I've been hearing a lot about how starting with Windows 8 there would be a new API that replaces mirror drivers. AFAIK, mirror drivers are the only way for an AT application to read text output by drawing APIs such as GDI+ (in particular non-standard controls that don't use any accessibility APIs like UIA or MSAA).
So I did some research and found this page, which confirms the rumor but doesn't give much information about what's next. I e-mailed the address it said to contact, but received no response (not even an automatic "thank you for e-mailing Microsoft" message), so I'm not sure where else to look.
So I searched on here and found this page, which said there's a "desktop duplication" API available now; but the documentation that guy provided didn't seem to say anything about accessibility, but more geared toward people developing remote desktop apps - which is really cool but probably not what I was looking for... or was it? (lol)
Thanks in advance. :)
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Most of my home automation is controlled internally (timers, events, scenes, etc). I also have voice control (mainly just for fun). I have some google home devices scattered throughout the house with a few IFTTT phrases like "Open the blinds in the $ (e.g. lounge room)". When that phrase is triggered, WebHooks POSTs a request to my home server to open the blinds.
Anyway it would be nice if I could just say "Open the blinds" and the room would be implied by which Google Home device processed the phrase. That doesn't seem possible with the IFTTT services. It actually seems like a glaring oversight, so maybe I'm missing something.
Any ideas on how I could implement this seemingly simple feature? (I'm hoping I won't have to query the Google Assistant myself).
I think I have enough information now to answer my own question. The 'IFTTT Platform' seems to be the key to all my requirements. It will give me greater access to the Google Assistant API (magnitudes greater than the IFTTT GUI). However, it's a steep learning curve:
Step 1: Learn the Ruby programming language
Step 2: Umm I'll get back to you on the next steps :)
Maybe I have't looked hard enough, but I spent yesterday googling for a bit and found no relevant projects on hacking the DJI Phantom Drone in order to create new coordinating apps. This is besides the app for coordination DJI currently uses for their drone. I'm trying to see if there's a way to communicate with the Drone with a specific protocol in order to accept a set of procedures.
Any help would be awesome,
Thanks.
Great News for you and all us Droneys! DJI has launched their SDK since you asked this question. They released it last November and you can now apply for a license and write your own apps for the Phantom2 Vision+ using their SDK.
Check it out at https://developer.dji.com/
I am already building a project using the SDK - you can follow my progress on my blog / product site. I will also try to update it with good DJI related development links and tips.
This post is old but I think it is good to leave a foot print for others :)
There is this new company called NVdrones, which created a peace of hardware that you can attach to any drone (you need physical access to the flight controller), and once you do that you can use their SDK (Arduino, Java, Android and Javascript) to write your app without the need of hacking, soldering or anything else. It is just plug and play.
Another benefit is that you are not locked with a specific drone (DJI SDK or 3DRobotics SDK), you can use the board on anything you want. Which gives lots of flexibility.
The developer site is http://developers.NVdrones.com
Hope this helps.
This is a great topic!
You could check how to hack your copter here: https://github.com/flyver/Flyver-SDK/wiki/-2.2--How-To:-Flyver-Hack-a-Copter
By opening the drone, taking out the original controller, soldering a few wires and sticking an Android phone to it, you will have the ability to program your Phantom in a modern manner with an open source SDK and application based development. This means that you could add computer vision to it, automation or additional hardware. You could also use smartphones, web and other interactive devices for remote controlling the copter instead of using the standard remote controls.
The Phantom, however, is offcenter balanced due to the fact that most people use gimbal with it. Without the gimbal is a lot less stable from my experiments so you will have to put some extra work in center balancing it.
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.
Does anyone know how to access SkyDrive programmatically from Windows Phone 7? What API do I use? I need to upload files from the Phone to SkyDrive and vice versa.
Some code samples would be great. :-)
You can now officially integrate parts of SkyDrive with Windows Phone 7 applications.
Details outlined here.
There is a new Live SDK available from Microsoft which I think can do this. It's also in a very early alpha or beta state:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb264574.aspx
I have developed a sample based on SkyPad (Developer Preview). Please install the Windows Live Developer preview SDK.
The sample allows to save a file to SkyDrive and dowload it again after saving.
Here the link:
http://blog.mecum.biz/2011/10/windows-phone-7-mango-skydrive-sample/
You can use the Live SDK to integrate SkyDrive into your Windows Phone applications. Please see our code samples on GitHub.
Not an answer, but there's hope that an answer is on the way:
However, when Mike Torres was asked about features such as better usability, third-party API support, Windows Live Mesh integration, and expandable storage, he acknowledged that these are "top asks" for SkyDrive and said that they are currently "hard at work on SkyDrive as we speak"
Source
Your requirements sound pretty much like mine - you just want to use skydrive as a basic cloud filesystem.
I thought Matt's suggestion was an outstanding idea. I obtained the library and set out to port it, but unfortunately the codebase is huge and elaborate and absolutely riddled with the [Serializable] attribute which is not compatible with WP7. It also makes extensive use of several pieces of framework not available in WP7x, including X509Chain and Authorization.
SkyDriveApi is not even compatible with VS2010 - an attempted conversion produced a big mess so I just tried it out in VS2008.
We could always write one. This looks like a fair bit of work so I invite you to collaborate.
Well, it's feature complete and working a treat. I'd like to thank people for all the support and assistance I received reverse engineering the protocol using Fiddler, and coding, testing and debugging the prototype into production ready code. I'd like to, but nobody contributed a damn thing. Good luck writing your own.
SkyDrive doesn't have an official API but here are some unofficial ones. I'd start by looking at http://skydriveapiclient.codeplex.com/.
It doesn't claim support for WP7 but you may be able to port it.
What features can I look forward to in Windows 7 that will:
Make my job easier as a developer.
or...
Make my job "different"(harder) as a developer.
I've been hearing a lot about performance improvements and a few UI effect enhancements, but nothing really about what development on Windows 7 will be like. Thanks.
Following are areas that are new:
multi touch API for developing touch based applications
new concept of 'libraries' for storing user specific data (similar to mydocuments)
Enhanced support for GPS and other such hardware
Office2007 Ribbon like user interface
Refer to http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/developers/default.aspx for details.
The new sensors API will make your job easier, provided Microsoft can get enough people on-board with it. It should provide you a standard way to interface with things like GPS and light sensors, if you program with that kind of thing.
Very east to use and seamless Virtual PC is great for debugging and testing.
Touch is another new capability.
Feature list from Wikipedia.
To answer your actual question:
I don't think any of them are aimed at developers explicitly (such a tiny niche really).
For the begged "Features to use in apps" question:
I'd like to see lots of search extenders, jump lists, and those little "preview shortcut" button things (I have no idea what they're called).
Microsoft publishes an official Windows 7 Developer Guide.