Scenes From A Developer Memory

In this post, we are going to show hot to create a small Angry Birds clone for Windows Phone 7 in 5 minutes using Expression Blend and zero (yes, zero) lines of code. Of course, the game that we will create is far from finished but it can serve as a start for your new awesome game. Check the video explaining the tutorial (Please visit the site to view this video) We will use Windows Phone developer tools (they include Expression Blend for Windows Phone) which you can download from http://create.msdn.com and the free/open source Physics Helper library (download here: http://physicshelper.codeplex.com ). Physics Helper is a helper library for the popular physics engine Farseer ( http://farseerphysics.codeplex.com/ ). Basically, it adds some Behaviors inside Expression Blend in order to use the engine without writing any code at all! First of all, you download the Physics Helper library, extract the dlls. Then you open Expression Blend and create a new Windows Phone Application. Pay attention so that the version

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So, you just updated your beautiful Windows Phone device with Mango and you want to create a custom ringtone. Well, you can use any music file you want, if it fits the following requirements 39 seconds or shorter smaller than 1 megabyte (MB) saved in MP3 or WMA format not copy-protected (i.e. DRM free) Of course, your favorite songs are over 39 seconds. I found this great online service (no need to download anything to your PC) to cut an mp3 file. It’s called “MP3 cut” and it’s URL is http://mp3cut.net/ (however, you can use any online or offline software you wish) Let’s check the procedure. 1. First, you select to upload your favorite mp3 file 2. After a few minutes (even more, if your song is lengthy) you will presented with the following screen 3. Simply select the part of the song you want (you can even preview it!) and… 4. Click Split and Download! 5. Download, save the file and open Zune. It’s time to add the file to your collection (you can use a simple drag and drop operation to accomplish that). When

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Today I had the pleasure to present at Elearning Expo 2011, the premium conference/exhibition for e-learning in Greece. I presented at a session titled "Interactive Games" and the presentation was about the game I have codeveloped with Anlock Ltd, "First Words: Learning Animals" . People really liked our game and wished us good luck! Worth to mention here is that Greek and Spanish version will hit the Windows Phone marketplace in a few days, whereas "Vehicles" version is under heavy development! Check the presentation on slideshare here http://www.slideshare.net/dt008/first-words-learning-animals-at-elearning-expo-2011

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[This is a guest post from George Karavias of Anlock Ltd. creators of the Windows Phone 7 educational game First Words: Learning Animals ] So you’ve gotten over the hoopla of Geotrust and you have been registered as a Windows Phone developer. You are anxious to start submitting your applications. Hoping that Nokia and Microsoft get it together in the meantime and start selling smartphones, so the money starts rolling in! One thing is left though, filling out your “payout setup” … And that is when you come across some rather unclear and quite disturbing “Certification Instructions” about contacting the IRS and getting a US Taxpayer Identification Number. Otherwise you are subject to an automatic 30% US tax withholding, say what? 30%?, US Taxing? Why? Harsh truth is that if you are not based in the US and if you do not figure out the “Certifications Instructions”, Microsoft is going to withhold 30% of your sales, on top of the 30% commission to give to the IRS in the US. Fear not, we have been through it successfully

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