Jan 23 2009

Apple Patenting Ambient Noise Volume Adjustment, Also Available on Windows Mobile

Category: Article | Contest | WindowsJoel Ivory Johnson @ 08:16

This isn't the first observation of this type that I've seen, but Apple has filed for a patent for adjusting phone volume based on ambient noise.  As the noise in the environment goes up so will the phones volume.  Oddly enough I've seen a similar system published in an MSDN magazine for Windows Mobile phones.

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Jan 13 2009

Microsoft Windows Mobile Developer Contest 2008 Coming to a Close

In case you've missed it the Windows Mobile Programming Contest at CodeProject.com comes to an end tomorrow night at  11:59:59 EST (thats only about 35 hours from now!).  In looking over the contest entries I see a lot of good entries.  Here they are in no specific order:

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Dec 29 2008

Upcoming Windows Mobile Webcast

The new year is around the corner and the upcoming presentations for "24 hours of Windows Mobile" are on the calendar.   After these presentations there should be able 8 more which puts the presentation series as completing in March.

 

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Dec 23 2008

Google's Cell Tower Location Service Disected

The user Acoustic at CodeProject.com has done a nice write up of a disection of the protocol that Google Maps uses on a cellphone to request location data based on cell tower ID.  He also made available code that can be used in your own project to make use of the service.

 

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Dec 18 2008

Windows Mobile Development without Visual Studio

If you are interested in Windows Mobile development but cannot afford Visual Studio I've posted some notes on getting a dev environment up and running without Visual Studio.  You can see these notes at The Code Project.

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Dec 15 2008

Outline - Introduction to Windows Mobile Development

I see a lot of questions from new-comers to Windows Mobile development on how to get started.  I also see in the Google Analytics report for my site that people stumble upon my site are looking to start on Windows Mobile Development.  I'm planning to write an article introducing one to Windows Mobile development this week.  I will be targetting the developer that already programs in C#.  Unfortunatly I cannot target the person that has never programmed before because too many programming concepts would need to be followed.  For those that have developed before for other platforms I will suggest getting a foundation in C# and .Net before specifically targetting Windows Mobile.  So the profile of the person that I am targetting with my article is some one that knows C# and has some familiarity with Windows form development.  Based on the frequent questions that I see in the forums I plan to cover the following in addition to some other information.

  • Minimum Software Required for Windows Mobile Development
  • Overview of Mobile Development Technologies
    • Win32
    • MFC
    • ATL
    • .Net
  • Thread Spinning <- this will kill your battery, and fast!
  • Using Multiple Threads
  • PIM
  • System State and Notifications Broker
  • P/Invoke
  • Supporting various Form Factors
  • Connection Management
  • Bluetooth
  • 3D Programming
  • Dispose();
  • WM_HIBERNATE
  • Adding Help to an Application
  • Data management
  • Synchronization
  • Setup and Deployment
  • Other Resources
    • MSDN Library
    • MSDN Forums - also mentioning Daniel Moth's Guidelines for the forum
    • Windows Embeded Blog
    • Windows Mobile Blog
    • "24 Hours of Windows Mobile" webcast series
    • "How  do I" videos

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Nov 25 2008

Windows Mobile Interoperability

I develop dektop applications, web applications, and mobile applications.  But many times a solution doesn't fit completly within the boundries of those three types of applications.  There are solutions in which a desktop front-end interacts with a web back-end, or a mobile device communicates with a desktop, or in which all three work together for a common purpose (an excellent example of such a solution is Exchange, Outlook, and Pocket Outlook).  Microsoft already provides solutions for making applications that interact with each other across process boundries, machine boundries, and even across different operating systems.

I've written a few articles on CodeProject.com that for the most part are isolated from other systems.  The projects and the example code are about Windows Mobile and run on Windows Mobile devices.  I am about to expand the types of solutions about which I write to solutions that cooperate with other devices (the other devices being servers, desktops, and potentially other Windows Mobile devices).  The articles aren't targetting webservices, WCF, or interprocess communication per se though those technologies may be used within the solutions.  Microsoft has alread done an excellent job of laying the ground work for Interoperability and thedeveloper only needs to use it.   These areticles are targetted at tacking the technologies that we already know to exists and demonstrating new ways of using them.

I know that doesn't give a clear idea of what these new articles will cover, but you won't need to wait long to find out.  I've already got the code for my next article written.  With a 4 day weekend quickly approaching I plan to use one of those days to complete the article for the code.  It will be for an application to make desktops and windows mobile devices cooperate in a new way.

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Nov 12 2008

IE6 for Windows Mobile 6 Details

Category: Windows Mobile | Article | WindowsJoel Ivory Johnson @ 23:22

The Windows Mobile Team Blog has some details on IE6 for Windows Mobile 6.   Sadly it is confirmed that it is not available as a seperate download.  So if your device is nolonger getting firmware updates then you will only be bale to get it if you purchase a new device.  Some of the features are as follows:

  • Improved fidelity (support for full fidelity desktop rendering)
  • Layout fixes to accommodate a mobile screen (text wrap)
  • Enhanced Script and AJAX support  (Jscript v5.7 from Internet Explorer 8)
  • Improved multimedia experience (Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 for Adobe Flash content)
  • Deeper integration with search
  • Enhanced cursor navigation model
  • Touch and gesture support – pan support
  • Multiple zoom levels
  • Easy switching between mobile / desktop versions of sites by specifying UA strings.
  • If you want to do development with IE6 you don't need to wait.  An emulator for IE6 is available now.

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    Oct 31 2008

    .Net Micro Framework 3.0 Released

    The .Net Micro Framework version 3.0 is now availble.

    • Compatibility with Visual Studio 2008 and C# Express
    • Touch Screen and Gesture Support
    • Ability to Act as USB Accessory for PC
    • WiFi and SSL Support
    • Emulator included with Kit

    For me the most significant feature of this release is the support for Visual Studio 2008.  When I checked the hardware page I saw that the .Net Micro Framework kit that I have is compatible, so I can uninstall VS 2005 and free up some hard drive space. For those curious there is a video in the "Getting Started" section of the

    Download the SDK Today!

    .Net Micro Framework Resources

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    Oct 28 2008

    Debugging Data Connections through Active Sync

    I cam across a good question on the MSDN support forums. If you've every tried to debug a program that uses a Data Connection hile the device is connected to your computer you may have found that the device won't use it's own data connection and will instead pass all of it's data request through the ActiveSync connection.  This can be frustrating when the verything you are trying to test is the devices data connection.  There's a simple solution.  In the Windows Mobile Device Center (or ActiveSync) uncheck the box labeled "Allow data connections on device when connected to PC."

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    Aug 27 2008

    Power Management Article Published

    Category: Article | Mobile | WindowsJoel Ivory Johnson @ 23:08

    I've taken the discussion of the power button and have expanded upon it in the form of an article on power management in Widnows Mobile devices.  I've published it at my favorite online dev community site, codeproject.com.  Go over to http://www.codeproject.com/script/Articles/Article.aspx?aid=28886 and take a look at the article.  If you find the information usefule then please log in and rate it!

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