Sneak peak at Windows Phone 7 apps

Windows Phone 7 apps - YouTube, Yelp, Translator

The pieces are starting to fall into place for the upcoming Microsoft Windows Phone 7 and we just got a sneak at what will fill up the Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

On Twitter, a Microsoft employee showed off a few Windows Phone 7 testing apps and names and this includes the usual suspects like YouTube and Yelp. Interestingly enough, the YouTube app is labeled as a “Music Hub add-on” while Yelp appears to be a standalone app.

The testing screen also shows an icon for Bing Translator and we’ve already seen a few examples of this cool service. With this Microsoft Windows Phone 7 app, you’ll be able to speak or type a phrase into your phone and it will use cloud-services to translate it into another language with the accent and all. The cool thing is that it will store frequently-used phrases so you won’t have to worry about connectivity.

Apps are going to play an important role if Microsoft Windows Phone 7 will be a credible competitor with Research in Motion’s BlackBerry, Apple iPhone and Google Android but Microsoft’s platform is already a bit behind. The new smartphone operating system will use XNA, Slverlight and other tools to create apps but I’ve heard rumblings from developers that the APIs are not robust yet and there’s an overall sloppiness to the platform.

It’s a good thing Microsoft is making it worth developers’ while to create Windows Phone 7 apps, as the software giant is reportedly paying content creators for mobile programs. This isn’t just big bags of cash, as it is also includes revenues guarantee.

The Windows Phone 7 platform will use a “Metro” user interface that uses “hubs” on the home screen. Users will be able to create their own standalone apps but it will be fun to watch how developers integrate with these hubs.

[Via Mobile Tech World]

About The Author

Marin Perez

Marin Perez has torture tested cell phones and smartphones for industry leaders like CNET and InformationWeek. He remembers when 4G was just a screen on PowerPoint presentations and is fascinated with the amount of innovation out there. Marin has spent a lot of time with BlackBerry and Android but he finally broke down a bought an iPhone to see what all the hype's about. He also has too many tablets.

Nikolai

"I’ve heard rumblings from developers that the APIs are not robust yet and there’s an overall sloppiness to the platform."

From where, the comment boards on Electronista? I'm sorry for the snark, but the vast majority of "rumblings" I've heard have been from people who very clearly don't know what they're talking about. When pressed, they pretty much always spout the same line about multitasking and copy/paste. These are missing features, to be sure, but they are specific features, not robustness or sloppiness/lack thereof issues.

I'll give you two examples where I've run into trouble, to show that I'm not just blindly defending: I wish there was a socket networking implementaion available, and the built-in "splash screen" concept they use doesn't allow you to respect phone themes. The first is more of a missing feature, significantly more important to some classes of programs than multitasking or C/P IMO, the second feels like it wasn't too well thought out.
Nikolai

(sorry, comment too long )

There's more negatives, too, but there's also a lot of positives. Constructing UI was easy and looks great. Implementing "tombstoning" (you know, the implementation of not-multitasking which is functionally the same as iOS4's not-multitasking [ok, other than the limited background task stuff, which would be great]) was easy and powerful once I spent an hour understanding it. Overall, I've found the environment to be very pleasant to use.

I base this on actual programming I've done on the actual system (well, emulator). I say if you hear any "rumblings", ask the rumbler if they've ever actually written something using the tools. Not "read a blog entry about…" or "watched a video of a presentation about…" or "posted to slashdot something I heard someone wrote on infoworld about…", but actually done it. If they say no, or avoid the question, or can't produce anything more specific than "golly it feels umm sloppy, or something", then they should be ignored.
Hannah

I was online the other day and I saw this local company advertising their new product called sms replier.. I downloaded the app and it is amazing! It not only is good for when I am driving, but it is good for people my age to use as an away message. You should really check it out! Ive been keeping track of them, and the LA Times just featured them in an article!

"SMS Replier allows the user to comfortably focus on operating their vehicle and know that any callers or text messages that are inbound, will not go unanswered. Instead, their inbound contact has been answered with a responsible message that the recipient is driving and will contact them in the near future. SMS Replier, by utilizing the phones onboard GPS systems, is able to identify if the phone is traveling at a speed greater than 15 miles per hour. If the user is driving, a message is sent. If the user is not traveling, the message is not sent. If the mobile phone is in the possession of a passenger in another’s vehicle or in public transportation, the passenger can disable the Auto Reply system. Visit us at smsreplier.com"