Windows Phone Jump Start Questions

Spent three hours today answering questions from folks getting to grips with Windows Phone. Some great questions people, thanks very much.  If you asked a question during the sessions on Tuesday there is a good chance that we have posted an answer, so take a look here.

http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/wp7/f/84.aspx

Windows Phone 7 Jump Start

Nerves of steel in the studio.. Thanks to pinksugarface for the picture.

Andy and I did our first day of Windows Phone 7 training today. Fantastic fun with an incredible turnout.  We did these silly quizzes where delegates had to answer true/false questions by changing their seat colours and it was amazing to see all the flags switching over to the right answer before our eyes. Folks, you were great.

I gave out the phone number of my Windows Phone 7 device and asked for some jokes via SMS  (my “emergency” supply of humour ran out around 45 minutes in….). Got loads of texts in response, I’ve not got time to type them all in, but here is a choice selection:

• What did the blind man say when handed a cheese grater? “That’s the most violent book I’ve ever read”
• Where do you find a no-legged dog? Right where you left him.
• On which side does a tiger have the most stripes? The outside.
• Why do the French only have one egg for breakfast? Because one egg is an oeuf”
• A man is smoking a cigarette and blowing smoke rings in the air. His girlfriend becomes irritated with the smoke and says “Can’t you see the warning label on the box? Smoking is hazardous to your health.” The man replies “I’m a programmer, we don’t worry about warnings, we only worry about errors”.

Great stuff. Normally I have to buy a whole bunch of Christmas crackers to get material of this quality.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we are open “office hours” (1:00pm to 4:00 PST) on the course web site. If you are having a play with Windows Phone 7 drop by and say hello.

http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/wp7/default.aspx

And remember, you can still sign up for the Thursday sessions here:

July 22 – 8am (PST): Session Three:  Advanced Windows Phone Development

July 22 – 1pm (PST): Session Four:  Selling Your Windows Phone Solutions & Wrap Up

Windows Phone 7 Jump Start Studio Prep

Bob sets up the webcam while we sort out the introductions.

Today we went over to the room where we are doing our mammoth Windows Phone 7 Jump Start. It starts Tuesday morning and you can sign up here if you like. I was expecting a room with a desk and a webcam. They were there alright, in a studio with two proper cameras, a backdrop and all the trappings of a professional broadcast.

Oh gosh.

Andy settling in.

We did some dry runs where we found out a couple of things:

1. Both of us speaking at the same time– bad.
2. Neither of us speaking at all – bad.

However, I think we should be OK on the day.

Update on Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 06:49AM by Rob

If you want to take part in the fun, post to the course forum and download the materials you can go here:

http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/wp7/default.aspx

That way you can find the jokes before we say them....

Got Phone

Mine

Got my Windows 7 phone working today (I’m calling it mine in case anyone tries to take it away). Works a treat. Once I got it to talk to the hotel WiFi it started to show just how nice Windows Phone 7 actually is. I really like it, but this week my focus is on writing programs, not phone user interface design.

So it was on with the fun and games getting my programs deployed to the device from Visual Studio. Which I had not done before. For this I had to lean on the expertise of fellow MVPs who came to my assistance with advice and software in equal measure.

Thanks to Ginny, Joel and Nick for sterling support which paid off in the end. It really was nice to see my program running on a device, and I love the feeling that I can get any of my silly ideas deployed to a real phone (and maybe even sell them)

Then we went out for a walk and I bought a Pay as You Go sim for my phone.  I’ll let you all know the number later, so you can ring me and talk to a real Windows Phone if you want.

Hello Seattle (again)

Nice view from the plane

The lady at US Immigration looked at the stamps in my passport and said “You come here a lot, don’t you”. I suppose I do, wouldn’t have it any other way.

Anyhoo, we had a very smooth couple of flights thanks to Continental airlines (although the airline food version of a cheeseburger is something I only want to experience once in my life) and finally arrived in Bellevue in time for a walk around. During which I broke my shoes in half. Fortunately they had a huge mall just around the corner which had loads of shoe shops and so I was able to get something I’ve always wanted, a pair of Converse All Stars. Excellent.

Downtown Bellevue looking good.

Then Sharon arrived at the hotel with a Windows Phone each for Andy and me. Truly, the day could have got any perfecter.