With the announcements on Windows Store we wanted to share new work we were doing to help developers on Windows, Windows Phone and other platforms use SkyDrive in their applications. A few months ago as part of the preview of Windows Live for Windows 8, we announced the availability of the developer preview, the next version of the Live Connect APIs and the newly created Live SDK. A major change to the API was to address feedback we’d gotten from developers about access to SkyDrive. The primary change for SkyDrive was providing the ability for applications to fully access, upload and share documents, photos and videos from a user’s cloud storage in SkyDrive.

Marketing Guidance and Assets

• Windows Phone Marketing Guidelines and Assets for Application Developers (ZIP, 40.7 MB)
  Windows Phone Marketing Guidelines and Assets are designed to help you quickly start promoting your Windows Phone app on your website and in all of your marketing communications.
• READ the Windows Phone Marketing Guidelines for Windows Phone Marketplace Application Developers before using any Windows Phone assets that Microsoft provides to you. Assets may only be used pursuant to the guidelines contained in this document.
• Included here you'll find:
  • Windows Phone Marketing Guidelines for Windows Phone Application Developers – READ this first
  • Windows Phone Start Screen
  • Windows Phone Chassis
  • Microsoft Download Button for Windows Phone (5 languages)

Titan is quite amazing...

In this episode, we provide a high level overview of some of what we think are the most exciting new features for developers in Mango; some of the issues and concerns that you should be aware of in preparing your applications for Mango, and some of the application compatibility issues you should be aware of. 

Excellent overview.

developers will be happy to know that today we are releasing the Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit (August 2011) add-on. This is a great new release of extra controls and should let you create even better apps with the Windows Phone 7.1 SDK.

In this toolkit you will find user interface controls like those found throughout the Windows Phone, with components like toggle switches, page transitions, picker controls and more. We have also localized the toolkit into all of the Windows Phone ‘Mango’ languages, since there’s a whole world out there hopefully looking to purchase your apps from the Windows Phone Marketplace.

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You can download the new release straight from the CodePlex site at http://silverlight.codeplex.com/ - it requires the latest ‘Mango’ developer tools as well.

The release is also available on NuGet as the SilverlightToolkitWP package.

Nokia plans to stop selling both feature phones and Symbian-based smartphones in the United States and Canada as it tries to put all of its muscle behind the company’s huge bet on Windows Phone.

Enhanced application management: For Mango, we’ve also heard your feedback and made lots of improvements, big and small, to App Hub to give you better account management tools, a streamlined application submission process and enhanced reporting capabilities.

• Better application management: By selecting ‘Edit catalog details’ on the app ‘Lifecycle’ tab you can now change the app metadata without submitting your app for re-certification, thus reducing the time to update and publish new information.
• Enhanced developer dashboard: Now from a single location, when you sign-in you can quickly see all top app performance metrics, payout status, distribution reporting and all available ratings & reviews on your app(s) on a per language basis.
• More detailed reporting: You are now able to select between ‘Summary’ and ‘Detail’ views of all reports and export them in an Excel-compatible format for offline data handling and analysis.
• New ‘Crash Count’ report: App Hub now enables you to retrieve data on crash counts and stack traces for each of your apps to use in debugging publisher updates faster.
• Streamlined application submission process: Developers no longer need to upload artwork files one-by-one. By clicking the ‘Browse’ button, developers can bulk select upload multiple artwork files all at once during the app submission process. The App Hub will automatically detect the image sizes of all artwork and place them in the correct artwork locations for developers to edit or delete before final app submission.
• New App Categories: To make discoverability of apps easier we have added 3 new top level categories (education, kids & family and government & politics) and several new sub categories. In addition, during the app submission process, developers can now select categories and sub-categories for all languages.

2. New private distribution options: Developers can now choose to distribute apps privately to users using two new options: beta and/or targeted distribution. Apps distributed through these private distribution methods can only be downloaded by users using a deep-link and the apps cannot be discovered via browsing or searching in Marketplace.

• Beta Distribution: Enables developers to distribute pre-certified applications to a group of up to 100 access controlled beta testers for up to 90 days. This distribution method gives you the opportunity to test apps with a hand-picked set of beta testers more quickly and build high-quality apps before publishing them in Marketplace.
• Targeted Distribution: Enables you to distribute applications through Marketplace in a hidden state, where they are not discoverable via browsing or searching Marketplace. To enable targeted users to access your hidden app you simply share the deep-link to the app with the users you want to have access via e-mail, text or other mechanism. Unlike beta distribution, you may distribute your app to as many users as desired and publish publicly in Marketplace at any time.

Microsoft shared even more details of the Windows Phone Mango update at the TechEd 2011 conference being held in Atlanta this week. A couple of the new productivity features are things I have been hoping for and again serve to convince me to stick with Windows Phone as my primary platform.

The upcoming features announced today include:

• Pinnable e-mail folders: Pin a folder to the start screen for quick access. This could be an email folder for a specific project, from a specific group or person (like your boss;), or an RSS feed you’ve set up in Outlook;
• Conversation view in e-mail: E-mails in your inbox are organized by conversation, bringing replies to a thread into a consolidated view so it’s faster and easier to stay on top of the conversation.
• Server search: Search your email server (e.g. Exchange Server) for older emails no longer stored on your phone, giving you ready access to all of your mail.
• Lync: Lync Mobile for Windows Phone will provide business Instant Messaging and presence so you can stay connected to your colleagues while on the go. The Lync app will be a free download from Windows Phone Marketplace with access to Lync services that are enabled by your organization.
• Complex password: Additional corporate compliance capabilities with support for alphanumeric passwords
• Information Rights Management: Support for protecting e-mails and Office documents
• Support for Hidden SSID: With support for access to hidden corporate Wi-Fi networks, IT organization can stay on top of their game providing access to information while meeting corporate requirements.