Mike Ormond's Blog

Fancy some help to port your Windows Phone app to Windows 8?

MikeO [MSFT] — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:42:06 GMT

Over the weekend of 15/16th June we’ll be running an exclusive 2 day event designed to help you get your Windows Phone app onto Windows 8 and into the Windows Store. To participate, you must have a Windows Phone app in the Marketplace. Image by BUILDWindows...(read more)

Windows 8 Camp in a Box

MikeO [MSFT] — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:11:23 GMT

If you’ve recently attended one of our Windows 8 Events or Windows 8 Camps (London, Edinburgh, Manchester, London again, Birmingham etc etc) then you may have asked us about how you can get hold of the materials. You’ll be pleased to hear that the official...(read more)

What Metro style app packages are installed?

MikeO [MSFT] — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:30:39 GMT

There comes a time when you’ll want to see a list of all the Metro style app packages installed on your Windows 8 machine. Occasionally you may need to do this in order to fix a registration issue – I’ve seen this happen occasionally in Consumer Preview...(read more)

Act quickly to get your Windows Phone app showcased

MikeO [MSFT] — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:50:47 GMT

The Appvertise campaign from Windows Phone and Nokia is a great opportunity to have your Windows Phone app showcased in current campaigns including banner ads, Marketplace, PR and press outreach. Each month a limited number of apps will be selected for...(read more)

Windows Phone–Skype Beta

MikeO [MSFT] — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:20:00 GMT

Today we also announced the availability of a beta of the much anticipated Skype app for Windows Phone. It looks absolutely awesome. I’m installing it now. Get the beta from Marketplace here ...(read more)

New Phones, New Markets

MikeO [MSFT] — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:59:53 GMT

Hot off the press from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is the news that Windows Phone will be rolling out across another 23 markets and the engineering team have done the work to optimise Windows Phone OS to run on lower-cost hardware. This means devices...(read more)

More Windows Phone Events (UK)

MikeO [MSFT] — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:27:05 GMT

We have another couple of free Windows Phone events coming up – one in London and one in Bristol. London is on Saturday 4th Feb (I’ll be there) Bristol is on Saturday 11th Feb (my fellow evangelist Andrew Spooner will be there) For full details see the...(read more)

Star Chart–A Definitive AR App for Windows Phone

MikeO [MSFT] — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:01:11 GMT

I asked San Shepherd, co-founder of Escapist Games Ltd , a few questions about Star Chart, a high tech star gazing companion that allows you to see what’s out there in all its augmented reality glory. Q. Tell me a bit about your background and Escapist...(read more)

The AdControl Requires Certain Capabilities

MikeO [MSFT] — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:31:23 GMT

In my post last week I talked about the Advertising SDK and using the AdControl in our applications as a means of generating revenue. I should have mentioned something that could catch you out – the AdControl requires certain capabilities to be defined...(read more)

You know the Microsoft Advertising SDK for Windows Phone works in the UK right?

MikeO [MSFT] — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:13:17 GMT

If only I had a pound for every time I’ve been asked when Microsoft’s in-app advertising would be available in the UK. The Microsoft Advertising SDK was only available in the US for the initial Windows Phone launch. With the release of Mango however,...(read more)

Windows Phone eBook 1st Edition Published

MikeO [MSFT] — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:13:27 GMT

“It was with a sense of trepidation that I blogged a request for people who might like to help create a Windows Phone eBook back in February 2011. Despite my initial scepticism, there was an overwhelming response; both from people interested in the idea...(read more)

Plug for our Windows Phone Online Conference

MikeO [MSFT] — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:40:59 GMT

Just a quick plug for our upcoming online conference (Wednesday 5th October) which is themed “Design from a User Perspective”. More details on the UK MSDN blog here ....(read more)

Mango Jump Start Training Recordings Available

MikeO [MSFT] — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:19:56 GMT

The Windows Phone “Mango” Jump Start Training with Rob Miles and Andy Wigley that took place on 23/24th August is now available to view on demand on Channel 9 . This is a great way to learn about Windows Phone development and upcoming enhancements...(read more)

Free GUI Isolated Storage Explorer Tool

MikeO [MSFT] — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:06:07 GMT

Those fabulous (and generous) guys over at Appa Mundi have created a free GUI version of the isolated storage explorer tool that ships with the Windows SDK 7.1 RC . If you’re a command-line person you’ll feel right at home with the tool that ships in...(read more)

Ensure Your Apps are Published in All Markets

MikeO [MSFT] — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 07:36:00 GMT

Unless there’s a good reason not to do so, you probably want to have your app available in as many Marketplace markets as possible. In particular, now we’ve added 19 new consumer markets, taking us from 16 to 35 markets where your application can appear...(read more)

Windows Phone “Mango” Jump Start Training 23rd/24th August

MikeO [MSFT] — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:56:05 GMT

Building on the success of the original Windows Phone 7 Jump Start training , the dynamic duo* will be in action again to deliver free Mango Jump Start training live on 23rd and 24th August – 2 full days of it! Day One — August 23, 2011 | 8am-4pm PDT...(read more)

Publishing a Mango Update to an Existing App

MikeO [MSFT] — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:54:04 GMT

Assuming you’ve published Windows Phone applications to the Marketplace, you’re probably wondering how things will work if / when you want to update those apps to Mango. There’s a good post on the Windows Phone Developer Blog that details exactly what...(read more)

Finding Your App Purchase History

MikeO [MSFT] — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:00:39 GMT

I’d never given this any thought until I had to do a hard reset on my HTC Trophy just before we made available Beta 2 of the Mango OS . Of course I lost my apps. I found myself scratching my head trying to remember all the apps I had installed. Of course...(read more)

Windows Phone Mango Feature Videos

MikeO [MSFT] — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:29:03 GMT

[Cross posted from the MSDN UK Team Blog ] Nice idea this one – ask the people who created specific Mango features to talk about them. Each video is very short – perhaps a couple of minutes – but gives you a succinct overview of features such as: Email...(read more)

Windows Phone “Mango” Is Done

MikeO [MSFT] — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 10:55:00 GMT

Or, more correctly, it has been release to manufacturing (RTM’d) – ie the development team have signed off the final build and that build is now in the hands of handset manufacturers and mobile operators. The final build number is 7720 (those of you running...(read more)

Windows Phone App Hub Enhancements

MikeO [MSFT] — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 14:29:27 GMT

[This post was cross-posted from the UK MSDN Team Blog ] If you’re a Windows Phone developer, the scheduled App Hub outage last Monday probably piqued your interest, along with a number of new features you may have noticed that started to roll out during...(read more)

Windows Phone App Submission and Languages

MikeO [MSFT] — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:49:29 GMT

You’ll have noticed we’ve made some improvements to App Hub recently. And if, like me, you’ve tried to submit an app to Marketplace since 18th July you may have encountered an error relating to supported languages. My first attempt at submitting a new...(read more)

Windows Phone Status Bar Symbols – What on Earth?

MikeO [MSFT] — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:01:00 GMT

Having been berated on Twitter this morning for failing to be intimately familiar with the symbols on my status bar (specifically I didn’t recognise the vibrate mode symbol), I thought I’d clear things up by publishing my understanding of what they mean...(read more)

Orange Selects, Free Apps and Mango

MikeO [MSFT] — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:03:02 GMT

If you have a Windows Phone and you’re on Orange, you’ll hopefully have heard that they’re celebrating the launch of the “Orange Selects” Marketplace with a free app every day for the whole of July. Today for example, you could enjoy Birdsong , the excellent...(read more)

Tech.Days Live Video: From Zero to Hero - Getting your Apps on Marketplace

MikeO [MSFT] — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 07:56:00 GMT

Oops – somehow this one slipped through the net. Brandon talks about Marketplace, recent and future improvements and how to maximise your opportunity by building apps customers really want. View this video as a WMV Direct...(read more)