Developer

Since the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system, we have witnessed a phenomenal demand for the progress towards Natural User Interfaces. There are now new generation of PCs enabled with multi-touch functions and touch-optimized applications being released as you read this. The market for touch PCs is heating up. About 10 percent of new PC models in 2010 will support touch technology, says Amy Leong, research director at Gartner Research. “In the next few years, we are going to see touch technologies being tested and deployed for many applications. More than 6 million PCs with touch screens will ship in 2010, nearly four times more than in 2008.” Microsoft has worked closely with HP, one of our largest partner PC manufacturers, during the development of Windows 7 to ensure hardware design presents a flawless symbiosis of software and hardware integration. This collaboration between Microsoft and HP result in a truly intuitive, innovative and engaging computing experience that brings technology to life in ways never available before to a mainstream consumer audience. To further unlock the potential of HP’s touch-enabled hardware and TouchSmart 3.0 software together with Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system, HP is now seeking software developers to join the HP TouchExchange Programme in creating cutting edge and functional applications that will revolutionize the future of the touch technology and bring new innovations to consumers. If your application holds commercial potential, HP may provide you with a HP TouchSmart PC and a sizeable start-up capital to help you develop your application and commercialize it in the market. With the wide range of touch-ready Windows 7-based computers coming to market this year, with some priced low enough to put touch within just about everyone’s reach, it offers great potential for you to showcase your solutions to a huge audience. The Windows 7 Multitouch Platform is a very powerful development platform. Microsoft with HP aim to provide you the necessary support and resources to help you succeed, connect with the relevant business partners and expand your market reach. For more details on the HP TouchExchange programme initiative, please read here. The Microsoft Innovation Centre is more than willing to help you achieve success. ...

Eighteen months of incubation and one billion printed Tags later, Microsoft Tag is finally coming out of beta. (If you are not sure what Tag is, it’s basically an advanced mobile bar code technology that allows you to use some very nifty custom designs as 2D bar codes.) The basic Tag services are still free of charge, including creating a standard Tag, reviewing standard analytics, and using the Tag Reader application. The Tag team also plans to add other value-added features over time such as advanced reporting and analytics and real-time location services. As part of this launch, Microsoft Tag also offers the following new features: ...

It seems that Christmas has come early for us here at the Microsoft Innovation Centre! Look at what we found last week: Yes, this is none other than the prototype LG Panther devices that have been seen in the wild for the past week or so. Here are some more photos, including the box that it came in: [gallery link=“file” columns=“3” orderby=“rand” exclude=“776,807”] Where did we get these devices from? Well, we wished we could say that we found it at a local Starbucks because someone left it there after a caffeine high, but in reality these were sent to us so we can start testing our Windows Phone 7 applications in Singapore on an actual device instead of only using the emulator. A few early observations: ...

Last night, I was invited by IEEE GOLD to speak at a cloud computing event they organized for their members. They wanted me to share with them about what Microsoft was doing in cloud computing. (For those who don’t know, IEEE GOLD stands for Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Graduates Of Last Decade. That’s a long name!) I didn’t know what to expect, since I was told the audience would be a mix of current students, graduated students, researchers, faculty, alumni and industry people. And being an IEEE event, it meant that most of the audience came from an electrical engineering background, instead of an IT background like the technical audiences we normally reach out to. I mean, do electrical engineers really care about cloud computing? Well, surprisingly (to me), yes! As I sort of expected, the audience got the most excited when I spoke about the massive investment that Microsoft is putting into building data centers all around the world. I spoke about how Microsoft is using 4th-generation data center designs and cutting-edge technology allows Microsoft to achieve an average PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of 1.22 in their data centers. (As a reference, Google’s twelve-month energy-weighted average PUE is around 1.18. We are only a little bit behind. :)) And as expected, the PUE discussion triggered off a flurry of questions and further discussions around how PUE is measured and optimized in data centers. All in all it was a great night of conversation with a very passionate audience that was very engaged. Here are the slides that I used for the presentation last night: [slideshare id=4168237&doc=microsoftandthecloud-jonathanwong-100520005112-phpapp01]

Last week (May 13), we launched the Windows Phone 7 Call for Proposal with Expara under the i.Match BizMatch program. i.Match BizMatch is a platform that facilitates collaboration opportunities between Media Content and Digital Media (IDM) companies by introducing them to leading industry partners. Aspiring applicants for the WP7 CFP will receive technical guidance/training from the Microsoft Innovation Centre, as well as access to hardware and software resources to support their WP7 development process. The event was opened by Douglas Abrams from Expara, and followed by myself to discuss about the support provided by the CFP. A total of 8 companies did a verbal pitch in front of Microsoft panelists, who are all involved with Windows Phone 7. As promised, we had a hearty pizza and networking session right after. All in all, it was a successful event and we look forward to working with the interested parties we have met. The deadline for submission is June 30th. You can check this previous post here to check out the details of the CFP and upcoming WP7 events. If you are keen to submit, please fill up the form here and send it to the email address indicated in the form. (Tip: We really would love to see some prototypes running on the emulator, so it’s a big plus if you can include snapshots) That’s about it! And for developers out there, we’ve included below some really useful links and tips to aid you on your WP7 development. (Don’t forget to check out the upcoming WP7 events here, and a link to my Source Code folder in this post.) Useful links and tips: ...

The Singapore user group communities, Professional .NET User Group, SQL Server User Group, and Windows IT Pros User Group, once again, have come together to bring to you a day of in-depth sessions and demonstrations of the newMicrosoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is packed with a wealth of new features and capabilities that can help organizations to scale with confidence on a trusted platform, improve IT and developer efficiency, and enable self service business intelligence. The benefits of the enhanced capabilities extend to application and multi-server management, complex event processing, master data services and powerful BI tools. Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is an integrated environment that simplifies the whole development lifecycle, from design to development. Developers can use existing skills to model, code, debug and deploy a growing number of applications types. With SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010, users will be able to create compelling applications that deliver business value soonest while maintaining the quality and integrity of your IT assets. Why should you attend the event: ...

*Updated post with link to Mobile Monday event, see below* Hi guys, following our April events, here’s the schedule for May! We hope to see you all in these events. The April CTP Refresh is also out so be sure to check that out. See below for more info. WP7 events for May: May 13 – i.Match Business Matching May 22 – Community Tech Update May 27 – Developer Garage May 31 – Mobile Monday Singapore Reminder: For the i.Match Business Matching, you still need to RSVP if you are attending as audience. So we know how many pizzas to order. ;) ...

[gallery link=“file” orderby=“rand”] (Check out more photos of the event here.) Last night, we hosted the Singapore PHP User Group (or the Philosophy in Programming Society, as they like to be called) at our office for their monthly meet-up. There were two presentations during the event. I presented on using the Windows Azure Platform with PHP, and Chin Yong presented on APC (Alternative PHP Cache – no, not Armored Personnel Carrier) Here are our presentation slides: [slideshare id=3869311&doc=phpugwindowsazurephpjonathanwong-100427054032-phpapp01] [slideshare id=3879226&doc=phpmeetupaprilapc-100427223208-phpapp02] You can also download my barebones Azure PHP code template here, if you are interested in trying to run your own PHP application on Windows Azure. Don’t forget that the one-stop location for everything you need to learn about and get started on Windows Azure is at this simple URL: www.windowsazure.com. Quote of the night comes from Chin Yong’s last slide: ...

Last week we had 2 developer sessions on Windows Phone 7 application development, RIAction (Apr 20) and Hackerspace (Apr 22). The one we did in RIAction was similar to the sgdotnet session (Apr 16). You can check out this post for the slides and links to resources that was shown in those first two sessions. Before we get into the details of the Hackerspace session, I would like to highlight some updates and additional info regarding the i.Match BizMatch session, which was supposedly this April 29th. ...

Last April 21, Code::Xtreme was launched in SMU. Code::Xtreme is a 24-hour competition organized by ITSC to create awareness on the use and value of standards in programming. To find out more about CodeXtreme and how you can join, you can check out this site. This year, Microsoft Singapore is participating as a technology partner through Project Nimbus. Project Nimbus is an “information marketplace” that allows developers to access hosted Singapore data. It also allows content providers to host their data in a structured manner. To find out more about Project Nimbus and how you can start accessing public data, check out this site. We will be running technical sessions to prepare participants for the competition. To find out more about these, sign up in the Code::Xtreme link above. Hope to see you there! ...