NFC Tag Fun with Windows Phone 8

Near Field Communications is fun. And sometimes even useful. The idea is that you bring your phone close to an NFC tag which contains an antenna and a tiny chip which can store data. The phone reads the data and does something. You can program an NFC tag to trigger one of a variety of different actions, from opening a web page, running a program to sending an email.

The Nokia NFC Writer program makes it very easy to program tags. I’ve got a tag in the car that starts the phone playing music. I could also use a tag to configure the phone and even send tweets, as James has done.

There are lots of styles and designs of tags out there. I got the Task Launcher Pack from rapidnfc.com above which provides a lot of fun for around 12 pounds. You can get custom printed tags and people like Moo are even planning business cards with tags in.

There is an API that you can use to allow your Windows Phone program to read and write tag information which has all kinds of possible applications. You can find out more from MSDN here and from Nokia here.

If you have an NFC capable phone (the Nokia 820 and 920 are) then you should have a go. Great fun.

Nokia NFC: It looks like some folks are having a problem finding this program via the link above. It works fine in the UK, I'm not sure what regions of the world have access to it. If the link doesn't work try searching your Marketplace for "nfc".

Assassins Creed for Windows Phone

Assassins Creed and Earthworm Jim were free for Windows Phone owners today. (I did tweet about it, perhaps you heard). They are kind of fun. I prefer Assassins Creed as there is a bit more going on, although as you can see above I’m not very good with the controls yet….

Voice Music Upgrade

The slightly upgraded (i.e. more of it works than before) version of Voice Music is now in the Windows Phone marketplace. It now has improved help and full random play.  If you already have a copy you will get an upgrade soon. If you have a Windows 8 device and fancy selecting your music by spoken commands (works a treat over Bluetooth) then you can find the program here.

Hull University on a Lumia 920

Take a look at the original sized image on Flickr. And then reflect that I took this with a phone camera.

Using Speech with Windows Phone 8

I said yesterday that I’d submitted my latest version of Voice Music to Microsoft for certification.

It failed (sad face).

The reason it failed is interesting if you write speech applications for Windows Phone 8. It has to do with what happens if you interrupt the speech playback. One of the principles of the Windows Phone UI is that at any point when you are using a program you should be able to press the Windows Key on the phone and go off and do something else. Then, when you have finished doing the something else, you press the back key and return to the previous program. If your program doesn’t work like this it will fail certification, since this is a required behaviour.

It turns out that my version of Voice Music had a problem if the user pressed the Windows Key while it was announcing a message. They could go off and do something else, but when they pressed Back they did not return to Voice Music. This was a fairly nasty bug to spot, in that it only occurs when the program is running “in the wild”, i.e. when it is in the phone and not attached to the Visual Studio debugger. It also made finding the bug tricky, in that as soon as I tried to look for it the program started working again. Which was not very nice.

Eventually I used a technique that has worked before. I asked for help. And it turns out that the answer is quite simple. When a speaking program is interrupted by the user pressing the Windows Button (or generally moving away from the application) it will throw an exception when the program is next restarted by someone returning to it. The exception is thrown by the SpeakTextAsync method. If your program doesn’t catch this exception it will fail to restart. The exception has a particular type that you can check for if you wish:

try
{
    SpeechSynthesizer synth = new SpeechSynthesizer();
     await synth.SpeakTextAsync("Hello cheeky.");
 }
catch (Exception ex)
{
     if (((uint)ex.HResult == 0x80045508)) 
     {
        // System Call Interrupted thrown by Speech 
     }
 }

My program just ignores the exception, which seems to have fixed the problem. You can do more clever things if you wish. I’ve resubmitted it for certification. Fingers crossed….

Voice Command on Nokia Conversations

Last week Rob Crocombe, one of our students, was featured on Nokia Conversations, talking about the things that he has been doing with Windows Phone during his time in the department at Hull. Now it’s my turn. You can find the post here. It contains a fairly shameless plug for Voice Music, my little program that lets you select music on your Windows Phone 8 device simply by asking for it. A new version is presently working its way through Marketplace certification.

Printing Lumia Cases

My printed case, and Joanna. The cutout for the camera fits absolutely perfectly.

BrianT popped a comment on the blog last week about the Lumia printing templates that Nokia have just released. They can be used with a 3D printer to allow you to print your own shells for the Lumia 820 phone. You get designs for the shell plus the buttons. You can download them here. What with having a Nokia 820 and a 3D printer to play with I thought I’d had a go. Initial results weren’t successful because the back section is very slightly curved in the original Nokia designs, which for a 3D printer like mine is impossible to print (although other kinds of printers will do this kind of shape). However, a chap on Thingiverse has created a Makerbot version of the case with a flat bottom. This prints a treat, as you can see above. The only thing I don’t like is the Makerbot logo, what with me having an Ultimaker printer and all.  But I can fix that by spending a few minutes in FreeCAD. In fact I can put whatever I like on there. In any colour I like.

The shell snaps onto the phone just like a “proper” one and I was very surprised to find that even the tiny buttons fit well and work OK, although I’m going to have to do a bit of trimming to make them move smoothly.

Remember that the lack of a 3D printer doesn’t stop you from making your own unique phone cases. Places like Sculpteo will take your designs and print them, including full colour if you really want it. Kudos to Nokia for making these drawings available for anyone to use.

Young Developers Launch Session

Hi to everyone!

I actually met up (over Skype) with the Young Developers today for the first time. They are taking part in a programme being run by Seton Hall University in New Jersey which aims to teach programming using Windows Phone as the target platform. A great bunch. They even laughed at my jokes.

I’m looking forward to working with you all over the coming weeks as we get started on the course. Feel free to get in touch and let me know what you want to build for your phone. This is going to be such fun.

Do Not Press This Button Unless You Mean To

I got into trouble yesterday because I pressed a button when I shouldn’t have.

Did the same today.

The fun started when I got an email from Kurt, who likes my Voice Music program (as well he might). But (and there is always a but) there was one improvement that he thought would be a good idea, and one bit that he had noticed didn’t work. So I had a look, and he was right on both counts. It took me a couple of minutes to change the feature and find and fix the bug, and then I wanted to update the application on the Windows Phone Marketplace.

I was working at speed at this point, because for some reason I wanted to watch Silent Witness and it was nearly nine o’clock. The Windows Phone Marketplace application submission page beckoned and at the bottom was the Submit button. Which I just pressed, thinking (or perhaps not thinking) that I’d be asked about uploading a replacement version on the next screen. Of course there was no next screen. That’s what submit means. I’d just started the resubmission process using the original version of the program. Wah. What a stupid thing to do. I cursed and went off to watch an hour of daft telly.

Fortunately it is not a huge problem. Since the application hasn’t changed and it was certified OK last time it won’t take long to certify again. Then I can resubmit the fixed program.

So, the lesson here folks is that you need to upload the new version of your XAP file before you hit Submit. Common sense really.

Update on 2013-01-19 16:12 by Rob

Got a notification that my original version of the program has been certified again, so I can now publish the fixed version. And then my PC broke. Ah well.

Nokia 920 Wireless Charging

Pad of Power – Pity it isn’t Yellow..

When I bought my Nokia Lumia 920 I was offered a free wireless charging pad. Today it arrived in the post. It is a slim, white, affair with a slightly beefier power supply than the one that came with the phone. You plug it in, place your Lumia on the pad and it charges the phone.

That’s it.

It just works. It takes a bit longer than wired connection and it does work if the phone is in the case, although in this case it seems to take slightly longer and the phone itself gets warm. This is either because there is greater inefficiency if the phone isn’t directly in contact with the charging base, or perhaps the case keeps in the normal charging heat you get when you charge a battery. Either way I rather like it. The only thing I’m less keen on is the charging light, which is an ultra-bright white led. If you have the charger on your beside table you had best point the light away from you as it is super bright in the dark. If you’re like me you’ll have dreams where you are being chased by people wielding powerful torches until you turn it round a bit.

I can now feel the tiniest pang of pity as I watch number one wife plug her iPhone in every night for charging. Nice enough phone, just not keeping up with the times.

Face Lens for Windows Phone

I’ve been playing with some of the Lens programs that you can get for Windows Phone 8. These application sit on the front of the camera application (a bit like a lens does I suppose) and do things with the image. The Face Lens program puts things onto the faces that it sees. The application is free, but you can buy extra bits and bobs to add to images. Above you can see what it does to the face of a well known local newsreader. Quite fun.

Mystery Picture

I took this picture with the Lumia 920 yesterday. With results like these I don’t think I have to carry my camera around everywhere now. But the mysterious thing about this picture is the way that the flags are blowing in completely different directions.

Strange eh?

Luminous Rockets and the Lumia 920

Now, this one impressed me lots. What you can see above is a picture of a rocket that I printed using “glow in the dark” fibre from Faberdashery. I took the picture using my Lumia 920 in pretty much pitch darkness. You can just see the edge of another, non-luminous, rocket on the left of the glowing one.

The picture was taken hand held and I’ve done nothing more to it than a slight crop. Amazing.

Voice Music Video

I’ve made a little video that shows how Voice Music works on Windows Phone 8. It stars my Yellow Lumia 920 and my left index finger. You can find Voice Music here. It’s free for Windows Phone 8 users and it works a treat over Bluetooth.

Windows Phone Jumpstart Dates Out

The Windows Phone Jumpstart sessions are something of an institution. Myself and Andy Wigley did the first couple and they were great fun. The dates for the next sequence have just been released and you can register here.

Unfortunately, due to reasons completely beyond my control I can’t be there to present this time, although I have helped out with some of the content (A clue: look for the bits with cheese in). However, we do have a stable Rob count, in that Rob Tiffany will be taking my place. Rob knows a whole shed load about Windows Phone, although I doubt he actually keeps his knowledge in a shed. He is also an accomplished author and even writes stories about submarines. (true fun fact). Andy is still playing in a band, I think, unless they’ve taken his guitar away from him. Between them you can expect plenty of detailed and engaging content.

If you have any interest in learning about Windows Phone development you should take part. It’s free and fun. The decks, demos and presentations will be available later, but there’s nothing like seeing it live.

Voice control for your Windows Phone 8 Music

My super-secret application is now on Windows Phone Marketplace for Windows 8 devices. I call it Voice Music. It lets me do something I’ve always wanted to do. I can ask my phone to play music for me. I can say things like “VoiceMusic artist Steely Dan” and it will play tracks from the Dan. If I hear a track and fancy hearing the album it came from, I can say “VoiceMusic play this album”. I can ask for albums by name by saying things like “VoiceMusic album Dark Side of the Moon” and request random albums, tracks, styles (genres) and artists. And it works over Bluetooth in the car. And if it can’t find the album artwork it shows you a random picture. And there is a picture of a cow in there. And a pig.

It’s free too. Download your copy from here and let me know how you get on.

Turning Yellow

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a man in possession of a black Lumia 920 will instantly want a yellow one. Or at least, it is true in my case.

I’ve had my black Lumia 920 for four days. And I love it. Works a treat, screen is lovely. Apps are great.  It only has one problem. It is not yellow. Today the phone shop called me up and uttered the fateful words “We’ve got a yellow Lumia in stock for you…”. Just the one. For me. So I went up town and bought it. It would have been churlish not to.

The black one is heading for ebay. I feel terrible about this (as well as a bit poorer), but I reason that I needed a production phone this weekend to test my Top-Secret Windows Phone application which is even now heading for certification. And the Lumia is super, shiny, yellowy lovely. It is a very similar colour to a car I once had. The car didn’t start off yellow, I made it so, using a cheap spray gun and some “Daytona Yellow” paint. I also managed to make all my tools, the tyres, some of the windows, and my dad’s garage yellow as well, so I think you can see that getting a yellow phone is just something I had to do.

Smart Glass Fun and Games

I fired up my Windows 8 mobile and used it to talk to my Xbox this evening. I used the new Smart Glass application and was able to find and stream music very handily. I’m on the monthly pass thing which used to be called Zune, but now probably isn’t. This means that I can have “all I can eat” music and store the stuff on 4 devices. I can also stream content onto other devices things too, including the Xbox. The range of music has got nice and wide, I even managed to find all the albums by Brian Protheroe, a particular favourite of mine in the ‘70s. (search out the single “Pinball” if you want to hear some really good stuff).

Virtual Barber Shop for Windows Phone

I had my hair cut yesterday. And not before time I hear you saying. My hair had got so scary that only the chap in charge of the hairdresser wanted to take it on. It is a lot tidier now, and hopefully a bit less frightening.

I found the place to get my haircut using the Local Scout in my new Lumia 925 (have I mentioned I’ve got a new phone?). I also found the above application in the Windows Phone store, which is astonishing. It is just a short audio track really, but it has been recorded in such a way that if you listen using headphones you would swear that there is actually someone walking round your head and cutting your hair. It’s a free download and if you have a Windows Phone you really must check it out. Amazing.

Rob gets a Lumia 920

Well, I managed to get my Lumia 920 today. I had this idea that I might fancy one of the bonkers yellow ones, but they are a bit hard to get hold of, and so I’ve settled for a rather nice matt black one which actually looks very distinguished and doesn’t show fingerprints, which is nice. The man in the shop was very keen to show it off and said there had been quite a lot of interest in the platform (but then he would say that I suppose, he is selling them).

Of course I like it. Windows 8 has a bit of a turn of speed compared with earlier Windows phones. Some of this is down to the fact that it has a hairier, dual core, processor and some of it is down to the way that the applications are now deployed in a faster way. Whatever, all I know is that the apps snap into memory and run real fast. The phone itself is very solid in the hand and has a nice balance to it.  The screen quality is excellent, although for screen contrast I reckon the Lumia 800 just beats it. The Lumia 920 does have an LCD panel with lovely resolution and colour rendition though. And being LCD means that you can display bright whites without flattening the battery.

I’ve not had the chance to try the wireless charging yet. The shop I bought the phone didn’t have any of the chargers in stock yet, I should get a free one soon. However I have played with just about everything else on the phone. The camera is very good, pictures are perhaps a bit flat in normal light (although I’ve got a program that I can use to give them a bit more punch). In darkened conditions the results are really good.  Moving videos are great. The audio output quality is the best I’ve heard from a smartphone (except perhaps the very first iPhone, which was amazing) and they have this funky equaliser which you can use to fiddle with the sound if you want. They also have a Dolby gadget which didn’t do a lot for me when I tried it but you might like the phasey spaced-out feel it seemed to add to the music.

I’ve unlocked the phone for development and slapped a few programs on it which worked fine. Next thing is to fill the phone with music. One difference in Windows 8 phones is that they don’t use the Zune program to talk to the PC. You can just plug the phone into your PC and it will show up as an external drive you can load up with content. There is a ‘Windows Phone’ application you can get for Windows 8 that makes it slightly easier, but you don’t actually need this to get content onto your phone. I’ve moved a few files over. If they are in the MP4 audio format (i.e. they came off a Mac) the transfer process offers to transcode them (which implies they need to be converted for phone use) but I said “no thanks” and the music worked fine. Being a Windows 8 phone I can actually take screenshots now (touch the Windows key and then press the Power button) and you can see what my phone home screen looks like above.

I admit it, I’m a Windows Phone kind of person. I had iPhones for a while and loved them all, but I prefer the user interface of the Windows Phone. And I reckon that the Lumia 920 is an absolutely cracking phone by any standards, including those of the folks from Cupertino.