Mark Arteaga

DevTeach Toronto is coming up from May 12 - 16.  I'll be doing the only Windows Mobile development session for the week.

Other than seeing the only session related to developing for Windows Mobile, there are a number of reasons why you should attend the event.

Here's a few to start:
Keynote by Scott Hanselman, Microsoft
Scott Hanselman is one of the most prolific, renowned and respected blogger and podcaster about technologies. Scott is a hands-on thinker, a renowned speaker and writer. He has written a few books, most recently with Bill Evjen and Devin Rader on Professional ASP.NET. In July 2007, he joined Microsoft as a Senior Program Manager in the Developer Division. In his new role he'll continue to explore and explain a broad portfolio of technologies, both inside and outside Microsoft. He aims to spread the good word about developing software, most often on the Microsoft stack. Before this he was the Chief Architect at Corillian Corporation, now a part of Checkfree, for 6+ years and before that he was a Principal Consultant at STEP Technology for nearly 7 years.

Silverlight 2.0 workshop
For the first time an independent conference is having a workshop on Building Business Applications with Silverlight 2.0.  Join Rod Paddock and Jim Duffy as they give you a head start down the road to developing business-oriented Rich Internet Applications (RIA) with Microsoft Silverlight 2.0. In case you just crawled out from under a rock, Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 is a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in positioned to revolutionize the way next generation Rich Internet Applications are developed. Microsoft’s commitment to providing an extensive platform for developers and designers to collaborate on creating the next generation of RIAs is very clear and its name is Silverlight 2.0. In this intensive, full-day workshop, Rod and Jim will share their insight and experience building business applications with Silverlight 2.0 including a review of some of the Internet’s more visible Silverlight web applications. This workshop is happening on Friday May 16 at the Hilton Toronto.

Bonus session: .NET Rock host a panel May 14th at 18:00
This year the bonus session (Wednesday May 14 at 18:00) will be a panel of speakers debating the Future of .NET. Where is .NET going? How will new development influence .NET and be influenced by .NET? Join Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell from .NET Rocks as they moderate a discussion on the future directions of .NET. The panellists include individuals who have strong visions of the future of software development and the role that .NET can play in that future. Attend this session and bring your questions to get some insight into the potential future of .NET! This bonus session is free for everyone. Panelists are: Ted Neward,Oren Eini ,Scott Bellware

Party with Palermo, DevTeach Toronto Edition
Jeffrey Palermo (MVP) is hosting Monday May 12th in Toronto is acclaimed "Party with Palermo". This is the official social event  kicking off DevTeach Toronto. The event is not just for the attendees of Toronto it’s  a free event for everyone. It’s a unique chance for the attendees, speakers and locals  to meet and talk with a free beer.   The event will be held at the Menage club  location and you need to RSVP to attend. Get all the details at this link:

Interested? You can register for Devteach at: http://www.devteach.com/

A friend of mine Kirk Ballou has just launched a mobile search site called GOMO Info where you can find local businesses from your mobile phone.  For example type in pizza and you get a number for Dominos Pizza as seen here

Type in 'car' and you get a list of car rental companies.

All search results come back with a phone number you can click on and your device will call.

Try it out on your device (any device not just Windows Mobile) at www.gomoinfo.mobi

Last week I posted about Silverlight for both Nokia and Windows Mobile.  With Apple recently releasing the iPhone SDK now Microsoft is saying 'they will take a look at it and see if they can get Silverlight running on the iPhone' (see article here)

Will they have Silverlight for iPhone, I don't know. Since Apple wants to take 30% of all sales for products that might be a big road block even though Silverlight is going to be given away.  Considering the iPhone will have Exchange ActiveSync support, Flash not good enough for iPhone could there be a strong possibility for Silverlight on iPhone?  We'll wait and see :)

My wife sent me this video and I thought I would share.  It is a very inspirational lecture given by Randy Pausch a Professor at Carnegie Mellon.  It's his final lecture not because he is quitting or retiring but because he is dying of cancer.  Just reminds me when something goes wrong that it can always be worse.  Very inspirational and it's worth the 12mins.

With Nokia announcing support for Silverlight it was sort of obvious that Microsoft was not going to leave out Windows Mobile.  Today at Mix08, Scott Guthrie announced Silverlight support for Windows Mobile.  With Steve Jobs saying Flash is not good enough for iPhone, could this mean Silverlight might be on iPhone.  We'll find out more details tomorrow when Apple holds a press conference on the iPhone SDK.  Either way, check out the keynote here (around 2:11 for the mobile stuff).

Seems that Nokia will be supporting Silverlight on their S60, S40 and Internet Tablet devices (press release here).  Now all we need is Silverlight to run on Android, LIMO and of course Windows Mobile and we will have a great tool for providing some great user experiences to mobile users hopefully on any device!

For those that attended my session this morning on Leveraging Windows Mobile API using .NET Compact Framework this morning thanks for coming out on a Saturday at 9am!

The presentation can be found here and the code samples can be found here.

Here is a summary of the demos:

GPS - Demo showing how to use the Fake GPS and GPS sample included in the Windows Mobile SDK

PocketOutlook - Demo showing how to use some of the classes in Pocket Outlook object model

SMSInterception - Demo showing how to intercept a message, automatically respond to a message and call back the sender of the message.  Used the Cellular Emulator.

SNAPI - Demo showing some of the functionality of SNAPI, changing battery level, adding headset and detecting incoming calls.

WISPPic - Sample showing some of the WindowsMobile.Forms classes, selecting a picture and displaying it, and using the InkPicture class from Mobile Ink Library

If there are any followup questions email me at mark[dot]arteaga[at]opennetcf[dot]com.

If you develop Windows Mobile applications then you definitely want to keep the Windows Mobile Developer Center url handy as it will cover things from developing games to mobile web to developing enterprise applications.  Don't forget to check out the community section where you will get a list of all Microsoft and non-Microsoft resources.