The Windows Phone Guy

LP, which stands for Lync for Phone, is a Windows Phone 7 client for Lync which has been developed by Michael Olesen, a fellow Microsoft colleague Mikkel Bach Nielsen and  his wife Irit on their free time.

According to Michael, LP as already been submitted to the Marketplace and will be a free download!

You can check out a video of LP working with the Lync desktop client here.

For more information visit Michael’s blog.

Here is the screaming example of what Microsoft meant about gaming on the 3 screens: RC-AirSim is a game that can be found on the PC, the XBOX 360 and in Windows Phone 7.

The game is pretty much the same on all 3 screens, and I dare saying that on Windows Phone 7 it runs better than on my PC :)

Also the XBOX experience is very good, and you can notice some effects enhancements like some particles coming from the plane.

So far I’ve purchased the XBOX version, and its only too bad you have to pay for a license for each platform and that you cant just buy one license to have the game for all three platforms.

In the future, one might expect to play your favorite game anywhere you are, and hopefully you will only have purchase it once.

Office Web Apps is very cool and useful, and I was trying it from my home PC first opening and editing an Excel document and then opening and not being able to edit a Word document.

I found this odd, since I could edit just fine Excel spreadsheets, so why wouldn’t Word docs be editable just as well?

It seems I needed to activate the Office Web Apps Feature on the Site Collection Administration and then on the Site Collection Features.

I have been implement a SharePoint 2010 server coupled with an UAG ForeFront server in order to use the Sharepoint functionality in Windows Phone 7.

With that out of the way I am now trying to create some mobile forms, to see how it would look and feel on WP7, but first I wanted to create a list based on an Excel spreadsheet but SharePoint just kept giving me this error:

“This workbook cannot be opened because it is not stored in an Excel Services Application trusted location”

Luckily after a quick search I found myself at SharepointEduTech, which had exactly the solution for my problem:

Since I am using an SSL connection to access Sharepoint through UAG, I needed to add the “https://” location on the Excel Services Application.

To change this just navigate to your Central Administration site, then select “Manage Service Applications”, find and click on “Excel Services Application” and then under “Trusted File Locations” add a new trusted file location.

Here is a quick video of a great game I found today on Marketplace.

Its fun and addictive!

More info here.

XMaps has been available at the marketplace for some time as a paid version, and now you have the free version.

Although its not the best (by far) “navigation software” on the market it is almost unique for the Windows Phone 7 platform which doesn’t have a universal navigation software, paid or free.

Unfortunately due to the limited API’s and control over the OS the software fails in a few aspects and could be improved in others, but its worth taking it for a test drive.

The problems I noticed where:

• Won’t prevent device from auto-locking (OS side shortcoming)
• No voice directions
• No re-routing in case you take a wrong turn

If the developer could just get the last two and MS allow the application to supersede the automatic locking of the device, it would make a pretty darn good free mobile navigation software.

When trying to install Exchange Server 2010 SP1, the Setup would always throw out this error:

Mailbox Role
Failed

Error:
The following error was generated when "$error.Clear();
buildToBuildUpgrade-ExsetdataAtom -AtomName SystemAttendant -DomainController $RoleDomainController" was run: "An error occurred with error code '3221685221' and message 'Overlapped I/O operation is in progress.'.".

It had to do with the Windows Firewall being turned off.

On this server the Firewall wouldn’t work and also seemed to have “lost” a registry entry, this was why it would not load the Windows Firewall Snap-in.

Here is the registry fix for this problem:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-CA/smallbusinessserver/thread/565793d3-a1f4-4912-b52f-b7d08c1ee736

After importing the registry entry from another server, and after I restarted the server, I was able to turn on the Firewall and then install Exchange SP1 without any problem!

A big special thanks to Ben from Microsoft for pointing me out on the right direction!

If you’re like me, always messing around with VM’s and server configs, etc., than you might have reached a point where you had to demote your Exchange Server from the DC role.

After this your Exchange installation might start giving out some annoying errors like this:

So, being tired of this, I did some research and found this piece of valuable information over at Chris and Robin’s Blog:

The fix for me was not the highlighted one in that thread, but Adam Miceli's comment:
"Delete this file: c:\users\<specific user>\appdata\roaming\microsoft\mmc\Exchange Management Console"

This COMPLETELY worked and we no longer receive the above errors.

It worked for me and and al is back to its normal state.

We already know that Windows Phone 7 is a great phone for productivity.

But how about using it with the assets you have in your company such as CRM’s, ERP’s or even getting BI metrics?

Well I have recently found a few applications that help you do just that on your Windows Phone 7:

· PushBI – This great application will get your Kpi’s metrics from a Sharepoint Server with PushBI’s software and show them to you in very rich and easy way. The server side of PushBI will allow further customization of the reports generated.

link: http://www.pushbi.com/

 

· CoreSuite Mobile – This app connects to your SAP Business One solution and shows you your costumer data, a series of reports and performance dashboards.

link:  http://www.coresuite.com/

 

· 2Imaze – Allows you to access CRM information from your SAP solution.

link: http://www.2imaze.com/

 

· Resco Mobile CRM – This application will connect to your Microsoft Dynamics CRM and show important customer information, and can be easily customized using Resco Mobile CRM Studio.

link: http://www.resco.net/

Al these solutions can be downloaded for free from the Marketplace and tested, since they all have sample data that will give you a look and feel of each solution.

It seems that US developers are in for a new years treat. According to the App Hub site, if you develop and publish successfully two Windows Phone 7 games or apps you will be eligible for a $99 rebate which represents your annual subscription cost.

Not bad, right? But how about for developers living outside the US?

I’ve created a small video that illustrates how Burglar Alarm works and how easy it is to use.

Feel free to comment.

Nuno

Have you made a hard reset to your new Windows Phone 7, and want to reinstall your purchased music's, or simply check your purchase history?

Well, just open up Zune, go to Settings – Account and the choose the “Purchase History” option.

From here you will be able to browse through every music you have purchased and select the “Restore all” to restore all your purchased music's to your phone.

You can also browse through your apps purchase history so you can see what you’ve bought and downloaded in the past. When it comes to games and apps your new device will automatically install these for your, but it will take some time until you get all your apps and games back, so the fastest way to get you back on track is to simply reinstall your apps and games from the app Marketplace.

This is my first ever published Windows Phone 7 application and it helped me to get a hang of the whole publication process from the registering to the publication of the app, which I will share later on since I believe many people will find it most useful especially to non US residents that will have to take one extra step for requesting an ITIN in case you are an individual.

Why is this application paid? Well first of I wanted to try my luck :) and secondly it appeared to me that a decent idea to protect an investment such as our loyal Smartphone should be rewarded. And no less important I also wanted to get a feel of what a normal programmer that wanted to sell an app would go through.

As for the application itself, its main objective is to sound an alarm sound in case someone disconnects and moves your device while its charging with the AC adapter or while connected to your PC.

You have three different sounds to choose from, and you are able and should lock your device using a PIN.

Nevertheless it will work if you don't lock it, and if someone moves the device, but its much less effective like this.

Anyone that is brave enough to buy it will be very welcome to say what it feels about it, and of course to suggest any improvements they would like to see in future versions.

I plan to keep improving the app, and will, of course, make future versions available for free to my loyal costumers.

To see the app on the Marketplace just click here (this link opens Zune).

Xbox Live Extras is a free app you download of Marketplace and offers you the possibility to personalize your avatar, send(you must have a gold account for this) and receive messages from Xbox Live friends, see your achievements, and even compare yourself with your friends.

The Amazon eBook reader solution will be shortly introduced to Windows Phone 7 owners, broadening the scope of eBook offers for this new platform.

This was announced at PDC10 developers conference and here is the list of features:

• Access to over 725,000 books in the U.S. Kindle Store – the largest selection of the most popular books that people want to read – including New Releases and 108 of this week’s 111 New York Times Bestsellers.
• With Kindle Worry-Free Archive, books purchased from the Kindle Store are automatically backed up online in a customer’s Kindle library on Amazon, where they can be re-downloaded wirelessly for free, anytime.
• Buy Once, Read Everywhere with the Kindle apps and devices. Amazon’s Whispersync technology syncs your place across devices, so you can pick up where you left off.
• Integrated shopping experience that allows customers to shop without leaving the app.
• The opportunity to send an email to a friend with a link to the book you’re reading or to any book in your library without leaving the app.
• Customized reading, choosing from five different font sizes and three background colors.
• The ability to read in portrait or landscape mode, and to turn pages by tapping on either side of the screen or flicking.
• The option to try the beginning of a book for free before buying and to receive personalized recommendations on the home screen of your app.

I just can’t wait for this app to hit the Marketplace!

Source: Mobiletechworld

Jeff Blankenburg has provided a 31 days marathon of Windows Phone 7 development.

These include a great walkthrough the tools, the code and the tools, also including the final sample code.

So go ahead and thank Jeff for his effort and go check out his blog.

Microsoft has been pushing hard to have developers on their side, firstly by releasing the free development tools, secondly by providing a strong baseline of training (some examples here and here) and also by offering devices on conferences such as PDC10.

Now another effort comes together as Charles Petzold wraps up his book and Microsoft Press makes it available  for free on pdf, including its source code.

So my suggestion to you, if you are a developer, is grab the Windows Phone 7 wave because it sure is shaping up to be a contender to the top smartphone platforms in years to come.

Go on and grab your free ebook here.

Zune is sort of the substitute for Windows Mobile Device Center for Windows Phone 7. And although it wont sync, files, contacts, calendar, it is the new way for you to get multimedia files onto your WP7.

But not only can you add music, photos and video files from your PC, you can also buy them from Zune using a Zune Pass.

Plus you will be able to browse and install the games and apps Marketplace, and install them directly to your device.

To see more check out the following video: