During the first half of this week I was in Helsinki, Finland, to deliver 2 sessions at Techdays Finland 2013. 

The first session was an introduction to Windows 8 development, while the second session dug a bit deeper and uncovered some of the lesser-know, less-obvious culprits you might face during development.

Both sessions are available for download on my SkyDrive, including source code.  Happy coding! :-)

Session 1, Introduction: slidedeck, code.

Session 2, Unwrapping the not-so-obvious: slidedeck, code.

Since the release of Windows 8, people have been wondering about a Facebook application for Windows 8, and sure enough, a few showed up quite fast.  One of them was ours: MINE for Facebook, of which we released a preview version a few months ago.

The app proved to be very popular - the preview was downloaded from the Store by more than 50000 people.  Thanks to this, we've received a lot of feedback.  We listened.  We worked.  We added a lot of features.  And today, we are ready to release v1.0 of MINE for Facebook - a Facebook client for Windows 8, with a twist.

- MINE, pronoun: used to indicate the one or ones belonging to me -

What is MINE for Facebook?

MINE for Facebook is a Facebook application for Windows 8, built on two pillars:

• It has to be user-friendly, has to offer what people expect of Facebook, and has to integrate with the Windows 8 design style.
• It has to offer something more.  Facebook, your way.  No more, no less.

To achieve the first pillar, we took a long hard look at Facebook and at Windows 8 and tried to blend the two.  That's why feeds are laid out in a horizontal matter, as you'd expect from a Windows 8 app - and why updates are color-coded.  That's why you can zoom in an out on your friends, groups and event lists.  That's why private messaging is integrated in the app.  That's why you can share links or search Facebook through our app from anywhere in Windows.  And a lot more, of course.

For the second pillar, we thought about how we could offer something more, content-wise, than a regular Facebook client.  Facebook filters your news feed according to their algorithm.  For some people, this is perfect - which is why you can use MINE for Facebook as a Facebook client on Windows 8, no more, no less.

But for other people, this isn't enough.  They want to see all pictures posted, not only those Facebook thinks are important enough to show, or they'd like to see everything their friends shared, unfiltered.

We've included more than 15 built-in feeds, next to your news feed, which show you a lot more than what you're used to.  A few examples?  Our Photo feed shows all pictures posted to Facebook by your friends.  Through the 9GAG feed, you can see everything shared from 9GAG.  Likewise, we've got a Share feed, Instagram feed, Twitter feed, Foursquare feed, YouTube feed, … and more.

And then there's the other way around: sometimes, you might like to see less.  That's why we've included the ability to filter your news feed both on type of post and friends who posted it.

To sum it up, MINE for Facebook offers you Facebook on Windows 8, adding the ability to see more or less depending on your liking.

- MINE, noun: a excavation in the earth from which valuable materials can be extracted -

Where can I find it?

MINE for Facebook is available in the Windows Store now: http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/app/mine-for-facebook/3c809fae-3949-4c0d-be7b-017d828b7153

More information: http://www.mineforfacebook.com/

I just got home after my session at the Windows 8 App Day in Antwerp, Belgium, in which I went into detail on how we built MINE for Facebook (a Facebook client for Windows 8, which was released to the Windows Store yesterday, in preview version). 

I talked about… well… essentially, I just talked A LOT :-)  On the UX-side, some of the topics included the importance of consistency, UX & visual design.  Some of the more dev-oriented topics included app architecture, achieving reliability, improving performance (task cancellation, producer/consumer pattern) & gathering statistics.

If you’re interested in those, feel free to download the slidedeck.

Happy coding :-)

I’m very proud to be able to announce that MINE for Facebook, the first dedicated Facebook client for Windows 8, has been released and is now available in the Windows Store.

It’s a Facebook client created with one mission in mind: to show you your Facebook feed, the way you want to see it. Of course you can see your Facebook timeline, post updates, comment & like, ..., but if you want, you can go one step further and customize your feeds until they exactly fit your needs.

Some of its features:

• View your Facebook news feed.
• Comment, like & update your status, share a link, add a picture, ...
• View your friends' profile pages, including their wall posts.
• Customize your feeds! Do you only want to see status updates? No problem. Do you want to see all the pictures, but only from a select group of friends? No problem.
• So, next to your regular feed, you can create custom feeds, allowing you to select exactly what you want to see from which friends.
• Update your Facebook status or share a link or picture from any application which supports sharing!
• Get notifications from Facebook right on your Windows start screen.
• Designed with Windows 8 in mind, for both touch & non-touch devices.
• Search Facebook from anywhere in Windows.

The version that’s released right now could be consider a “preview” version – there’s a reason the version number states “v0.9.0” :-)  The more feedback we get, the better the app will become. 

We’re adding new features constantly (yes, events & albums are high on the list ;-)), aiming for a fast release schedule – and we’re hoping to get to v1.0 soon.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the app!

Ow, and if you happen to live in Belgium: I’m delivering a session at Microsoft Windows 8 App Day tomorrow, in which I’ll go into some details on how MINE for Facebook was built – come say hi! :-)

If you’re interested in Windows 8 app development, and you’re living in Belgium, this is an event you do not want to miss.  From the site:

Cook up the Next Great App

 

Join our national and international speakers, all actively working on apps and ready to share learnings and best practices on App Development, User Experience and Design!

 

There’s two separate tracks, one focussing on design/UI, another one focussing on development.  Rather than introductory sessions, these tracks focus on real-life experience & case studies – always more interesting, imo. 

… and yours truly is delivering the last session of the day – come say hello ;-)

For registration, information, … point your browser to the App Day site.

This week, I delivered a session at Belgium’s Visual Studio User Group (VISUG) on Windows 8 development: a session for developers who are already past the obvious, who’ve seen all the introduction sessions, and who are wondering about how to achieve a few not-so-obvious things for their Windows 8 Store Apps, using XAML/C#.

In this session, I’ve covered topics such as:

• Navigation & complex types
• Manipulating the navigation stack
• Variable Sized Grids
• Exceptions & Async Methods
• Debugging background tasks
• Localhost access
• Incrementally loading data
• Peformance tips and tricks
• … and a few more :-)

If you weren’t able to attend, or you want to have a look at it for yourself, I’ve just uploaded the slideck & demo code to my Skydrive.  Enjoy! :-)

Yesterday, I delivered an advanced training on Windows 8 development (XAML/C#).  This was a full-day training @ Microsoft Belgium offices, covering such topics as:

• MVVM using MVVM Light
• Process Lifecycle Management
• Exception Handling
• Semantic Zoom, Data Template Selectors & Variable Sized Wrapgrid
• Live Tiles, Background Tasks, Lock-Screen apps
• Async & Await tips
• Incrementally Loading Data
• Service Access
• … and a few other things :-)

If you’ve ever wondered how to get those things up & running: I’ve just made the slide deck of that training + all the code available – feel free to check it out! :-)

If you’d rather have some sound & video with that: this training was recorded & will be at AppCentral soon.