iPhone App Wins Microsoft-Campus Programming Contest 233
imamac writes "Startup Weekend was a 54-hour coding marathon held on Microsoft's campus last weekend. It was designed to encourage the use of MS programming technologies. However, the winner of the contest was an iPhone app: '"Awkward," whispered Startup Weekend organizer Clint Nelsen into the microphone upon announcing the top vote getter.'"
Apple apps vs. Micro$oft apps (Score:2, Interesting)
This could be the end of that little experiment. Rule 1 is don't say anything good about your competitor. I wonder how much air time this will get in the media. And I can see the Apple vs. Microsoft ads now. Sucks to be a 'softie right about now.
Re:Apple apps vs. Micro$oft apps (Score:5, Insightful)
I always thought rule one was "Make 100% sure Bill Gates won't be showing a crowd a BSOD!" Not saying anything good about the competition might be rule #2.
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Not so awkward (Score:2)
Re:Not so awkward (Score:5, Funny)
> What, was someone supposed to write an app for the Microsoft phone?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile
Yeah, they kinda were...
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Probably a Zune, but no one had one...
Startup Weekend NOT An MS Event (Score:5, Informative)
The parent used a poor choice of words. Startup Weekend in general isn't an MS program, only the BizSpark program that helped organize this particular event.
Re:Startup Weekend NOT An MS Event (Score:4, Informative)
Microsoft sponsored the event, and it took place on the Microsoft campus. What was incorrect about the wording of the summary?
Also held on Microsoft campus (Score:5, Insightful)
Granted it moves every year, but this year it was also held at the Microsoft campus - and the 14 other apps were all written for Windows Mobile.
Microsoft sponsored, at the Microsoft Campus, with mostly Microsoft apps - well, is it really so inaccurate to label it a Microsoft event even though technically it is not?
It's close enough to be funny anyway.
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Who created whom? (Score:2)
That Apple still survives is an artifact of anti-competitive laws. In this case, those laws have worked famously.
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Without Apple, chances are Microsoft would still be a Cygnus-like little shop writing interpreters and compilers for hardware manufacturers.
Microsoft had two big breaks that made them what they are: the Z80 card for the Apple II and the contract to provide PC-DOS. And arguably, without the reputation MS built in the CP/M world with the SoftCard, they might not have gotten the IBM deal.
Mart
Re:Startup Weekend NOT An MS Event (Score:5, Insightful)
Well let's give them a little credit in not requiring everyone to only use MS products and develop for MS platforms.
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Yeah, do you really think that Steve or anyone important at Microsoft would have allowed this? Not if there were chairs available to be thrown, that is for sure.
Every time Microsoft does something reasonable, you find out that they had a dodgy ulterior motive for it, and they do something twice as shitty next time.
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Inaccurate Summary? (Score:5, Informative)
I haven't bothered to confirm it, but that's the claim.
Re:Inaccurate Summary? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, and if you read the second comment - posted by the article's author - you'd see that the iPhone app received the most votes by far. It was not eligible for the prize money, though, since that specifically predicated it was for an app "built on Microsoft technologies".
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You can't execute scripted content on the iPhone outside of the tools given, so no full mono stack... though you can do an ahead of time build against mono, which a few people are doing... building or even testing such a beast out of Visual Studio is another issue.
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Maybe Apple will give them a good deal in exchange for the good publicity of this app winning at a MS-sponsored event amidst all the competitors using MS technologies.
54 hours? (Score:3, Funny)
That works out to two days, using my Microsoft calculator.
Re:54 hours? (Score:5, Funny)
That works out to two days, using my Microsoft calculator.
That's what my Electronic Arts time sheet says also.
Re:54 hours? (Score:5, Funny)
My Verizon rep says that 54 hours is the same thing as 54 minutes, which is less than an hour.
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You must be a programmer. I too keep MS Calculator in hex mode:
0x54 / 0x24 = 0x02
For those of you who are confused about the joke. :)
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/me is still confused.
$ perl -le 'print ( (1.0 * hex 54) / (1.0 * hex 24))'
2.33333333333333
Your MS Calculator is still the joke.
More Microsoft calculation (Score:2)
Funny at Microsoft's expense == -1, Offtopic
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You must be new here.
Then there's the App Store (Score:4, Insightful)
They shouldn't be able to win until apple accepts the app for download.
Encourage use of MS tech by making the SDK free! (Score:5, Insightful)
XCode is free, only deploying to a real iPhone/iPod and selling in the app store costs money.
Why should anyone pay money to develop for WinMo? it's market share has shrunk and C++ isn't a nice to write in as Objective C.
Re:Encourage use of MS tech by making the SDK free (Score:5, Insightful)
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And what, exactly, does one develop for the WinMo on? :)
Re:Encourage use of MS tech by making the SDK free (Score:4, Interesting)
You can develop directly on your windows mobile pda.
You can also develop for windows mobile pda under linux.
Re:Encourage use of MS tech by making the SDK free (Score:5, Insightful)
> You can develop directly on your windows mobile pda.
You can remove your appendix using a toothpick sticked into your left eye...
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Insightful my fat arse. No, you cannot remove your appendix using a toothpick sticked into your left eye because your hand won't fit through the eye socket. But you can very well develop directly on a PDA which can be quite comfortable with a full keyboard and a large screen some of them have.
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And what, exactly, does one develop for the WinMo on? :)
Depends - there are a few choices there. Linux and CeGCC [sourceforge.net], for example.
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And vim is free if you have a computer to run Linux on. Otherwise it costs 1 PC worth of dollars. What a pointless comment.
Microsoft started charging for the WinMo SDK? (Score:2)
I haven't been in the loop on WinMo in a few years, since I gave up on my Jornada and switched back to Palm, but at that time the Windows Powered SDK was a free download from Microsoft.
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The SDK part is still free afaik, but it only works with Visual Studio, which isn't. Apple differs by distributing the whole toolchain free (iPhone SDK + XCode).
That's a change... (Score:2)
OK, that's a change. You used to be able to get the whole toolchain free.
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Re:Encourage use of MS tech by making the SDK free (Score:4, Informative)
Visual Studio Express is also free, as are the Windows and Windows Mobile SDKs. And you can develop in .net for WinMo using the .net Compact Framework, not only C/C++.
And it doesn't cost money to deploy to a real phone or list on an app store (and you dont run the risk of having your dev costs flow down the toilet entirely because Apple rejected your app).
Re:Encourage use of MS tech by making the SDK free (Score:5, Informative)
And you'll also need this WinMo 6.5 SDK (it's free also): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=20686a1d-97a8-4f80-bc6a-ae010e085a6e [microsoft.com].
FWIW, I developed for Windows Mobile / Smartphone for several years. The tools were all free. Back then they had something called Visual Studio Embedded (free of course). The best thing was I was able to write a single version of the application (a non-trivial multi-threaded, multimedia application with network connectivity) which ran on my Windows desktop as well as on Windows Mobile (aka Pocket PC) and Windows Smartphone. I did the vast majority of my debugging and testing on the desktop. Very rarely did I have to do any mobile-specific debugging, other than wrestling with the &*%^$# cell network (this was from 2001 through 2005, when pushing data through the cell network was barely functional).
Oh, and by the way, deploying to phones is free also. I don't need Microsoft's permission, nor do I have to pay them a fee.
Re:Encourage use of MS tech by making the SDK free (Score:2, Insightful)
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That's an odd claim to try to make, considering they're so closely related. Have you actually used both enough to gain some level of mastery? Because I have, and the difference is, in my opinion, more a matter of preference than between any other two languages I can think of. One thing I will say, though, is I find Objective-C syntax absolutely horrendous to read compared to C++.
Re:Encourage use of MS tech by making the SDK free (Score:5, Informative)
No, the iPhone SDK is a free download from ADC [apple.com] (you have access to it from the free developer account).
The $100 is for a code signing key that allows you to put those binaries on an actual iPhone and to submit it to the app store
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So you can build all the applications you want. But if you want to actually run them on your iPhone, it's $100.
"We're giving away this car for free! But if you actually want to start it and drive it, you'll need to pay $50,000 for the key. Oh, and if you somehow tinker with the car so that you don't need to use this key, the car's warranty is voided."
Nice dance, fanboi. But if you want to develop applications for your own personal use on the iPhone, it'll cost you $100.
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You know, two months ago I gladly payed $100 second time for my iDP program. Fanboism has nothing to do with it - these costs were recovered on the first day of my app sales.
Some people spending money on apple stuff, some people are making money on the apple stuff.
Some are just posting on Slashdot.
Re:Encourage use of MS tech by making the SDK free (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Encourage use of MS tech by making the SDK free (Score:5, Informative)
Minimum price for the ability to do it with supported compilers is whatever Visual Studio standard costs. Like $300.00 but you can get it free if you give up a weekday and attend the exact right launch party like I did.
There is a little known (I guess not anymore, now that I post it on /.) marketing twist that is presently in force with regard to Visual Studio: you can "upgrade" [microsoft.com] to VS Standard or Professional from any of the Express editions (which are of course downloadable for free), or from any "competing product" - e.g. Eclipse or NetBeans counts. This effectively means that you get to buy full license for upgrade price. For Standard, this is $200 - still not cheap, but I thought it's worth clarifying the number as it stands today.
Also, if you're going to write and sell applications - i.e. you're going to run a startup - you could apply for BizSpark [microsoft.com] (technically this is on a case-by-case basis, but I haven't heard of anyone turned away) and get VS and most other Microsoft developer offerings kinda free - the only caveat that you'll have to pay $100 when quitting the program, either in 3 years, or when you make $1M in profit - whichever one happens sooner.
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No you can't. Installing and debugging app on the device requires Apple signed certificate (provisioning profile) and that costs $99. But then again, any sane developer can recover this cost in a few days of sales.
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Actually, you can't.
If you want to install your app on an actual phone it has to be signed using a $99 development key.
I really don't think it's that big of a deal, but folks will get bent out of shape about anything. Hell, if I really cared, I could pay one windows box worth of dollars, then buy visual studio, then buy a Windows Mobile phone, and avoid paying $99 dollars to run my custom application on my phone.
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Tangential? Maybe, but (Score:2)
Does anyone know if Microsoft has any plans for Windows Mobile? It's old and slow, but I actually prefer the UI to the iPhone's. If they made a decent web browser they could be back in the game! I prefer the precision of the style to the fatfingered approach of the iPhone and Pre.
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If they made a decent web browser they could be back in the game!
Therein lies the flaw in your reasoning. If indeed.
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There are other browsers for Windows Mobile, like Opera, Iris, Skyfire or Netfront.
Firefox mobile is coming soon.
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Microsoft will (hopefully) be releasing Windows Mobile 7 at the end of the year. Their currently supported version is v6.1, though many people have happily upgraded to their (very) reliable v6.5 betas (myself included). WM7 will focus on an OS-wide finger-friendly UI (which WM6.5 sort of has, but not quite entirely) and improved usability.
Honestly though, its competitors are really starting to sap up all of their competitive advantages, which is starting to spell the beginning of the end for its relevance.
Opera for Win MO (Score:2)
There is a decent browser (2 in fact,check upcoming Skyfire) for Windows Mobile, it is Opera 9
http://www.opera.com/mobile/ [opera.com]
(as Opera Desktop 10 shipped, their site getting a bit hammered now, check later if you wish)
It is a real browser, just like iPhone Safari. As a bonus, it will have ''turbo'' (mobile compressing/reformatting proxy) too. Skyfire on the other hand, is a shell for a Desktop mozilla, which does amazing things like playing flash videos no matter whatever format they are. I also loved its appr
Let me guess... (Score:2)
...it's the start of the "extend" phase of their three step plan. ;)
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I'm sorry. Was there an "embrace" phase, yet?
This is great news. (Score:2)
I say now that RIM has released an SDK for VS we should create serious appl
Re:And the app does? (Score:5, Informative)
It's called "Learn That Name" and it's found in the second link from TFS [techflash.com], not the first link.
Re:And the app does? (Score:5, Funny)
It wins contests, obviously.
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That's awesome! Can I give it the Mega Millions Lottery as a parameter?
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My late uncle was a high ranking diplomat living in exile in Sierra Leone. He left to me the sum of $4 million US dollars, to be given to the winner of a lottery contest. You have won! Please reply to this email with you name, home address, social security number, home telephone, last place of work, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, favorite ice cream flavor, and mother's maiden name to verify your identity and claim your prize!
Waiting,
Mr. Azbelulah Makulo
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Uh, does it matter? It's an iphone app!
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Heh, tether and send MMS, at least officially on AT&T in the US?
I also wish it had a "screen lock" mode where the touch screen (and optionally rotation) was locked but the display stayed on.
I find myself handing my phone to people to look at something and then they rotate/touch it and what I'm showing them gets changed.
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Re:Is there anything (Score:4, Informative)
Run 3rd party apps in the background?
Let 3rd party apps integrate with the core software?
Let developers distribute apps to real devices without needing Apple's blessing?
(while not always as nice looking, other platforms don't have these limitations)
Re:Is there anything (Score:5, Interesting)
Use an industry-standard USB cable for charging AND data transfer without having to resort to proprietary cabling?
Replace the battery?
Upgrade the memory?
Access the data onboard using "mass storage" (like USB memory stick) in the operating system of your choice without the need for proprietary software?
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The USB thing sucks, for sure. I definitely agree that they should change that. It's unlikely, however, since Apple never has been the type of company to conform to industry standards.
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I didn't realize that fanless overheating and acrylic cracks were industry standards.
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Well, let's be fair -- the iPod does, indeed, use USB Mass Storage. It also exposes its library through a ton of files in a bizarre proprietary format, so it's not like you can actually transfer music that way, but it's certainly a step above this.
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Surely you can't patent the connector, it isn't doing anything unique. And the connector would not be covered by trademark or copyright. Would the DMCA cover it somehow?
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With the older iPods you could, including the first shuffle (around 2006). Then later the data folder was hidden, and later after that the filenames were scrambled (even though the content was the same and your favorite music software could read ID3 tags it made no difference).
The explanation given to these actions were that the record companies didn't want copying music from iPods to computers easy. This is why iTunes doesn't allow importing from iPods that aren't already linked to the existing library o
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Do you know how many devices that are out there that use the ipod connector? Billions. You can't just change that. They should have made the right decision in the first place, but it wasn't so obvious in those days, everyone was making there own connector.
And maybe a mini-usb or micro-usb doesn't provide enough support to actually hold the device upright.
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Let 3rd party apps disable 911 functionality?
Let 3rd party apps make the keypad 5 pixels high and completely destroy the ability to use it as a phone?
Run background tasks that interfere with your ability to receive an important business call?
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If that's what the customer wants to buy, no problem.
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Run 3rd party apps in the background?
Let 3rd party apps integrate with the core software?
Let developers distribute apps to real devices without needing Apple's blessing?
(while not always as nice looking, other platforms don't have these limitations)
If I wanted viruses on my phone I would have gotten Windows Mobile. (Yeah WinMO doesn't really have a virus problem but I don't want the possibility on my iPhone because its popular enough to be targeted)
But yeah... Multi-tasking and a public API would be a nice
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If I wanted viruses on my phone I would have gotten Windows Mobile. (Yeah WinMO doesn't really have a virus problem...
Nor does OS X, for that matter.
If apple wants to provide a channel which is only screened for actual malware, that might make sense, though it'd still be an absurd bottleneck trying to get anything approved.
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wow, modded down and taken seriously. Maybe there should be a homer emoticon for the clueless....
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iPwnt
Actually, no, I can't.
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You what they really need? An app that gets apps accepted into the app store.
Re:Congratulations to all the contestants! (Score:4, Funny)
Sure, because once you write a Windows app you're forbidden by law to write one for another platform.
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Why do people keep repeating that? Even Microsoft's own developers admit that their C/C++ indexing is primitive and broken, while Eclipse's CDT, which has had maybe 0.0001% of the funding and man-hours, is already far superior.
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Re:The only way to win (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, sorry. I use Visual Studio every day and dabble in Eclipse and XCode. I prefer either of the later to Visual Studio. Visual Studio isn't a bad IDE, and it is certainly an appropriate choice for Windows only development, but saying it "light years ahead" of any other environment suggests you have never used anything else.