Everything Else

I just got a phone call from Symantec on behalf of Microsoft, my Windows Phone developer account will be ready in 48 hours, they found my details matched on the government registration of companies (called ASIC here, sort of like the SEC, in the USA), everything else checks out.

A friend of mine from days when I was developing poker machines, ported an iPhone App to Windows phone, the Microsoft trainers scowled and said that it looked very iOS like. He said the client wanted consistency, my app looks too shiny iOS-ish for Windows Phone. The live tiles, as you say, fisher-price look is something they are pushing, especially at developer training. I get the feeling Windows Server 2012 is dumbed down too. They are really pushing this customized dashboard with constant updating live tiles thing.. You get used to it after a while...

I think Apple get 15,000 app submissions per week and have something like 700,000 apps in the app store, Android is probably way beyond that, even Windows Phone has something like 200,000 or 300,000 apps in their store, already and the Microsoft surface and Nokia Lumia 820s and 920s are selling at a rate faster than iPad and iPhone did when they first came out. I don't think it really matters which platform you choose. There is lots and lots of stuff to play with, more than most people would ever want.

One of the features missing in Apple devices that I like in the bada (Wave II and Wave 725), Windows Phone and Android phones is that some of them have an FM radio built-in to the device. I like to go some where, do some consulting, listen to my preferred classical music station ( http://www.abc.net.au/classic/ ) on the phone while I hack away at the clients code, channel surf through the commercial stations for traffic reports just before leaving for the day.

Sometimes you look at categories, reflection or something in the code and think that is really beautiful and elegant and other times Xcode crashes several times on the same day because you have too much open and you only have 8Gb RAM in the Mac and you get lost in some sub option of some sub option of something in Visual Studio 2012 with a real WTF..? moment and Eclipse with the Android ADT just feels like a clunky hack and some really weird stuff happens sometimes and you have to dig to find out what it decided to "fix" for you mysteriously and secretly in the background... They all suck are great.

If I had a choice I'd like an Apple iPhone 5, an Android Samsung Galaxy SIII or a Windows Phone Nokia Lumina 920. My views are entirely biased on who I've worked for and who has given great freebies at developer conferences. The HTC H8S is a pretty cheap Windows Phone 8 device.

I'd like to get at least a few apps out on Android, iOS and Windows Phone into the respective apps stores by the end of the month. I'll happily code on anything if someone pays me... Coding on Haiku for fun would be nice if I can find the time...


R.

I have a Sony Xperia Acro but now then just relased Xperia V, both are watertight and the latter has 4G very nice phones and still very much Ericsson class when it comes to RF and voice!