I've been making Windows apps (C# / XAML), for a while, and there is a built-in RoamingSettings space so the app can share preferences across multiple Windows devices (using the same Microsoft Account). Since Xamarin can work across multiple platforms, is there a way to do this?
I was thinking about some form of internet database, but I'm not hip on storing user data. Plus, it would either require authentication or store everyone's data in one big table.
I was thinking that Project Rome would be good for this, but it seems to be more geared towards hand-off workflows (not just sharing a font size or something).
Do you guys have any easy ideas (I stress the word "easy", as I'm just a hobbyist and not a real programmer).
Check out Visual Studio Mobile Center and EasyTables. That should do what you want, but needs an Azure subscription. It's in preview at the moment but works pretty well.
https://mobile.azure.com/
Related
I'm currently at the very beginning of developing an Augmented Reality App that's supposed to run on Surface Pro devices. I should probably mention that this is the first time I ever dealt with AR.
While most solutions seem to favor iOS, Andoid or the Unity platform, I have also stumbled across Windows Mixed Reality.
I'm aware that the website explicity says that it's only for use with headsets. However, I have Microsoft's "Mixed Reality Viewer" on my Surface Book which includes pretty much the functionality I want to deliver myself and I think the name and background suggest, that the two belong together.
Does anyone know any more about this? Ideally straight up if it could be useful for my purposes.
Thanks a lot!
I think what you are looking for is Vuforia, a VR/AR SDK that is now integrated into Unity. You create apps in Unity with C#, and then deploy them to UWP (Universal Windows Platform), which can run on Surface devices and use the cameras for AR. Vuforia lets you do image and object recognition and alter the virtual parts of your app based on the real world environment - if you don't need those features, you can use Unity on its own to create virtual models, UI, etc.
So interested to hear more about the "Mixed Reality Viewer" application you have on your Windows 10 -- did you have the Microsoft Insider "Skip Ahead" version of Windows installed?
https://winbuzzer.com/2017/09/06/microsofts-new-windows-10-mixed-reality-viewer-app-leaks-online-xcxwbn/
I'm on the "Slow Ring" for Windows Insider and already have the Fall Creators Edition installed - and no "Mixed Reality Viewer" - just "View 3D" - which sounds like it will morph into MRV
Either way -- you will likely want to do all of your development in Unity -- which can be used to not only make Hololens application, but also application for the new Mixed Reality Headsets. Going to guarantee that this will also be the case for MRV when it is generally released.
Love to hear more about what you are seeing - and know any time you spend looking at Unity development will be time well spent. :)
I dont know enough about smart watches but i figure that at some point, browsing web sites on them will become a standard feature. The "Web Browser for Android Wear" app on google play has more than 100,000 downloads and the "WebBrowser for SmartWatch" app has more than 10,000
To that end, given that smart watches like Sony's SmartWatch 3 has a 1.6” screen, what should web designers need to take into consideration when making their web pages as portable as possible? Is there a set of standards? What kind of functionality and behaviour should one expect of a page displayed in a smart watch browser?
Although SO isn't the best place for this question, I'll chip in. As far as I know, designing for wearables is still a new thing, and as per say, I haven't come across any standards as such.
But I think responsive web design should do just fine.
People are working on designing websites for smart watches. Here.
However, think about using the standard manufacturer APIs to build more robust and interactive experiences than just relying on websites on tiny screens.
Here's an article from Net Tuts+ that shows you how to design for the Apple Watch using existing web technologies. Bear in mind it doesn't beat native at all.
I have made one windows phone based application. i want some designing ideas from you wp7 people.how can we apply styles,transparent background or the design which suits wp7 app. may i have some links which provides snaps for good designed apps. please help
One app that jumps to my mind when talking about great use and adaption to the metro design, it's "Cocktail Flow". It has very well done implementations of many design cues for WP7. As special treats it has features like parallax effects controled via gyroscope.
You can find a free version on the marketplace. Definitely worth a look.
MSDN user experience guidelines are pretty good, User Experience Design Guidelines for Windows Phone.
Also, it helps to install some popular apps from the marketplace and study their design.
The BEST thing you can possibly do to get a good idea of how to build a great WP7 app is to own a Windows Phone, and use it as your primary phone.
Get used to the way the operating system flows. Download cool apps. As time goes on you begin to understand from the user's perspective what a "good" app looks (and more importantly) feels like. It's a hard thing to nail down in a "user experience" spec. I find that a lot of people who set off to build a WP7 app do so before understanding how apps are supposed to behave on the platform. It is vital that you understand how users expect applications on the windows phone to operate. If you use a windows phone for a good 3-4 months, and really make an effort of butting it through the steps, it will be hard to walk away from that experience without a very clear idea of what a "good" application looks like for the windows phone.
That being said, and while I honestly don't believe that there are any short cuts to good design for the windows phone, I highly recommend downloading the following apps, and playing around with them to get a feel for "good" UI:
Wordament
Cocktail Flow (previously mentioned)
Twitter
Spotify
Yelp
Any of the built in applications (Office, Zune, Internet Explorer)
The above are good to start with, but again, you're really not going to understand it unless you live and breath it everyday for at least a few months.
I am not too sure if this question is suited for this forum. If not, please let me know and I'll delete this.
I wanted to figure out the "easiest" way of keeping online score for a game or quiz on Windows Phone 7. Currently, I am not looking for things like Achievements etc. I know XBOX live provides a lot of stuff on these grounds, but it is not open for all.
I want to submit the score, and maintain the top 200 (may be less) odd scores. I am too lazy to write my own services and host it and go through the full maintenance cycle for that scoring system. Can someone point out some really good and easy to use + reliable services that I can use?
The product offered by Mogade has a lot of the features you have asked for:
Real time stats
Achievements
Logging
Javascript leaderboards & Facebook pages
Always free
No branding requirements
It's a very streamlined library where you only need to set up the bare essentials to get it working as all of the heavy lifting is managed for you automatically, allowing you to focus more time on the development of your game.
briansoli has written a fairly straightforward tutorial on how to get a leaderboard working with in a Windows Phone 7 game.
I hope you find this useful, let us know how you get on with it!
Microosft have just released a new toolkit called the Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games. This should help you out with quite a bit.
Have a look at this Cloud Cover Show, Episode 52 - Tankster and the Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games
The toolkit enables unique capabilities for social gaming prerequisites, such as storing user profiles, maintaining leader boards, in-app purchasing, and more. The toolkit also comes complete with reusable server side code and documentation, as well as Tankster, a new proof-of-concept game built with HTML5
What Windows Phone 7 demo/reference applications have you seen which really made you interested in developing for the platform?
I know of Scott Gu's Twitter example and Foursquare. Also see here for MIX10 demo apps.
Other than developing games and re-creating functionality already present on other mobile platforms (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android), is there any good reference material and business benefits of developing for Windows Phone 7? Does the Silverlight dev environment really offer an advantage over what is already out there? My gut feeling is that this is definitely the case, but it will take some time for the platform to establish itself, if it does.
You can find a lot of examples and reference applications here www.reddit.com/r/wp7dev/ or search using the hashtag #wp7dev on twitter (full disclosure - some of my examples appear there).
There a examples of what people are openly working on, but one can assume it is a lot more - hopefully this is useful, as it shows what can be done, or is being done on the platform.
As a novice developer, other phone platforms came with a lot of overhead required to build even the simplest application. The fact that XNA will be available for game development is a huge thing for me, it means I can create simple games for me and my friends without having to spend time learning a new language or setting up awkward SDK's and deployment settings.
More advanced developers may scoff at that, but development tools that are already being used that can work right out of the box for the intended platform is important for the hobbyists. I think this will open up a huge arena for homemade games and apps just like XNA did for 360 development.
It should also help sales. I will buy a Windows 7 phone because of this, and I can imagine others will do the same. As it stands, I am going to port my existing XNA games over so I can play them on the go. It will be cool to show people at the office, airport, etc. projects I have made right on the spot, and even give them the option to play if they have the right hardware.