Nokia rolls out the Windows Phone 7.8 update globally to it’s entire set of Windows Phone 7 devices which already have WP7.5 installed. It comes it some new features already available in Windows Phone 8 devices.
Among all the features, the most awaited feature that a WP7.5 user want to see in their screen is the all new Start Screen with those small, medium and large icons.
“What is Dispatcher object and why to use it in application?” - It’s a common question asked by beginners working in various XAML technologies like Silverlight, Windows Phone etc. I came to such instances many time when the developer has no clue about “Cross Thread Exception”.
That is the reason I wanted to publish this post mentioning the use of this Dispatcher object, mainly when you are getting an “Invalid cross-thread access” exception.
“Duck Typing” is not a common interview question but one of the interviewer in a panel may ask you this just to check your knowledge out of the common questionnaire. You might be already answered this in a different question but stucked here.
So, what is this “Duck Typing” and how this benefits a C# developer? Ok, let’s start discussing this in today’s blog post and I assume, you will find it interesting.
Above expectation, Microsoft released the WP7.8 SDK update for the Windows Phone 7 developers who wants to upgrade their apps to target the new WP7.8 OS rolling out after 31st January 2013. This update brings some prominent features like the new start screen.
In this post, I am going to share the downloadable links of the new SDK and the instructions to install this SDK update.
Many time we need to map objects between UI/Domain or Service/Domain layers. Mapping the objects between them is very hectic. So, are there any simplest mechanism by which I can map two objects? Is there is.
There is a AutoMapper class which you can use to map between two objects. This also provides option to do a custom mapping. Let’s begin with it and learn about it today.
Today while deploying one of my new Windows Phone 7 application to my unlocked WP7 device, I noticed that, it is not deploying it due to connection error though the device is connected properly and able to sync with the Zune Software.
Later after doing lots of brain storming I was able to fix the problem and thus sharing the solution here in case you came across similar issue while deploying.
In Windows Phone 7, we had four network settings page that we can invoke using the ConnectionSettingsTask. We had no other APIs to launch other settings page but in Windows Phone 8 Microsoft exposed few schemas for invoking these settings pages.
In addition to the existing pages, now we have few more as addition. Today in this post we will learn how to open those settings page using proper URI schemes.
Welcome to the Interview Questions series on C#. Last week we discussed about “ref” and “out” keywords of C# with suitable example and I hope, that gave you clear understandings about those two parameter type.
This week we will discuss about struct and class as few people in Facebook asked me to clarify those two types.
You might be aware that, we now have a Team Foundation Service (TFS) on the cloud from Microsoft Visual Studio team, where you can host your source code for free (as of now, but they will charge you in future for this) and manage your project work in agile methodology.
Today in this post, we will learn how to connect Telerik’s TeamPulse tool with the Visual Studio Team Foundation Service (TFS) on the cloud.
Many time while working in our application module, we need to use “out” and “ref” parameters in various methods. Sometime you will face this question in front of interview panel too. So, what are those keywords and how they differ?
In this post, we will discuss the basics of C# to make you understand more about “out” and “ref” parameters which you will find useful.
It’s time to welcome the fresh New Year with fresh hope, fresh expectation. Forget the past and think ahead. Thanks to all my friends, family members, blog followers and the unknown persons with whom I am connected with virtually.
Wishing you not just happiness but pure joy, not just wealth but Heaven's treasures, not just silence but God's peace. May this new year bring you all the blessings every day in your life.
My friend Abhijit Jana recently published a book “Kinect for Windows SDK Programming Guide”. The book covers step-by-step tutorial to demonstrate the API usage with well explanation and code sample for beginners.
Hence I thought to share this to my blog readers and followers in case it helps you to learn Kinect programming. Sharing herewith a sample chapter and other links.
If you are looking for a way to retrieve the current battery status of Windows Phone device, first let me inform you that the same is not available for WP7 device. But if you are looking for the same to implement in WP8 device, you can do it now.
Windows Phone 8 SDK exposes an API to retrieve the current battery status of the device which includes remaining percent and time. Let’s discuss more about it.
You might already searched for a solution online and came here to resolve the issue. So, let us discuss how to resolve it.
In the last post we discussed “How to Crop an Image using the WriteableBitmap class”. If you didn’t read it yet, first try to understand that before reading this post as we are going to use it in this post very frequently.
Today in this post we are going to learn how to crop an image in different shapes like rectangle, circle or any other different complex shapes programmatically.
Some time we need to crop an image uploaded by user in Silverlight or Windows Phone applications. Sometime we also need to do a rotate transform or skew transform to the image before saving it. So, how to achieve it?
This blog post will cover the code with details using the WriteableBitmap class that comes with the SDK. Continue reading to know more about it.
Earlier days while working with Silverlight 2, it was very difficult to take a snapshot of the XAML page programmatically in Silverlight. Later WritableBitmap class helped us to take snapshot of any portion and save it as image.
Today I learnt something new to do this operation very easily using Telerik library methods and hence thought to share with you in this post.
Yesterday while working with Telerik’s RadHtmlPlaceholder control for Silverlight, I noticed that, it is unable to open certain websites and showing a message that says “The content cannot be displayed in a Frame”.
After doing an investigation, I came to know that, it is default behaviour of the control we can not handle. Let’s discuss more on the issue and the reason behind it.
Windows Phone 8 is already in the market and people having the Windows Phone 7 device is waiting for the WP7.8 update to test few features that is already available in the WP8 devices because the WP7 devices can not be upgraded with the WP8 operating system.
WMPoweruser reported some new features which we will get in WP7.8 update from a Nokia Customer Feedback page, but it is still not officially confirmed yet.
WMPowerUser reported a new update in Windows Phone Store which allows you to download Windows Phone applications from the store manually to your desktop and later install them in your mobile.
I am not sure how this will benefit the user and developers both but let’s jump to a discussion and check it out.
As a Windows 8 Store application developer, we need to store and retrieve data to and from XML file stored in the application directory. There are various ways to store data in XML but this post will cover a simplest way to do that.
Here we will use a 3rd party extension in our application as assembly reference and use their XmlDeSerializer class to handle it easily. Keep reading to know more about it.
The Windows 8 Software Development Kit (SDK) contains header libraries and a set of tools which you can use to develop Windows Store apps using technologies like Visual C#, Visual Basic, Visual C++ and/or JavaScript.
Recently a new version of the SDK has been published which you can grab from here. Also it has a new version of the WACK to validate your Windows 8 Store application branding.
Last month Microsoft released Windows Phone 8 SDK and now they are organizing a 10 hours online webcast to train you in WP8 application development. In this webcast you will learn more about development from the experts.
In this post, find the session details, time table and the link to register for the free webcast event. Take part of it and enhance your Windows Phone skills.
The “Clipboard” is a user driven set of functions that enables an application to transfer data between applications or within an application. Windows 8 Store SDK defines a set of APIs to handle the OS clipboard in your application.
In this continued series of Windows 8 Store application development tutorial, we will learn more about the API and the way to integrate the Clipboard in your WinRT application.
This is the continuing series of the Windows 8 Store application development tutorial and in this chapter, we will learn about creating and updating the live tiles of your WinRT application. There are 46 different types of tile templates available which we will go to learn today.
A live tile is one of the best way to provide a good experience to your application which you will find in your Windows 8 Start screen. Continue for further reading.
Today in this chapter of the Windows Store Tutorial series, we will discuss more about the API methods and how to integrate it in your application. Continue reading.
Many time we need to access files and folders from our applications. The Windows Store apps SDK provides us Asynchronous APIs to use for this service to query files and folders. You have to be familiar with async await calls in order to get started with this.
This post is part of the Windows Store Application Development Tutorial series. Today we will learn how to handle files and folders in your Windows 8 metro applications.
Microsoft recently released Windows Phone 8 SDK which you can install in your Windows 8 Pro x64-bit version to get started with the development process with Visual Studio 2012. Keep in mind that, your CPU should support Hyper-V and SLAT in order to run the WP8 emulator.
Today in this post we will have a quick look into the new WP8 SDK template, the project structure and improved manifest file.
Second Level Address Translation a.k.a. SLAT is a technology introduced in Intel and AMD processors. Recently released Windows Phone 8 SDK needs it to run the emulator 8 in your Windows 8 system.
So, what is this SLAT and how to check whether your CPU really supports it? In this post, we will discuss this with you.
As mentioned in yesterday’s Windows Phone 8 launch event, Microsoft publicly released the WP8 SDK for developers. You can now build apps targeting Windows Phone 8 devices. You will be also able to program for Windows Phone 7 devices in Visual Studio 2012 now.
In this post, I am sharing the downloadable links of both web and offline ISO versions. Go through the System Requirements first before downloading and installing it.
If you are familiar with Windows Phone applications, you might be already aware of Application Bar. Application Bar is used to provide users with quick access to an application’s most common tasks, which are basically hidden when they are not needed.
Today in this chapter we will learn more about Application Bar in Windows Store apps along with integration and design guidelines.
In earlier Windows versions, we were missing this great feature of CD/DVD mounting. To achieve this, we had to install 3rd party software tools and was always demanded as in-built feature in Windows.
Windows 8 now has this feature and you can now easily mount any ISO image to create a virtual CD/DVD ROM in your PC. Continue reading it to know how to do this.
Many of us need to integrate settings page in our applications. All we generally do is by creating a separate page in our project. But Windows 8 provide us a separate settings panel in Charm bar which you can use for your settings page.
In this post we will learn more about it from scratch and integrate it to our demo application. Also, we will learn how to invoke the charm bar to show the settings panel.
In last chapter “Navigate between Pages” we discussed the basics of page navigation, where we navigated from one page to another page using the Frame.Navigate(type, obj). We also discussed how to pass an object as query string parameter.
Today in this chapter we will discuss more advanced page navigation using the LayoutAwarePage which comes with the Grid and Split application template by default.
Let’s begin with our fourth chapter of building Windows Store application development using Visual Studio 2012. In the previous chapters of this tutorial series, we got familiar with this project template and built a basic “Hello World” application.
Today in this chapter we will learn how to navigate from one page to another page in Windows 8 Store applications. So, continue reading.
Today in this tutorial series, we will learn how to develop our first Windows Store application using the C#/XAML template. We will also learn how to build and run it inside a simulator that comes with the Visual Studio 2012 IDE.
Don’t forget to follow the complete tutorial series of Windows Store apps (WinRT) development and share the chapters with your network friends.
Last day in “Getting Started with Windows Store apps Development” we discussed about Windows Store applications and how to setup your development machine to start with the development. We also discussed it’s four different project categories.
Today in this continued series post, we will learn more about project templates in each category and the basic project structure of most used templates.
Based on the discussion with you over twitter and facebook, I am starting with a Tutorial series on Windows Store application development. The tutorial will focus on C# and XAML template to give you proper steps learning this application development.
Today we will kick-off our first chapter of this tutorial series where we will introduce with this technology and setup the developer environment with required tools and other stuffs.
Last day we discussed on “Faster and Offline Browsing using Application Cache in HTML5” and mentioned detailed steps to implement the Application Cache in HTML5. Also, we discussed a bit about refreshing the cache.
Today in this post, we are going to discuss a topic by which you can update it programmatically. So, let’s continue to focus on it.
In current web based application market, it’s more important to load and browse the application faster and there application caching is becoming most important thing. All the browsers support caching but that is not enough.
HTML5 now comes with application caching mechanism by which a developer can tell the client to cache what it needs to browse them in offline too. Continue to read more about it in today’s post.
Here comes my new Windows Phone application in the Windows Phone Store. The application is free for you to use. Kids can learn capitals of countries using this app. Not only this, you can anytime search on this app to query about the capital of a country.
This is my 8th Windows Phone app and dedicating it to all Windows Phone users. Continue to get the downloadable link and few screenshots of the application.
1st October is the most prestigious day for me. Today Microsoft re-awarded me the MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award for the 3rd time in a row and I am still a Silverlight MVP since October 2010.
My sincere thanks to all the community friends, MVP Lead for their continuous support. Hope to serve the developer community with more contents in coming year.
Few days ago, we learned about “Easy Form Validation using HTML5”. Hope, you liked that post. Today we will explore another new great feature of HTML5 with complete code analysis and simple but easy to understandable demo.
HTML5 exposes geolocation API to get the geographical location of user. Today we will focus our discussion on this topic. So, continue reading.
On 10th September 2012, I started a Giveaway in my blog as celebration to my 500th blog post. Today I am announcing the winners of that giveaway who will get Pluralsight monthly subscription, SQL Interview book or Telerik DevCraft license from me.
Don’t forget that all my blog readers are eligible for a free Screen Camera license worth $49.95. So grab your licenses now.
Today we will start working with RadSlideHubTile control recently added to the Telerik RadControls library for Win 8 Metro. Though there are couple of hub tile controls, but today we will start with the basic one named “RadSlideHubTile”.
If you are new to Windows Store app development, you can get the Free trial copy of this library from Telerik to start with this new application development. Continue reading for more information.
Writing validation logic using JavaScript in a HTML form is not an easy way. We all have seen it in HTML4 but what’s new in HTML5? Will it provide us easy way to validate the form with writing a small piece of code only?
Today we will be talking about this validation stuffs in HTML5. But as usual, all the browsers don’t support all of them but a good start to think for future.
Few days ago we discussed about RadDataBoundListBox from Telerik RadControls library which maximum WPDev want to integrate in their Windows Phone app. Today in this blog post we will discuss about another control from that library.
RadSlideView control is also another important control from that library which we will discuss today and maximum developers can find it useful. So, continue reading.
Telerik Team recently published a Picture Gallery application for Windows Phone demonstrating how to create a native Windows Phone client for Flickr or any other image hosting service. The app is freely available with source code.
You can use this source code and modify it to extend to a better application of your choice. Don’t forget to tweet this post as it will give you a chance to win Telerik RadControls license for WP.
Recently I had shown few of my Windows Phone application to few people and connected with one “Mahatma” (Guru) and inspired by him I built a “Quotes of Vivekananda” application for the sake of Swami Vivekananda lovers.
I am dedicating this application to all the followers of Vivekananda who need the bless and inspiration from his great quotes.
I am dedicating this phone app to all the senior citizens who need to contact their doctor, nurse or family members in emergency. Sharing herewith few snaps and downloadable link.
