Well… Looks like the response to the video tutorial was pretty strong. I’ll definitely be making this a semi-regular feature here. I’d make it plain old “regular,” but my job makes it difficult for me to put things out on a regular basis, and I’m finding that a when-it’s-ready approach is best.

Case in point, I’m in Vegas right now for a team meeting, and I don’t have the equipment here to do one of the video tutorials. I have, however, put together a fun little demo app that I’m going to feature in the next one.

So, thanks for all the great comments. I seriously appreciate them, and it’s nice to hear some of you saying that it was what helped motivate you to take a look at developing for devices. Having been there, I can understand and relate. It’s the first push that’s the most difficult, but after that, when you realize what can be done even without a device (just using the emulator), it’s just fun.

There were some suggestions for topics, and I’ve been getting email as well with recommendations. I’m paying attention to everything I’m getting, and it’s helping me to form a little plan of action – a way to get from point A to point B, building incrementally on previous videos so that it will be easy for people to follow through the sequence and actually learn something.

Also, I have another MP3 I’ll be putting up over the next couple days, so that’s good stuff, too.

Until then, thanks again, people :)

Hello, hello.

I’m trying something new today. When I first put this site up, one of my intentions was to do video tutorials along with the audio show, and I finally got around to putting one of the tutorials together this afternoon.

It’s aimed at people who are new to developing for devices. I figure that some familiarity with the tools might make it easier for people to get into the audio show.

The focus of this twenty minute demo is developing a simple PocketPC application using VS 2005 and one of the built-in emulators. Note, however, that if you have VS 2003, you’ll still be able to follow along. Your emulator will be different, and you won’t have as many whiz-bang features, but the basic concepts are the same.

It’s just about twenty minutes in length, and comes in at a little under twenty megs, which is nice.

The one problem, which won’t happen again in the future (still learning how to do this), was a portion of audio that went totally nuts. The CPU got hit really hard while I was starting up the PocketPC emulator, and it basically put the audio through a sort of washing machine. It came out the other end garbled. So, I had to snip a small portion of the tutorial (nothing big – just waiting for the emulator to load).

There are also a couple very small audio glitches outside that, but nothing that should ruin your day. I’ve since figured out how to avoid this problem in the future, so it won’t happen again.

You can download the show here [wmv].

Enjoy, and let me know what you think :)

If you'd like to say anything about the Rob Miles episode, or if you'd like to write about your recent trip to the beach, this is the place to do it.

The chatter

This is a special episode of TinyThings.

That isn’t to say that other TinyThings episodes aren’t special. All TinyThings episodes (all two of ‘em) are special in their own ways. Each one is like a child, and I love each one as much as the others, and if one of them came to me and said, “Mommy, which of us is the prettiest?” I’d say, “You’re all the prettiest, my dear. You’re all the prettiest…”

I spoke with Rob Miles a couple months ago about interviewing him for one of the show’s episodes. He’s a software engineering instructor at a university out in the UK, and he has a passion for little, tiny devices that beep and bloop.

As you may have learned from the first episode, Rob is also the Gadget Guy who’s doing the reviews on the show.

I figured that, if he was going to be doing the reviews, that you all really ought to get to know him. For this reason, this episode is the “Getting To Know Rob Miles” episode.

We conducted the interview using skype, and were both very impressed. Carl and I used skype for some .NET Rocks shows nearly two years ago (two years! I can’t believe it’s been that long…), and it’s come a long way since then. Where Carl and I found it nearly unusable for cross country calling, Rob and I managed a transatlantic conversation with no lag and only a few hiccups.

On a side note, if you happen to have a Windows Mobile 5.0 device, it’s entirely possible that you have skype installed on it. They’re doing pretty well, them skype people.

What you can expect from this episode

• Rob talks about game development on Windows Mobile devices
• Rob talks about considerations for developing apps that will run on desktops, tablets, and mobile devices – from the same codebase
• Rob sugar coats his opinions of native over managed development for devices
• Rob wraps things up at the end with a review of one of his favorite new gadgets

Notable Quote

I still don’t know what Rob meant by this, but I’m enjoying it all the same:

I agonized over the bonus ham for a long time - I thought it might offend people.

Episode Links

This show clocked in at about 57 minutes, so I didn’t split the file. I think that’s small enough to fit on a CD. However, not having burned an audio CD in about twenty years, I’m not as confident as I could be about this. If I’m wrong, then please notify me and I’ll split the sucker.

Show downloads:

• The show - HiFi - 26MB MP3 - Get it
• The show - LoFi - 13MB MP3 - Get it

Blogs:

• Rob's blog
• Just for kicks, my blog

Rob’s MSDN articles:

• Pocket Blackjack
• Starlight Space Shooter Thingy
• Pocket Bots Battle Game
• Programming With Cheese #1
• Programming With Cheese #2
• Programming With Cheese #3
• Programming With Cheese #4

Places of interest:

• Windows Mobile site
• MSDN Mobile Developer Center

When you're done listening

Check out the forums. Questions, comments, complaints, praise, and ads for private part enlargement procedures should all be placed here.

Hi, I'm Rob Miles. Rory has very kindly given me a set of keys to the TinyThings castle, so that I can post my words here as well. I'm going to be writing about gadgets and games that I think you should be aware of, starting with Grand Theft Auto for the PSP.

If you haven't seen it yet, the i-mate SP5 is the first Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphone on the market. It was released in the UK last month, and will be appearing in the US within a few days (provided you can get an order placed – UK supplies sold out almost immediately for the first few shipments).

Here’s a shot of the sucker:

The skinny, aside from running Windows Mobile 5.0, is that it’s a quad-band device, has 64MB of RAM, 64MB of ROM, a QVGA screen (higher DPI), all the usual trimmings, and 802.11B support.

It’s nice.

I placed an order with Expansys, but it didn’t go anywhere. I got an email from them saying that they had to update the price in dollars (the original was in British pounds). I shot an email back saying, “OK.” Then…

Nothing.

A few days went by, and I watched inventory dwindle. When I placed the order, the estimated shipping date was one day. It has since fluctuated between 4 days and, yes, 43.

Never got an email back.

As an American, this is a strange position to be in. We’re used to getting our behinds kissed by companies that want our business. If we’re willing to give someone a few hundred dollars, then they’re usually willing to give us a little bit of their time for it.

However, here, there was no response. Major disappointment.

I finally wrote back to say that I’d like my order cancelled. The great bit is that I got an email back within about three minutes saying, “OK.”

What kind of a business ignores customers offering money, but responds quickly to the ones who’ve decided to shop elsewhere?

It was also a bit of culture shock. I expected the typical ‘Merican, “We’re so sorry, please have your phone with free shipping and a fifty dollar gift card for Williams & Sonoma” response, but instead I just got dropped.

It’s funny how different cultures can be.

Anyway, I’ll be picking one up from a shop in the states as soon as possible. I’m bummed that I’m going to have to wait, but these things happen…

Some people have commented that TinyThings isn’t really a podcast.

This is true. A podcast is deployed through RSS enclosures. Since you have to click a link to download TinyThings, it doesn’t meet the minimum requirements for being a podcast.

I should have written about this in my first post here, but I forgot. Putting the show together was much more of a challenge than I expected, and I forgot a couple things in my haste.

One of those things is this.

When Community Server is updated to version 2.0 in December, it will include support for RSS enclosures. I figured that I’d run the show without it being a real podcast for a few weeks and then switch when the software was out.

I know – I could have used some other blogging tool that already has support for RSS enclosures built in, but I wanted Community Server’s forums support.

In retrospect, I guess I could have just used DasBlog for the blog and CS for the forums, but I didn’t think of that.

Hm.

Apologies.

The chatter

In this, the first (inaugural (primordial)) episode of TinyThings, I went up to Redmond, Washington to visit Mike Hall in his office and chat about everything.

Since this is the first episode, and since I'm assuming that there are some (quite a few (billions?)) of people in the world who don't know a whole heck of a lot about developing for devices using various flavors of Windows, I wanted to get the bird's eye, introductory view of the landscape from Mike, and he delivered.

What you can expect from this episode

• You'll finally know just exactly what Windows CE is
• You'll finally know just exactly what Windows XP Embedded is
• You'll finally know just exactly what Windows Mobile is
• You'll learn a bit about Windows Mobile 5.0, why it's nifty, and why you're lame for not using it

If you haven't developed for devices before, and if you'd like to get a head start, then this episode should make you happy.

In the middle of the interview, as will be standard procedure from here on out, we break to hear a gadget review from Rob Miles. In this episode, he gives us his impression of the Gizmondo.

Episode Links

Show downloads:

• The show - HiFi - 42MB MP3 - Get it
• The show - LoFi - 21MB MP3 - Get it

Blogs:

• Mike's blog
• Rob's blog
• Just for kicks, my blog

Places of interest:

• Windows Mobile site
• MSDN Mobile Developer Center
• The Gizmondo

When you're done listening

Check out the forums. Questions, comments, complaints, praise, and ads for private part enlargement procedures should all be placed here.

If you have any questions or comments about the first episode of TinyThings, then feel free to leave them here.

Be sure to visit all the options undfer "Configuration" in the Admin Menu Bar above. There are 16 themes to choose from, and you can also create your own.