Windows Phone 7 Unleashed is a free day of Windows Phone 7 training.  We’re coming to Redmond, WA.

Windows Phone 7 at Mobile Redmond/Bellevue -  Oct 07, 2010
Advanta
3007 160th Ave SE
Bellevue, WA 98008

This is a combination hackathon/training. It’s meant for people who code and want to get a jump start at development on the new platform. It’s a BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop) event. Registrations are limited so make sure you get signed up soon.

Windows Phone 7 is about to be released! Come check out Windows Phone 7 Unleashed for everything you need to know to develop for WP7. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or you’re just starting with .NET development, there’s something in it for you. The first half of this deep dive event is lecture and hands on lab. At the half point mark of the day, you’ll have a solid foundation for building WP7 applications.

Here are some easy instructions for getting going with Windows Phone 7 development.

Step 1: Remove Any Old Phone Tools

If you’ve installed betas or any earlier phone tools, go to the “Programs and Features” control panel and search for “phone”, “visual”, etc. and uninstall all of the old phone tools and emulators.

Step 2: Install the Phone Tools

The Phone tools installer will download and install the necessary components.  But it takes a while.  If you don’t already have Visual Studio installed, Visual Studio Express (a free edition of Visual Studio) will be installed.  There are all kinds of goodies that need to be downloaded and put onto your machine.  Best to find something to do while you wait.

The tools can be found on the Getting Started Windows Phone 7 page.  Click on “Download the Developer Tools!”

The direct link for the install page is here but beware this may change in the future as new versions are rolled out   For right now, you can download all of the developer tools in an .ISO for burning to a DVD/direct mounting.  These can be super useful for training scenarios.

Run the installer, you’ll get some great stuff including:

• Visual Studio Express (if you don’t already have Visual Studio Installed)
• Windows Phone 7 Add-in for Visual Studio 2010 (allows you to write phone applications in Visual Studio)
• Microsoft Expression Blend (if Blend isn’t installed, you get a free version of Blend.  This allows WYSIWYG design of phone applications)
• XNA Game Studio 4.0  (a free version of game studio for developing games on the phone)
• Windows Phone Emulator (your own windows phone… in software.  used for testing applications)

System Requirements are pretty basic and include:

• Vista or Windows 7
• 3Gb of disk space
• 2Gb of RAM
• Emulator needs a DirectX 10 capable graphics card with a WDDM 1.1 driver

Step 3: Test the Phone Tools Installation

Start Visual Studio 2010

Either the one you already had installed or the Express edition that was installed for you.

Go to File->New Project

Select Windows Phone Application

On the left pane, select “Silverlight for Windows Phone“.  On the Middle pane select “Windows Phone Application“.  Press OK.  Wait a few seconds and Visual Studio will generate your new project.

Press F5: Your Application Runs

Press the F5 key and wait a few moments.  Visual Studio will build your application, start the emulator, deploy your application to the emulator and begin running.  You should see something like this.  Notice the goofy numbers on the right hand side.  These may or may not be present (it depends on the template you use).   These are normal, and they’re there for debugging purposes.   Thanks to PHenry for pointing this out.

Congratulations! 

You just created your first Windows Phone 7 application.  For some more resources, see here:

The getting started guide.

The training kit.

The Windows Phone 7 Unleashed events.

Jesse Liberty has a podcast!  If you care about programming Windows Phone 7, it’s the podcast for you.  It’s called Yet Another Podcast, and it looks like it’s going to be great.  From the Site:

I am pleased, excited and terrified to announce  that Yet Another Podcast will be launching on September  20, 2010.

This is not your momma’s podcast.

Here are my guiding principles:

1. Do not waste the listener’s time
2. This is not radio
3. Discuss, don’t interview
4. Focus, focus, focus

These half dozen principles lead to the following decisions (every one of which may change over time!)

• Focus: Our central topic will be Windows Phone 7, with secondary topics including Silverlight, Programming and Best Practices
• Not Radio: No intro, no outro, no bumbers, no announcer
• Don’t Waste The Lister’s Time: The shows run as long as they take.  No fixed format.  Count on something between 20 and 40 minutes, except when they are longer or shorter.
• Discuss:  Lots of guests, but no interviews, no canned questions, lots of real programmers discussing real issues
• Don’t Waste The Listener’s time:  Useful information or shut up.

The show will be posted every other Wednesday starting on  September 22.

Contact Information

Show site: http://YetAnotherPodcast.us
http://YapCast.us
http://JesseLiberty.com/yap

Comment line:  1-347-YAP-CAST  (1-347-927-2278)

He’s even got a comment line which is just about the coolest thing ever  

I’ve been honored to be on his 2nd show.  We talk about Windows Phone 7, iOS and marketplaces.

The release of Windows Phone 7 devices is  close.  Are you ready?  In Portland, we have a pair of events that are going to be great introductions to Windows Phone 7.  We will have actual devices at *both* events

Windows Phone 7 at Mobile Portland – September 27, 2010

This is a great high level overview of Windows Phone 7 and what it means.  It’s suitable for anyone including managers and other non-coders as there’s been a promise made that there won’t be too much code

Microsoft has a history of colossal successes and failures. As the Windows Phone 7 release approaches, it’s sure to be big (reports say the marketing alone will be a $400 million affair), but will it be a success? Early reviews are positive, but can a company miss the mobile boat by 3+ years and still make a competitive product?

Windows Phone 7 Unleashed – September 30, 2010 - SOLD OUT (if more seats somehow become available, I’ll try to update)

This is a combination hackathon/training.  It’s meant for people who code and want to get a jump start at development on the new platform.  It’s a BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop) event.  Registrations are limited so make sure you get signed up soon.

Windows Phone 7 is about to be released! Come check out Windows Phone 7 Unleashed for everything you need to know to develop for WP7. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or you’re just starting with .NET development, there’s something in it for you.  The first half of this deep dive event is lecture and hands on lab. At the half point mark of the day, you’ll have a solid foundation for building WP7 applications.

What’s new This Week in Silverlight

Recorded September 13, 2010

John Papa Interview

• John’s been at Microsoft for almost a year now
• Scott Guthrie is coming to Silverlight TV!!! (stay tuned)
• John’s experiences in traveling to Asia and evangelizing Silverlight
• Sneak peek into PDC
• Sneak peek at MVVM Patterns and Practices summit with Karl Shifflett (The Angel and Devil in Your Head)
• December 2nd is a Silverlight Firestarter in Redmond!!!
• John’s upcoming Windows Phone book!!!

John Papa is a Sr Technical Evangelist for Microsoft (formerly a Microsoft Silverlight MVP, INETA speaker, and member of the WPF and Silverlight Insiders). He specializes in professional application development with Microsoft technologies including Silverlight, WPF, C#, .NET and SQL Server. John has written over 70 articles and authored 9 books including his latest book Data Driven Services with Silverlight by O’Reilly Media.He can often be found speaking around the world at industry conferences such asMIX,  TechEd, PDC, VSLive and DevConnections, and hosts the popular showSilverlight TV on Channel 9. John also hosts the annual Silverlight MIXer, a gathering of some of the most influential members of the Silverlight community. You can always find John at johnpapa.net. 

Guest Hosts

Brian Henderson is a Silverlight Designer/Architect and INETA Community Champion. A few of the activities Brian can be found participating are flying (pilot), kayaking, hiking, or just taking video/photos.

Kelly White is an independent Silverlight Consultant. He previously lead the PDXUX.Net user group, and now runs the Portland Silverlight User Group with Erik Mork. Kelly has presented at user groups and code camps throughout the northwest on both Silverlight and WPF.

Music kindly provided by YACHT.

Podcast: Download

What’s new This Week in Silverlight

Recorded September 13, 2010

News

• Barnes-gate 2010.  We’ll be chatting with Scott Barnes soon… He’s *very* supportive of Silverlight and the Designer story.
• Windows Phone 7 devices coming out in early October?
• Silverlight Cream posts top authors from March to August.
• Jesse Liberty has Silverlight competency tests.
• Dan Wahlin talks about MVVM on LIDNUG.
• Brian Henderson has great new site updated daily with Silverlight news.
• 8 part series on fluid layouts.
• Jetpack theme available for Silverlight.

Rumors

Kelly outs Valerie Plame (er Scott Davis).

For an upcoming week: The rise and fall of Ux at Microsoft.

Guest Hosts

Brian Henderson is a Silverlight Designer/Architect and INETA Community Champion. A few of the activities Brian can be found participating are flying (pilot), kayaking, hiking, or just taking video/photos.

Kelly White is an independent Silverlight Consultant. He previously lead the PDXUX.Net user group, and now runs the Portland Silverlight User Group with Erik Mork. Kelly has presented at user groups and code camps throughout the northwest on both Silverlight and WPF.

Music kindly provided by YACHT.

Podcast: Download

What’s new This Week in Silverlight

This week we’re joined by Shawn Wildermuth.  He’s writing a Windows Phone 7 book, and he gives us the inside scoop!

 Shawn is the creator of the popular Silvelright Tour Workshops

Shawn’s blog is here.

What we Talk About

• Shawn’s new book!
• Shawn’s experience with a Windows Phone device (mostly positive).
• Is Shawn carrying the Windows Phone 7 phone as his ownly phone?
• Why cloud is important for the phone.
• XNA versus Silverlight on Windows Phone 7
• Multitasking – Android versus Windows Phone 7.
• Lessons that Windows Phone has learned from iOS and Android.

About Shawn

Shawn Wildermuth is a Microsoft MVP (C#), member of the INETA Speaker’s Bureau and an author of six books about .NET. Shawn is involved with Microsoft as a Silverlight Insider, Data Insider and Connected Technology Advisors (WCF/Oslo/WF). He has been seen speaking at a variety of international conferences including SDC, VSLive, WinDev, MIX, DevTeach and DevReach. Shawn has written dozens of articles for a variety of magazines and websites including MSDN, DevSource, InformIT, CoDe Magazine, ServerSide.NET and MSDN Online. He has over twenty years of software development regularly blogs about a range of topics including Silverlight, Oslo, Databases, XML and web services on his blog (http://wildermuth.com). He is currently teaching workshops around the country through his training company AgiliTrain (https://agilitrain.com).

Guest Hosts

Brian Henderson is a Silverlight Designer/Architect and INETA Community Champion. A few of the activities Brian can be found participating are flying (pilot), kayaking, hiking, or just taking video/photos.

Kelly White is an independent Silverlight Consultant. He previously lead the PDXUX.Net user group, and now runs the Portland Silverlight User Group with Erik Mork. Kelly has presented at user groups and code camps throughout the northwest on both Silverlight and WPF.

Music kindly provided by YACHT.

Podcast: Download