FREE visual studio (for students) - XPERIA X1 Themes and Apps

I keep being asked what's the best software to use to get into developing for winmo (as if I'd know )
But I did notice that www.dreamspark.com is giving away visual studio
Alas as I'm not a student (any more) I can't get a version, (although I'm waiting for them to do a charity deal on it) but MS are giving away free copies of loads of software for students..
Of interest here is Visual Studio professional, which is key to developing for winmo, and with the SE panels SDK you can code away to your hearts content.
there's also an entire list of what is available for developing here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=445396

Well.. you "could" also do it the easy way

Most IT students receives MS products for free

they are like drug dealers out of a school lol

you can also use the express edition wich are free

Related

petition for xda dev

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?xdadevs
Done !
Even if i run with the official orange Rom (because i'm scared of ROM update !), i support this petition !
What to do to avoid persons "cooking" their own ROMS ???
Release a GOOD ROBUST ROM, with fine tuning...
I must wait for about one minute, each time i soft reset my device...
Is it a optimized ROM ???
I signed. I haven't updated because there isn't one for my PPC, but I support anyone's right to do with their property what they wish.
I just did so too...
me too. petition FTW!
Petition
I read about petition on a thread then couldn't find where to sign. Found it now but maybe links should be posted in more places for more people to see.
Keep up the good work. This site is excellent.
up
up
sign it
we need you
Signed,
I don't see microsoft's problem though, the images are free from the providers, the device includes a license to run windows mobile on it, installing a new image displaces the old image, so it's still one license, one copy of WM on the device...
How is running a copy of windows mobile on a licensed device against MS?
By their rationale though, if I installed XP on my machine, from a friend's CD, but used my key, is it legal? from what MS are intimating here, no, yet I am using the license I own on My machine...
Bears thinking about really...
I don't understand
Very strange...
First the Palm vs. Pocket PC debate. Then the Palm / PPC / RIM-BB argument. Soon to come the PPC vs. iPhone. Microsoft is always trying to expand markets and displace other technologies. You would think that this momentum would help them, right?
Suddenly, a group of dedicated people bring a long delayed upgrade to our devices without any obvious or flagrant licensing violation (unless the next step is to charge us all for the OS upgrade for the devices we have already licensed), and Microsoft reaction is to try to shut it down?
Perhaps they are planning to buy RIM and want us all to move to Blackberries. At least I wont have to reboot once a day....
Signed...!!!!
Lets hope Micro$oft see sense and not just a chance of screwing someone for $$$$$$$$$$$
Though I am sad as well and personally endorse the use of cooked roms, I can understand Microsoft's point of view:
1) HTC devices are locked to one of the OEM manufactures, i.e. T-Mobile (MDA), Qtek, iMate, etc. The upgrades only work on the correct OEM-brand.
2) OEM manufacturers have to PURCHASE the updates from Microsoft.
3) OEM manufacturers may or may not decide to release (buy and give it for free or for a fee) to it's customers.
The way XDA-Developers provided all the rom's with the necessary tool to allow the installation of any rom-flavour to any OEM version would basically cause:
1) That OEM manufacturer A would pay MS for the upgrade and all other OEM manufacturers would benefit from it for free.
2) MS to be in a difficult position to be able to charge for the upgrades.
3) A considerable amount of broken devices which would have to be repaired (flashed) for free, as it would be difficult or expensive to prove that the cause is due to the use of improper ROM's or improper procedures to upgrade.
The final argument to the question "why doesn't MS provide the ROM's for free, as the current ones have bugs?":
1) All programs/OS have bugs.
2) It is normal to pay for upgrades.
3) MS needs to pay it's developers and is a company that aims profit.
The only valid question would be, in my opinion: "why doesn't MS sell upgrades to end-users?".
Please don't get me wrong: I have nothing to do with MS and hate the current situation as anyone else. I just hate to always read "MS sucks, everything should be free, etc.".
If you use ilegal ROM's, that's fine with me. But at least UNDERSTAND that they are ilegal!!!
I think it would be best to just use upload servers, instead of having an FTP server. One always will find the necessary files - what's really important about XDA-Developers is the KNOWLEDGE. It would be a shame to have the whole site shut down because of copyright infringements caused by some ROM's.
Cheers,
vma
Done! I support what Crash Override mentioned. And after all, I've purchased a Windows Mobile phone not from a Network provider, but SIM FREE .. It was sold to me with a license to use Windows mobile 5 ... which never mentions the version. Just like PC's Windows licenses. Anyway - I hope they realise soon that people would buy more Windows Mobile phones if they had more freedom to do with them what they want afterwards.
If not the flexibility, there are other great phones on the market, which aren't flexible at all - but have stable and well designed OS's.
So Mr. Gates Your vision in the 80's started well with trying to put Windows in every house. Now you are going for the mobiles - which is great, but don't restrict your users more than necessary or you will start loosing them. The more people can play with these phones, the more they will want them!

LOOKING FOR ANDROID APPLICATION DEVELOPER for pay or partnering.

A friend has a really great idea for an app that has universal appeal and a built in audience as well as buzz factor to it.
I’m looking for someone with skill sets capable of multi platform (Android, WinMo, JavaME) development (or even seperate developers for each platform) who can estimate the projects man hours and how soon they can start working.
Terms are Pay (work for hire) or Profit share (equal stake in sales).
Shoot me a PM if anyone’s interested.
Without giving too much away, apps utility is it's a kind off hot chick magnet (or identifier, depending on how you look at it). In detail it's a very useful app, can be used for both sexes.

WP7 app development - Any advice on getting started?

Hey there, thanks for reading.
I decided that I want to learn how to program apps and possibly games for WP7.
Because my holidays are almost starting, now's the time for me to do so.
I already have Visual Studio for Windows Phone up and running, and I encountered the getting started pages on the official silverlight website.
However, it kinda feels like being thrown into the deep and having to do everything in one big leap, instead of being able to start with basics and then move on in smaller steps.
Does any of you have advice for me on what would be good ways to get started? Any advice is appreciated.
I do have vast experience with PHP, but I believe that the syntax is completely different from SL.
Thanks in advance!
My advice would be to learn the basics of c# first. Any previous online tutorials for c# apply to windows phone 7. There are some minor differences but the basics are the same.
Check out http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsphone7series/threads which is the official forums for Windows Phone 7 and there's a lot of good info there.
The code samples at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff431744(VS.92).aspx are also worth playing around with.
Ideally you want to know C# for a starters. There's plenty of tutorials on MSDN or the web, but I can also recommend buying the book: Pro C# 2010 and the .NET Platform from Apress.
It's learns you the language, and also goes over XAML related technologies, and even though it's mostly WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) the core principles apply for Silverlight as well.
After you learned C#, it's time to learn Sivlerlight in dept, and by this I mean XAML, and the limitations in the .NET subset used for Silverlight.
For tools you wish to get Visual Studio 2010 Express, and Expression Blend 4. You can get the Release Candidate free for now, to try out development.
Make a note of that your computer need to support hardware-visualization to run the emulator without a incredible amount of lag!
If you're used to programming you might quickly learn Visual Studio, but Expression Blend requires a good amount of time to get used to. I'll recommend setting off a weekend where you use 2x8 hours to learn it.
You'll be using both Visual Studio and Expression Blend at the same time, C# for application-logic (ie. C# code) and Blend for design.
Designing in Blend is really simple, see for example expressionblend.png.
One of the articles I want to recommend you to read once you got into this entire XAML thing, is this article explaining how to do paging, as it's one of the core concepts, but also provides a good exercise in using Expression Blend.
Also, to get a handle of the basics, Microsoft has put together a site to encourage people to get involved with WP7 and Silverlight. The website is: http://www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox/
Its a real beginners course to all the programming one will be involved in on the WP7 platform. This won't get you very far in programming, but will teach you the absolute basics. From there you can always get assistance from the great members of XDA (me excluded)
Pretty cool site. Now we just need them to release a free-WP7 version of Expression Blend.
The current process to get started is way to messy, but I guess they already know that
Allright, thanks for these replies
My holidays are (unofficialy) starting in three days, so I'll have plenty of time available.
Luckily my rig runs the emulator buttersmooth (I ran the unlocked WP7 rom with it, to try the OS in it's current state) so that won't be an issue.
These links should get me going in the right direction (H)
Another must-have link is the unofficial Pivot and Panorama controls: http://phone.codeplex.com/
im ready for this!!!
Wow this looks like an interesting journey. Holidays? If you are a student, you can get a waiver on the $99 startup fee to post 5 applications on the windows marketplace. Check out www.dreamspark.com for more student resources.
Thanks for the information provided! I was stepping into WP7 app programming too.
Yea, thanks for telling me but I already knew about dreamspark
I've checked and I can enter by signing up with the e-mail my school provided.
However, since it's valid just one year im not using the key untill I actually own a WP7-device.
enadiz said:
Wow this looks like an interesting journey. Holidays? If you are a student, you can get a waiver on the $99 startup fee to post 5 applications on the windows marketplace. Check out www.dreamspark.com for more student resources.
Thanks for the information provided! I was stepping into WP7 app programming too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds quite awesome. I only had MSDNAA access so far, but I believe I should have Dreamspark access when I start on my bachelor of engineering, after the summer holidays.
Btw. I made a compilation of tools and blogs that'll help developers getting started, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=711629
Windcape said:
Sounds quite awesome. I only had MSDNAA access so far, but I believe I should have Dreamspark access when I start on my bachelor of engineering, after the summer holidays.
Btw. I made a compilation of tools and blogs that'll help developers getting started, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=711629
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yumm. I'll get down to learning.
The key needs to be renewed every year .. as long as you have your student email, you'll be fine
My first post on xda-developers... +_+!
Yes, as you were told C sharp learning is important so try hard to learn it then go on learning VS 2010 express and expression blend 4. I am new to WP7 dev too and like you ... am dreaming of building a good application indeed - Games are so tough and complex to build and needs teamwork I think-. I just strated leaning C# and have found a lot of good websites trough google search (Windcape compiled most of them in a useful thread you may bookmark)
However, there are a lot of ressources and books about C# and WP7 programming there in torrents world. you can search them by yourself.
Here is a small cd from lynda.com I just uploaded to demonoid.me.
Lynda Windows Phone 7 App Development
I can post links but you can search demonoid website for it.
If anyone needs invitation to demonoid he may PM me here
Also, for a good intorduction to WP7DT just search google for this series : Windows Phone 7 Jump Start
NB: I wish if we can found or make a small teams of biginners wm7 programmers;
hexham said:
NB: I wish if we can found or make a small teams of biginners wm7 programmers;
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm currently studying Computer Science and i am very interested in developing to WP7. I don't have vast knowledge of C# but in other languages i'm good. Let me know if there is an opening for me . Besti wishes...
Do think about the Trial Version - my version was to short - so people were complaining about it...
I haven't read through the replies yet so apologies if I'm repeating anything, but I've been a .Net Developer for around five years now so I feel like this is something that I can actually comment on.
I didn't train in anything to do with computers I just fell into this programming lark, I actually trained as an Actor believe it or not. Through needing to design a database in order to record my Acting Accounts I eventually got into V.B.A. and after ending up with a part time job using V.B.A. was finally forced to learn .Net through requirement changes at work.
I only mention this, so as you know that I wasn't born to this sort of thing and had to struggle to get my head round it.
I started with vb.net as that was almost the same as using v.b.a. but last year decided to teach myself C#. I've not used PHP so can't comment on any similarities or otherwise but I do know this.
C# was a huge shock to my system, absolutely huge. I almost gave up after a week of trying to translate my existing code, but managed to persevere and I'd say that after about two months of forcing myself to do C# only, I felt comfortable with it. A year later and I'm completely fluent and happy with C#.
It's a bugger to look at, I don't find it elegant at all, but once you get your head round the syntax then it all starts to make sense.
Get a good C# book, I'm not sure of any good ones, I've not used any, and go with the lessons in there, but don't let that stop you trying to develop your own experimental stuff in the meantime.
Syntax basics
Curly Brackets {} tend to indicate a routine block
E.g. A Function/Method/Void called Test would look like this
public void Test()
{
... Your code goes here
}
This is also the case with an If statement
E.g.
if(A==B)
{
... Your code goes here
}
Scoping/Dimming/Creating an object requires the Object type first followed by it's name
E.g. TextBox _textbox
The object being created is a TextBox and it's name is _textbox
A semi colon ; indicates the end of a block of code. If you have a particularly long line of code then you can use multiple lines but will
only need to insert the ; at the end of that particularly block of code
E.g. A=1; (This is the standard way of doing this)
A=
1; (This is not the way that I would actually do this but is just an example of what is permissable.)
I always found it useful to find C# code on the web and try to read and understand it.
The most important thing is though, don't give up. Visual Studio is widely considered one of the best coding tools in the industry and C# itself, once you get past the first impressions is a really easy language to pick up.
Thanks for the detailed explanation - the use of accolades ('{}'), multiple lines and the semicolon and the syntaxt for statements looks pretty similar to PHP.
That might just be enough motivation for me to finally get started.
yes, even though I asked about advice over halve a year ago, I never got quite to it... Maybe these similarities plus the fact that I have a Microsoft Dreamspark developer account plus the fact that in March I might have a device will be of help. If that's not enough motivation, I don't know what will be :#
Go for it!
You can always ask questions here or on somewhere like StackOverflow.com if you get stuck.
Object Orientation takes some getting used to, but atleast the garbage collector should look after your memory for you
Dave
Interesting, I hope you will get something.
Just adding my two cents here...
I thoroughly recommend that anyone getting into WP7 programming takes a very good look at the MVVM pattern (see here - it's WPF based but the difference is really only in the objects available, most silverlight code can be directly ported to WPF and vice versa). Using this pattern not only enables you to easily swp the UI for your app, it also makes debugging a whole lot easier due to the lack of UI code in the classes that actually do the work (the view models).
Another thing to try and get your head around is asynchronous programming with services, but that is not really something you want to start out with Sorry, forgot we were dealing with silverlight for a minute this is something you're going to have to learn right from the start, along with using background threads for processing data.
For anyone that needs any specific advice feel free to PM me. I'm new to the WP7 thing, but looking at the classes available which aren't available in silverlight it shouldn't be too hard to get into. And the design patterns will be the same.

Microsoft: Bring on the Windows Phone 7 developers, developers developers

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft...phone-7-developers-developers-developers/6867
Windcape said:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft...phone-7-developers-developers-developers/6867
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the quoted materia:
ZDNet said:
Microsoft: Bring on the Windows Phone 7 developers, developers developers
On July 19, Microsoft began shipping out thousands of Windows Phone 7 (WP7) test units from LG and Samsung — running a near-final Technical Preview build of its new mobile operating system — to developers all over the world.
It’s crunch time for the Softies. They have developed a new phone platform from scratch that looks and feels different from what’s available from Apple, Android backers and RIM. They’ve built it, but will developers come? Microsoft is counting on its developer tools, its developer outreach programs and developer guarantees (in the form of payments if WP7 apps don’t sell as well as expected) to generate quantity and quality WP7 apps.
It’s no coincidence, as Engadget notes, that the packaging for the WP7 test units says “developers, developers, developers” on the box. (Sorry, there’s no Monkey Boy toy inside.) WP7 phone hardware and data plans are going to be key to determining how well WP7 will do versus its competition when those phones begin shipping in October in Europe and November in the U.S. But the number and kinds of apps that developers build are going to be make-or-break, as well.
There’s an evangelism team that’s been working for months to get developers on board with WP7. I’ve been talking to a number of them for the past few weeks so as to understand their big-picture goals and plans to try to win developers hearts and minds in a world where Windows Mobile is falling out of favor and iOS and Android are grabbing the attention and share.
Charlie Kindel, a 20-year Microsoft veteran who runs the Windows Phone Developer Experience, is one of the main forces behind Microsoft’s mobile developer outreach. After hearing about Microsoft’s renewed focus on mobile (and some of the big names named to run the development side of the project), Kindel joined the team in February 2009.
“Windows Phone is not an end game. It’s more of a means,” said Kindel. “Devs don’t think about apps being just client code any more. Over the past ten years, it has become the case that the core resides in the cloud, and rich clients ‘light it up’ for the user. That means it’s not so much about porting the same apps to different screens, it’s more about creating application components that cross all three screens. As your experience changes, what should an app look like and how do you eanble that? I want to make WP7 one of the screens that is supported.”
(The “cloud,” in this case, can mean Microsoft cloud services like Azure; cloud services someone else has built like Twitter; or services intrinsic to WP7, like notification, location, Xbox Live, etc., Kindel explained.)
I asked Kindel what has surprised him — and what he thinks might surprise others — about WP7. He talked about speaking to 7,000 mobile developers during a recent European tour. Relatively few had ever used Microsoft developer tools. (In one meeting, only about 10 percent had used Microsoft tools of any kind, he said.) When Microsoft showed them Visual Studio and Windows Phone development tools, “the reaction was one of disbelief,” he said, because “our tools were so much better.”
“Developers want to use the tools they already know, but at the same time, they want to know someone has thought holistically about the end-to-end process,” Kindel said. “Even though we are investing in all of these (development) areas, you don’t have to use all of our stuff.”
Microsoft’s message to developers considering WP7 is to use Silverlight or the XNA Framework to write applications and games for the forthcoming phones. And company officials are touting the transparency of the app approval process, as well as the fact that only Microsoft-certified applications will be available via the Windows Phone Marketplace as positives for developers and users.
No matter how good Microsoft’s developer story sounds, Kindel knows that it’s going to be tough to convince some developers there’s enough financial opportunity to make the development of a WP7 app worthwhile.
“The installed market is not very big, so we have to show them how much we’re investing to create a phenomenal user experience. We have to show marketing and engineering seriousness,” he said.
Microsoft hasn’t made any promises as to how many WP7 phone apps there will be out of the gate, or provided many names of developers already committed to the platform. Kindel said to expect a mix of big-name apps and brand-new ones.
“There are a type of apps users just want to exist — things like a service-enabled world clock or a level, for example,” he said. “Then there are apps no one has really thought about yet, with unique capabilities. We want there to be fantastic and beautiful examples of each.”
Who else is on Microsoft’s WP7 developer outreach team? It’s not just members of Microsoft’s Communications Business. I’ve got a “who’s who” post coming up, which includes WP7 developer team members from Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, Windows Live and the Developer Division.
In the meantime, any developers (or potential customers) have developer-focused questions for the WP7 team?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[Q] WM7 or iPhone dilema - small business owner

Hi, sorry if this has already been asked before.
I'm a small business owner and software developer and have been a keen Windows Mobile Developer and have several products which users currently run on WM6 iPaq PDAs.
The cost of WM6 iPAQ PDAs is currently about £240 and as they are probably no longer being manufactured they will soon become like hens teeth(very scarce).
Currently WM7 only supports Managed code with silverlight. All my apps are written using Visual MFC.
Question 1
I need to know if there is even a hint that WM7 may support unmanaged code in the near future? Can anyone tell me this.
If not then I will have to invest in porting all my apps to the iPhone platform. Why? Because then they can run on the iPOD Touch which will cost the user about £160 (My apps don't need to run on a phone)
Question 2
Does anyone know of a device that runs WM7 that is not a phone? (Like iPAQ 114).
Question 3
Does anyone else out there find themselves in my situation?
I look forward to your replies.
What's WM7?
There is no Windows Mobile 7, there's nothing after Windows Mobile 6.
Windows Phone 7 is an entirely new platform that does not support unmanaged code, hence your MFC/c++ programs will not run on it. It only supports c# and silverlight and xda for now, Microsoft hasn't been forth coming on development plans but it's highly unlikely it will support unmanaged code.
You have to rethink your business, maybe look into other platforms if you're in the mobile device software writing business, as you said windows mobile 6 is going the way of the dodo.
Jim Coleman said:
What's WM7?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This actually made me laugh at work, now everyone knows i'm not working lol.
Get the iPhone, and don't forget MobileMe.
Spare us the trouble...
Who uses PDAs? Those iPaqs ate terrible. Better off getting an iTouch or (gasps!) Palm Pre Plus (ATT or Verizon) if your gonna stoop that low.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
don't knock him for using PDAs, they're still very commonly used in business circles as a lot of programs were written years back.
you have your answers already... at present, they don't support managed code.
PDA Apps will work on Windows Mobile smartphones.
They have close to no use, IMO.
I had an iPAQ (still have it, in the closet). They're obsolete for all practical purposes. Smartphones have replaced them.
Don't waste money on a PDA. A PMP, maybe (though that dubious with WP7 and iPhones out there usurping iTouches and ZuneHDs). A PDA, no.
If you want a great business device, then you can always consider a Blackberry Torch or HTC HD2, or perhaps a Nokia N8. They aren't the latest and/or greatest, but those systems [still] work great for business. If you want to work and play, then I guess you have to look to iOS or WP7.
Android phone capabilities vary by device and manufacturer. I cannot give a great hypothesis on them even though I've owned multiple Android phones.
WP7 will grow into a great business OS, but Microsoft has made consumers the focus for the launch - because smartphones aren't just for business (the way PDAs chiefly were used).
in terms of business use where you have a POS, you do not need to pay the additional $150 to $250 per device for the phone functionality. especially when you have to get a lot of them. businesses use PDAs where need be, and phones where need be.
Windows Phone 7 as far a official Microsoft information goes is not going to support unmanaged code. Deployment-wise you will face the same problem on WP7 as on iOS: everything has to go through the marketplace.
Even though you can program iOS using C++ I guess your porting will still very much result in a rewrite of most of the code. Especially if you made heavy use of MFC classes.
Taking all this into consideration I'd actually suggest you go the Android route as there are several cheap phones available that run Android. Additionally Android supports native code as an option.
i believe iOS is actually objective-C, not C++. So it's a different dinosaur all together... (but still prehistoric at that)

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