GetHuman updated for Windows Phone 8

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126 days
by in Apps

I just finished up the latest updates to the GetHuman app for Windows Phone. The latest release will be implementing the new tiles available for all WP 7.8 or 8 users. Also there are several major improvements to speed and efficiency. The following changes should be published in about one week in version 2.5 in the marketplace: (more…)

Convert a TP-Link TL-WR1043ND into a Wireless Repeater

3
181 days
by in Guides

I realized the other day that my basement has rather poor Wi-Fi reception and decided to look into fixing this problem. I started by seeing how feasible it would be to simply move the main router, although due to the weird wiring in the house and the fact that my router was a modem router combo that required being near a cable outlet, it proved to be a bigger hassle than it was worth. I then remembered I had an old router I wasn’t using that I could possibly setup as a wireless repeater.

I explored using the stock firmware, which I quickly found won’t work in my setup because my main base router which was provided from the cable company does not support WDS bridging. The lack of features on the main router due to it having a fairly stripped down firmware left me with few options, so I decided to give DD-WRT a try and see how easy it was to implement a Client-Bridge function in that firmware. (more…)

Learning LINQ to XML

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194 days
by in Blog

Since releasing the first version of GetHuman app for Windows Phone it has been a while since I have been working on any new apps. I decided to finish up a small app that I had started some time back, namely the APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) Calculator app. To begin with this app I began to attempt deriving formulas to compute the scores, but soon realized two things:

  1. One: Deriving all the formulas to compute the scores for each event in the APFT would take me longer than writing a quick look up function, and…
  2. Two: I had never used LINQ to XML before and this was an excuse to learn how to use this.

(more…)

GetHuman for WP7 Released

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253 days
by in Apps

The first version of the Windows Phone 7 GetHuman app has been released and is now available in the Marketplace. Make sure to download your free copy of it and let me know if you have any comments or suggestions for the app. Use the link below to grab the download or send the app to your phone:

 

GetHuman for Windows Phone 7

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268 days
by in Apps

I have finally finished up the last part for the initial release of the GetHuman app for WP7 platform. The WP7 version has many improvements over the WebOS version and also I will be continuing to maintain the WP7 version for the foreseeable future since WP7 applications will continue to be supported in WP8.

Some of the main features I made sure to improve from the WebOS version include:

(more…)

iOS 6 Maps Downgrade?

0
272 days
by in Blog

With the latest iPhone 5 hitting the shelves and stories of people trying out the new mapping application that is supposed to be revolutionary, many are being let down. Personally it seems a bit crazy they waste their time trying to compete with Google on a mapping application when they are being forced to start from scratch and compete with others who have years of data and time to develop polished mapping products.

The new version of iOS 6 maps is missing quite a few features from it’s predecessor. To begin, public transit options are no longer available, offline options don’t exist, no equivalent to street view, and no venues maps. (more…)

Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 Announced

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288 days
by in Blog

Today Nokia announced the latest addition to the Lumia series of phones and it sure does look impressive so far. I personally am already a fan of the current generation Windows Phone OS and can hardly wait to get my hands on this new line of phones running WP8.

The new Nokia Lumia 920 is a 4G LTE phone powered by the 1.5GHz Dual Core Snapdragon S4 processor. It comes equipped with a 4.5-inch curved glass display, blur-free scrolling and a super-fast refresh rate courtesy of the PureMotion HD+ technology Nokia has pioneered for these new phones. Another impressive part of this screen is the touch sensitivity. It allows for people to use the touchscreen with their fingers, nails, gloves, or even their keys all while having scratch resistant Gorilla Glass. It also sports an 8.7 megapixel PureView camera that has some impressive optical image stabilization (see the YouTube playlist below to see a demo.) Lastly the battery to power this device is an impressive 2000 mAh battery. (more…)

Android 4.1 vs Windows Phone 7.5

0
297 days
by in Blog

Thanks to changing my cellular provider recently, I am now currently using an Android device. To be exact the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. I previously owned a HTC Arrive for Sprint which even though it was a rather large device, the OS easily made up for the hardware’s shortcomings. So now that I am with a better provider than Sprint, I can more easily switch between devices and see how each one stacks up in my day to day use.

To begin with I will start this several part comparison with my initial first impressions of moving from Windows Phone to Android. (more…)

GZip & JSON operations in .NET (Windows Phone 7)

0
329 days
by in Blog

As I’m working on finishing up the GetHuman app for Windows Phone 7 I am trying to make sure it loads fast and never has the user be forced to wait for data to get updated. To begin with I am working to make the main portion of the data update without any user interface slowdown. I am attempting to do this by downloading the data in the background and storing in locally. Also then if the user is in a situation without connectivity it will allow them to have at least one contact method for each company on their phone at any time and not break the basic functionality of the application.

The next time data is pulled is when a company is selected from the main list. At this point alternate contact methods, tips, and ratings are pulled for that individual company listing. To help ensure these options are loaded quickly I enlisted the use of Morten Nielsen’s GZipWebClient (NuGet, blog post, source) and Json.NET.

On the blog Zvonko’s Playground I found this handy little excerpt on how to use the combo of Nielsen’s SharpGIS GZipWebClient and Json.NET to quickly grab the company details and store them for use in the app. (more…)

WordPress vs. Joomla vs. Drupal

2
335 days
by in Blog

The new layout here was sparked by me realizing that I needed to do something to continue to combat comment spam and a desire to redesign this site aiming more around mobile app development that I have started. So I began a hunt for a way to still maintain this site, yet spend a little less time managing this site and more time working on mobile apps.

This is where WordPress comes in. I began taking a second look at my old Joomla site and what it would take to not only update it to the latest version of the core, but also make the site much simpler to maintain. I soon began looking for the best CMS solution that was the right mix of simplicity with flexibility.

WordPress quickly became the ideal simple CMS with amazing spam protection (courtesy of Akismet) and still flexible enough to allow me to design the site how I envision it. (more…)

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