Oct
30
2012
Windows Phone

Windows Phone 8 DevCenter Membership for Just $8!

From the Windows Phone Developer Blog: “Windows Phone 8 is out, the tools are available, and devices are about to be released—it’s time to get coding. As an added incentive, for the next 8 days individual developers can register for a Dev Center account for just $8 (a 92 percent savings). Please note because this is a very limited time offer. You’ll be charged $99 USD or equivalent in your local currency, and we’ll refund the difference in the next 30 to 45 days. Watch for more details on Dev Center soon.” So, if you’re interested in getting your apps on the Windows Phone platform, this is a great way to get started. For more information, check out this blog post.

Oct
28
2012
Windows

Windows 8 in 3 minutes

Quite honestly, having been in the TAP for Windows 8 and having logged a lot of time using the product, I was frustrated because I felt lost when it came to finding something or executing a task. I shy away from the “Start” screen, the screen you see after you’re logged in to Windows 8.  As with a lot of people who have used the product, I saw this screen as something only useful to those who were running a tablet, and I found myself never leaving the “Desktop”, and trying to run Windows as I always had since the beginning. I’m trying to get better at it, after all, I still use it everyday.  What I maybe find the most frustrating still, is the feeling of “who moved my cheese.”  It’s interesting I felt that way, cause at first, Scott Hanselman felt the same way.  Scott has a huge…

Oct
08
2012
Dell | Tips and Tricks

Stupid Mouse Tricks with the Dell XPS13

I love my Dell XPS13.  It’s by far my favorite machine ?that Dell has created.  Prior to the acquisition of Compellent by Dell, I regularly used a MacBook Pro as my primary machine for both home and work.  I like using the Mac OS, but I found the hardware to be my favorite.  Battery life was better than most PC notebooks I had used, and "things just worked."  Although I used a Mac, most of my work was with Windows applications so I either made use of Parallels or VMware Fusion.  I had gotten used to the MacBook Pro trackpad and the use of gestures.  Being able to scroll with two fingers, click with one finger, or right-click with a two finger tap.  It made the trackpad much more enjoyable to use. ?When I got my XPS13, the hardware was such a change from what I had been accustomed to…

Sep
27
2011
Windows Phone

Mango Goodness Arrives sans Visual Voicemail on AT&T

Today marks the official release of Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango”.  Around lunchtime, the status on the “Where’s My Update?” page for most carriers was switched to “Delivering Update”.  Although I didn’t receive an OTA notification that an update was available, I got home and plugged my phone in and the Zune software immediately came up with the Update screen. Since I am in the developer program, my phone, a Samsung Focus, was registered and had the beta build (7712) of Mango installed on it.  Many wondered how this was going to work for developers running the beta code, and whether they would have to use their backups to return to “NoDo” before applying the the update. The good news was the first update I received was the actual Mango update building the code to the RTM level of 7720.  I then received a second update which cleaned up “beta stuff”. …

Jan
17
2011
Development

Creating an Add-on for Outlook with Add-in Express

Several months ago, I wrote a post on creating an add-on for Internet Explorer using Add-in Express. I’ll preface this with Office and Internet Explorer both provide the capabilities to build extensions or add-ins that enhance the product experience or add functionality that might be missing from the product.  The process of creating these snap-ins can be extremely challenging since most require that they are coded in a language like C++.  Although it is possible to create them with managed code in C# or Visual Basic, they require a “wrapper” which provides the basis for the snap-in to interop with the application, a difficult and arduous process. That’s where Add-in Express for Office and .NET comes in. Whether your preferred language is C# or Visual Basic, Add-in Express enables a developer to waste less time on the wrapper and more time on the actual add-in.  Personally, if I had to…