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I have tons pics of the Windows Phone (Mobile) 7 series for those who have been living under a rock for the last couple of days. The pictures exhibit the core of the OS and the UI.
Click on Each Individual Pic to Zoom in
Lock & Home Screen
Web Browser
Zune Music & Video
Pictures Hub
People Hub
Xbox Live Hub
About Windows Phone 7
Microsoft's latest mobile OS behaves completely different from previous iterations which may be a major selling point or a deal breaker. The UI is elegant, simplistic, and fully animated, no other OS is close in comparison. It's innovation at it's finest. Its pretty obvious what type of user MS was aiming towards just by glancing at the screen shots, and you can't blame them. That was how iPhone gained such huge ground.
WinPho 7's interface, codenamed "Metro", is visually similar to the Zune HD. Unlike previous edition of windows mobile, Windows Phone 7 isn't powered by Windows CE kernel, but it is rather based on said embedded OS. It seems like MS main focus is push notification, social networking and finally integrating their other services like Zune Marketplace and Xbox Live.
Ballmer didn't announce much about the hardware requirements, but he did say that there was a capacitive screen requirement. So gone are the days of using your stylus in Excel, Office, or Bubble Breaker.
What make windows Phone 7 Series stand out is the attention to detail, animations, and overall look of the OS. The keyboard is completely overhauled, it's bigger and translucent. The Lock screen is carried over from the Zune HD, it only displays important notifications like new messages, missed calls, and updated status. Unfortunately it doesn't display appointments. The home screen consists of animated tiles or hubs that serve as links to other features of the OS. The home screen is sorta reminiscent of Androids, by allowing you to pin any App, Contact, Picture, Bookmark, etc.
My OpinionsIt's pretty clear that I like the revisions or I would've denounced it in this post. The animations are uncanny and The overall experience may make it easy to use, but this is just speculation. I own an Xbox 360 and have Live for Windows on my PC so achievements are pretty big to me and it's nice to see MS being the first to integrate such a feature into a mobile device.
As happy as I am, there are still things that have me upset. The home screen just looks bland and flat, couldn't they have added some kind 3D element and why is there no background image? The apps menu only shows one row of apps in alphabetical order, which may make it easier to find app, but may get tedious once your App collection grows. I feel they should have used the same view they have for the contacts in the Apps menu, it would've been leagues better than just one row of apps.
My Question and Conclusion Like a lot of you forum goers, I'm pretty stuck on the fence on this one. Still many things I want to know such as:
How does the OS handle Multitasking?
What level of Customization is available?
Will OEMS be allowed to differentiate themselves from each other?
What about SDK and 3rd party software?
Details on Compatibility with Phones like the HTC HD2, Toshiba TG02 & K01 or other devices releasing in 2010.
What are the Hardware requirements.
What's the fate of Winmo 6.5?
Is there compatibility with Legacy Apps and vice versa?
More info on MS's plan for Cloud computing
How far along are you with flash support?
The name is Windows Phone Series, does that mean there will be other versions of the OS, Maybe a Lite Version for Older Phones?
What about Cabs & File Browsing?
MS's latest revision may look more treacherous than adventurous to "Hardcore" users and fans of Winmo. Love or hate it, this mobile OS isn't finish, there's much to be revealed at MIX10 and we won't see a release date anytime soon
Stay tuned, in a couple days I will have animated gifs that demonstrates the UI animations.
Whatever it is, I like it a lot. And I would love to have it on my X1....I hope some DevGods try to make it for my X1...
ANd BTW, Thanx for the pix!
Your Welcome. As far as compatibility goes for older Qualcomm 72xx chipset devices like your X1 or the Touch HD, I'm not to sure whether you will get a update. I know I won't, because I have a Palm Treo Pro and Palm just left me dry (No Updates For even Winmo 6.5). MS titled this OS Windows Phone 7 Series. There may be other versions such as a business version or a lite version for users of older devices.
i don't like it
musungus77 said:
i don't like it
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I didn't at first, but it's growing on me...
circleofomega said:
Whatever it is, I like it a lot. And I would love to have it on my X1....I hope some DevGods try to make it for my X1...
ANd BTW, Thanx for the pix!
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musungus77 said:
i don't like it
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I love the menus of the OS and the way it operates. I just don't like the home screen.
Wow...does no one find these pics interesting? I'm the first to post them to this forum.
krjcook said:
Your Welcome. As far as compatibility goes for older Qualcomm 72xx chipset devices like your X1 or the Touch HD, I'm not to sure whether you will get a update. I know I won't, because I have a Palm Treo Pro and Palm just left me dry (No Updates For even Winmo 6.5). MS titled this OS Windows Phone 7 Series. There may be other versions such as a business version or a lite version for users of older devices.
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That's true; Microsoft could have an unannounced "Windows Phone Professional Series." That would probably be where everyone here would go. Or maybe that's what the current Windows Mobile Professional will be (probably and hopefully not).
Windows Phone 7 Series = Zune HD + Phone... (what? i heared a similar story before... oh yes.. it is called "iPhone OS", an ipod.. with phone... )
I like the UI, yes.. but i will miss the things that windows mobile had.. like a file explorer (the best file explorer for mobile devices i must say), full customizacion thanks to this community...
All would be better if they just could add special effects to their current UI... (windows mobile with animations and that stuff)...
just saying...
Isaygarcia said:
Windows Phone 7 Series = Zune HD + Phone... (what? i heared a similar story before... oh yes.. it is called "iPhone OS", an ipod.. with phone... )
I like the UI, yes.. but i will miss the things that windows mobile had.. like a file explorer (the best file explorer for mobile devices i must say), full customizacion thanks to this community...
All would be better if they just could add special effects to their current UI... (windows mobile with animations and that stuff)...
just saying...
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MMM... The Ipod Touch was more application oriented (At least it became app oriented after the iphone and the installer.app became popular) Whilst the Zune HD is more MultiMedia Oriented. Only reason ipods ever win is their app base... my friend has 3 fart apps, a light saber app, and bump... not really...a phone
krjcook said:
Your Welcome. As far as compatibility goes for older Qualcomm 72xx chipset devices like your X1 or the Touch HD, I'm not to sure whether you will get a update. I know I won't, because I have a Palm Treo Pro and Palm just left me dry (No Updates For even Winmo 6.5). MS titled this OS Windows Phone 7 Series. There may be other versions such as a business version or a lite version for users of older devices.
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NOw thats wht I am talking about.."The Lite Version"...thst wht I would LOVE to have on X1..but again, its a far fetched dream..
Isaygarcia said:
Windows Phone 7 Series = Zune HD + Phone... (what? i heared a similar story before... oh yes.. it is called "iPhone OS", an ipod.. with phone... )
I like the UI, yes.. but i will miss the things that windows mobile had.. like a file explorer (the best file explorer for mobile devices i must say), full customizacion thanks to this community...
All would be better if they just could add special effects to their current UI... (windows mobile with animations and that stuff)...
just saying...
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Click to collapse
I can't wait too see what the talented people in this forum can do for this platform. They done leagues to enhance and customize Winmo 6.5
I love what I've seen and thanks for the pictures. Here's why I love it. On my 8525 running 6.5.3 I currently install these 3rd party programs: Resco Explorer, Resco Photos, Coreplayer, Icontact, Facebook, Thumbcal, SPB Mobile Shell 3.5, JZ Browser (love it!), Opera Mini 5, Schaps Advanced Configuration, Arcsoft MMS Messenger and Google Maps. That's just the ones I have to put in to feel the phone is great(which it is for when it was made). With the 7 Series I don't think I'd need any of these programs so how much of an improvement has MS made (gigantic!). Not to mention how interactve the hubs are and how easy these programs they have work together. So far so good. I can't wait to get more info at MIX.
I must say that before I got my HTC Touch Pro 2 I knew nothing about Windows Mobile. But after visiting this forum and trying a few ROMs I must admit that Windows Mobile is awesome! So, I'm waiting to see what's going to happen with Windows Phone 7 (I really hope this is not the official name of the OS). However, MS has a habit of trying to compete with Apple and I just wish they would forget about Apple and build a rock solid OS.
The first thing I read about WP7 is that it needs a Massive CPU (1ghz). So I thought Oh my god here whe go again, MS needs to rely on high hardware specs again to get the thing going, wich could mean another FAIL programming.
Afther watchting the demo I must say that I like the interface verry much, and I can only hope it will realy be as fast as they want you to believe it is.
I also think it is a good thing that they started from scratch because most (not all) of the old apps are useless anyway. The biggest problem being the wide variaty of phone hardware wich makes in imposible to deliver dedicated-always working-allways equally fast- software. (a problem that the Iphone doesn't have, everything you download is fast, and works) and I only dream that my HTC HD would work that well, but it just doesn't (even with the great custom roms you guys make, the CPU doesn't cut it)
The only thing that I want from a phone is full PC compatibility and SPEED. Thats what windows phone looks like to going to offer, but I also like to be able to put on my phone what I want, and that is a big question mark with this new OS.
addicus said:
I love what I've seen and thanks for the pictures. Here's why I love it. On my 8525 running 6.5.3 I currently install these 3rd party programs: Resco Explorer, Resco Photos, Coreplayer, Icontact, Facebook, Thumbcal, SPB Mobile Shell 3.5, JZ Browser (love it!), Opera Mini 5, Schaps Advanced Configuration, Arcsoft MMS Messenger and Google Maps. That's just the ones I have to put in to feel the phone is great(which it is for when it was made). With the 7 Series I don't think I'd need any of these programs so how much of an improvement has MS made (gigantic!). Not to mention how interactve the hubs are and how easy these programs they have work together. So far so good. I can't wait to get more info at MIX.
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Same here, I can't wait to see what Features and other hidden Details MS has in store @ MIX10
circleofomega said:
NOw thats wht I am talking about.."The Lite Version"...thst wht I would LOVE to have on X1..but again, its a far fetched dream..
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the X1 isn't a great device when compared to the Touch Pro 2. I think Windows Phone 7's requirements don't feature older devices running the Qualcomm 72xx chips.
krjcook said:
Windows Phone 7 isn't powered by Windows CE kernel
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Really?
Shasarak said:
Really?
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Yes, Windows Phone 7 doesn't isn't powered by Windows CE 6.0. But like the Zune HD it's based on CE 6
krjcook said:
Yes, Windows Phone 7 doesn't isn't powered by Windows CE 6.0. But like the Zune HD it's based on CE 6
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Ummmm no. I'm not sure what your definition of "powered by" is but in my world "based on" is the same thing (especially in this case).
Windows CE is a modular, embedded operating system that can be customized with tons of various components and then added onto if the developer chooses. In this case, the end developer is Microsoft and they're adding on their own UI, .net, silverlight, etc (not sure how similar the included .net/silverlight in CE6R3 is to WP7).
So basically Microsoft picks and chooses what parts of CE they want to use as a starting point and then adds on. CE is not a "complete" OS in itself really. It is designed exactly for this sort of purpose.
"Powered by", "based on", whatever you want to call it but CE is most certainly the kernel and core of Zune (classic and HD), Windows Phone, etc. It's most likely CE6R3 but could be 6R2 or even CE7.
Looks like Silverlight is the platform for creating Windows Phone 7 apps, finally.
http://www.crn.com/software/222900433;jsessionid=ZSTDUKCIARR4FQE1GHPCKHWATMY32JVN
I hope so, SIlverlight rocks, so much better on my PC than Flash but yet it isnt widely adopted, hopefully if WP7S has Silverlight this will boost its use
Finally!
It is indeed a very logical step.
I was trying to make a "fancy" UI on WinMo 6x and it's damn hard (that will work blazing fast). And search for a Silverlight for WinMo... and it was there... and it was showed on the TechEd 08... but never released... and I was like:
-Oh ... come on... how long does it take to port it??!
This is almost like a "duh" story but it's good to have a "source" saying it.
Silverlight will be for lightweight stuff and XNA 3 (4?) will be for Games, etc.
Imagine being able to write one app and have it work on multiple platforms with little or even no code changes. Silverlight supports multi-touch on Windows 7 too.
XNA and Silverlight. No native apps - see attach.
Can you already create SL applications for the WinMo?
DMAND said:
I hope so, SIlverlight rocks, so much better on my PC than Flash but yet it isnt widely adopted, hopefully if WP7S has Silverlight this will boost its use
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Yes silverlight rocks and i am learning it right now.
afma_afma said:
Yes silverlight rocks and i am learning it right now.
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Know any application? Link?
Developing .NET CF on WM6 is a -pain-. Even if you want to do something as simple as draw a transparent image you have to delve into P/Invoke which feels like hacking. If they get .NET development under WP7 working simply and effectively, then I think it will be a great step forward. I've used WPF extensively and it is a great platform to work on. I've no reason to think Silverlight is any different.
My only concern is how they'll restrict the distribution and installation of applications. The openness of the Windows Mobile platform has always been a big draw, and if they do an Apple and try to restrict how I publish and obtain apps then not many people will see a reason to switch from such an established and successful platform.
Okay, so since the unlocked emulator has a file manager and task manager, does that mean it would be possible to extract them and run them on an actual WP7S device? And if that was possible, would it also be possible to extract the Native APIs from these apps? I'm fairly certain that they use Native APIs because ordinary apps can only access their own directory. I'm not very smart with these things, so sorry if it's obviously impossible or something.
It's wince - the native API is always there, where do you want to extract it from? Also some people figured out most WP7 apps from the emulator ROM are written in native as well. it's always here.
But you can't just put file manager on a WP7 device because there's no access for you to put anything on it, except apps from Marketplace you got the picture? even if we could cook our custom ROMs in the future the only thing we could do is throw in our own DLLs, services or background tools on it and customize it a little. I still doubt you'd be able to develop real WP7 style apps like a file manager or registry editor because the GUI is supposed to be written in Silverlight/XNA. And from those frameworks you can't access the native API unless Microsoft would add support for it.
101% dumb phone. If you think about it then WP7 is even WORSE then iphone.
But what if you could use Visual Studio to load it onto the device? If you look around in it, there is an option for that.
Actual devices will have to be unlocked for developement purposes to allow sideloading through Visual Studio and even then I doubt the system would be able to deploy native code. Developer phone means a yearly fee for membership in the MS developer programm.
I don't think that using native APIs from managed code would be impossible in the SDK - carriers, e.g. will be allowed to use it, but for normal applications the Security Context in .Net would prevent the programm from calling them (Code Security Managers are configurably available in Java and .Net from the beginning, so i believe that would be what MS uses to block access).
And of course programs using those wouldn't get on the marketplace.
Oh, too bad then, but thanks for your response anyway!
Fdo35 said:
Okay, so since the unlocked emulator has a file manager and task manager, does that mean it would be possible to extract them and run them on an actual WP7S device? And if that was possible, would it also be possible to extract the Native APIs from these apps? I'm fairly certain that they use Native APIs because ordinary apps can only access their own directory. I'm not very smart with these things, so sorry if it's obviously impossible or something.
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Okay, the issue here is the lack of a few key DLLs: Windows 7 Series will not offer GDI most likely (I'm downloading the emulator set now, and will confirm this soon) and will lack comctl32.dll and the like, removing these functions. As it's been stated before, like Windows 7 uses the 6.1 NT Kernel, Windows Phone 7 series uses the 6.5 Windows CE kernel, at least, last that I've heard. It would then be both possible to bring Windows Mobile 6.5 DLLs over, but anything that calls GDI will not work. Solution? Make a mock GDI that uses the new render.
This isn't new either, Windows 7 uses WPF more than ever (Which composes most of the games as well as Windows Media Center), which is a 3D accelerated and fancier way to draw to the screen, and Windows 7's GDI subset has been updated to allow hardware acceleration granted the graphics card allows it (It's actually something the video card driver must tell Windows, as MSDN states)
Deploy native code, no. Run it, of course
I'll be investigating the possibility of native code here shortly. Chances are, you will need to set the target to ARMV6, and set the compile type to Native, not Windows. Most developers, if not all, probably have overlooked this.
I would expect that it'll require privileged access to run native code, so you'll need to solve the code signing problem.
ThymeCypher said:
Okay, the issue here is the lack of a few key DLLs: Windows 7 Series will not offer GDI most likely (I'm downloading the emulator set now, and will confirm this soon) and will lack comctl32.dll and the like, removing these functions. As it's been stated before, like Windows 7 uses the 6.1 NT Kernel, Windows Phone 7 series uses the 6.5 Windows CE kernel, at least, last that I've heard. It would then be both possible to bring Windows Mobile 6.5 DLLs over, but anything that calls GDI will not work. Solution? Make a mock GDI that uses the new render.
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Well, I doubt things like comctl.dll and some other things like GWES will be that big of an issue once Platform Builder 7 is released and we can just generate these components ourselves. Hell, adding back GDI support (if those rumors aren't just lies) may be as easy as replacing the GWES with a less crippled one generated by Platform Builder. Maybe GDI support is still compiled in but just doesn't output directly to the screen using the default graphics driver implementation. That's how the Dreamcast implementation of Windows CE was. To even see apps like IE on the screen, you need to copy the contents of the standard WinCE GDI output to a DirectDraw surface.
What I'm more worried about is the hackability of the hardware/software. I'm really hoping it's not as insanely locked down to the point to being unhackable like every Zune.
do you think Platform builder is still available for WP7? Since MS won't allow the OEMs to modify the OS I doubt that. Do you have a source? You've seen an announcement from MS or something?
RAMMANN said:
do you think Platform builder is still available for WP7? Since MS won't allow the OEMs to modify the OS I doubt that. Do you have a source? You've seen an announcement from MS or something?
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Platformbuilder is for the OS, which is Windows CE. There is still some debate as to what version the emulator is running, leaving alone the possibility that the actual version of the OS may be different at release.
If the CE6R3 camp is right, you can get platform builder for that right now, though you wont have telshell.exe (WP7 replacement for explorer.exe), and the WP7 specific apps. It would be an interesting exercise to see if they could be run on CE6R3. If no one beats me to the punch, I plan on trying this for myself when I am less swamped at work.
If the CE7 camp is right, you will have to wait till MS releases that version to the public. And they WILL release it because there are far too many embedded systems outside of phones that run on CE for them to neglect it.
No, I was talking about the generic Windows CE 7.0 Platform Builder and not the OEM specific OAK for WP7S. Unless MS plans to completely drop their generic Embedded Windows CE offerings, I see no reason why PB 7.0 will not be released and help with hacking WP7S (if it is even based on 7.0). You always needed to be a large ODM and sing an NDA to use a Platform Builder addon/OAK for the MS platforms like Pocket PC. Those almost never leak and I can't imagine this would be much different.
RAMMANN said:
do you think Platform builder is still available for WP7? Since MS won't allow the OEMs to modify the OS I doubt that. Do you have a source? You've seen an announcement from MS or something?
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Yes, platform builder was used to build leaked wp7 arm image.
d:\wm700_6176\platform\common\src
\soc\qcom_v1\oal\power\sleep.c
It is from from nk.exe
use dumpbin.exe to get all methods in dll/exe
Just a discussion came up and made me wonder if this is even possable. This is the place to ask, so here we go.
All WP7 models seem to run at 1ghz or higher, thinking the concept that WM 6.5 runs pretty well on hardware that runs at 400-528mhz range. Would it be possable to have a emulator that runs on the platform so you can run 6.1/6.5 on a WP7 phone ? This would allow you to be able to run some older apps with still having WP7.
I would not expect intense games (maybe a card game ok) to run at full speed or anything but, things like Remote desktop and other base apps might be ok with this.
This type of thing would run on any phone (with 1ghz+ hardware) just depending on if all the hardware is supported.
Or I guess there might be a way to "shut down" 7 and open 6.5 kind of how Android runs on the TP2.
The emulator idea came up because it might be able to run on any model with minor updates vs. a boot up just for one phone.
Just some ideas...even if it is possable.
Thanks for reading and dreaming (well I am still waiting for a Verizon WP7 phone)
No sorry, the emulator runs on the x86 architecture, not on ARM.
Dave
DaveShaw said:
No sorry, the emulator runs on the x86 architecture, not on ARM.
Dave
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Maybe I'm misreading the original question, but it sounds like he is asking if it were possible to have an app that would run old Windows Mobile apps, kind of like Classic on WebOS.
well at present we (3rd party) developers wouldn't be able to make something like this as all the APIs don't actually exist. someone with knowledge of the whole code base of windows phone 7 could probably do it but i doubt we'll see it happen. if there are programs you need on windows phone 7, it is definitely faster to just have it redone. it's really only the UI that needs redoing, if it was written in VB or C#, a lot of the code will still work.
I decided to start a new topic 'cause previous one was a complete mess.
So, finally I ran Windows 10 on my RPi 2 and was really excited by the job that MS did for this low cost computer. It was a really easy to run your UWP app on RPi with a little changes; now I'm trying to run my "DOSBox" app on this computer (but DOSBox isn't a simple and straight UWP app, some difficulties still exists).
I still have no idea about practical implementation of the RPi-based Windows 10 computer but, I believe so, it should exist (BTW, I do have very good sample of practical usage of RPi - my another one - it run self-moving web camera (former robot app ), it controlling my X10 lights and switches via web interface (yes, I do have Apache server running on this RPi), this RPi also serving my huge OPDS library.
By the way, it's a really cheap and exciting gadget (you can get it for about $22 on eBay), and the "Last of the Mohicans" UWP developers definitely should take a look to this gadget and platform! Fun guaranteed!
I.ll like to use this with cortana in the car, just for music and vocal commands.
JHey cortana, play voodoo people..... skip song, send message to Sensboston...good job buddy
Or.... https://9gag.com/gag/ad9LqQB
sensboston said:
I decided to start a new topic 'cause previous one was a complete mess.
So, finally I ran Windows 10 on my RPi 2 and was really excited by the job that MS did for this low cost computer. It was a really easy to run your UWP app on RPi with a little changes; now I'm trying to run my "DOSBox" app on this computer (but DOSBox isn't a simple and straight UWP app, some difficulties still exists).
I still have no idea about practical implementation of the RPi-based Windows 10 computer but, I believe so, it should exist (BTW, I do have very good sample of practical usage of RPi - my another one - it run self-moving web camera (former robot app ), it controlling my X10 lights and switches via web interface (yes, I do have Apache server running on this RPi), this RPi also serving my huge OPDS library.
By the way, it's a really cheap and exciting gadget (you can get it for about $22 on eBay), and the "Last of the Mohicans" UWP developers definitely should take a look to this gadget and platform! Fun guaranteed!
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Great project i have about 50 low performance laptops and mini laptops its so good for them
I will try this in next year and I will tell you the result
can you port and install ppsspp on that and tell us the results ?
@augustinionut, yeah, Cortana is cool but you can do this on your handset (never tried but it should work, I believe so). I'm thinking about RPi specific scenario. Yes, I can make a blinking LEDs, it's fun but not very practical
@Ferrybigger, I can try. But I'm unsure about overall performance; it looks like RPi CPU is less powerful than L-950 (and has less memory).
P.S. I also ordered this LCD TFT touch screen on AliExpress, it will add more fun for development
sensboston said:
@augustinionut, yeah, Cortana is cool but you can do this on your handset
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Only that hey cortana dont work on lumia 640xl, and my media bluetooth button dont have win+c command.
I need an app in the background to launch listening cortana.
I found something equivalent: snowwy.
Tried to rebuild and run ppsspp: no luck at all, always getting error 0x800402200 before app's code get execution.
I prefer using Linux for such devices. It's lightweight and flexible. It's easy to use: you can draw on any display with just Bitmap and FileStream. LOTS of drivers! LOTS of programs.
Win10 IOT is not on the same level yet. But it will be someday.
P.S. RPi hardware is garbage.
Yeah, Raspbian is pretty stable and with some configuration tricks (to reduce file I/O access on sd-card) it can work seamlessly for a years (as mine), even with Apache server running on it.
However here I'm talking from the UWP developer position: ability to run your existing UWP app on the extremity low cost (mine costs me $22), portable computer is cool, I believe so.
I can't compare development difficulties for UWP and Linux but some MS public APIs are still ... maybe, not unique but really good, such as map services, easy integration with Azure, speech API and many more. Of course you can find similar packages on Linux but with UWP you already have it out of the box.
P.S. I'm still thinking about "real life" implementation of RPi with W10 but can't find any...
Windows 10 iot core is the os that runs on the raspberry pi. It started out with windows on devices edition on the intel galileo (x86) (2013). The windows on devices edition was probably microsoft's smallest os since windows 95 (only 185mb). The windows iot os has come a long way since then as they have been refactoring the os to include more and more of the apis windows developers know. You can use gdi to paint windows on raspberry pi, and i think directdraw (but have not tried it myself). Porting apps to windows iot core is difficult, but using the remote debugger you can see apis that fail because they aren't included. Once you get around the missing apis issue, you can easily create apps that work directly with hardware, which is something thag's always been difficult with windows ( you used to have to buy a development board ). Using visual c++ to remotely debug drivers is really convenient, as windbg is too difficult.