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Thursday, April 12, 2012
March AppRochester Presentation (WP7)
I wanted to share the presentation that I had put together for the March AppRochester meeting. Todd did the tips on iOS, but then I did the tips for WP7.
Tips and Tricks for WP7
Tips and Tricks for WP7
Monday, April 9, 2012
WP7 Video Lessons
I am going to start recording some short video tutorials on programming for WP7. There are many different things that I have done on a WP7 that could be good lessons for others.
I am also going to look to my group AppRochester to make some videos and blog posts for other platforms such as iOS and Android. I could do those as well using MonoTouch and Mono for Android, but there is a good training section on their website for people to use.
Depending on how well these go I might also do some around Windows Azure and SQL Azure. If there is something that you want a video or a blog post on about WP7 programming, please let me know.
The first one coming soon is getting started with WP7. I will be going over how to get started with WP7 programming, including where to download the needed tools and what are the basic project types.
I am also going to look to my group AppRochester to make some videos and blog posts for other platforms such as iOS and Android. I could do those as well using MonoTouch and Mono for Android, but there is a good training section on their website for people to use.
Depending on how well these go I might also do some around Windows Azure and SQL Azure. If there is something that you want a video or a blog post on about WP7 programming, please let me know.
The first one coming soon is getting started with WP7. I will be going over how to get started with WP7 programming, including where to download the needed tools and what are the basic project types.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Azure Prices Falling Again
I am abit slow in this but I wanted to post that the prices on Azure have dropped again. Microsoft is keeping the rates similar to what Amazon is charging for AWS.
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/details/
I highlighted the areas below where the prices are dramatically different then before. With this an extra small compute instance is now as low as $15 a month. For databases, it is a flat fee of $5 a month for up to 100M in the database. That s not a bad size. If you compare it to the 1G for $10 it does seem abit high, but overall many databases will only need a few M of size.
Another big thing is that Microsoft is now making it simpler to do something for longer term. They give you a discount if you sign up for blocks of 6 months at a time. You can get 15% off, so a small compute instance would be $72 instead of $90 a month, but you have to do it in those blocks. One bad thing here is that there is no discount on the extra small instance, it is $15 a month if you are doing month to month or in 6 month blocks.
Azure Compute Time
SQL Azure
Azure Storage
I definitely like the competition in price that all of the new cloud providers are giving us today. I for one use Azure for my Thoughts and Prayers mobile app for the back end. I use .NET for all of my coding and Azure has made it simple to use .NET in the cloud. Of course Microsoft understand that not everyone wants to use .NET today so they also now are offering support for node.js, java, or php.
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/details/
I highlighted the areas below where the prices are dramatically different then before. With this an extra small compute instance is now as low as $15 a month. For databases, it is a flat fee of $5 a month for up to 100M in the database. That s not a bad size. If you compare it to the 1G for $10 it does seem abit high, but overall many databases will only need a few M of size.
Another big thing is that Microsoft is now making it simpler to do something for longer term. They give you a discount if you sign up for blocks of 6 months at a time. You can get 15% off, so a small compute instance would be $72 instead of $90 a month, but you have to do it in those blocks. One bad thing here is that there is no discount on the extra small instance, it is $15 a month if you are doing month to month or in 6 month blocks.
Azure Compute Time
| Virtual Machine Size | CPU Cores | Memory | Cost Per Hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extra Small | Shared | 768 MB | $0.02 |
| Small | 1 | 1.75 GB | $0.12 |
| Medium | 2 | 3.5 GB | $0.24 |
| Large | 4 | 7 GB | $0.48 |
| Extra Large | 8 | 14 GB | $0.96 |
SQL Azure
| Database Size | Price Per Database Per Month |
|---|---|
| 0 to 100 MB | Flat $4.995 |
| Greater than 100 MB to 1 GB | Flat $9.99 |
| Greater than 1 GB to 10 GB | $9.99 for first GB, $3.996 for each additional GB |
| Greater than 10 GB to 50 GB | $45.954 for first 10 GB, $1.998 for each additional GB |
| Great than 50 GB to 150 GB | $125.874 for first 50 GB, $0.999 for each additional GB |
Azure Storage
| Standard pay-as-you-go pricing for storage |
|---|
| $0.125 per GB stored per month based on the daily average |
| $0.01 per 10,000 storage transactions |
I definitely like the competition in price that all of the new cloud providers are giving us today. I for one use Azure for my Thoughts and Prayers mobile app for the back end. I use .NET for all of my coding and Azure has made it simple to use .NET in the cloud. Of course Microsoft understand that not everyone wants to use .NET today so they also now are offering support for node.js, java, or php.
MVP - but not what you think
MVP can stand for many things - Most Valueable Player, Most Valuable Professional, etc. but running a mobile device user group, I get people coming to me with idea after idea of app products. Some of them are great, but some of them are not really positioned to do well. So here I will refer to MVP as Minimal Viable Product. I will define this as the minimum that a product needs to have to be useful for someone. Notice that I did not say that it is useful to everyone.
In the development community, many apps get something called feature creep. This means that features keep getting into the application before it gets released. One company I worked for had a medical device and we were almost ready to start selling it. The managers went to a trade show and then came back with a dozen of so new features that needed to be in the first release or "Nobody will buy our product". Needless to say that project was not a run-away success.
The concept of MVP here is that you don't know the direction that a project will take after the users get their hands on it. And in the mobile app community the needs and wants of users changes quickly. I will use one of my apps as an example. My app is called Poker Hand Rankings. It is a little app that just puts the different poker hands in order and explains them. This makes it easy for a beginning poker player. I could have picked to make an app where people could play poker online against each other or against multiple computer players. I choose to put out a simpler app and get it out faster. I am using the old "Release early. Release often" idea for this app. Of course I have not done that many updates so I am not really releasing often.
But now, people are asking if the app can have the ability for them to practice playing poker as well. So what I am doing is putting in a section where you can play video poker. This is still easier than an system where you play online with others, so I am keeping it more MVP.
Another thing that limiting your apps does is to let you add new features pretty quickly. Many mobile stores have a section for updates and put your app back at the top of the list for a short time. This also makes it seem that you are working really hard on improving the app as often as possible - even if it is just you doing everything.
So I usually recommend to people to put out a mobile app out quicker. Limit the features and get it out the door. Then listen to your customers as you enhance it. Get started instead of waiting for your idea to get done. Get started with a MVP.
In the development community, many apps get something called feature creep. This means that features keep getting into the application before it gets released. One company I worked for had a medical device and we were almost ready to start selling it. The managers went to a trade show and then came back with a dozen of so new features that needed to be in the first release or "Nobody will buy our product". Needless to say that project was not a run-away success.
The concept of MVP here is that you don't know the direction that a project will take after the users get their hands on it. And in the mobile app community the needs and wants of users changes quickly. I will use one of my apps as an example. My app is called Poker Hand Rankings. It is a little app that just puts the different poker hands in order and explains them. This makes it easy for a beginning poker player. I could have picked to make an app where people could play poker online against each other or against multiple computer players. I choose to put out a simpler app and get it out faster. I am using the old "Release early. Release often" idea for this app. Of course I have not done that many updates so I am not really releasing often.
But now, people are asking if the app can have the ability for them to practice playing poker as well. So what I am doing is putting in a section where you can play video poker. This is still easier than an system where you play online with others, so I am keeping it more MVP.
Another thing that limiting your apps does is to let you add new features pretty quickly. Many mobile stores have a section for updates and put your app back at the top of the list for a short time. This also makes it seem that you are working really hard on improving the app as often as possible - even if it is just you doing everything.
So I usually recommend to people to put out a mobile app out quicker. Limit the features and get it out the door. Then listen to your customers as you enhance it. Get started instead of waiting for your idea to get done. Get started with a MVP.
New CodePlex project release
I thought that I had release my Kinect voice control demo on CodePlex, but someone posted a message that they were waiting for the release.
http://kinectvoice.codeplex.com/
This is a sample of both a PowerPoint plugin and how to do voice recognition with the Kinect. It was developed for a demo for a couple of user groups that I speak at. Have fun with it.
http://kinectvoice.codeplex.com/
This is a sample of both a PowerPoint plugin and how to do voice recognition with the Kinect. It was developed for a demo for a couple of user groups that I speak at. Have fun with it.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
More postings!!!
I know that I have been reglecting posting here for a while, so I want to catch everyone up on what has been going on. I have been very busy with mobile device development. I currently have 11 iOS, 5 WP7 (1 pending), and 2 Andoid apps in the various marketplaces. All of these apps are using .NET either using Monotouch, Mono for Android, or just Visual Studio. I will post about all of the various apps that I have in more detail later.
I just published a project up on CodePlex.
http://kinectvoice.codeplex.com/
This is a small sample on how you can control a PowerPoint presentation using a plugin and the Kinect. Microsoft is releasing a Windows version of the Kinect next week and this will be a good start for voice controls.
Lots more happening in the WP7 world and gaming world here in Rochester, NY, but I will post about this later.
I just published a project up on CodePlex.
http://kinectvoice.codeplex.com/
This is a small sample on how you can control a PowerPoint presentation using a plugin and the Kinect. Microsoft is releasing a Windows version of the Kinect next week and this will be a good start for voice controls.
Lots more happening in the WP7 world and gaming world here in Rochester, NY, but I will post about this later.
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