Windows Phone 7 at Day 2

November 9, 2010 by Leave a comment

Slalom Consultant Derek Martin

Slalom Consultant Derek Martin is an accomplished Microsoft systems developer and integrator, experienced in developing and deploying SharePoint and CRM solutions, integrating line of business applications, and leveraging existing infrastructure investments.

Just to be clear: it was essential that I be the first person who walked through the door of the T-Mobile store yesterday morning to purchase my new HD7 from HTC.  Took a little longer than it should have because despite having about a year to prepare, the store wasn’t quite prepared to sell me such a glorious little device. But after some convincing, I prevailed.  And I dove in head first!

The amazing:

  1. The interface is stunning. Absolutely stunning.  It speaks to the intricate detail that MS put into this from screen transitions, to the insistence that all WP7 devices were not hardware starved.
  2. The apps. Thus far, the apps that I have worked with are spectacular.  Particular shout out to the HTC hub which, despite its gorgeous look and great animations isn’t really worth more than telling me the weather.  Also of note – Office 2010 – oh yes – the fact that I instantly have all of my Office docs and OneNote notes on the device is telling.  The History Channel app is also fantastic if you have the means (I don’t, just got click happy). Read more of this post

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Cooking Up a Storm

October 4, 2010 by Leave a comment

Slalom Consultant Derek Martin

Slalom Consultant Derek Martin is an accomplished Microsoft systems developer and integrator, experienced in developing and deploying SharePoint and CRM solutions, integrating line of business applications, and leveraging existing infrastructure investments.

Last month, my team and I had the opportunity to present at the Dallas Cloud Computing User Group.  It was a fantastic presentation, led by our lead developer extraordinaire Trent (www.trentacular.com).  The topic was centered around fusing Windows Azure and Windows Phone 7 and it was …. awesome.  Here’s what we did:

  1. Created a WP7 application that connected to a simple little CRM system
  2. Said CRM system was built using SQL Azure (couple tables, a view and that’s about it)
  3. The SQL tables were then exposed (for ease of WP7 construction) via an Azure web role that exposed an updatable ODATA endpoint.

The application was very slick – we had it going in no time and we also had fun figuring out that the SQL Azure Labs ODATA endpoint wasn’t kidding when they said there were some ‘known’ limitations – namely, the ability to connect linked tables together in an ODATA query.

Read more of this post

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The Rebirth of Nokia?

September 15, 2010 by Leave a comment

Daniel Maycock is one of Slalom’s acknowledged thought leaders in the realm of new and emerging technology.

This is not including the up and coming N8 or E7 that were recently announced for release this fall, and have been gaining strong traction already. Though Symbian v3 is more of a facelift then a revolution, Symbian v4 which is rumored to be out on a Nokia phone early next year, will really be the effort to challenge the likes of Android & iPhone.

What’s amazing though, is that Nokia, though losing market share quite rapidly, is still #1 for the foreseeable future. With Android snapping at its heels, Nokia still has a big advantage that Google doesn’t – they own the whole experience. The problems that have been reported with Android are the manipulation by the carriers to control the OS, from bloatware to Read more of this post

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Mobile OS Wars, Part 3 of 3 – And the winner is…

February 24, 2010 by Leave a comment

Slalom Consultant Jeff Barber

Jeff Barber is a Seattle-based leader in Slalom Consulting’s mobility solutions practice. He's a mobile technology expert with deep experience helping clients “operationalize” mobile technologies.

The third and final post of this series will discuss mobile media, the mobile app phenomenon, and the capabilities and direction of the other mobile OS platforms compared to iPhone and Android. I will also offer my opinion of who will win the mobile OS wars and why.

In the fast-moving world of mobile technology, mobile media is nothing new.  What started early in the new century as ringtone mania has evolved from ringtones, wallpapers, and simple games as the only mobile content options to a vast selection of media that includes high quality music, video, games, applications, mobile television, and mobile advertising.

The big four carriers discussed in part 2 of this series have offered branded mobile web and content portals for years:

Note for Slalom readers: Over the last five years, Slalom Consulting teams have played instrumental roles in implementing and improving a number of these products.

Once again, Apple changed the game by Read more of this post

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