It is now soon 6 months since I started in a new job as CTO at mBricks and in this post I will explain what we do at mBricks.

Even if I just started in this job for 6 months ago I have a long history with mBricks. I started in mBricks back in 2005 (fresh out of school) and was a part of the core team writing the very first code lines that today is a part of what we call mBricks SDK. I worked there til 2009 and then I decided to widen my horizons and try something else for a while. I am now very pleased to be back in mBricks. The circle is closed

mBricks facilities located at Lysaker, Norway in our mother company Teleplans' building

What is mBricks?

mBricks is a software company focusing on mobile applications. We do all kind of consulting within the mobile application area but what we are most proud about is our cross platform solution for developing/building mobile applications. This is what really makes mBricks stand out in the crowd.

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After watching the BUILD keynote and the awesome Windows 8 demos I was very eager to test it my self. Today I installed Windows 8 (or Windows Developer Preview as they call it). The installation process was very easy and as they promised the whole process took only about 15 minutes.

This article is written from Windows 8 on a Acer Ferrari 5000 laptop I had stowed away. I installed it from USB key by following the guide I found at ghacks.net

Windows 8 running on my Acer Ferrari 5000

My first impressions

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Upon request I have created a light weight Windows Phone 7 application and published it to marketplace. The app is called PinCodeKeeper and it’s purpose is to store and keep your pin codes in scrambled images so that you in a safe and quick way can see your pin codes.

During the process of developing and publishing the WP7 app I have written some articles explaining each steps from the very beginning and till the app was published.

The PinCodeKeeper app is available on Windows Phone Marketplace in English, German and Norwegian. You can download it by clicking the image below or follow this link: http://social.zune.net/redirect?type=phoneApp&id=643b1f1b-359c-e011-986b-78e7d1fa76f8

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In this article I will write about the process when submitting the PinCodeKeeper WP7 app to Windows Phone Marketplace. Before you submit any apps you must test your app and make sure that it works according to the WP7 guidelines. Remember to also test how your app reacts when being deactivated and activated again (Windows button and then back button). If your app fails to resume at any point it will not pass certification.

The submission process is pretty easy and it’s just to follow the steps. Go to App Hub and select Submit for Windows Phone.

Step 1 Upload

Application name: PinCodeKeeper

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On Friday I got a pleasant e-mail from Microsoft with the subject: “Congratulations 2011 Microsoft MVP”. I am very happy and humble to be recognized by Microsoft for the work I have done for the communities the last year.

I also got awarded the Microsoft MVP Award in 2010 and I’m looking forward to be a part of the MVP program for one more year. During my year as an MVP I have had the pleasure of meeting many other MVPs and also connected with some of the core teams in Microsoft. I am already looking forward to see many MVPs (both new and returning) at the Global MVP Summit 2012 in Redmond, Seattle.

Thank you Microsoft for re-awarding me with the MVP Award

Before I take the final step and submit the PinCodeKeeper WP7 app to marketplace I want to make sure that the app is free of bugs and as good as it can be. To do so I have been testing the app a while on my own device and I have also sent the app to a few others for testing and feedback.

Philipp Fetzer, a German WP7 enthusiast, has been testing the app and gave me a lot of great feedback that I acted on to improve the app. Philipp has also translated the PinCodeKeeper app so it will support both English and German. Philipp has developed and published an app for Windows Phone 7 called Stern.de.Reader (available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland).

In this article I will go through the improvements I have done.

Changed ApplicationBar icons

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I am now happy with the functionality in the PinCodeKeeper app and the time has come to test it on a real device. To be able to deploy you app (.xap file) to a real device for testing you must register a developer account at App Hub. In this article I will go through the steps of registering to App Hub, testing the app on a real device and to prepare the app for submission.

Register to App Hub (Windows Phone Marketplace)

The registration process is pretty straight forward and cost 99$.

• Go to http://create.msdn.com/
• Sign in with the Windows Live ID you want to register the account for (or create one if you don’t have any)
• Follow the 5 steps for account creation (I registered as a Company)
• Before the account will be activated you need to take a few actions
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When creating an application it is often a good idea to add support for localization so it’s easy to update and add new languages to your application. For the PinCodeKepper app I only need to localize the text since all icons and graphics used are international with no text attached.

Windows Phone 7 have pretty good localization support where you add a resource file for each supported language and the application will select which resource file to use based on regional settings on the device.

This article describes how I added support for localization on the PinCodeKeeper app.

Set up resources

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The add new pin code functionality (completed in previous article) was the last main functionality for the PinCodeKeeper and the time has come to start using real data instead of mock up data. I will now implement Isolated Storage so that I can save/store new pin codes, retrieve all saved pin codes and delete pin codes from the storage.

The first thing I do is to add a new class that I call IsolatedStorageUtil.cs, this class will contain all functionality I need for saving, retrieving, deleting and some other utility methods. To use the DataContractSerializer you must add a reference to System.Runtime.Serialization.

You can see my IsolatedStorageUtil.cs class below.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.IO.IsolatedStorage;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;

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In this article I will create the “Add New” Pin code screen for my PinCodeKeeper WP7 app and I need to extend the earlier created Pin code card Custom Control. The Pin code card custom control displays a grid with coloured cells and numbers.

When adding a new pin code I want the Pin code card to display a grid with coloured cells, but no numbers. The user must be able to click on a cell to enter a number in it. I decided to add some very simple animation when the user click a cell. The cell will increase it’s size while positioning it self at centre in the top. This will be animated while the coloured grid fades out with a black colour.

Numeric keyboard

When the cell is in position I want a numeric keyboard to be displayed, I didn’t like to out of box options so I decided to make a NumericKeyboard Custom Control. I kept this very easy so I just made a custom control and added a button for each key on the numeric keyboard. I also created a delegate and a event handler with custom EventArgs so that the screen or control using the NumericKeyboard can hook up to keyboard pressed events and the pressed key value.

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