Diary of a Windows developer

• Oct 23, 2013 in Nokia and Windows Phone

  Some news for developers from Nokia World

  Yesterday Nokia has showed off to the world, during Nokia World, many great news about Windows Phone and the Lumia series. In fact, Nokia has announced 2 new phones which falls into the “phablet” category (they both share a 6” screen), a tablet (based on Windows 8.1 RT) and many important apps that are coming in the next weeks, like Instagram, Vine and Flipboard.

  They all are really good news for developers, since I’m sure that they will push even further the Windows Phone ecosystem and more phones around the world means more opportunities for devs

  To get all the information about the new products and apps, I suggest you to visit the official Nokia blog called Nokia Conversation, which covers in details all the news. In this post, I would like to focus on what’s interesting for developers regarding the new announcements.

  Lumia 1320 and Lumia 1520

  The new members of the Lumia family are part of the so called “phablet” category: they are phones, but with a very big screen (6 inches). The Lumia 1520 is a high end phone, which features the new resolution introduced with GDR3, which is 1080p (1080×1920), together with a quad core processor (another new feature for a Windows Phone device) and a 20 MPixel camera. The Lumia 1320, on the other side, is a mid end phone, with lower tech specs but with a much cheaper price. It features a 720p resolution (720×1280), which is not new for Windows Phone (it’s one of the new resolutions introduced in Windows Phone 8), but it’s new for Nokia, since previously all the other phones used only the WVGA (480×800) and WXGA (768×1280) resolutions.

  And here comes the first news for developers: 1080p and 720p resolutions are very different from the other ones, since they offer a 16:9 aspect ratio, instead of the usual 15:9. This means basically two things:

  • If you’ve used a rigid layout in your application (using, for example, fixed margins and sizes), there’s a good chance that your app will not look very good on one of these devices. The solution is to use a fluid layout, which is able to adapt to the screen size. For example, when you create a Grid, try not to use fixed sizes for columns and rows. There’s a good article in the MSDN documentation about this topic.
  • Windows Phone 7 apps don’t support the new resolutions: if for WXGA phones is not a problem (aspect ratio is the same, so layout is simply adapted but not distorted), it’s not the same for 720p and 1080p. Since aspect ratio is different, there’s the chance that the layout will look bad: for this reason, Windows Phone 7 apps that are executed on a 720p or 1080p device will look “cut” at the top, since a black bar will be added to keep the 15:6 aspect ratio. The only solution to fix it is to upgrade your project to Windows Phone 8: only this way you’ll be able to fully support the new devices.

  If, in the past, developers didn’t care too much about 720p, since only a few models with low market share supported it, now it’s definitely time to change and fully embrace it: otherwise, people that will buy the Lumia 1320 or the Lumia 1520 won’t be able to experience your apps with full quality.

  Nokia has scheduled one webinar in two different dates and times (6 November and 7 November) on how to adapt your application to fully support the new resolutions. Don’t miss it!

  Plus, if you remember my previous post, you should know that Microsoft is going to release soon a SDK update which features a new GDR3 emulator with the 1080p resolution. However, since aspect ratio is the same, you can start right now to test your apps for the new Lumia devices with the 720p one. If your app looks good a on a 720p phone, it will look good also on a 1080p one (unless you’ve used low quality images, in this cases they can look bad on a high resolution screen).

  

  Lumia 2520

  Nokia has announced also his first tablet, a Windows 8.1 RT device with a look and feel very similar to the Lumia smartphones. It’s a quad core ARM device with a 1080p resolution which, as every other Windows RT device, is optimized for the new Windows Store apps introduced in Windows 8: desktop apps won’t run, except for the ones provided by Microsoft (like the Office suite).

  From a developer point of view, it’s a new opportunity: if you’ve already have a Windows Phone app that could make sense on a larger screen, you can start thinking about a porting for Windows 8. There’s some work to do, but there are many shared classes between the Windows Runtime for Windows 8 and the Windows Runtime for Windows Phone, like storage APIs, sensors APIs, geolocalization APIs, etc. I suggest you to start looking at this series of webinars published on Channel 9 made by Ben Riga: they will introduce you to concepts like Model-View-ViewModel (which we covered deeply in this blog too) and Portable Class Libraries, which are two of the tools that will help you to reuse your Windows Phone code for a Windows 8 app.

  

  Nokia Developer Offers

  The most interesting news for developers is, probably, the launch of a new program called Nokia Developer Offers, which gave to developers, for free, a set of very useful tool and resources:

  • A token to subscribe to the Store or to renew an existing subscription
  • A license for BugSense Performance Monitoring Solution, which is an analytics platform
  • A 1 year license for Telerik controls for Windows Phone
  • A 1 year license for Infragistics controls for Windows Phone

  However, there are a couple of requirement to be able to join the program and get all these goodies for free:

  • You have to be subscribed to DVLUP, so if DVLUP is not available in your country yet, I’m sorry but you’ll have to wait
  • If you’re a new developer, you should have published at least 2 application on any mobile platform: not just Windows Phone or Asha, but also Android, iOS, etc.
  • If you already had a Nokia Developer Premium account in the past, you should have released at least one app after you’ve subscribed.

  The Nokia team will take a few days to verify that you’re eligible. Once you’re in, it’s important to know that, in the future, you could get access to new benefits (for example, discounts on the XP points required to get rewards on DVLUP): to continue to be part of the program, you’ll have to publish at least a new app or an update to an existing app within 6 months from your subscription.

  If everything I told you sounds good, go to the official website and apply!

• Oct 15, 2013 in GDR3 and Windows Phone

  Preview Program for Developers & GDR3

  Yesterday Microsoft has announced two big news for all the Windows Phone users and developers. Let’s start to dig them!

  ###

  GDR3 announcement

  Microsoft has officialy revelead the third Windows Phone 8 update, called Update 3 (or GDR3). Like GDR2, the focus of this update are consumers, since it adds a coulpe of much requested features like:

  • A new driving mode, that is automatically enabled when you’re driving and that automatically turns off all the notifications so that you can’t be distracted.
    • A new option in Settings to lock screen rotation.
      • Custom ringtones support for all the notification types, like mails and text messages.
        • Improved task switcher, with an option to close suspended apps.
          • Now, during the first wizard, you’ll be able to restore a backup also using a Wi-Fi connection.</ul> Anyway, the most important new feature, which is interesting also for developers, is the support for a new resolution, which is 1080p (1080×1920). Devices with this resolution will be able to display a new column of tiles in the main screen (while, even if some rumors stated the opposite, phones with lower resolution will keep the current layout with two columns). From a developer point of view, 1080p and 720p (which is one of the already supported resolutions) are the same: they have the same aspect ratio (16:9), which is different from the aspect ratio of the other two resolution (15:9). What does it mean? That it’s important to test your app with this new resolution if you want to deliver to your users the best experience: since the aspect ratio is different, some images and look could look different. In some cases, you’ll need to load specific images for the new resolution and to use a fluid layout, which is able to automatically adapt to the screen’s size. If you want to learn more about this topic, you can take a look at this article from the official MSDN documentation.

          This new resolution will also make you reconsider the choice to not update your applications to Windows Phone 8: since 1080p has a different aspect ratio, 7.8 applications will look “cut”, with an empty space at the top of the screen. So, if you want that your app looks best on every device, you’ll have to upgrade it to Windows Phone 8, which is able to support all the resolutions.

          You’ll be able to test your app against the new resolution very soon: Microsoft is going to release a SDK update, that will introduce new emulators aligned with GDR3. From a developer point of view, there are also other other changes, that are detailed in the MSDN documentation:

          • The memory cap for background audio agents has been raised from 20 to 25 MB on devices with 1 GB of RAM or more.
            • The memory cap for apps has been raised to 570 MB on devices with 2 GB of RAM.
              • There’s a new Uri scheme (ms-settings-screenrotation: ) to quickly access to the Screen Rotation setting.
                • Icon and tile of your application are now used also in the updated Task switcher view.
                  • You can set a custom sound for toast notifications, using reflection.
                    • The Internet Explorer’s viewport has been updated: this can impact applications that use WebBrowser control or mobile websites.</ul> If you need to check if the current phone is running GDR3 or not, you’ll need to use the Environment.OSVersion.Version property: a GDR3 device will return 8.0.10492.

                    ###

                    Preview Program for Developers

                    But what if you want to test your apps on a real GDR3 device? Here comes the most interesting news for developers: Microsoft has opened a Preview Program for Developers, which allows to get early access to new Windows Phone updates, without having to wait for carrier’s approval. This way, developers can get their apps ready when the new update will be publicly distributed to every user. To be part of the program you’ll just need:

                    • A developer unlocked device. Phones can be unlocked using the Windows Phone Developer Registration tool that comes with the SDK. If you’re a registered developer, you’ll be able to unlock up to 3 phones; otherwise, you can unlock just one phone.
                      • A paid developer account, which allows you to publish your apps on the Store, or a free App Studio account.</ul> Once you have met this requirement, you can go to this page, where you can review the requirements and the program’s conditions: you’ll find a link that will redirect you to an application in the Store. You’ll simply have to download it, run it and, after accepting terms and conditions, enable the preview program. From now on, when you look for new updates in the Settings hub, you’ll directly contact Microsoft’s servers to get the latest version of the OS: if you do it right now, the GDR3 download and installation process will start. Cool, isn’t it?

                      In the end, here are some important things to know about the program:

                      • The GDR3 version that is distributed with the Preview program is final, but it’s just the OS update offered by Microsoft. Diver and firmware updates from the phone’s vendor will be provided with the official GDR3 release.
                        • GDR3 can be installed on any phone, but it should already have installed GDR2. The minimum required OS version is 8.0.10322.71.
                          • There’s no turning back: after you’ve installed GDR3, you’ll be able to install future updates but not to go back to the previous state.
                            • The update is incremental, so you won’t lose any data.</ul>
• Sep 17, 2013 in Windows Phone and Windows Phone Week

  Windows Phone Week: a global event for all the developers!

  

  Everything started like a sort of dream: the Windows Phone Development MVP team is made by very passionate people (as like every other MVP group) and it regularly happen that we are involved in organizing or supporting local events about Windows Phone. Me and my Dutch friend Joost Van Schaik, some months ago, started to wonder if we can use our passion to create something “more global”, that could involve many countries around the world. The idea was great, but also complex to realize: money, logistic, promotion, agenda; there are a lot of things to manage when you want to create something like this, so we temporary suspended it, to wait for the right time. That time arrived thanks to our mutual Brazilian friend and MVP Rodolpho Marques, which relaunched our idea by proposing a common event in Italy, Netherlands and Brazil. A mail exchange between me, Joost, Rodolpho and our MVP referral in Microsoft and the idea became reality: thanks to Microsoft and Nokia, we had the support we need to turn the idea into a real event!

  I’m happy to announce that the Windows Phone Week is now live, with an official website and an official Twitter account: between the end of September and the end of October, many countries around the world will host a full day event about Windows Phone development. As you can see in the official website, many other MVP friends have supported our idea, so the initial country list has been extended from 3 to 13!

  Every country will have their own agenda and registration: some countries will host an hackaton, some countries will host a traditional conference, some other countries will host a mix of both. And I can assure you that there will be lot of fun and surprises! Please refer to the official website to find your nearest location and to see all the details about the day: if you’re from Italy, I will be more than happy to meet you at the Italian event, that will be hosted by Microsoft Italy in Milan on Monday 30th September.

  If you’re a Windows Phone developer, spread the word and join us!

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