Today I am taking a small detour from the Office, SharePoint, and Office 365 discussions I normally have here. Today I am going to point you to a blog by Rob Mancini, the Chief Technology Officer for Washington DC Government.
Rob has been given the opportunity to spend some time with a Windows Phone 7 device running “Mango” and he has decided to post his findings and experiences on his blog.
Check out “A Slice of Mango Evaluating the Windows Phone” to learn about his experiences so far.
Today Microsoft launched a new training course for building Windows Phone 7 apps that interact with SharePoint 2010. This training course contains 10 units and 25 hands on labs.
You can view the course online at MSDN or download the offline training kit.
View Training Course:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/SharePointAndWindowsPhone7TrainingCourse
Download Training Kit:
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9778593
Training units included in the kit:
Introduction to Windows Phone 7 Development
In this unit you will understand real world examples of connecting to and consuming information stored in SharePoint with custom applications that you write with Visual Studio on Windows Phone 7. With the introduction of Windows Phone 7, .Net developers have the tools and resources available to create, test, deploy and sell stunning applications using the same familiar tools that you have been using for years. You don’t need to learn a new language, you just need to learn how the platform works and start building applications in Silverlight or XNA Framework. We have a lot to teach you in this course, you will start by building the familiar “Hello World” application and then dive into connecting to SharePoint and building applications that can improve your business.
Setting Up A SharePoint and Windows Phone 7 Development Environment
Getting started developing Windows Phone 7 applications for SharePoint can be a little difficult. In this unit you will learn how to setup a developer environment and explore some of the options to consider. You will see how to setup and configure a development environment in both a physical and virtual environment.
SharePoint 2010 Mobile Web Development
SharePoint supports mobile views of sites, lists and libraries. Many modern mobile browsers do not need this support as they work well with SharePoint without the need for the mobility redirection. But there are scenarios where you want to provide the best app like experience. The end user experience is focused on collaboration with access to Lists and Libraries. The mobile viewers make it easier to users to view office documents on their mobile devices. If you are planning to use mobile Web Parts and Field Controls you need to plan for how the controls will render.
Integrating SharePoint Data in Windows Phone 7 Applications
Windows Phone 7 can integrate with SharePoint like any other remote application. In this unit you will learn how to access SharePoint List data, user profile data, and social data. You will understand how to use alerts, site data, and views.
Advanced SharePoint Data Access in Windows Phone 7 Applications
Accessing server data is one of the most important aspects of Phone 7 development. In this unit you will learn how to Create, Edit,Update,and Delete data. You will learn other advanced topics such as data paging and working with images from SharePoint.
Security With SharePoint And Windows Phone 7 Applications
Connecting to and consuming data from the SharePoint server can be challenging giving some of the security restrictions. In this unit you will learn about connecting to data both inside and outside of your corporate network. You will learn about some or the options using Forms Based Authentication (FBA) and Unified Access Gateway (UAG). You will also learn how the various security techniques affect your application design.
Integrating Push Notifications with SharePoint Data in Windows Phone 7 Applications
The Microsoft Push Notification Service in Windows Phone offers third-party developers a resilient, dedicated, and persistent channel to send data to a Windows Phone application from a web service in a power-efficient way. In this unit you will learn how create push notifications in SharePoint using event handlers.
Integrating SharePoint 2010 and Windows Azure
Working in the cloud is becoming a major initiative for application development departments. Windows Azure is Microsoft’s cloud incorporating data and services. In this unit you will learn how to leverage SharePoint and Azure data and services in your Windows Phone 7 applications.
Deploying Windows Phone 7 Applications
Once you have completed your Windows Phone 7 application you will need to publish it to the Marketplace. In this unit you will learn how to avoid some common publishing mistakes. You will also see how to protect and secure your applications. You will also learn about a couple of techniques to make your applications private.
SharePoint and Windows Phone 7 Tips and Best Practices
Windows Phone 7 and SharePoint application enable you to create very powerful enterprise collaboration applications, but there are still advanced topics to master. In this unit you will learn how to optimize performance with large data sets. Learn how to look up a SharePoint user’s metadata. Learn how to read list schemas to create dynamic applications that do not require recompilation when a list schema changes. Understand how to implement a pure MVVM pattern. See how to use phone actions to integrate SharePoint data with phone functionality.
I have successfully updated my T-Mobile HTC device with the February and March updates. So far I am liking what I am seeing. The performance is definitely improved, games load considerably faster and all of the applications feel a bit more snappy.
The upgrade was a very simple and painless process. I received the notification for the update, connected it to Zune and just followed the prompts. A few minutes later the update was installed and the phone was running great.
Copy and paste is now included which is a nice addition. Since getting this device many months ago I have only run into a couple times where I wished I could have copy and paste. Most of the times the phone is smart enough to link information such as addresses, phone numbers, and links to proper applications. This means that I don’t have to copy and paste, I just tap and get my results.
Overall I am very happy with my HD7 device and I look forward to more great things for this platform.
Just a few moments ago I received the first of two updates for my T-Mobile HTC HD7 phone. The first update (7004) supports future updates. The update was a simple and smooth process. I am hearing that other T-Mobile users are already receiving the “NoDo” update which adds copy/paste, performance improvements along with other features.
Although the official deployment schedule for the US lists the HTC HD7 and Dell Venue Pro as “Scheduling” there have been many confirmed reports that both phones have begun receiving the “NoDo” update today.
Just moments ago Microsoft announced a new broad strategic partnership with Nokia. This partnership will combine the strengths of the two companies, and fuel their growth as they build the global Windows Phone ecosystem. This is a great win for both Microsoft and Nokia, and for their existing and new customers around the world. Please take a few minutes to check out some of the details here on Microsoft’s website, or watch the webcast of the press conference from London.
Here are some highlights from the announcement:
· Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.
· Nokia will help drive the future of Windows Phone by contributing expertise on hardware design, language support and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.
· Nokia and Microsoft will collaborate on a shared product roadmap as well as joint sales & marketing initiatives to drive global volume and create a vibrant Windows Phone ecosystem
· Microsoft development tools and marketplace (including XBOX Live) will be used to create applications and games to run across the global ecosystem including Nokia Windows Phones.
· Bing will power the search services across Nokia devices and services, giving their customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter will provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services.
· Nokia Maps will become a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Bing and AdCenter to form a unique local search and advertising experience.