? Let us know below.

1)Have you developed Apps for any other platforms before?If Yes What are they?

A few years ago I wrote a couple of programs to my former device. It was a Neonode, based on Windows CE, which could not run Windows Mobile applications. I developed an MSN-client, a weather application, a stopwatch and a lock-screen-application that showed the clock and status of missed calls / messages.

2)Why did you choose WP7 as a platform of your choice?

It felt quite natural, since I develop in .net daily. I have not bothered about the Windows Mobile platform before since it?s a bit boring and it has a rather bad end-user experience. But the new Windows 7 Phone is different and brings a much better user experience, so it became natural to test developing for the platform.

3)Which one do you think as the single most feature you liked in WP7?

I like that Microsoft decided to bring Silverlight to the system. It is a very powerful technology that facilitates the creation of a quality user experience.

4)Are you satisfied with WP7 Platform development tools?

Yes. Certainly, it would be easier if everything was in place from the beginning. It takes some time to have to install new versions now and then. But at the same time it?s exciting to see how the platform develops. The development environment works very well. The main disadvantage for me is not having any device to run tests on.

5)What are the Apps you are developing now in WP7?

Right now I?m trying to learn some XNA because it?s something I have not tried before. For me, it helps to come up with something more than “hello world” when I want to learn something new, so therefore I came up with the idea that it would be fun to write a Lemmings clone.

6)In what way Microsoft can improve their WP7 or What does WP7 lacks from?

I hope they have a pretty aggressive plan for how they?re planning to update the system with new features. Certainly there are features missing, but I hope and believe that Microsoft listens to the users and will make sure that the platform becomes more complete over time.
It would also be nice to see some more focus on enterprise development.

7)Future Plans of you?

I will try to complete Roblings (the Lemmings clone). Then there are a lot of ideas of programs that would be fun to do. Unfortunately I have limited time to spend on my own projects, so we?ll see.

Thanks Jonatan for sharing with us.All the best for your future works.

If you a re going to make an app for either Windows Phone 7 or Xbox Live it seems there is no reason not to make it for both.

This seems to be the philosophy of Sudoku3D, who created their eponymous game to play on both platforms. Sudoku3D is a new variation of the well known game Sudoku. Unlike others Sudoku3D uses 16 unique numbers and is a single puzzle on a surface of a cube.

The game clearly works pretty smoothly ( a word I use often) on a real device, and in all likelihood will be ready for Marketplace by the time of the launch.

Follow Sukoku3D on their facebook page here.

It seems Brandon still has his Windows Phone 7 device in hand because the new video was posted yesterday demoing how Maps behave in WP7. Found on his site Pocketnow, the video shows how you will be enjoying maps with WP7. He covers some menus, searches, navigation (but not voice, but I am quite sure that will be available), and everything else that really matters.

Bing Maps software looks great, and seems to be built better than what Android and iPhone has. I mean with reviews, smooth transition, home screen pinning, and more… They really know how to make a good map experience in a short time (2 years I think, bit truly more like 1 year). 

Do you think that is good enough to replace that old TomTom you have in your dashboard or do you already have your other device on there?

WindowsforDevices write that Globalfoundries  has reached a "significant milestone" in its production of 28-nanometer ARM Cortex-A9 processors, with silicon expected in late 2010. The chips could run as fast as 2.5 Ghz, with the company announcing a roadmap of even faster chips running at 22 and 20 nm.

The 28 nm chips promise to provide approximately 40 percent higher performance within the same thermal envelope, delivering improved application performance and enriched multitasking capabilities on mobile devices, a 30 percent reduction in power consumption, and a 100 percent increase in standby battery life.

The chip provides a fully optimized ARM Cortex-A9 physical IP suite, including a full range of standard cell libraries, high-speed cache memory macros for L1 and density-optimized memories in other areas.

Production of the SoCs (system on chips) will begin during the second half of this year at Globalfoundries’ Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany.

Globalfoundries also provided its first timeline for the production of even smaller processors. The company’s 22/20nm technologies will offer a "full node shrink" from 32/28nm, utilizing next-generation HKMG (high-K metal gate) technology and strain engineering "to enable the area and die cost scaling the industry has come to expect with each technology generation," the company says.

According to the manufacturer, "test chip shuttles" using 22/20nm technology will begin running in its Dresden, Germany-based Fab 1 in the second half of 2011. "Risk production" is set to begin in the second half of 2012, the company added.

For much more read WindowsforDevices.com.

Samsung is releasing a number of Windows Phone 7 devices, but have their reservations regarding its success.

Unlike LG, is seems Samsung does not have as much high hopes for the success of Windows Phone 7.

YH Lee, head of marketing at Samsung Mobile has told Reuters at IFA they will be concentrating on Android and Bada as their main platform, stating:

“We are Prioritizing our Android platform. Android is very open and flexible, and there is a consumer demand for it,”

She was much less positive about Windows Phone, saying:

“There is still some professional, specialized demand there,”

Of course things could be worse.  On Symbian she said “We are not seeing visible demand for Symbian,”

Of course, like all mobile operating systems, except maybe the iPhone, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 will have to prove itself in the market, and hopefully in 6 months to a year Samsung will be singing a different tune.

via Mobileburn.com

1)Have you developed Apps for any other platforms before?If Yes What are they?

I have not developed any Apps for any other phone platform.  I have developed many web based applications and games.  At one point I worked building educational flash based lessons that were deployed on CDs.  I Currently build web based business solution for small to mid size companies using php, Flash, but mainly ASP.net.  As a hobby, I have built many small games using Silverlight, Flash, and html 5.

2)Why did you choose WP7 as a platform of your choice?

The biggest reason is the development tools.  I can take existing applications I have built for the web, in silverlight, and port them to the phone with little effort.  I’m also excited about developing with XNA on the phone.

3)Which one do you think as the single most feature you liked in WP7?

I like the simplicity of the phone menus.

4)Are you satisfied with WP7 Platform development tools?

Very satisfied.  I can still use the same development tools I use for other .net projects.

5)What are the Apps you are developing now in WP7?

I am currently developing 3 games: Frog Log, PaperBall, and Frog attack.

Frog Log – You stack frogs on a logs.  Different levels have different challenges.

PaperBall – Is a mini football simulator with a twist.

Frog Attack – You try to catch the food and avoid the attacking frogs.  If they get you, you will have shake them off.

6)In what way Microsoft can improve their WP7 or What does WP7 lacks from?

I don’t see any features that “wow” me better than the other leading smart phones on the market.  I hope to see a better “wow” factor.

7)Future Plans of you?

I would love for my hobby of making mini games to become my day job.

Thanks Jimmy.People interested in exploring more of his work,head to http://www.jimmyinteractive.com/.

One of my most favourite handsets which never made it to market was the HTC Trophy, a smartphone with a front-facing QWERTY and a capacitive VGA screen which was meant to arrive some time this year but but appeared to have been cancelled in the end.

Now the::unwired reports that an enigmatically named HTC 7 Trophy has just passed through the Global Certification Forum with European UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA at 900/2100 MHz bands.

No further information is available, but it would be rather odd for HTC to include the number 7 in the name of an Android device, so I feel we can be rather confident it will be a Windows Phone 7 device, hopefully coming soon (given that it was certified).

The picture on top of course is just a mock up. Whether the name indicated a new device, is just a re-used code name (which HTC does to confuse leakers on purpose sometimes) or marks the long-awaited arrival of a real front-facing QWERTY keyboard device will remains to be seen.

Read more at the::unwired.net here.

More confirmation that the LG Optimus 7 is coming to AT&T has just popped up, with the device successfully navigating the FCC with full AT&T bands.

The handset, which is rumoured to have a full metal build (rather than the plastic suggested by the pictures), and will of course otherwise have the full Chassis specs required by Windows Phone 7.

See the FCC  documentation here and here .

Via Engadget.com

Remember the Courier, and its ingenious method of copy and paste by “tucking” items to the center spine, or maybe the Kin spot. Well, if blogger msftnerd’s sources are correct, that is the method via which copy and paste will come to Windows phone 7. It is a elegant method of solving this age old problem and here is just a taste of the implementation.

I was really pleased, then, to hear that Microsoft had figured out a better way and that it would be coming in an update soon after the world-wide launch of the first wave of phones. You see, the company has pulled this implementation straight out of the “canceled” Courier dual-screen booklet project. Now, Courier had the middle hinge to act as a temporary virtual clipboard, and WP7 doesn’t have one. So, where do the copied items go? Straight up, at the top edge of the screen in portrait and on the side opposite the app-bar in landscape orientations…

The post: Windows Phone 7 clipboard: “Tuck and Paste” goes into so much more detail so hit the link and get ready to be amazed!  A word of caution though, this is all speculation/rumor so it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. However, it is not that far fetched from reality IMHO because Microsoft already posses the technology. So what do you guys think if this turns out to be true (crossing my fingers)?

Via @msftnerd

With the introduction of WP7, Microsoft fixed most of the aspects that made the old Windows mobile powerful yet unusable for average users by creating a new standard UI for the OS, and specifying  a set of minimum hardware specs that are high enough to guarantee a great user experience out of the box. The requirement for a physical camera button will be a decision most consumers will appreciate and so will the ability to quickly snap pictures even when the phone is locked together with the seamless switching between the live view and camera roll.

That being said, with all the thought that obviously went into the design, I wonder why they neglected to define a standardized multi-function connector like the one found on the Zune or iPhone. The Zune HD already has an excellent  HD dock for use with the connector(albeit expensive) and it would have been great to just be able to plop any WP7 phone onto the dock and enjoy the Zune service on a big screen. This would also have spawned a proliferation of 3rd party accessories because the manufacturers would not have to build custom products for individual phones, instead, they would be able to target all the devices just like they don’t have to worry about screen resolutions anymore.

I have no idea how extensible the micro-usb port on WP7 devices in regards multimedia capabilities and such, but I think that for the next revision(2.0) of hardware specs for WP7, Microsoft needs to include the standard multifunction port. From what I have read so far, such a port offers more extensibility than Micro/Mini USB ports and provides greater durability. The USB ports could still be used be available for charging purposes.  Some of the multimedia functions can also be covered over Wi-fi, but specialized peripherals for business applications may benefit greatly from the added flexibility.  I am sure that you guys have great opinions for or against the idea so let us know but please, keep it civil.

Ruttensoft, the company behind the first Windows Mobile Dropbox client, Cloudfiles, is in the process of porting their software to Windows Phone 7.

They write:

Building on CloudFiles, the very successful Dropbox for Windows Mobile 6.5 Client, we are working hard to port our Windows Mobile 6.5 Dropbox Client to the much-anticipated Windows Phone 7-Platform.

As Windows Phone 7 is a complete new platform which cannot run Windows Mobile 6 Apps, we had to recode a bigger part of the application, especially the GUI. Thanks to Microsoft Blend 4, building GUI’s for Windows Phone 7 apps is really easy, compared to previous GUI-designing. It’s better not think about how much time we would have saved if previous Windows Mobile apps could have been designed using Blend

But Microsoft has done a really good job, although some developers will miss some features which are (not!) yet implemented in Windows Phone 7, building apps for WP7 with impressive GUI’s is easy as never before.

Great news, and with out own l3v5y also working on a dropbox client it seems Windows Phone 7 will not be short of cloud sync and storage any time soon.

Keep an eye on Ruttensoft’s site here for the latest developments.

Thanks Geekword.net for the tip.

Windows Phone 7 going gold

Terry Myerson has announced on Microsoft’s Windows Team Blog that Windows Phone 7 has now been finalized and released to manufacturers for loading onto devices.

Today is the day that the Windows Phone team has been driving towards, and we’re very excited to say that we’ve reached the biggest milestone for our internal team – the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Phone 7!  While the final integration of Windows Phone 7 with our partners’ hardware, software, and networks is underway, the work of our internal engineering team is largely complete.

The final version of Windows Phone 7 will include features not seen in the preview version so far, including the ability to filter facebook contacts which will be integrated into the contact list, said Myers, and also the ability to “like” a post directly from the people’s hub, and reply to a comment.

Myers also Windows Phone 7 the “most thoroughly tested mobile platform Microsoft has ever released”, saying:

We had nearly ten thousand devices running automated tests daily, over a half million hours of active self-hosting use, over three and a half million hours of stress test passes, and eight and a half million hours of fully automated test passes.  We’ve had thousands of independent software vendors and early adopters testing our software and giving us great feedback. We are ready.

Hopefully all this testing will result in an extremely bug-free and smooth-running operating system, likely helped by the lack of unpredictable interactions by the lack of native access to the system by third party applications and the lack of multi-tasking for the same apps.

Read the full post here.

For Windows Phone 7, the only way is up.

Now we would be first to admitted we have never heard of i-programmer.info, but that’s not going to stop us from reporting the good news that programmers are more keen to develop on Windows Phone 7 than iPhone, by a narrow margin of 19 to 18%. Of course Android was still far ahead at 45%, but it is still pretty good for an unreleased operating system.

In the survey Blackberry had only 3%, which may account for their meagre application store, despite their large numbers.

An explanation of Windows Phone 7’s performance may lie in a recent article by Paul Thurrott in which he explains the appeal of the platform. Examples include that, unlike the iPhone, developers do not need to buy a new computer to develop for Windows Phone 7, they can program in a language they knew already, and using tools they were already familiar with, and that Microsoft has done a good job promoting and supporting development on the OS so far.

Do our readers think the poll reflects reality? Let us know below.

What have we here?  Apparently a leaked O2 spread sheet shows the mythical HTC HD2 successor arriving on O2 on the 18th October, just in time for the Windows Phone 7 launch.

What do our readers expect from this hopefully amazing device, if real? Let us know below.

Via Engadget.com