Get ready for Imagine Cup 2012
Posted: February 28, 2012 Filed under: Contest, Imagine Cup, Students, Windows Phone 7 | Tags: "Software Design", "Windows Phone 7", Imagine Cup 1 Comment »
It’s time to start polishing your SketchFlow-prototypes and writing up that “Imma change the world“-document! Yes, you guessed it.. It’s time for Imagine Cup! Actually Round 1 ends in just a few days and I wanted to give you some tips and tricks, before the D-Day! 
So you got your team, you got your idea and are ready to take over the world? To participate in Imagine Cup you’ll need to register to www.imaginecup.com and submit your files by the 13th of March.
You’ll need to rock the judges socks with…
A SketchFlow-prototype
This is extremely important! Please keep in mind that SketchFlow is the actual tool that you’ll need to use to mockup your application. As a student you can get SketchFlow for free through www.dreamspark.com And drop me an email if you have difficulties with DreamSpark veritification (for example, your school is not listed).
If you are completely new to SketchFlow then I’d suggest checking out this 90-second video from Channel 9
http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/LauraFoy/Sketchflow-in-90-seconds/player?w=512&h=288
You can find more great resources for SketchFlow from:
Videos
- http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MIX/MIX09/C01F
- http://channel9.msdn.com/events/MIX/MIX10/CL03
- http://channel9.msdn.com/events/MIX/MIX11/DES02
Articles
- http://electricbeach.org/?p=302
- http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Sketchflow-from-a-developer-point-of-view-part-I-Basics.aspx
and of course the always popular MSDN Library http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee341458(v=Expression.40).aspx
The document
Well, not much to say about this…fill out the document and you’re ready to go! 
Make sure you read the rules carefully and keep in mind the judging criteria, when writing filling up your document.
Listen to the Captain
You should also listen through the call with Jukka Wallasvaara, the Imagine Cup Windows Phone Challenge-captain! Listen to it here. In that call you’ll get some insight on how the competition will proceed and especially how Round 1 works
F.A.Q.
Q: I already have a Windows Phone application ready, do I need to create a SketchFlow-prototype?
A: Yes, for the first round you’ll need to submit a SketchFlow-prototype and the document describing your idea.
Q: Can I just sketch my application on paper?
A: Nope, you’ll need to create a SketchFlow-prototype
Q: Can I convert my Windows Phone application to a SketchFlow-prototype?
A: No. You can convert your SketchFlow-prototype to a Windows Phone application, but not the other way around. You can apply the “sketchy-styles” to your controls, but won’t make it a SketchFlow-application.
Q: SketchFlow is not a part of Windows Phone tools, do I have to pay for it?!
A: No. SketchFlow is included in Expression Studio Ultimate that you can get for free as a student. You can download it from www.dreamspark.com
You can read more about Imagine Cup on the official website and read more about the Finnish local finals right here on DiggTheDrazen.
Now go, run, get ready to see some amazing koalas and kangaroos!
Imagine Cup 2012 is here!
Posted: December 19, 2011 Filed under: Imagine Cup, Students, Windows Phone 7 | Tags: "Windows Phone 7", Imagine Cup 5 Comments »
It’s that time again! It’s time to change the world..yep you heard me, change the world! Every year thousands of students take on this challenge and create something new that would solve some of the worlds biggest problems. I’m talking about Imagine Cup, one of the coolest competitions out there. This year we’ll be heading to Sydney, Australia for the worldwide finals, but before that we’ll have some kickass semi-finals right here in Finland!
Geeks on Wheels–Are YOU ready?
Posted: November 11, 2011 Filed under: Contest, Geeks on Wheels, Students, Windows Phone 7 | Tags: "Windows Phone 7", Nokia, WPGOW Leave a comment »
We’re geeks and we’re heading your way! We’re ready, the question is.. are you ready? Dramatic, eh?
The plan is to take the whole country by storm and show you what makes Windows Phone the amazing platform that it is. We’ll be going through 12 different universities across Finland and help local students, faculty members and companies with their Windows Phone-journey. The whole trip will be done in a pimped out RV, this is a must see!
Time to save the world–Now with extra kangaroos!
Posted: October 21, 2011 Filed under: Contest, Imagine Cup, Metro, Students, Windows Phone 7 | Tags: "Windows Phone 7", Australia, Imagine Cup, Metro, Xbox, XNA 2 Comments »
We all share one same dirty little secret, we want to be superheroes. We want to save the world, cruise around in a batmobile and feel like we’re making the world a better place.
What does it take to be a superhero? It takes determination, passion, talent and courage. Of course having a kickass persona and a cool costume doesn’t hurt your case either. Imagine Cup is a student technology competition that aims to help students chase their dreams and change the world. Read the rest of this entry »
Students – Sketch out your idea and win!
Posted: October 19, 2011 Filed under: Contest, Students, Windows Phone 7 | Tags: "Windows Phone 7", SketchFlow Leave a comment »
You and me both know that you’re filled with innovation and awesome ideas. Why not share your idea, get some street-cred and possibly win some cash along the way? It’s time to take out SketchFlow and spread the joy!
STUDENTS! Create 10 Windows Phone Mango Apps and win a device!
Posted: August 12, 2011 Filed under: Marketplace, Metro, Students, Windows Phone 7 | Tags: "App Hub", "Windows Phone 7", Contest, MSPTeam2011 Leave a comment »
NOTE: This is for Finnish students only!
It’s a good time to be a student in Finland! Jukka Wallasvaara, the Academic Developer Evangelist of Finland just announced a contest in Windows Phone Aalto Community for the students.
The first person to create 10 Windows Phone Apps that follow the Metro guidelines and use at least one Mango feature will get a free Mango device! That’s awesome!
Once your apps are in the marketplace send Jukka Wallasvaara an email with the names of the apps and the features you used in them.
You can get the tools free from DreamSpark, read more here
Also remember that you can get a device from the “Kooditon Kesä”-contest at Tietokone-fi
UPDATE:
Here is the contest from Tietokone in English, still for people in Finland
How to participate:
1. Start Expression Blend, you can download it from App Hub
2. Create a new Windows Phone Application
3. Press F5 to start the application in the emulator
4. Take time how long it took you to get it running in your emulator. Email KooditonKesa@live.com put the title as your time.
5. You start timing when you press “OK” in the “New Project”-dialog
After this you have a new project, press F5 quickly to start the emulator. The timing stops when you see your application in the emulator.
6. We’ll raffle a new Windows Phone 7-phone between the 5 fastest entries. We’ll also request a video of the fastest entry.
Launchers and Choosers Overview –Windows Phone 7
Posted: July 13, 2011 Filed under: Windows Phone 7 | Tags: "Execution model", "Windows Phone 7", Choosers, Launchers, Microsoft Student Partners, MSPTeam2011 6 Comments »
On Windows Phone applications are isolated in their own sandboxes. This means that they can’t directly access other applications like phone calls or messaging. On Windows Phone 7.0 the applications can’t directly access information stores like contacts or photos. To access these previously mentioned things you use Launchers and Choosers that allow you to have indirect access to some phone features.
Multitasking on Windows Phone–Yes, no or kinda?
Posted: July 11, 2011 Filed under: Windows Phone 7 | Tags: "Windows Phone 7", agents, dormant, Microsoft Student Partners, multitasking, tombstoning 4 Comments »
Windows Phone has been around for a couple of months and it seems like a lot of people are still confused on it’s multitasking support. A quick search on the web shows that the word on the street is that Windows Phone 7.0 does not support multi-tasking but the “Mango”-update will support multi-tasking. I dare to disagree with both of these… I’d say that Windows Phone 7 has always supported multi-tasking. The question should be “Can my apps take advantage of multitasking?” rather than “Does Windows Phone support multitasking”. The answer is…kinda.
Introduction to sample data and sensors with a cool summer application!
Posted: July 8, 2011 Filed under: Students, Windows Phone 7 | Tags: "App Hub", "Hello Phone", "Windows Phone 7", festival, Microsoft Student Partners 2 Comments »
With the new Windows Phone many students have shown interest towards Microsoft’s tools and technologies. Through services like MSDN AA and DreamSpark students can easily try out the tools. These services offer students development tools and licenses free of charge. Adding a easy to learn technology like Silverlight to mix and you’ll definitely get started quickly, without having to sacrifice all of your free time.
Using an IValueConverter to create a player with a seek-bar on Windows Phone
Posted: July 8, 2011 Filed under: Windows Phone 7 | Tags: "Windows Phone 7", DataBinding, IValueConverter, Microsoft Student Partners, MSPTeam2011 3 Comments »
Data binding is a powerful feature in Silverlight but often you need to bind properties that are not directly the same type. Let’s say we want to have a media player and a slider that works as a seek bar. You can’t directly bind the MediaElement’s Position-property to the sliders value, because they are not the same type. To make the binding work, you would use a converter.
