Windows Mobile Developer in Android-land

Lecture is over and I hope you were there! :)

In any case here is presentation and samples.

Do not miss KulenDayz next year.

[2010-09-05: Additional (5 minute) presentation is also included in download.]

Windows Mobile Developer in Android-land

Best conference in these parts of world is almost upon us. Yes, I am talking about KulenDayz 2010.

Conference will be held (as usually) in Beli Manastir (near Osijek, in Croatia) at hotel Patria and attendance is completely free of charge although you do need to register. There is small additional fee if you wish to have dinner there but, trust me, it is well worth it.

This is first year when I will not give Microsoft centric talk - title says it all - “Windows Mobile developer in Android-land”. It will be about how well can Windows Mobile Developer adjust to new environment and how much it hurts. It will be experience and question driven so do not expect much of code.

As always, PowerPoint will be available for download.

P.S. Pun on Alice in Wonderland is quite intended. :)

Technical Talks

What do you get when you cross Mark Minasi and Mark Russinovich?

You get one great presentation. It is named “The Secrets of Effective Technical Talks: How to Explain Tech without Tucking Them In!” and it is mandatory for any presenter-wanna-be.

I might not agree with some things they say (mostly PowerPoint related stuff) but there is lot of things to take home.

300

After more than two years of writing I finally cannot fit all my posts on single Blogger page. Magic number was 300 posts. Hopefully there will be much more.

Reading on Mobile Phone

Lately I am reading a lot on mobile phone. Two thinghs combined encouraged me to do so - damage to my BeBook mini and Kindle application for Android mobile phones.

After reading few books on my phone and more than a few on stand-alone eBook reader with EInk screen I feel quite capable of judging which one is better. In short - mobile phone sucks.

Screen size

My phone has 3.7" screen and this is just barely enough for normal reading. As soon as I have need for bigger font size (I like to read while walking), phone fails me misserably. Screen is just too small.

BeBook mini was on small side of e-book reader and while 5" may not seem much, I consider it quite a good balance between portability and readability.

Reading at daylight

Lot of my reading is in sunlight. Anything not eInk is just painful. Visibility under direct sun is zero and shade improves things only marginally. Fingerprints on my touch screen do not help much either. I keep finding myself cleaning damn thing every few minutes.

Reading at night

Here is where mobile phone shines. Backlight is just something that you don’t get with eInk. Kindle application even allows adjustments of brightness level and paper color.

Final verdict

Anybody saying that LCD is perfectly suited for reading probably never tried eInk. - Yes, eInk is expensive. - Yes, eInk devices are only good for reading. - Yes, eInk has no backlight.

With all that in mind I still prefer it. For pure reading pleasure eInk is way to go.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

It was easy to recognize me on my way to work - I was one reading from small black device. Not anymore.

Worst thing has came to pass - my BeBook mini is broken. From all symptoms I can deduce that inner glass layer has shattered and that there is no revival here. It was in cover, I did handle it gently (ok, at least I handled it with more care than other devices I own) and I did adore it.

What now? Currently I use my mobile phone (HTC Desire) for reading books but that will not last. Once you start using e-Ink, there is no going back to inferior technologies (as far as book reading is concerned). There is no other choice than buying another book reader. Problem is which one.

Since my kids do like to eat occasionally, my choice is limited to devices under $200. And really there are only two devices I consider worth buying in that range. Amazon Kindle and (yet another) BeBook mini. BeBook is devil I know and it did serve me well. I prefer it mostly for it’s small size and huge capacity (with additional SD card). Kindle is big, bulky and has huge keyboard that just gets into way but it also has huge choice of books and you can use it without any computer near.

I will not make decision this week, probably not even next one, but I am quite sure that next spare money goes to this purpose.

In memoriam BeBook mini (Nov 2009 - Jun 2010).

KulenDayz 2010

There is still hope in this world. KulenDayz 2010 conference will be held this year at little bit later date. As usual it will be three-day event starting on Friday evening (2009-09-03) and ending on Sunday afternoon (2010-09-05).

While I did give presentation on KulenDayz 2009, I am not sure whether I will give one this year but I am sure that I will attend anyhow.

Since conference will be held in Beli Manastir, Croatia I do understand that it is probably somewhat inconvenient to 97% of my foreign readers but I can promise that anyone coming will not be sorry.

Conference is small, friendly, free and you have a chance to meet me. It does not get better than that. :)

I'm on the Market

My first Android applications are out in-the-wild.

I will list them here:

• Poštanski broj will allow you to search through all places in Croatia in order to find their post number, geographic location or just to view map of their surrounding.
• Praznik will give you overview which holiday comes next in Croatia.
• Rođoš makes use of existing birthday field in contacts and shows them all in one place.

As you might guess, user interface is in Croatian. Fortunately all applications are quite simple so usage for non-Croatian speakers should also be possible. English version might come in future but that highly depends on my free time.

Bing Maps for Developers

Today I gave presentation to local Microsoft Community User Group. It was redelivery of Windays presentation with small changes (most of them related with speed).

In any case, presentation is over and content can be downloaded here.

Interested parties might also check similar presentation for Windows Mobile 6.5.

Microsoft Kinect

I wrote some time ago about Project Natal. It seemed like great technology but I heard no news about commercial release for quite a while.

Yesterday (2010-06-13) it was presented at Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles (E3) under it’s new name - Microsoft Kinect. Somebody ought to shoot marketing department since developer code names are pretty much always better than final product name.

Although release date was not specified, technology seems to be quite ready and I do hope that it will be released this year. Even with it’s new name it remains best thing to have in living room and, for me, single reason why I might buy XBox.