Windows Phone 7 User Experience Talks at the Windows Phone Designer Event (Video)

 Development, Media, User Experience, Videos, Windows Phone  No Responses »
Feb 262012
 

Windows Phone Design Mistakes and How to Avoid them

David Crawford, User Experience Consultant at Microsoft, discusses the most common design hurdles facing Windows Phone developers, and provides tips and tricks to avoid common pitfalls. Crawford also discusses best practices for branding applications.

The Windows Phone Experience in Review

Bryan Agnetta, Senior User Experience (UX) PM Lead at Microsoft, gives a step-by-step review of the Windows Phone experience. Agnetta answers developers’ questions regarding developing for the Metro UI and Windows Phone devices.

Developing Applications Using Microsoft’s Metro for Windows Phone

Bryan Agnetta, Senior User Experience PM Lead at Microsoft, offers insight into developing applications using the Metro design language. Agnetta gives an overview of creating applications with Metro and discusses Microsoft’s efforts to integrate its various brands into this one innovative platform.

White Christmas with White HTC Phones

 Technology  No Responses »
Nov 232011
 

The award winning Android powered HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio returns to pays homage to a white Christmas with a brand new look dressed in the season’s favorite classic white. At a suggested retail price of SGD$868, the HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio (White Edition) is designed to boost performance and battery life even further with the addition of a blazing fast 1.5 GHz dual core processor and an extended battery that enables you to listen, watch, speak and browse for even longer.

To complete the white ensemble, The HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio (White Edition) comes with an exclusive all white urBeats in-ear headphones which features a remote control, allowing you to pause, play or skip through tracks and answer/end calls while you plug in to fuller bass and crisper vocals and experience music the way the artist intended.

The HTC Sensation XL with Beats Audio takes mobile entertainment to a new level with an amazing 4.7-inch screen, slim 9.9mm design and a specifically Beats Audio optimized audio experience, designed to deliver the best entertainment experience with stunning audio and visuals for music, movies and games. At a suggested retail price of SGD$908, the HTC Sensation XL with Beats Audio boasts of an 8MP camera, featuring an f/2.2, 28mm wide-angle lens with back- illuminated sensor to fit more of the scene into every shot and for better low-light performance.

HTC Sensation XL with Beats Audio includes new lightweight all white urBeats headphones, created exclusively to integrate with the Beats AudioTM profile on the device as well as features unique audio tuning by Beats that ensures customers will hear their music as the artist intended.

At a suggested retail price of SGD$648, the HTC Incredible S (White Edition) comes with a 8-megapixel camera (with dual flash) that captures High-Definition videos and crystal clear 4-inch display that brings images to life this Christmas.

The HTC Radar is elegantly crafted with an all-white aluminium unibody complements this holiday season with its pristine white design as well as its extensive people-first features such as its dedicated hardware camera button which enables you to capture vivid images while the f/2.2 aperture lens and back- illuminated sensor provide improved low-light performance – making sure you never miss that perfect shot over the Christmas holidays.

At a suggested retail price of SGD$569, the HTC Radar is the perfect multimedia powerhouse to keep you entertained and connected this holiday season!

The HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio (White Edition), HTC Sensation XL with Beats Audio, HTC Incredible S (White Edition) and HTC Radar are now available at all mobile operators and authorized resellers at suggested retail prices of $868, $908, $648 and $569 respectively.

Thoughts on Nokia Lumia 800 and 710 – Available in Singapore before the end of the year

 Technology  No Responses »
Nov 152011
 

The Nokia Lumia 800 is one of the first two Windows Phone 7.5 devices from Nokia. It will be available in Singapore *estimated* around December 10th 2011, at an *estimated* price of SGD$799. Do note these are estimated time and pricing, and are not official.

Now here are my initial thoughts about the Nokia Lumia 800:

  • It’s exactly the same as the Nokia N9, except it has a slightly smaller screen (3.7″), no NFC, no front-facing camera. It is using micro-sim similar with the Nokia N9, just something to note about.
  • I love touching/swiping the Nokia N9 screen, and although touching/swiping the Nokia Lumia 800 screen isn’t as good, but it’s better than any other touch screen phone I’ve used. With that said, I’m not talking about the software, but the curved screen itself.
  • The Nokia ClearBlack display is AMAZING. You can see the difference in the vibrancy of the color and the blacks.
  • There aren’t a lot of customizations on the Windows Phone 7.5, so if you’re familiar with WP7.5, it’s all there.
  • Services differentiate Nokia Wp7.5 phones over the rest – Nokia Maps and Drive, Nokia Music, Transfer Contacts, App Highlights.
  • If anything, Nokia Music has the largest collection of music (English, Korean, Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin, etc) in this part of the world for purchase.
  • Nokia Maps and Drive isn’t as good as I expect it to be. Nokia Drive with free downloadable maps (up to 95 countries) still requires internet connection to do any routing. Still doesn’t help when I’m overseas with no data.
  • Transfer Contacts allows you to transfer your contacts from practically any phone (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Nokia Symbian) into your Nokia Lumia phones through bluetooth. Extremely useful for a lot of people.
  • I’m not too impressed with App Highlights, which is just another app discovery application that’s controlled by Nokia.
The Nokia Lumia 710 is second of the two Windows Phone 7.5 devices from Nokia. It will be available in Singapore *estimated* around December 10th 2011, at an *estimated* price of SGD$499. Do note these are estimated time and pricing, and are not official.Now here are my initial thoughts about the Nokia Lumia 710:

  • Not as good as the Nokia Lumia 800 in terms of hardware, but it’s an affordable WP7.5 phone with all the software services provided by Nokia like the Nokia Maps and Drive, Nokia Music, Transfer Contacts, App Highlights.
  • 5 different colors for the back covers – white, black, cyan, fuchsia and yellow so customize the look and feel. 2 colors for the front – black or white.
  • Otherwise, there’s nothing much that stands out.
And those are my thoughts on the 2 new Nokia Lumia 800 and 710. What do you think about the two new phones?

Which phone will you buy in 4Q2011 – iPhone 4S vs Nexus Prime vs HTC Titan/Radar

 Technology  1 Response »
Oct 042011
 

The iPhone 4S is going to be available in October, so is the Android Ice-cream Sandwich Nexus Prime. The new Microsoft Windows Phone 7.5 will start rolling out with HTC Radar and Titan, together with Samsung Omnia W. All in the month of October/November time-frame. So, which phone will you buy?

Which phone will you buy in 4Q2011?

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HP kills webOS devices – My thoughts on the matter

 Technology  No Responses »
Aug 192011
 

In HP’s recent conference call meeting just a few hours ago, they’ve announced they’ll cease to make anymore webOS devices due to the lack of demand and failure to meet HP’s financial targets and unit sell-through expectations. HP will be shutting down the entire webOS hardware business unit and will be looking to license webOS software to manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung.

In light of this new development, the future of webOS is uncertain and it might just disappear into the abyss.

Now, my rants after the break. Continue reading »

Fun and Simple Game Programming on Windows Phone 7 with ScriptTD

 Technology  No Responses »
Aug 122011
 

ScriptTD is an open source project that allows anyone to easily create a new Tower Defense game for the Windows Phone 7 platform, without any prior programming knowledge by changing settings, sounds, and graphics. These games can then be sold in the Zune Marketplace. Developers can also extend out the engine to handle new features and game styles.

Great for kids to get into game programming on their Windows Phone 7 phones.

Evernote for Windows Phone 7 now Available

 Technology  2 Responses »
Jun 172011
 

All I can say is, FINALLY, Evernote is now on Windows Phone 7 marketplace. I personally think Windows Phone 7′s UI strengths are meant for applications like Evernote, displaying vast amount of information in a condensed form.

The Evernote Pivot Panels are:

  • Notes: A complete scrollable note list
  • Notebooks: Tap on a notebook to view its contents
  • Tags: Tap on a tag to see all the notes associated with it
  • Recent notes: This list lets you jump to the 20 most recently viewed notes

Evernote for Windows Phone 7 also displays Notebook Stacks and hierarchical tags. You can create a New Note, add photos and audio to your notes. You can also quickly take a Snapshot photo directly from the home screen and it’ll create a new note instantly.

Searching within Evernote for Windows Phone 7 is a breeze, with the ability  to quickly run through all your notes within the Pivot Panels, or just pressing the search icon (magnifying glass) to access the search panel which also displays your previous searches and saved searches.

You can also show your notes on a map where they were created, with the Bing maps technology.

And there are of course many other features out of this first release of Evernote for Windows Phone 7. Download Evernote for Windows Phone 7 by going to the Windows Phone 7 marketplace and search for Evernote.

Guidance to Port iOS and Android apps to Windows Phone 7

 Development, Windows Phone  No Responses »
Jun 132011
 

Microsoft really wants you, all you iOS and Android developers, to port your apps to Windows Phone 7, and they’ve done a great job by offering lots of guidance and even API mapping tools to help you transfer your skills and knowledge of iOS and/or Android skills quickly to Windows Phone 7.

Here’s what they’re offering:

iOS Developer Guidance to Windows Phone 7

Android Developer Guidance to Windows Phone 7

General Developer Porting Guidance to Windows Phone 7

  • a series of “developer stories”, in which developers share on video their experience porting applications to Windows Phone and explain why and how they did it.
  • “App Guy”
    • Get app porting assistance

With this many resources and help, there really isn’t any excuse for you not to try developing for Windows Phone 7. Head down to App Hub and download the Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools.

iCreate Mobility Challenge by NUS (Video)

 Presentations, Technology  No Responses »
Jun 062011
 

I was the keynote speaker for iCreate Mobility Challenge 2011 held by NUS. If you want to catch me, fast forward to the 6 minutes mark and that’s were I start my presentation on “Mobile Devices and Beyond”. I talked a little about the history of mobile devices, and presently what was the situation in the mobile space, and what is coming up in the future going forward with mobility.

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