Hanselminutes

This is one of those days I feel so lucky. And fortunate.

It has been a privilege to create Hanselminutes podcasts app for Windows Phone 7. I was already half-way through with the app when I contacted Scott Hanselman (yes, the Scott Hanselman!) for his blessings and his permission to publish the app. He is a very busy person, and was quite surprised when I got his reply after 2-3 days. Yes, I did not expect him to reply to me so soon, as I knew he is a very busy person (yeah, I said that before!) and he is always traveling and speaking around the world.

Scott was gracious enough to give me a go. I send him screenshots and we went back and forth for a week. Then we finalized on what we wanted.

As a bonus, we have also included a section where you could go and read Scott's blog entries.

The app is now published and is available in the marketplace for download.


Scott's website: http://www.hanselman.com
Hanselminutes: http://www.hanselminutes.com

Thanks Scott, for giving me this opportunity!

MilesCalc update

MilesCalc needed some accuracy in locating the position. It has been updated and is available in the marketplace with the following modifications:

Distance Calculation
Replaced the simple DistanceTo() method on the Location object, with Harvesine formula, to calculate distance.

Battery Efficiency
The first version used to poll the position every second. That was both inefficient in locating the position and also using the battery unnecessarily. Now, I have changed to poll only every 20 meters.

High Accuracy
The GeoPositionWatcher has been set to High Accuracy. This might be an effect on the battery, but it would get the location more accurately.

You could download the update here.

Number of downloads (as of 06/22/2011): 111.

MilesCalc - An app which calculates miles

Many times, I remind myself to jot down the miles traveled on a particular day, so that I could get reimbursed. Then, as usual, I forget. Or I would be too lazy!

Then, the MilesCalc was born. (Needless to say, it is my 4th Windows Phone app).

MilesCalc - short for Miles Calculator. It does  exactly what it says - calculates the miles you traveled - at the click of two buttons - START and STOP. Yes, that simple.

Download the same here. And please place your marketplace reviews - good or bad.

Here are some screenshots of MilesCalc.

Numbers4Kids

On the lines of 4Kids series, we have published another app for kids to learn numbers - Numbers4Kids. Please try it out.

A Session on XNA

As of today, I have 3 WP7 apps in the marketplace. And 3 are coming... I have been developing the apps using Silverlight only, and keeping my fingers away from XNA. I haven't had much time pondering on XNA, so I have been procrastinating on it.

Next Tuesday, 21st that is, Chris Gomez is coming to Harrisburg PA, for presenting a session on XNA for WP7, for our user group. He has promised me to start with XNA basics, and then go into game development. I have talked to Chris on various occasions, and found him very passionate about XNA. This would be fun, for sure. If it sucks me in, I would consider developing some apps using XNA too :) Who knows... :)

So, if you are interested and would like to know what XNA is all about, you could visit our next user group meeting on 21st evening. You wouldn't be disappointed for sure! For details, please visit http://www.central-penn.net.