Details of installed project templates in Visual Studio 2015 Community

After installing Visual Studio 2015 launch the application to display the start page.

StartPage.png

Click on New Project to open the New Project window as shown.

NewProj_01

It is displaying Visual Basic separately from other languages and the reason for this might be that Visual Basic was used recently, or perhaps this is the default New Project page in VS 2015 Community.

The number and types of Visual Basic templates are as shown here:

NewProj_01_VB

Visual Basic templates are fewer than C# project templates because there are templates for Android and iOS in C#.

NewProj_01_C#

For Android there are application templates for Wearable and WebView.

NewProj_01_Android

For iOS as well, Apple Watch template project is available.

NewProj_01_iOS

However for iOS Mobile applications templates use Xamarin. Forms.

NewProj_01_iOSMobile

Both Type Script and JavaScript project templates requires Tools for Apache Cardova which you can get by choosing the option.

For Python templates you need to install Python tools for Visual Studio and install Tools for F# for F# templates.

In C++ you can install support for both Android as well as iOS. Of course for MFC and Extensibility project templates you can install the requires tools. However for Windows templates -Windows 8.1 and WindowsPhone 8.1 can be installed.

I am not sure how these are going to change after the debut of Windows 10, perhaps a new version or an update. For developing Windows Phone applications you may need to install a different version of Visual Studio.

Xamarin is going to play a key role in cross-platform development using Microsoft Visual Studio and perhaps you may want to read more about Xamarin and its resources here:

Android Apps with Visual Studio
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/03/android-apps-using-visual-studio-part-1.html
C# Universal Coder
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/01/master-c-and-become-universal-coder.html
Cross-Platform Apps
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/07/cross-platform-app-development-part-1.html

Windows 10: The story of the hardware

The story leading up to Windows 10 and a detailed description in great detail is discussed
by Don Box. (at WinHEC Shenzen in China)of Microsoft.

Review this link for full details:
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/WinHEC/2015/Developing-for-the-Windows-10-Device-Platform
Several screen shots (not all) of the talk are included if you want to skip the video (about an hour) for any reason. The power point slides are well made and need no explanation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Same program running on different hardware devices :Demo

 

Significant items from the talk(from above site):

•  The Windows 10 device platform allows IHVs to develop a single universal driver that can be deployed across all Windows 10 device families (e.g. PCs, phones, IoT)
• The Windows 10 device platform provides new tools and techniques to reduce the cost and complexity of imaging and manufacturing Windows 10 devices.
• In-market and new hardware development boards will support Windows 10 and Windows universal drivers.
• Windows 10 will include a new IoT edition for small devices that is tuned to run Windows universal apps and drivers and is royalty free to makers and device builders.

You may need the latest Silverlight Installed.

X

Easy to create a TabView app with Intel XDK

You learnt how to do a ListView app using Intel XDK here,
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/09/creating-listview-type-of-cross.html

Now download the latest Intel XDK from here:

http://hodentekmobile.blogspot.com/2014/11/get-latest-intel-xdk-and-jump-start-app.html
(November 2014)
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/09/new-intel-xdk-release-september-2014.html (September 2014)

Using the above you can now code a TabView app as shown here. Yes, it is cross-platform.
http://hodentekmobile.blogspot.com/2014/11/creating-cross-platform-apps-with-tab.html

These are on the emulators.

 

iPhone5

 

Nokia Icon

 

Microsoft Band is released

Microsoft Band is released today ending the speculation about a wearable device.

It has aced the other vendors with many notable features:

• Longer battery life
• Integration with Windows Phone, iPhone and Android through Bluetooth
• Health and Fitness targeted
• Integrated with Cloud
• Reasonable price - a first for Microsoft
• Cortana for those who own a Windows Phone
• Probably more number of sensors than in a comparable wearable

The following are my speculations

• Integration with Internet of Things (?)
• CortanaOS and CortanaAndroid siblings in the offing

Probably I will be wearing one soon.
I tried out the MSN/Bing Health and Fitness app and the part I can use with Nokia Icon is cool. Some newer Windows Phones have the Motion Data support and they can measure the full app.

However to go with the Band Microsoft has released a new app which you can download from the Windows Store, Microsoft Health which has the same logo as the device.

Of course you need to have the band to use this app as you see here:

 

Do not miss this video on my other blog:

http://hodentekplus.blogspot.com/2014/10/this-blog-is-about.html

 

 

Microsoft to launch cross-platform SmartWatch in the near future

Within the next few week you will be seeing Microsoft Smartwatch in the Microsoft stores.
Two very important features that distinuguishes Microsoft SmartWatch from the others (Samsung Galaxy Gear, Moto360,etc) are,

Twice the battery life
Cross-platform

Being cross-platform it can sync with iOS and Android phones which is a big feature as the phones with other OSs have a larger market share and limiting to Windows Phone OS (<2.5% market share)will not be business-wise. Presently it may be Windows 8 based but i the future it will be probably Windows 10, the made-for OS across all device foot prints.

It also monitors wearer's heart rate passively in additions to other sensors. With its 'cloud-first, mobile-first' mantra this can integrate the wearers health information on the cloud and benefit health care. This health thing will have enterprise-wide significence as yet another benefit for enterprises to adopt Azure cloud.

More story here:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/10/19/microsoft-wearable-smartwatch/
Some interesting additional info follow this link:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/15/4524286/microsoft-surface-watch-smartwatch-testing-rumors

http://www.zdnet.com/when-will-microsoft-finally-roll-out-its-smart-watch-2-0-7000030020/

Name of device: ??
Price                 : ???

Microsoft seems to have another wrist based device for health monitoring apart from the wristwatch as well as provide a hook for IoT. This may be the device discussed in an earlier post. These rumored stories may get cleared in the next few weeks with the debut of the Smart watch.
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/08/microsofts-smartwatch-is-coming-soon.html

Jump start your Cross-Platform App Development skills with Intel's XDK

In my previous post some of the cross-platform app development tools/programs were described in a general way.  In this post I describe the Intel XDK tool which does not require skills except HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript.

From here you can jumpstart your App development skills after downloading the Intel XDK. You can write once and deploy to several platforms.

It is generally argued that while HTML5/CSS3/Javascript is a good option to create cross-platform apps it is only suitable for some simple, inexpensive apps. In order to buld more complex apps you need a single language to access the 'native apis'. Hardware specific apis are accessed
by a variety of languages like Java, .NET, Objective-C etc. There does not exist a single language to access the machine specific information for all platforms.

However, a large number of Apps fall into the 'inexpensive/simple apps' that integrate many of the social media applications and in these cases the Html5/CSS/Javascript is more than adequate. Apps based on HTML5 can also contribute to the number of apps in a store to improve the perceived lack of apps for Windows for example. Well at the end of the day quality and not quantity of apps that matters

What is Intel XDK?

Open Source PhoneGap (http://phonegap.com/) technology was instrumental in getting AppMobi (http://www.appmobi.com/) to use HTML5 for App development. Intel came along and acquired AppMobi and it was renamed XDK. Perhaps it then went rounds of revisions and tweaks to become Intel XDK. Right now in preview but will be a full fledged tool one day soon.

This video explains the Open Source PhoneGap.

BTW PhoneGap is free and you can download from the PhoneGap Site.
Here is a screen shot of Intel XDK homepage:

Intel XDK is free and can be downloaded from here,

http://xdk-software.intel.com/

for Windows 7, Windows 8, Apple OSX and Ubuntu Linux.

The installer Intel's Software Install Assistant installs xdk_web_win_master_0876 (~90MB); file version 1.0.9.38
Just double click the installer.

After extraction is completed the Welcome page is displayed.

In the Welcome Page click Next. Here you choose the destination. Default was chosen here.

Click Next to get to the installation summary page.

Click Install.
Installation begins..

Pretty soon it is completed. Very uneventful installaiton.

Click Finish and you are done.
The first time you use it you will have to login into Intel XDK.
Then provide the required information

That's it. Now you are ready to develop.
Watch future Intel XDK posts on
http://hodentek.blogspot.com and/or
http://hodentekMobile.blogspot.com

 

Xiaomi smart phones are a sell out in India, coming to more countries

Xiaomi is a challenge to smart phone makers from Apple to Samsung. They are not only way-off cheap but as good and in some cases better than the avaiable ones. Xiaomi has announced the next version Xiaomi Mi4 today in China.

In India Xiaomi Mi3 started selling in July and they were sold out in India within moments they started selling, it appears from all accounts. More units are on the way.
Read here:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Xiaomi-Will-Sell-15-000-Xiaomi-Mi3-Units-in-India-on-August-5-453227.shtml

Here is a picture of its availability in India from the above site:

That was Mi3 unit and Xiaomi has recently announced the Mi4 which is available in China and it has already earned the nick name, 'Apple of China'.

The high end Xiaomi Mi4 touted as the fastest smart phone uses the 2.5 GHz Snapdragon 801 processor; a 3080 mAhs battery; 3GB Ram; 5 inch touch screen; full HD display resolution; 13 mega pixel camera and 8 mega pixel front camera with a 80 deg wide angle, f 1.8 lens. Regarding internal storage there two kinds, 16GB (~ $320) and 64GB(~$400).

Xiaomi not only makes smart phones they are geared to compete for every other gadgets from TV to smart wrist bands.

Read this on Bloomberg BusinessWeek Technology section:

Xiaomi's Phones Have Conquered China. Now It's Aiming for the Rest of the World

By Brad Stone June 04, 2014

Fixing bleeding from a neigboring section in Windows Store apps

In my previous post I described some UI errors in projects created using Windows App Studio which is in beta. Notice the bleeding from the next section into the section in display.

 

I had attributed those errors to my incorrect usage of the App Studio. However looking at sample the project (Windows Phone App Studio Sample App) I believe it is some errors not fixed in the beta. Notice the 'bleed' in the next screen shot.

I went back and opened the project in Blend for Visual Studio 2013 and fixed the errors in my previous post.
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/wpapps/en-US/57b5f392-d5f8-46b8-9a5a-fa7b88aba398/app-studio-developed-app-has-display-errors?forum=wpappstudio

Basically, the horizontal alignment was wrong and the seciton widths were not set correctly. After making these changes, the display was corrected as shown.

 

Blend is very handy for fixing the UI errors, more intuitive than VS.

 

Do not confuse Microsoft Mobile with Microsoft Mobile Services

Microsoft Mobile is hardware manufacturing company located not in REDMOND but in Espoo, Finland.

That Microsoft acquired Nokia's devices and services divison is knwn although details finalized this April 2014.

Microsoft Mobile will:

• Design Develop
• Manufacture
• Distribute Mobile Phones
• Smart Phones
• Tablet Computers
• Accessories

The 'Lumia' and the low end 'ASHA(Hope in Samskruta aka Sanskrit)' are owned by Microsoft.

I am not sure if 'Asha' can compete with 'Akash' which traces its DNA to INDIA?

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/search?q=akash

In any case, I wish good luck to Microsoft Mobile.

Native Mobile application Development or Application Development with HTML5

Developing mobile applications with HTML5 is one of the hottest topics and it appears that the interest is diminishing (number of developers wanting to use HTML5 has fallen to 59% which had peaked in 2012 to 72.7%) according to,

http://www.appcelerator.com.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/q4-2013-devsurvey.pdf.

Native applications appear to perform better. The reason being that native apps can perform equally well on all browser platforms compared that developed using html5. Written once and run on all is a stretch if you use HTML5.

It appears HTML5 is now best suited for a smaller group that is limited to desktops, content consumption, etc. When it comes to games and enterprise applications such as customer relationship management etc. native applications are preferred.




http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=247499

Another side of the story is the continuing browser wars with browser vendors not giving a serious try to work towards its adoption in a vendor-neutral uniform way.

Read related stories here:

http://www.infoworld.com/t/javascript/mobile-app-developers-interest-in-html5-slipping-232971

http://www.html5rocks.com/en/mobile/nativedebate/

http://www.infoworld.com/t/html5/half-full-or-half-empty-html5s-mixed-outlook-238915?source=rss_application_development

iPhone is old hat, 5C or 5S, try Nokia Lumia 1020

If you use it in sports, capturing events, quality videos, weddings, nature photography  and a dozen more of photographic activities you should seriously consider Nokia Lumia 1020. iPhone is history!

 

 

More camera details in my mobile blog here:

http://hodentekmobile.blogspot.com/2013/11/nokia-lumia-1020-camera-details.html

 

 

Here is an exploded view of the camera lifted from Nokia Site.

 

 

Make sure you visit this site and check out the photos/videos
http://www.nokia.com/us-en/photomasters/

Are you a Windows Phone Developer?

How do you win the smart phone game? Provide a zillion of applications that the lazy user flips with his finger or gestures at.

How do you develop? You got to know XAML.
You can see another sample as well at the above link.

Microsoft is all out to win the phone game. The VS2010 Express for Windows Phone will motivate Microsoft Developers and Game developers to create applications.

Download the Download Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone here..The vm-web set up program (3,265KB) downloads fast but takes a while to install some 14 items.
I used a new notebook with Windows 7 Ultimate.

The interface is cool and initial templates are available for both Silverlight and Game enthusiasts.

I took the program for a test drive. The interface has the look and feel of VS 2010 RC with fewer menu items. It has a Windows 7 Phone Emulator and supports intellisense.

I tried the PhoneList application and modified a few items here and there. Looks like it worked but it ran very slow when I tried to run the basic program.
 Here are some opening screen shots of the interface.