The Tablet Show

Carl and Richard talk to Thomas Gravgaard about building Unity 3D games for Windows Phone 7 using FFWD. Unity 3D is a set of tools for building games that run on Windows, Mac OS, web, iOS and Android - but not Windows Phone 7. Thomas created an open source project on GitHub to convert Unity 3D applications to XNA for running on Windows Phone 7 and XBox XNA games.

Carl and Richard talk to Billy Hollis about his views on where UI design is going. Billy talks about Metro, Microsoft's UI for Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 (irrespective of the games being played with names). As Billy says, design is here to stay, and we need to think more about it. It's not just about controls, its about how your applications organizing your business. Businesses have adapted to software, and now software is changing - time to exercise the other side of your brain!

Carl and Richard talk to Peter Kuhn about what Silverlight developers need to know about building applications in XNA on Windows Phone 7. Peter digs into the differences between XNA and Silverlight - they both use C# and some common low level libraries in Windows Phone 7, but that's where it ends. The conversation also digs into how to build hybrid apps, using the best of Silverlight and the best of XNA together.

Carl and Richard talk to Steve Souders about making mobile web apps run faster. Steve talks a bit about the general issues around web page performance, including how some of the new features of HTML 5 are improving performance. The conversation then turns to tools for testing mobile web performance. Steve gives us a huge list of web sites to test your mobile web performance - check 'em out in the show links!

Carl Franklin steps up to the plate to be the guest on this episode of The Tablet Show, talking about what's new in the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 for developers. WinRT has made a big jump from the Developer Preview to the Consumer Preview, and it takes a rethink to your application design. Carl goes through the changes the .NET folks will care about, like how reflection and system.io has changed. Check out the links for tons of resources to get going with WinRT on the Consumer Preview!

While at DevConnections, Carl and Richard talk to Rocky Lhotka about his experiences with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. The conversation digs into how tablets are already penetrating the enterprise and the advantages that Windows 8 will have in that space. Rocky discusses how metro mode is not just for touch and does a fine job with Line-of-Business apps, just like Silverlight has done for years.

Carl and Richard talk to James Williams about building games in HTML 5. The conversation starts at the beginning - what does it mean to build a game? What are vertexes and shaders? How do you draw a 3D object and then put it into a web page? James leads the boys through the whole idea of building games in HTML 5, where old game design meets the new technologies in browsers.

Carl and Richard talk to Kate Gregory about C++ in Windows 8. Kate talks about how the combination of C++11 and WinRT brings C++ developers to the forefront of development in Windows 8. The latest version of C++ brings lambdas, async and auto var behavior to the language, making complex development far more manageable. The playing field is really levelled in WinRT between HTML 5, C++ and C#!

Carl and Richard talk to Chris Love about building enterprise applications for mobile devices. Chris digs into his projects for mobile devices, talking about the challenges of single-sign on, native apps vs. HTML 5, and so on. The conversation also explores the potential of cross-platform tools like MonoTouch and Mono for Android as well as PhoneGap. Chris then talks about his current favorite solution to the problem - a hybrid application with a native peice that utilizes a browser to embed functionality that can be updated without rolling out a new client every time.

Carl and Richard talk to Nick Landry about using location data in mobile development. Nick talks about a few of his projects using location data in the enterprise for analysis, with mobile devices, to support salespeople and so on. The discussion digs into the differences between the different map source data as well as the potential for future services.

Carl and Richard talk to Paul Thorsteinson about the business of selling mobile apps. Paul talks about how he jumped on board the iPhone App Store opportunity at the beginning. Paul and his partners created Own This World for the iPhone, a 'Risk-like' game to take over the world. The game opened the door to working with Robots and Pencils, building mobile applications for enterprise and large organizations. The conversation continues into the integration of traditional media with mobile devices and how to deal with getting visibility in the marketplace.

Todd Anglin from Telerik talks about Kendo UI Mobile, their new platform (currently free and in beta) for developing HTML5 apps specific to Android and iOS devices. Todd also talks about the regular web edition of Kendo UI for building web applications that take advantage of different browser features.

Carl and Richard bring Atley Hunter back to discuss the hoopla that happened last Friday when Windows Phone 8 leaked to the press.

Carl and Richard talk to Andrew Glover about PhoneGap. PhoneGap lets you build HTML 5 applications and deploy them to all the major mobile phone platforms: iOS, Android, WP7, Blackberry, Symbian, WebOS and Bada. Andrew digs into the actual process of building cross-platform apps, the impact of Adobe's acquisition of PhoneGap and what applications make sense in a cross-platform world, and what apps are better done native.

Carl and Richard talk to Russell Ivanovic about Android development. Russell comes from the Java world but moved into iOS development, building some very popular apps in Australia. Then he moved into Android development and has had even more success. Russell talks about the experience of building Android applications, how it differs from iOS, the pluses and minuses and more. What about fragmentation? How do you test adequately? All these questions are answered and more!

Carl and Richard talk to John Sonmez about building iOS and Android applications. On the iOS side, John compares Xcode to MonoDevelop. You can build iOS apps with MonoTouch in Visual Studio, but you're always going to need a Mac in your life. On the Android side, John discusses the similarity of Eclipse and IntelliJ development environments and how he prefers to use MonoDevelop and Mono for Android for its cross-platform advantage.

Carl and Richard talk to Kevin McNeish about building applications for iPhone and iPad using Objective-C. Kevin talks about the advantages of using the native tools and language for building iOS apps - mostly in the sense of resources like sample code. In addition, Apple's latest round of development tools has significantly improved, according to Kevin, in some ways better than Visual Studio!

Carl and Richard talk to Ronan Cremin about .mobi and Device Atlas. dotMobi was set up my major influential internet companies including Google and Microsoft to make mobile internet become real. Device Atlas is a subscription service for getting up-to-date lists of exactly what features work on what browser versions on each device. Ultimately the conversation comes around to the idea of whether building native apps for mobile devices versus building customized HTML for each of the devices is easier.

Carl and Richard talk to Richard Griffin about building applications with HTML 5 and WinJS on Windows 8. Who's going to like it more, the folks coming from Javascript or the folks coming from .NET? Richard talks about how his combination of XAML and HTML skills helped him grasp what WinJS is all about. You're going to love Promises and XHR! The conversation also explores why you'd want to migrate your app into the WinJS space and whether or not HTML 5 apps are going to replace native apps.

Carl and Richard talk to Shawn Wildermuth about Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7. Shawn announces the release of his book Essential Windows Phone 7.5, and then the conversation dives into Windows 8. Shawn talks about how the discipline of Silverlight development has made him a better HTML 5 developer. But what toolset will he use for Windows 8? Have a listen!