I got an e-mail from Microsoft last Friday and quiz4couples is finally published in the Windows Phone Store!! Yey!!! Only seeing it up there on the market totally deserved all the effort I put on quiz4couples during the Barbaric Monthly.

Next in the roadmap: Finish apps4couples website and build a trial app.

Cheers!

I have started watching some sessions from //build/ and catching up since I was uber busy last week and could barely follow the event. I had in mind to focus on Windows Phone 8 for starters but then I saw that Scott Hanselman had a talk Angle Brackets, Curly Braces, One ASP.NET and the Cloud and, of course, could not resist. It was awesome, do not miss it.

I also started listening to Alan Mendelevich new podcast AppBizDev, a podcast completely focused on “Windows Phone and Windows 8 app marketing, funding and monetization”, and found out about this super interesting joint initiative by Microsoft and Nokia to support Windows Phone startups: the AppCampus.

Apart from investing 20,000 – 70,000 euros per project, AppCampus also supports the admitted applicants with comprehensive support, training in mobile technology, design and usability, and funding to create innovative new mobile apps and services. Windows Phone Marketplace and Nokia Store offer local and global business opportunities to program participants via distribution to consumers around the world.

We don’t take equity or commission from the investment. Successful applications are expected to be available exclusively on Windows Phone and other Nokia platforms for the first six months.

Check it out!

Barbaric Monthly is my attempt at building/improving a coding project per month so that I can experiment with old and new technologies, learn ad infinitum, remain excited about the craft and nurture my passion for software development. This Barbaric Monthly is about developing a windows phone application, in this case a simple quiz game called quiz4couples, and releasing it to market.

And so I am finally finished with quiz4couples! Last night I pushed the app through the certification process and hopefully in a couple of days, if all goes well and good, it will be published in the Windows Phone Store. It is weird, even though it has only been a month and a half of development, it feels much longer :), it was definitely tough, and I think I will probably take a week or two off from side-projects, read a little, blog a little, watch some sessions from //build/, in summary, chill…

I am planning to create a landing page for the app (and future ones, who knows what the future holds… XD) at apps4couples.com. I will probably have something ready by the end of the week, so keep an eye out. Anyhow, you won’t be able to miss it since I will most definitely shout out to the four winds when quiz4couples is finally published.

Here are some screenshots:

Microsoft finally released the Windows Phone 8 SDK today at the build developers’ conference!

You can get the Windows Phone 8 SDK at the new Windows Phone Developers’ Center. If you are not a Windows Phone dev yet, you have 8 days to take advantage of the 8$ license offer. At the same time, Nokia has started its Windows Phone Premium Developer Program in which they offer the developers’ license, Telerik Windows Phone RAD controls and a whole year and up to 1 million calls of Buddy.com cloud APIs. What are you waiting for? :)

By the way… the build keynote was great! Check the video below about Developers you love, and why they love developing to get a flavor of what is going on right now at Redmond and remember that you can follow the build conference live on channel 9.

Enjoy!

I have just watched the Windows Phone 8 launch event and it was just great. You could really feel the anticipation, energy and excitement in the atmosphere and appreciate how strongly Microsoft is pushing for mobile in all its variants. It was particularly interesting to see both Joe Belfiore and Steve Ballmer positioning Windows Phone as the reinvention of the smartphone and in opposition to iOS and Android; to one side joy, color and a truly personalized and full of life experience, to the other the same old boring stuff. Take a look at the actual devices, they are truly gorgeous:

Here goes a list of some interesting news that were showcased in the event:

• The Windows Phone 8 SDK will be available to all developers tomorrow 30th November
• Super customizable home screen and lock screen
• Partnership with Facebook and Twitter to release new awesome apps for Windows Phone 8
• New Data Sense functionality that compresses the data usage of the phone device, finds nearby Wi-Fi hotspots, automatically adjusts behavior as you get near your data limit and provides detailed information of the data usage of every one of your apps
• New Skype for Windows Phone 8 that is active at all times
• New People Hub concept that let us group contacts into rooms. These rooms work basically as private groups within which we can share information, photos, etc
• Seamless integration between Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 devices via SkyDrive
• Kids’ corner, a phone within your phone that creates a secure and control environemnt for when your kids want to play with your phone (there was a suuuuuper cute and adorable moment right there when Joe Belfiore’s kids came on the stage to showcase this feature)
• 46 of the top 50 mobile apps are available for Windows Phone 8
• New Pandora app for Windows Phone 8
• Xbox integration with Smartglass and Xbox music
• 120000 apps available today for Windows Phone 8
• Jessica Alba uses Windows Phone 8 (XDD)

Don’t miss the verge coverage for a really thorough review of Windows Phone 8.

And if this was not awesome enough already, the build conference starts tomorrow!