The Tablet Show

At NDC, Carl and Richard talk to Gill Cleeren about his experiences building a Windows 8 tablet application for Belgian television. The conversation starts out talking about the specifics of the application, available for iOS and Android as well. Gill talks about the challenges of implementing DRM in Windows 8 (as compared to Silverlight) and mentions the Microsoft Media Player Framework as a good starting point. From there the discussion digs into the challenges of the cable companies in distributing content, how piracy factors into the business and the risk of disintermediation - how to stay relevant in a ever more connected, global world.

While at NDC, Carl and Richard talk to Laurent Bugnion about his experiences building tablet applications. Laurent and his company have been building tablet and mobile applications for a variety of companies over the past few years. The conversation starts out on tools, talking about C#/XAML vs. WinJS development (C# is winning) and the focus of Windows 8.1 support. Laurent also talks about the success of the Portable Class Libraries, Xamarin support for C# in iOS and Android and more.

While at DevTeach, Carl and Richard started out recording a panel discussion on the state of mobile development in a bar... but it was too noisy. So the actual panel part of the discussion moved to a quiet part of the hotel. The panelists talk about the differences between developing for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Everyone was pro-native, so the web development discussion part was short. Comparing and contrasting the different app stores was good fun also. The state of mobile development of strong!

Carl and Richard talk to Colin Bowern about his experiences developing web applications in the enterprise. Colin talks about how web got into the enterprise in the first place, and how far behind most enterprises are with their web applications. And yes, IE6 gets mentioned. The conversation digs into the strengths and weaknesses of building mobile and tablet applications using web vs. native, as well as other enterprise considerations like security and policy models. Is web really enterprise ready? Colin thinks so!

Carl and Richard circle back with the great Billy Hollis about UX design. The conversation starts out with a discussion on styling specific to the mobile OS vs. styling by brand. From there, Billy digs into different design concepts, discussing the value of metaphors that help users understand your software's behavior. There is design everywhere, you just have to learn to see it!

Carl and Richard talk to Rob Bazinet about building iOS applications. One of the applications that Rob discusses is a pallative care application for the iPad that allows people who are in remote care homes routinely communicate with their doctor how they are feeling without the doctor having to go to see the patient directly.

Carl and Richard talk to Atley Hunter about his latest apps - yes, he is still building apps! Atley digs into how developers can build applications that run on Windows 8 and Windows Phone at once. The core technology is the Portable Class Library project. The conversation digs into the range of Microsoft platforms supported by the Portable Class Library, including XBox 360 and Silverlight! Atley also talks about his experiences around the success of phone apps vs tablet, different user experience approaches and why Visual Studio 2012 rocks!

While at Code PaLOUsa in Louisville, Kentucky, Carl and Richard moderate a panel on the state of Windows 8 development. The conversation ranges over the hardware available for Windows 8, what is compelling and what is not. The panel also digs into consumer vs corporate applications, how difficult side loading is (hopefully Blue fixes it) and some of the programs Microsoft is supporting to increase Win 8 adoption.

Carl and Richard talk to Scott Allen about building Single Page Applications (SPA) for mobile devices.

Carl and Richard talk to Chris Sells about WinJS. But first, the boys have some fun talking about garbage collection, Windows 8 development options and TypeScript. Then the conversation goes deep into WinJS - does building 'native' HTML apps in Windows 8 make sense? Should the app look like a web app or a Metro app? Chris takes on all these questions and more!

Carl and Richard talk to Chris Love about his experience with the Surface Pro and mobile development in general. The conversation starts out talking about some of the APIs that Chris is building to simplify mobile development - check the show links for a look at them. Chris then talks about the decision to get a Surface Pro, comparing it to other laptops and ultrabooks and how it's changed the way he does computing. Lots of stories and ideas on tackling mobile and tablet development in your business! The opportunities are out there.

Carl and Richard talk to Todd Anglin about building mobile applications in HTML 5. Todd starts out the conversation with the state of mobile today - a diverse set of form factors, operating systems and development environments. HTML is the only thing that works across them all, but it's not a write-once-run-everywhere solution, you have to work at it! Todd talks about the advantages and disadvantages of responsive web design, as opposed to creating separate solutions for different form factors. The discussion also digs into KendoUI, an HTML product that Todd works on at Telerik.

Carl and Richard talk to Aaron Gustafson about web standards and progressive enhancement. Aaron is part of the Web Standards Project and so the conversation starts off about it's role in the maintenance of web standards - resisting the fragmentation of features in various browsers. From there, Aaron digs into adaptive web design through progressive enhancement. What does it take to retrofit a legacy web page into more current techniques? Aaron talks about a variety of strategies to help you get a great mobile web experience. Also listen for comparisons of native, hybrid and web-based mobile applications!

Carl and Richard talk to Ben Gracewood about his experiences working at MarkerMetro, building Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 applications *only* - no iOS or Android! Ben talks about getting seriously into the 'metro' design principles and how after some initial consternation, his customers come to love the UX experience in Windows 8 and Phone 8. Besides those designs, iOS and Android 'look like Window 3.11.' The conversation digs into the preferred toolstack for building apps and where the ugly bits lie. Awesome conversation if you're just getting up to speed in the metro world!

Carl and Richard talk to Josh Twist, one of the leaders of the Azure Mobile Services team. Josh discusses his experiences building mobile applications on iOS, Android and Windows Phone and how it's influenced the design of Azure Mobile Services. The conversation explores the various aspects of Mobile Services including data storage, user authentication, push notifications and other tools and services. Josh talks about how the team ships updates every week and that the products are entirely user driven - all the features are discussed on the User Voice site. So if there's something missing, just let them know to add it!

Carl and Richard talk to David Isbitski and Andrew Smith about appMobi. AppMobi comes from the same code base as PhoneGap, but with a different focus. The conversation starts out with a break down of the appMobi SDK which covers the cross-platform and plug-in capabilities and the cloud services SDK. Only a week before the recording, Intel acquired the cross-platform SDK, appMobi continues to run the cloud services. If you want to build cross-platform mobile applications with HTML 5, you need to take a look at appMobi!

Carl and Richard talk to Toni Kaufmann about the gamification of apps and the use of Cocos2D-x as a cross-platform development library for iPhone and Android. The conversation starts out with Toni talking about an app he built for the Swiss government to engage teenagers - using a game to educate them about bullying and sexual harassment. Toni talks about how much more effective a game model is over standard brochure-ware applications. From there he digs into the general psychology around gamification, what works and what doesn't.

Carl and Richard talk to Miguel de Icaza about the latest happenings at Xamarin. The first bit of big news - a free version of MonoTouch and Mono for Android! But wait, there's more - besides a full update of MonoDevelop, Xamarin has also completed integration of MonoTouch and Mono for Android into Visual Studio. Yeah, that's right, you can build iOS apps in Visual Studio!

Carl and Richard talk to Rocky Lhotka about his experiences building Windows 8 tablet applications for the enterprise. The conversation starts out with a broader discussion around all of the different tablets in the enterprise, the challenge of managing them as well as developing for them. Rocky then digs into the deployment story for Windows 8 Store applications - including putting your apps into the store as well as side loading. Side loading is where things get complicated, as Rocky describes it, it depends on what version of Windows 8 you're using, and what licensing agreements your organization has with Microsoft as to what the costs and configurations are for deploying apps. Rocky has done the hard research here!

Carl and Richard talk to Stuart Lodge about MVVMCross. Stuart digs into why MVVMCross exists and its ability to simplify building applications across iOS, Android and Windows. He also describes the key role of the Xamarin products of MonoTouch and Mono for Android play, as well as how MVVMCross works with XAML on the Windows side of the fence. Lots of discussion around phone vs. tablet implementation and the future capabilities of MVVMCross for other platforms. You need to check out this awesome open source library!