Last winter I bought a Lumia 920 which runs Windows Phone 8.  Windows Phone 8 is a large overhaul of Windows Phone 7 because now it uses the same kernel as Windows 8.  It also added support for better hardware and a more flexible development framework. Previously I have used the original iPhone, the iPhone 4 and the Galaxy Nexus Google Android phone. I have never seen anyone with a Windows Phone and I thought it looked neat so I decided to try it…

Trying out Xamarin Studio 2.0 Starter Edition

Xamarin Studio is an IDE that allows developers to create iOS, Android and Mac apps using C#.  Recently Xamarin released Xamarin Studio 2.0 and along with a free Starter edition.  While the Starter edition is very limited it allows developers to see what Xamarin Studio is like and how writing Android apps using C# works.  I was hoping to create an iOS app, but it turns out a Mac is still required in order to write iOS apps even…

Today Canonical officially announced Ubuntu for phones http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/phone.  Usually a new phone OS announcement is not much to get excited about, but Ubuntu’s entry has been anticipated for years.  I am interested in this because Canonical’s Ubuntu is the most widely adopted and supported Linux distribution and they are promising a level of convergence never seen before.  Eventually Ubuntu will be able to run the same OS on…

A few weeks ago Microsoft released a preview for TypeScript.  What is TypeScript and why would you use it?  Initially TypeScript may look very similar in function to CoffeeScript or Dart.  These are two technologies TypeScript often gets compared to because all three can be used to generate JavaScript.…

Web Site Security Tips

When developing web sites it’s a good practice to address security from the start.  Here are some basic security tips that I find many sites overlook.

1. Use different passwords for your server, database, FTP and other logins.  I am often surprised to find many sites that use the same admin password for all their systems or use the same default password without forcing a password…

In recent years smartphones have become part of many people's daily lives.  They are used to communicate, stay updated, take photos, listen to music and entertain us with hundreds of thousands of apps. People carry their cellphones around with them wherever they go.  They wake up with them, eat with them and go to bed with them.  



For companies this presents another opportunity to market and reach out to customers.  If you or your company is considering a mobile presence there are…

Recently Microsoft released ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta.  The new Web API framework is included along with this release as part of the ASP.NET and Microsoft web platform family.  The Web API framework is Microsoft’s latest solution to creating simple RESTful web services that can be consumed by a large range of clients. Unlike asmx and WCF services the Web API aims to be a simple RESTful way to create web APIs.



Getting Started:



If you do not have Visual…