I'd like to start developing Win Phone 7 apps before it's too late. I'm not sure my motivation is high enough to do so without a physical device to play with, but I don't want to switch to T-Mobile or AT&T (US) to get a device.
I'm quite happy paying full retail price - but get left with a lot of questions.
Will the device be fully functional without an active phone plan?
Is it important to test on a device that has a physical keyboard
Where is the best place to buy a retail price phone
Will I still get system updates through wi-fi without an active phone plan - or can I just borrow a friend's AT&T SIM card when I know an update is available
Are unlocked phones available - or are they still tied to the carrier
etc.
Preferably I'd like to be able to use the phone when in UK (less frequently than once a year)
Yes - subject to not having network connectivity. You can still wifi for data.
Not critical, you can emulate this with PAUSE in the emulator.
Depends on your area.
Updates through Zune when hooked up to your PC.
I'm not aware of any carrier lock ins like iPhone.
Related
I'm looking into NFC for use with Android phones and the newest iPhones. What I'm envisioning is some kind of NFC "broadcast" device plugged in via USB cable to a computer, so that it always sends out the most up-to-date information to whatever NFC-enabled phone is within close proximity. So far I've been seeing a whole lot of NFC "tags," which I assume are rather stupid devices that are pre-programmed with essentially static content. I'm wondering if there are any USB NFC devices on the market that can be more dynamic. Do such products exist? What's the best search keyword to find such a device? (What I've been searching for thusfar hasn't been turning up a whole lot of results.)
"NFC "broadcast" device plugged in via USB cable to a computer, so that it always sends out the most up-to-date information to whatever NFC-enabled phone is within close proximity" is your requirement. As I see in market there are NFC Readers with USB plugin to computer. They are active NFC devices generating 13.56MHz and mostly used for payment purposes. However they are putting these devices to ticketing, Office ID applications. When you bring your NFC Phone within this reader's proximity, the reader will read your phone's data and shall send it to the computer as encrypted data and will be verified in your Computer. In this process, phone acts as passive device while reader is active device.
You can also control this reader using your corresponding Software in computer which you wish as dynamic writing.
I think this might help you http://www.acs.com.hk/en/products/3/acr122u-usb-nfc-reader/
I found Network Sharing on Win8 mobile. (nokia Lumia)...I am trying to write similar application for Win8. But could not find any support on windows website. On Nokia website also, all I could find is how to turn on, but nothing else.
So, I have a lot of questions in my mind:
Is Network sharing is even supported by Windows or is it Nokia that has their own app to do this?
How this network sharing works? Are we tethering WLAN or something else?
Is it possible to write a similar app with the existing Win8 mobile APIs provided?
Does it use DNSMasq? ( I am assuming it is)
Is there any possible way to find the installed apps and the app structures in Win8 phone, like we have in android phones.
Network sharing is fully implemented by WP8 OS but it is under tight control from your cellular operator. You need to pay extra to enable "tethering" (here in USA). The cellular connection (4G, LTE) is then shared and your phone turns into Wi-Fi access point for other devices. When I try to enable network sharing on my HTC 8X (I am not paying for tethering), the screen flics with Wi-Fi details - tells me Wi-Fi broadcast name, password and number of guests connected - and then one second later I get a dialog from T-Mobile to go online and add tethering to my phone plan.
See above.
No, I don't think it is possible. As an app you don't have any control over network configuration.
I'd assume it provides NAT, DHCP and DNS forwarding. I don't think it uses DNSMasq code directly though. :-)
For privacy reasons you can't get a list of installed apps. Only when you are writing apps for enterprises (that don't go through Microsoft Store), you can list other apps signed with the same enterprise key. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/jj207245.aspx.
I have been long interested to develop on the platform. I even got the tools installed already on my desktop but I can't upgrade my WDDM from 1.0 to 1.1. To make things simple: my graphics chips are not up to the task of running the emulator.
If I still buy a Windows Phone (e.g. a Nokia Lumia) for development purposes, can I sideload and test my apps there efficiently instead of going against the emulator?
If I still buy a Windows Phone (e.g. a Nokia Lumia) for development purposes, can I sideload and test my apps there efficiently instead of going against the emulator
Yes, of course. It's very easy and convenient. You have debugger and all the goodies. Advantage of the emulator is the test option for 256MB devices.
That's exactly what I used to do prior to upgrading my devstation. The nominal min spec says 3G but with a real phone it worked fine in 2G and as you say this also sorts out graphics limitations.
Note that the setting for whether the emulator or physical device is used is stored in the project, so if you accept a project from someone else you will have to set it once prior to debugging.
Well there are 2 sides of the coin. With the physical device you can test most of the things, but with a few limitations
You will not be able to test internet related test cases - For example, if you have an app which uses internet connectivity then you will not be able to test it on the device easily because
The device does not use the machine internet connectivity
When connected to the PC the device's internet connectivity(Data connection 3G/ wifi/GPRS) is broken.
You will have to purchase an account right from the first day you want to test your app. If you have the emulator working then you could postpone this for atleast few days.
I have a Windows Phone 7 app to develop as a pet project and was going to get a phone just for testing my application. The app doesn't require calling features, so I was wondering if it would make more sense to get a Zune HD instead of the phone (trying to avoid paying monthly service fees).
In short, how close are the Zune HD and a windows phone 7 for testing simple "lob" type applications that would ultimately be sold as a windows phone 7 app?
This won't work since the apps need to run on the Phone O/S, which does not run on Zune devices. Nice idea though.
The Zune HD is a much slower processor than the Windows Phone 7 CPUs. The Zune HD runs at 600 mHz whereas the Windows Phone 7 devices all run at a gigahertz.
It's also not running the right operating system.
You might be able to test the games on the Zune HD. It uses XNA as does the Phone. The speeds (as above) would be different, but in theory this would work.
One can hope that perhaps a Zune HD2 might be in the works.
I am planning on purchasing the new HTC phone running Windows Phone 7, and am planning on using it for development purposes only; however, I can't afford the expensive subscription to T-mobile's data network at the moment. Is a cellular subscription necessary to use the phone for application testing purposes; or can I just use my WiFi network? Yes; I am aware of the fact that there's an emulator, but it is difficult to reliably test applications using an emulator.
You can test programs on your device without a data subscription. Of course you will need to decide if your particular program needs testing on a 3G only connection (eg. to test response times on slow connections etc. It can be faked, but I would recommend you test as close to real conditions as possible).
Regardless, you do need to pay the annual developer fee ($99) to Microsoft.