raspberry pi experiences, and some related windows phone apps

So, after some weeks, I received my Raspberry PI card. If you don’t know anything about it please check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_pi and http://www.raspberrypi.org/.

I started a hunt to find the “right” setup for my needs: link the thing to my LCD tv, and use the PI both as a media center and a linux box to surf internet, read mail, download torrents, and to give my sons an idea of a “different” approach to computers :-).

I tried some distribution, Debian, Raspbian, RaspBMC, OpenELEC… and every single setup had its pros and cons. Actually I decided to stick with Debian “Wheezy” and OpenELEC 4 Debian on it (http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=9210); when I launch OpenELEC I can also use my Windows Phone to control remotely the media center, and it’s quite fun (also the geekness factor in doing that is very high). The WP app I use is “XBMC Remote”, from 7illusions - http://www.windowsphone.com/it-it/apps/7eb3b1d3-0183-46c0-8c55-5f1cf652eb30 – they also build a Squeezebox remote control for WinPhones, “SqueezeRemote”.

Right now I’m installing on Debian X session a torrent client (Transmission) and at the same time verifying disk space and network configuration thru ssh with another Windows Phone client (the name is “The SSH Client”, it’s free and it works http://www.windowsphone.com/it-it/apps/e8aa1299-e011-486c-9f61-3232c892b17b )

Another approach I’m interested into: Squeezeplug - http://www.squeezeplug.eu/?p=201 – I have another empty SD Card… eheh

I’ll tell you how it goes… happyPI :-)

Windows Phone traffic on Fiddler? Here’s how

Yes, it’s possible, and there is a fantastic page that explains how, here’s the link.

All the configuration needed took a couple minutes, and it worked perfectly.

Thanks Eric for this great article!

Windows Phone 7 - NavigateToString, WebBrowser, and anchors

I needed to show some html in a page, using a WebBrowser control and the NavigateToString method.

The html was ok; it has some anchor in it to move from a section to another.

When I tested it in a standard web browser, or loading it with the phone IE9, worked perfectly.

But when I loaded the same html in the app page, using as I said the Navigatetostring method, the anchors didn't work anymore.

Then I tried to use some javascript to move to the anchors, using location.replace(#anchorname) – but again when I tested the html outside the app it worked… but not in the app.

I posted the question to the MSDN Forums, end Eric Fleck suggested me to use another approach, while confirming that the wrong behavior is in the latest RC of the WP7 tools.

The new approach is described in detail in this MSDN page, and basically uses IsolatedStorage to save the html fragments in order to load them in the WebBrowser using the .Navigate method. This way all the anchor links work… and I’m happy

G’day everybody!

Some “metro style” windows phone backgrounds

Found today: I like these backgrounds, see if you like them:

- Metro Lock for Windows Phone

- Metro Lock 2 for Windows Phone

A couple images, in Mango flavour:

Windows Phone 7 – Mango time

Today I uploaded my first Mango update. My “Fatto Quotidiano” app now id 7.1 compatible!

To celebrate this I also rewdesigned completely the layout, now the app is more readable, I think that it’s really better than before.

A couple of useful links / resources:

- To download the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Release Candidate go here: SDK 7.1 RC

- With the RC you will also have at your disposal a great tool: the “Marketplace Test Kit”, integrated with Visual Studio. The tool “provides a suite of automated, monitored, and manual tests to help make sure that your applications are accepted in the Marketplace the first time you submit them”. Read about it here.

To see the list of my WP7 apps, click here

Windows Phone 7 – emulator’s shortcut

I discovered about these shortcut only today, so maybe this short post it can be useful to other devs.

When you enter a textbox in the emulator, the virtual keyboard comes up; and you can use it with your mouse. But if you need to enter text in a faster way, you can hit PageUp, and use the “real” pc keyboard.

Then you can switch back to the virtual keyboard with PageDown.

Other useful shortcut:

• F1 – corresponds to the Back button on the emulator
• F2 – the "Start" button on the emulator
• F3 – the Search button on the emulator

Windows Phone 7 – my first app :-)

I’m working on a little application for the new Windows Phone 7 operating system.

The app, TimeToRead, is a client for Read It Later (http://readitlaterlist.com). Its goal is to let you access your “reading list” when you have time… to read something you pinned earlier.

It will provide you the lists of read / unread / all articles; tapping an article you can read it directly from the web version or choose to read only the “text version” (this is a service provided by readitlaterlist.com site), mark as read an article and finally tweet about the article on your Twitter account.

The app uses some libraries like json.net and Hammock for REST in order to access the external sites. It’s not very complicated, still I think that it can be useful – let’s see.

A few screenshots:

and here’s a little video I posted on Msdn Italy’s Facebook page – it’s not of the latest release, but it gives an idea.

Ciao!