Have you ever built and published a mobile app? Maybe you've tried and abandoned the idea because you didn't make any money. Maybe you gave up before even trying because it's a saturated market and making money is hard. Forget the app money, mobile development can be your path to a better career, and yes, that will bring you more money too.

In this video I walk you through the list of skills you will build by becoming a mobile developer. These skills will improve your technical profile as a developer, and at the same time increase your value with employers. Even if your apps make no money, you will get a clear benefit out of them by improving your technical profile, and therefore increase your value as a developer.

Don't wait for your employer to assign you to a better project, take control of your career and get started now. Head over to Microsoft Virtual Academy to learn mobile development. Build mobile apps, build your skills, build your resume, go get more money, and go get the job of your dreams.

Watch the video on Channel 9 or using the embedded player below:

If you have questions on how to get started or want to discuss this topic, you can find me on Twitter at @ActiveNick. Be sure to let me know once you publish some apps, I'd love to check them out and help you promote them.

Other Learning Resources

• Microsoft Virtual Academy
• Windows 10 Universal App Samples
• My Samples on GitHub
• My other videos on Channel 9

A week ago I blogged about The Maker Show, a new Channel 9 show for makers. The Maker Show is an informal dive into the exciting world of makers. Each week, one of our expert makers will go hands-on with techniques, how to’s, tips & tricks in various maker areas including electronics, programming tools, hardware boards, components & sensors, connectivity, building hacks & gadgets, 3D printing, manufacturing prototypes, and other cool yet useful topics.

The show is published every week and we’ve had great episodes so far:

• In episode 0, we explored why developers should become makers, what’s the opportunity, what to build, what to buy, and where to go from here.
• In episode 1, David Crook gave us a cool introduction to electronics, starting with how to make electricity from lemons!
• In episode 2, Brian Sherwin started working with the Arduino, blinking LEDS and working with potentiometers.
• In episode 3, Sam Stokes covered a lot of the theory behind servo motors when applied to Arduino hacks.

This morning, my colleague Jeremy Foster just posted Episode 4, titled Building and Printing a 3D Model to Fit a Real Component.

Often times, when you are designing a 3D part to print, you'll need it to marry up to an existing part or assembly. Perhaps you need a motor to be mounted on the part, or perhaps the part is going to integrate with a home power outlet cover. This is such a common case, that we wanted to take an episode to discuss how Jeremy has found to get this done quite elegantly.

Jeremy covers the use of his favorite 3D modeling tool - Autodesk Fusion 360. He uses this in concert with GrabCAD (grabcad.com) to find existing parts. Once he pulls his existing part in to Fusion 360, he has very good control over interfacing with all of the shapes, faces, and features of that existing part. It's quite exciting.

Once you finish and print your part, then, you'll be confident that it will be ready to be mounted or have your existing parts mounted on it. You can even 3D print receiver holes for screws.

Watch the new episode using the embedded player below, or on the Channel 9 show page.

Make sure to bookmark http://themakershow.io for new episodes every week, typically posted on Thursdays in the morning. If there is a specific topic, product or tech you’d like us to cover on the show, let us know by tweeting to @TheMakerShow, commenting under the latest episode on Channel 9, or email us at themakershow@microsoft.com.

This time, Robert and I talked about the awesome Visual Studio Emulator for Android. That’s right, Microsoft actually makes an Android emulator. It’s full featured with support location services, accelerometer, camera, storage cards, network simulation and more. It’s super fast, thanks to hardware virtualization with Hyper-V and GPU support. And it’s free, totally free. You can even install it as a standalone app, without having to install Visual Studio, though you might as well get that too since Visual Studio Community Edition is completely free. Better yet, since the emulator plugs directly into ADB, you can use it with Android Studio, Xamarin Studio, Visual Studio, IntelliJ or Eclipse.

If you want to learn more and see the emulator in action, watch the following video below or on Channel 9.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments section here on this blog, on Channel 9 or hit me up on Twitter at @ActiveNick.

This article was originally posted on Nick Landry's Age of Mobility blog.

The Maker Show is an informal dive into the exciting world of makers. Each week, one of our expert makers will go hands-on with techniques, how to's, tips & tricks in various maker areas including electronics, programming tools, hardware boards, components & sensors, connectivity, building hacks & gadgets, 3D printing, manufacturing prototypes, and other cool yet useful topics. You'll see hardware, you'll see electronics, you'll see code, and you'll definitely see a lot of cool stuff. This is a no fluff technical show. This is a show for beginners and experts alike, everybody's welcome to join.

We have 4 episodes available to watch now, with new shows being published every week. Here is an overview.

Episode 0 – Meet Your Makers

This is special episode 0 (yes, we’re developers, everything is zero-based) where you get to meet your makers. We rounded up some of our show contributors – Jeremy Foster, Sam Stokes, Bret Stateham, Ian Philpot, Kenny Spade and myself - who are all makers - so you get to know them better, I'll get their perspective on the maker world, how to get started, and ask them what they have in store for you in future episodes of the Maker Show.

Episode 1 – Introduction to Electronics

Episode 1 may have been a lame Star Wars movie, but it’s an awesome episode of The Maker Show. David Crook does an introduction into electronics and how they work.  This episode focuses on many of the fundamentals of the very thing that drives most of our projects, electricity.  How to generate more power, how to ensure you don't blow your circuits, why electricity flows where it does.  And of course introducing a good philosophy of when life gives you lemons, to make electricity.

Episode 2 – So I Got a Blinking LED… Now What?

In episode 2, Brian Sherwin starts with the "Hello World" of electronics: blinking an LED. But what do you do after that? In this episode of the Maker Show, Brian uses the Arduino to introduce a few new ways to work with your blinking LED from inputs with buttons and potentiometers to viewing input in the serial monitor.

Episode 3 – Arduinos and Servos

In Episode 3, Sam Stokes turns to DC Micro Servo Motors and Pulse Width Modulation. These tiny controllers are inexpensive, cost  less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks, and pack a powerful punch with 1.54 Kg-cm of torque, and weight in with a mass of 8.6 grams! Servo Motors were first conceived by Nikolai Tesla who designed the AC types of Servo Motors. He used an ingenious rotary sensor design that was used to create precision gyro systems that took humans to the moon! The servo motor will be a nice addition to your blinking LED that you created in the last show.  With a little work, you could use a potentiometer to turn the servo motor. The show also takes to the beach where the design was tested successfully in the California surf.

Make sure to bookmark http://themakershow.io for new episodes every week, typicaslly posted on Thursdays in the morning. If there is a specific topic, product or tech you'd like us to cover on the show, let us know by tweeting to @TheMakerShow, commenting under the latest episode on Channel 9, or email us at themakershow@microsoft.com.

This post was originally posted on Nick Landry's Age of Mobility blog.

by Nick Landry (last updated on 9/22/2014)

Mobile development is full of exciting opportunities, but setting-up your development environment can sometimes be a challenge depending on what your current hardware is, and what mobile platform you want to target. I work with a lot of developers at hackathons, workshops and meetups, and helping developers get started with Windows Phone development is a part of my day to day.

The goal of this post is to be a one-stop shop for any developers getting started with Windows Phone development to help them prepare their development environment using either free tools or using their current Visual Studio setup. For most developers using a recent Windows computer, installing the Windows Phone developer tools will be a breeze accomplished through a one-step process. But for other developers using legacy hardware, a lot of questions arise as to whether or not their current machine is up to snuff to run the Windows Phone SDK. I’ll try to address most of these questions I’ve been getting over the last couple of years. If there are important questions I am missing, feel free to ask them in the comments below and I will do my best to amend them in this post.

How much are the Windows Phone Dev Tools?

Totally free! You can install a single package called Visual Studio Express 2013 with Update 3 for Windows completely for free and you will get the following all at once:

• Visual Studio 2013, the premier Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
• Windows Phone 8.1 SDK (to build apps for Windows smartphones)
• Windows 8.1 SDK (to build Windows Store apps for Windows tablets, laptops, hybrids & desktops)

To learn more about developing apps by using Visual Studio 2013, refer to the official documentation here.

I want to install the Windows Phone dev tools now. Where is the link?

Download the Windows Phone tools here. Remember to choose Visual Studio Express 2013 with Update 3 for Windows (NOT the version “for Windows Desktop”). Check out the requirements below first to make sure you have all you need.

What do I need for Windows Phone development?

The following lists the requirements to install the Windows Phone SDK:

• Operating System: Windows 8.1 (x64). To run the Windows Phone Emulator, you’ll need Windows 8.1 Pro.
• Processor: 1.6 GHz or faster
• Memory: Your machine should really have no less than 4GB of RAM, and I definitely would recommend 8GB or more if your machine allows it
• Storage: 11 GB of available hard disk space on a 5400 RPM hard drive. I highly recommend getting a fast hard drive (10K RPM) or a Solid State Drive (SSD)
• Video: DirectX 9-capable video card running at 1024 x 768 or higher display resolution

There is one exception to the 64-bit rule. You can use a Windows 8.1 32-bit (x86) development machine to build Windows Phone 81. (but not 8.0) apps if you do not intend to use the emulator and debug your apps exclusively using an external Windows Phone device connected over USB.

To learn more about the requirements for Windows Phone 8 development, refer to the official documentation here.

What about Windows Store apps for tablets, Surface & desktop?

That’s an easy one. All the instructions provided in this blog post automatically give you the dev tools you need to build Windows Store and Universal apps. Universal apps let you share over 90% of your code when building apps for the phone, tablets, hybrids, 2-in-1’s, notebooks, laptops and desktops (and Xbox too in the near future). Note that I am spending extra time in this blog post on the Windows Phone side of things due to the extra requirements of the Windows Phone emulator.

Why is Windows 8.1 required?

Simple, because the core operating system for Windows Phone 8.x is the same: it’s Windows 8. Whether you’re building an app for Windows Phone, for the Windows Store, or the new Universal Windows app model, the underlying runtime is WinRT (not .NET), and WinRT was introduced with Windows 8. The Windows Runtime is part of a reimagining of the developer experience for Windows. It’s the modern Windows API surface used to create new Windows Store apps on Windows 8.x.

Why is Windows 8.1 Pro required for the Windows Phone Emulator?

Windows 8.1 (x64) Professional edition or higher is required for the Windows Phone emulators since those emulators are actually Hyper-V Virtual Machines (VM) running the Windows Phone operating system. Hyper-V is a feature of Windows 8.1 Pro. From a hardware point of view, you’ll need a processor that supports Client Hyper-V and Second Level Address Translation (SLAT). If your computer is running on an Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 CPU, you should be fine as those will typically support SLAT.

Hyper-V enables fast hardware virtualization to accelerate virtual machines and provide maximum performance. If you want to see how slow an emulator can get without hardware virtualization, go try the emulators in Google’s Android SDK.

Note that while you may have Windows 8.1 Pro, it does not necessarily guarantee that Hyper-V will be installed. To be sure, follow these steps:

1. In Control Panel, click Programs, and then click Turn Windows features on or off.

2. In the Windows Features dialog box, click Hyper-V. The list of options expands.

3. In the expanded list of options, select at least the Hyper-V Platform check box, and then click OK.

For more information about the Windows Features dialog box, see Turn Windows Features On or Off.

To learn more about how to enable Hyper-V for the emulator for Windows Phone, refer to the official WP8 documentation here.

What is SLAT? How do I know if my computer supports SLAT?

As discussed above, the Windows Phone emulator requires Hyper-V, which in turns requires a processor that supports Client Hyper-V and Second Level Address Translation (SLAT). PCs that support SLAT are Intel-based processors that start with i (e.g., i3, i5, i7, i9) or any CPUs based on Nehalem, Westmere, Sandybridge, Ivy Bridge & Haswell micro-architectures. The AMD equivalents are supported too.

To determine if your machine supports SLAT, perform the following steps:

• Download SysInternals/TechNet CoreInfo at
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc835722
• Run "coreinfo -v"
• If you see the following and have an asterisk ("*") next to "EPT" you should be good to go.

• If you have a hyphen/dash ("-") next to EPT, then you should start looking for a new computer. I hear the Surface Pro 3 is really nice . You’re not entirely out of luck though, you can still use the tools to build Windows Phone apps, but you’ll have to use an external Windows Phone device to run & debug your apps. More on that below.

There are also scenarios where the hypervisor is not turned on by default and you have to enable it in your computer BIOS. If you’re running Windows in Bootcamp on a Mac, there are no BIOS settings you can edit. The only way to force the a Mac to turn on the hypervisor is to cold-boot into Mac OS X, and then perform a warm reboot/OS switch to Windows.

To learn more about how to enable BIOS settings and Hyper-V for the emulator for Windows Phone, refer to the official WP8 documentation here.

I don’t have Windows 8. Can I use Windows 7 instead?

No. Windows 8.1 is required for the reasons explained above. You can still use Visual Studio 2010 and Windows 7 to build Windows Phone 7.x with the Windows Phone 7.1 SDK. You’ll unfortunately miss out on a lot of the great features introduced in Windows Phone 8 in 2012, and Windows Phone 8.1 in 2014. These great features include In-App Purchasing, Background Tasks, Cortana & the Speech SDK, a new map control & geofencing, support for more screen resolutions, and hundreds of other essential features that Windows Phone users are now taking for granted.

A question I often get is “Why isn’t Microsoft releasing additional updates for Windows 7 to get the Windows App Store and all the bits required for Windows Store & phone development?” There is an easy answer to that. We already did: it’s called upgrading to Windows 8! Seriously, Windows 8 builds on Windows 7. Everything that was in Windows 7 is in Windows 8.x.

What do I install if I already have Visual Studio 2013?

If you already use Visual Studio 2013 Professional Edition or higher, you simply need to install Update 2 or higher to get support for Windows Phone 8.1 and Universal Windows app development. At the time of this writing, Update 3 for Visual Studio 2013 is already available, so you might as well install the latest update:

• Launch Visual Studio 2013
• In the Tools menu, select Extensions and Updates
• Expand the Updatesbranch in the tree of options on the left
• Select Product Updates
• Select Visual Studio 2013 Update 3 in the list of available updates and launch the installation

Alternatively, you can download and install the latest update package for Visual Studio 2013 here.

Can I still build Windows Phone 8 apps using the WP8.1 tools?

Yes! You can use Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 and above to build the following types of Windows Phone projects:

• Windows Phone 8.1 apps (i.e. WinRT)
• Universal Windows apps for Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1 (also WinRT)
• Windows Phone Silverlight 8.0 (i.e. WP apps based on the classic .NET architecture introduced with Windows Phone 7.x)
• Windows Phone Silverlight 8.1 (i.e. same as above, but with access to the new 8.1 APIs too)

Can I use Visual Studio 2010 or 2012 instead?

If you want to build Windows Phone 8.1 apps or Universal Windows apps, you’ll need Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 or above. You can install the Windows Phone 8 SDK on Visual Studio 2012 to build WP8 or WP7.x apps, and you can install the Windows Phone 7.1 SDK on Visual Studio 2010 to build Windows Phone 7.x apps.

The table below summarizes the various SDKs, Visual Studio versions, app targets supported and required development operating systems.

I use a Mac. Can I still do Windows Phone development?

Not out of the box, but there are ways to achieve this. Since I’m a cross-platform mobile developer, I use a MacBook Pro for a lot of my development work. You’ll essentially need to install Windows 8.1 on your Mac, and there are two main ways you can achieve this:

1. Use the Boot Camp Assistanton your Mac to setup a secondary operating system partition on your Mac, and then install Windows 8.1 on that new partition. Boot Camp basically lets you create a dual-boot machine.
2. The alternative is to use virtualization software like Parallels Desktop for Mac or VMware Fusionto setup Windows 8.1 as a virtual machine (VM) on your Mac. You’ll have to enable something called “Nested Virtualization” to run the Windows Phone emulator, which is itself a VM that therefore needs to run within another VM.
3. The third option is actually a combination of the first two, and the one I use on my Mac. First, setup Boot Camp on your Mac, and then install Parallels or VMWare. The difference is that when you create your Windows VM, don’t create a new Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) and instead virtualize your Bootcamp partition. This gives you the ability to choose how you run Windows: natively (aka “on the metal”) using Bootcamp, or virtualized when co-habitation is required (e.g. for Xamarin development).

To learn more about Boot Camp, visit Apple’s Support site here.

I don’t have a Windows Phone. Is there an emulator?

Yes, all Windows Phone SDKs ship with their corresponding emulators. As discussed above, the Windows Phone emulator is a full image of the Windows Phone operating system running in a Hyper-V virtual machine. This level of emulation provides full fidelity for testing your apps when compared to a physical device, as opposed to device simulators (e.g. Apple’s iOS Simulator) which provide very little in terms of advanced compatibility with physical devices.

Read more about the Windows Phone 8 emulator here. The Windows Phone 8.1 emulator supports the same capabilities and more. You can download additional images for the emulator here.

How can I use my own Windows Phone to debug apps?

Windows Phone development can be done with entirely free tools. However, to use your own phone for app testing & debugging, you’ll have to register as a Windows Developer on the Windows DevCenter.

• You do notneed a Windows Phone Developer account to download the SDK and start developing apps
• You do need a developer account to unlock a phone for development and to submit apps for testing and publication in the Windows Phone Store (formerly known as Windows Phone Marketplace)

To get a Developer Account:

• Included if you have an MSDN subscription (included in a BizSpark subscription)
• Free to students who have a DreamSpark subscription
• $19 lifetimecharge for individual developers
• Register for an account at the Windows Phone Developer Center http://dev.windowsphone.com

Note that the registration now includes both the Windows Store and Windows Phone Developer registration in the same account! The $19 charge used to be a yearly fee but Microsoft recently announced that it is now a lifetime subscription, effectively making Windows Phone the cheapest modern device app store you can publish to.

To learn more about developer licenses for store apps (i.e. Windows & Windows Phone), refer to the official documentation here.

Once you are registered as a Windows developer, follow these steps to register your Windows Phone device for development.

How can I get a cheap Windows Phone for development?

I’m glad you asked. The Windows Phone ecosystem has a wide range of devices for all budgets. We have flagship devices like the Lumia 1520 or the Lumia ICON (aka Lumia 930 worldwide). We also have very affordable yet full-featured phones that you can buy off-contract (i.e. without any carrier subsidized discount or two-year contract) for less than $100 USD. Here are some options:

• Nokia Lumia 520: usually sells for $40-60
  • AT&T GoPhone: Microsoft Store – Amazon
  • T-Mobile (Lumia 521): Microsoft Store – Amazon
  • Unlocked GSM: Amazon
• Nokia Lumia 635: usually sells for $100-130
  • AT&T GoPhone: Microsoft Store – Amazon
  • T-Mobile Lumia 635: Microsoft Store – Amazon

Note that these phones either ship out of the box with the latest Windows Phone 8.1 software, or with Windows Phone 8. All these phones are upgradeable to Windows Phone 8.1 with all the new features like Cortana, Action Center, Universal Apps, folders, geofencing, triggered tasks, and so on.

Next Steps: Learning Resources

Congratulations! You should now have a working development environment to built Windows Phone apps and Universal Windows apps. In terms of resources to get started, my whole blog is dedicated to helping mobile developers across the board, but if you’re looking for a short list of resources to jumpstart your learning, start digging in the following:

• Windows Dev Center: https://dev.windows.com
• Development tools for Windows Phone apps: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/dn629632.aspx
• Build universal Windows apps that target Windows & Windows Phone: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/dn609832.aspx
• Building Apps for Windows Blog: http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps
• Windows Phone 8.1 Jump Start Training: https://aka.ms/wp81js
• //BUILD/ Videos: https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2014
• Microsoft Virtual Academy: http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/product-training/windows-phone
• Windows Phone 8.1 Samples Pack: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/wpapps/Windows-Phone-81-samples-08631ca7
• My own resources page on this blog: http://www.ageofmobility.com/getting-started/
• Windows Phone Developer Magazine (online): http://flip.it/95YFG

If you have any questions or issues regarding your setup, feel free to ask me questions in the comments section below, or you can ping me on Twitter at @ActiveNick. if there are common questions or issues that I have not addressed here, feel free to let me know what those are and I’ll append them to this post.

Good luck with your apps, and make sure to let me know when you publish new apps in the store. I always love promoting the work of our community.

Anyone who knows me personally or follows me on Twitter knows that I’m a huge gamer. The problem is that between work, community events, social life, my wife and twin babies, I virtually have no time to play games. I now game vicariously through occasional mobile games, listening to gaming podcasts when I drive, and buying games I’ll probably never have time to play. I have over 20 MMOs installed on my home rig, and I’m addicted to Steam sales (I even have the 250+ badge on Steam).

The cool thing is that Steam started selling software a while back and during one such Steam sale over the holidays, I snagged a copy of GameMaker: Professional for only $25 (that’s 75% off). I decided to take it for a spin (thanks to my colleagues Joe Healy and Daniel Egan for the push). I’m no game development expert. I’m more of a game development enthusiast. I’m also learning Unity on the side, and my game development background is with XNA – a topic I have covered at many conferences and user groups over the last 7 years.

Game development has to be one of the most rewarding forms of software development. You’re basically using your programming skills to make something fun! But game development is also not for the faint of heart as it can truly test your programming skills, knowledge of math, creative juices, imagination and patience. Fortunately, there are cool game engines and IDEs like GameMaker to simplify our lives as we seek to produce fun games in less time.

What is GameMaker?

As its name implies, GameMaker is a game development environment and engine produced by YoYo Games that lets you design and build cross-platform games for desktop computers, the Web, mobile phones and tablets.

How much does GameMaker cost?

GameMaker: Studio starts out free with the Standard edition. You can download it here from YoYo Games. There used to be 4 editions of GameMaker, where the free edition was limited in the number of resources you could use in your game projects (which translates in the complexity of the game you can build). The free version now has unlimited resources, and that is great news. In terms of support platforms for your games, the free Studio edition used to support Windows Desktop, Mac OS X and Windows Apps (i.e. Windows Store apps on 8.x). Now the free version only supports Windows Desktop.

This means you can start building Windows games for free and anyone with a standard Windows 7 or 8 computer can play your game from the desktop. Distribution won’t be easy though. Publishing to Steam is not that easy and self-publishing outside of public stores can be frustrating. You’ll probably want to publish it to the Windows Store. For that you need to upgrade to the Professional edition for $100. There are other features you will get in the Professional edition, such as texture management, multiple configurations, mobile testing and more. It’s a great bargain and if you already work as a professional developer during the day, surely you can afford a $100 tool.

Important Note: YoYo Games is currently running a Summer sale at the time of this writing. You can get GameMaker Studio Professional for a mere $60. That’s the cost of a single console video game. I strongly encourage you to take advantage of this deal. Other deals have been announced on the other modules. Read more about the sale here.

Beyond Windows Desktop and Windows Store, GameMaker also support additional mobile platforms, but you’ll have to first upgrade to the professional edition, and then buy these modules separately:

• Windows Phone 8
• iOS
• Android
• Web / HTML5
• Mac OS X

And quite a few other platform exports are supported too. The following table shows the three editions of GameMaker, their respective features and add-ons. More details on the YoYo Game website here.

Continue reading "Getting Started with 2D Game Development Using GameMaker" at Age of Mobility here.

The “Blue Wave” is in full swing. Thanks to the new Universal Windows app templates in Visual Studio 2013 Update 2, it is now easier than ever to build mobile apps for both Windows Store and Windows Phone. Developers are curious about the new features and I’ve been touring around speaking at events to spread the word about Universal Windows apps.

I recently presented this talk at Philly Code Camp 2014 last weekend, at the Microsoft Mobile App Devs of New Jersey (MMAD) Meetup and NYC .NET Developers Group.

Session Description

This session is your fast track into the wonderful new world of app development for Windows device. Come learn how your valuable C# skills now make you a hot mobile developer for smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. We’ll perform a quick lap around Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 and the new Windows Universal Apps, build our first app using XAML & C#, and debug it with Windows 8.1 and the Windows Phone Emulator. We’ll then explore the converged WinRT API services and features, such as touch input, accelerometers, Live Tiles, etc. We’ll also spend valuable time going over the new app model for Windows device apps, how to share code between phone and tablet, and how to build a converged UI in XAML for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone. Lastly we’ll go over the app packaging and how to submit your Universal apps to the Windows Store. The converged Windows Platform is more efficient and far-reaching than ever. Come learn how to build mobile apps for hundreds of millions of Windows device users.

Session Slides, Demos and Resources

Continue reading this post and access slides, demos and additional resources at Age of Mobility here.

Speech is probably the topic I’m most passionate about when it comes to app development (ok, I have a soft spot for GIS too). From HAL900 in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Joshua in WarGames, to Star Trek computers, Siri and Cortana, having conversations with a semi-sentient computer using natural language and speech is probably the ultimate frontier of technology. But speech can also be a responsibility for us developers to make sure our apps are usable by all, and to keep our users – and those around them – safe. This talk is one of my favorite. It’s about using Speech Recognition & Speech Synthesis to build the next generation of mobile apps.

I recently presented this talk at Philly Code Camp 2014 last weekend, and at the Microsoft Mobile App Devs of New Jersey (MMAD) Meetup. I’ve also presented it at Internet Week NY 2014 last month, and I’ve done variations of this talk at other events in the past including VSLive, CodePalousa, DevTeach, DVLUP Day Boston and M3 Conference.

Session Description

Our society has a problem. Individuals are hooked on apps, phones, tablets and social networking. We created these devices and these apps that have become a core part of our lives but we stopped short. We failed to recognize some of the problematic situations where our apps are used. People are texting, emailing and chatting while driving. Pedestrians walk into busy intersections and into sidewalk hazards because they refuse to put their phone down. We cannot entirely blame them. We created a mobile revolution, and now we just can’t simply ask them to put it on hold when it’s not convenient. It’s almost an addiction and too often it has led to fatal results.

Furthermore, mobile applications are not always easy to work with due to the small screen and on-screen keyboard. Other people struggle to use traditional computing devices due to handicaps. Using our voice is a natural form of communication amongst humans. Ever since 2001: A Space Odyssey, we’ve been dreaming of computers who can converse with us like HAL9000 or the Star Trek computers. Or maybe you’re part of the new generation of geeks dreaming of Halo’s Cortana? Thanks to the new advances and SDKs for speech recognition and synthesis (aka text-to-speech), we are now several steps closer to this reality. Siri is not the end game, she’s the beginning.

This session explores the design models and development techniques you can use to add voice recognition to your mobile applications, including in-app commands, standard & custom grammars, and voice commands usable outside your app. We’ll also see how your apps can respond to the user via speech synthesis, opening-up a new world of hands-free scenarios. This reality is here, you’ll see actual live cross-platform demos with speech and you can now learn how to do it. Speech support is not just cool or a convenience, it should be a necessity in many apps.

Session Slides, Demos & Resources

Continue reading this post and access slides, demos and additional resources at Age of Mobility here.

I recently had the pleasure of joining a team of experts on the Things Expo Power Panel about the Internet of Things (IoT). The panel was recorded on Monday June 9, right before the Internet of Things Expo – which is part of SYS-CON’s Cloud Expo – which was held June 10-12 2014 at the Javits Convention Center in New York City.

In this Internet of Things Expo Power Panel, conference chair Roger Strukhoff led a discussion with several industry experts on how the future of computing lies in things and how, as computing takes a much more active role in our lives, it will at the same time become much more invisible. We discuss various company strategies for IoT, the effects of Moore’s Law on IoT, how to connect all these billions (or trillions?) of things in a realistic manner, how can companies get started, and much more.

The panelists were:

• Nick Landry, Senior Technical Evangelist at Microsoft (yours truly)
• Mac Devine, Distinguished Engineer at IBM
• Jonas Jacobi, Co-Founder & President of Kaazing
• Chad Jones, Vice President, Product Strategy for LogMeIn / Xively
• Brendan O’Brien, Co-founder at Aria Systems

You can watch the panel on Age of Mobility here:

My Three Dads

Yesterday was Fathers Day. I feel very lucky because I didn’t grow up with one father, I grew up with three fathers. My father, my stepfather and my godfather. All three had a presence and an important role in my life. I am eternally grateful to them. My dad was a career lawyer (pictured above right), and was always quite busy (he’s 76 and still not fully retired). He was there as a great provider and a role model, but he was not the kind of dad who would sit down and play with me, do home projects or spend too much time in my world. Thanks to him I grew up in a nice home with everything I needed, I learned good values, I had unforgettable summers of fun at camp, I learned tennis, I had private ski lessons and a season pass every winter, I got to go to a private high school, and I didn’t pay a dime for University. I’m only scratching the surface here, of course. Thanks Dad.

My godfather was also important to me. My godparents are family friends and I would spend a few weekends a year with them. He was always full of great advice and wisdom, he was fun, and it was thanks to his purchase of the original Macintosh in 1984 that I fell in love with computers. His son was also my childhood best friend, and my godfather treated me like a son. He was also there to listen to me and support me when I had a tough decision to make about my studies and my career. He taught me to follow my dreams. Thanks Pierre-André.

My parents got divorced when I was 9, which is about the age I was when my stepdad entered my life (pictured above left), and I entered his. I know that many unfortunately grew up in a life of conflict with stepparents, but I was blessed to have experienced the most “amicable and stable” divorce you could have for your parents. Both my mom and dad found new soul mates shortly after their separation – and have been with them since – for over 30 years now. My stepdad became that dad that spends time with you, plays with you, listens to you, works on projects with you, and gives you his full attention. We did video projects together – from live action to stop-motion LEGOs. He built a tree house at our summer cottage for me. He did so much renovation work for my new bedroom in the basement, or new apartment, or new house. He filmed and created unforgettable video montages of so many happy moments of my life – including my wedding video. He did so much more, and he always treated me like his own son. Thanks Gaëtan.

Yesterday was also a special Fathers Day for me: it was my first “real” one as a dad. My kids were born shortly before Fathers Day last year but they came early and spent a few weeks in the hospital NICU. I was a father already but I was not truly taking care of them yet, we had an amazing staff of nurses and doctors to do that. Today my kids are 1 and it really felt like Fathers Day. Every since my wife got pregnant I’ve been reflecting on the kind of dad I want to be, in essence striving to take the best of my 3 dads and adding my own touch.

This post is not about how to be a good dad. I barely know that myself and I’ll be learning how to be one for the rest of my life. This post is about one special thing amongst a million that you can do to be a great dad: spend time with your kids and teach them electronics.

Left photo courtesy of MightyOhm

My First Electronic Kit

I got my first electronics kit in my early teens. It was a birthday gift from my stepdad. It was one of those popular Science Fair Electronic Project Labs by Tandy | Radio Shack. Mine was the awesome “160 choses à faire” (French for 160-in-1). Oh man, I had so much fun with this. For years I played with it. It was one of those things I could easily pack and bring with me to our cottage. It was safe thanks to these little coils letting you easily connect components without soldering. It was fun, I felt like I could create anything. I learned some electronics basics with it, but I also learned to read carefully. I was learning by reading, but it didn’t feel like homework because it was fun. And I learned patience. Some of those projects could get quite complex, requiring a lot of wiring. And I learned debugging, a skill that I still use today, which also requires a lot of patience. I would many times make a mistake when wiring a project, and I’d have to backtrack and figure out where I went wrong.

Continue reading "Dads: Teach Electronics to your Kids" and learn more about great electronic kits for your kids at Age of Mobility here.