I just successfully upgraded my HTC Touch Dual (known as NIKE in other regions) from windows mobile 6.0 to 6.5. It took me the better part of 6 hours to fully research and figure out how to do it. So to help the next person out, here is how to do it (entire process will take about 20minutes)

Note: This is the process of updating a HTC Touch dual. Updating other phone models is very similar. Just find your specific version of Soft SPL, Hard SPL & ROM images. Go to http://forum.xda-developers.com to find your model phone.

BIG WARNING: You will need WinXP to do this. IT DOES NOT WORK WITH VISTA OF WIN7. I wasted 5 hours at this point when i bricked my mobile because it will not flash correctly. So find an old WinXP machine just while you are doing this. Also you may want to backup all your existing data. I take no responsibility if you brick your phone.

Step 1. Update the boot loader

The boot loader that is on all mobile phones says what roms are valid for it. Because we are going to be flashing a non-official ROM onto it, we need to replace it. The way to do this is to run a “Soft SPL”, which will temporarily allow you to flash a new bootloader onto your phone (called a Hard SPL).

a) Download the soft SPL onto your phone and run it

go to this forum post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=355730 and download sspl-1.16-nike.zip.

Read this the first forum post to give you an idea of what we are doing. Copy sspl-1.16-nike.exe to your phone and run it. You will now see a temporary bootloader which will allow you to upgrade your phone’s bootloader. Make sure you have removed your SIM card, SD cards, etc.

b) Unplug/replug the USB

My computer wouldn’t detect the phone until I did this. The boot loader should say USB after you’ve done it.

c) Download the hard SPL (new boot loader)

in the same forum thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2786065&postcount=439, download hardspl-1.22-nike-shipped.zip

On your computer run ROMUpdateUtility.exe. It should step you through updating your bootloader.

Step 2. Updating your windows mobile ROM

This is where you have fun trying to find a custom ROM that has been tweaked for your model phone. I just went with the most recently updated version for my phone

a) Download the ROM

Windows mobile 6.5 ROM for HTC Touch dual  http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=534205

b) Turn your phone off, and start it up in the boot loader

All phones are different in how they do this. For the HTC it was a matter of holding the camera button while i turned it on

c) run the updater on your PC

This is exactly the same as how we updated the Hard SPL. Once in the boot loader, plug the USB cable in so that the phone says USB. Then run CustomRUU.exe and step through the wizard.

Step 3. Updating your Radio ROM

After you have updated the version of windows mobile on your phone, you will most likely have to update the Radio ROM on your device also. Strange things happen like the camera not working, the phone freezing when you make a call, etc. The phone has an entirely separate linux engine running the phone functions, windows mobile just hooks into it to invoke making a call, doing data connections, etc.

a) find a Radio ROM for your phone

Here are the ones for HTC touch dual http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=369502

I went with the latest version that said “highly recommended” next to it.

b) flash it onto your phone the same way you did the windows mobile ROM

Step 4. Enjoy

That is it!

HELP! my phone is bricked

If you do happen to brick your phone, and it is stuck at the boot loader, this may help. It saved my phone when it got stuck at the boot loader http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=371154

The March 2009 release of the Virtual Earth control for Silverlight (now known as the bing map control) was a great release. Up until then, projects like Deep Earth were trying to provide us with a way to use deep zoom + the virtual earth tiling to allow us to build Silverlight apps. Now Microsoft have given us an official control to play with.

One of the big downsides of the official control was the lack of databinding. You still had to add / remove your pushpins & shapes manually just like you would with the AJAX version. There is code available on the Microsoft website that adds dependency properties to the Bing Maps control which expose ItemsCollection, ready for you to databind to. If you combine this with some custom datatemplates, you are able to databind directly to the map as you would expect.

Step 1. Install the Bing Maps control

The CTP of the control is available from Microsoft connect https://connect.microsoft.com/silverlightmapcontrolctp

Step 2. Download the databinding enabler

You just need to download this single .cs file and include it in your project http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/VESLBindingProps

Step 3. Add the Bing maps control to your .xaml page

Add the virtual earth namespace for the control, the ve namespace for the dependency properties, and then the grid. It should look something like this

<UserControl x:Class="SDDNTestRun.MainPage"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
    xmlns:VirtualEarth="clr-namespace:Microsoft.VirtualEarth.MapControl;assembly=Microsoft.VirtualEarth.MapControl"
    xmlns:ve="clr-namespace:Synergist.VE"
    mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="640" d:DesignHeight="480">
    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" >
        <VirtualEarth:Map x:Name="MyMap"
                CopyrightVisibility="Collapsed" LogoVisibility="Collapsed" Mode="Aerial">
        </VirtualEarth:Map>
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

Step 4. Add the data template for shapes and the map layer

This data template to databind polyshapes is fairly easy. You just need to set the polyshape style (thickness, colour, etc.) and then databind the points to the locations collection

<DataTemplate x:Key="MapShape">
    <VirtualEarth:MapPolygon Fill="Orange" Stroke="Green" StrokeThickness="2" Opacity="0.4" Locations="{Binding}" />
</DataTemplate>

And here is how you add the layer to the map

<VirtualEarth:Map x:Name="MyMap"
    CopyrightVisibility="Collapsed" LogoVisibility="Collapsed" Mode="Aerial">
    <VirtualEarth:MapLayer x:Name="ShapeLayer"
        ve:Properties.ItemsSource="{Binding}"
        ve:Properties.ItemTemplate="{StaticResource MapShape}" />
</VirtualEarth:Map>

Step 5. Add some data to the layer

This is the fun bit, figure out what the coordinates for your shape are and create a collection for it. Myself, i’m going to use the site of the Microsoft office here in Melbourne. I’m just going to do this in the page constructor in the code behind

MyMap.Center = new Location(-37.8222600730785, 144.962552763317);
MyMap.ZoomLevel = 17;

var shapeList = new ObservableCollection<LocationCollection>
{
new LocationCollection
    {
        new Location(-37.8217176782418, 144.961662269924),
        new Location(-37.8214041044085, 144.962391830776),
        new Location(-37.8222346484096, 144.963314510677),
        new Location(-37.8228194135791, 144.962638594005),
        new Location(-37.8223617716666, 144.961887575481),
        new Location(-37.8220397256568, 144.962005592678),
    }
};
ShapeLayer.DataContext = shapeList;

Step 6. Hit run and see your databinding in action!

Because we are databinding to an observable list, we can just add new items to it and watch the new shapes appear. It is also possible to add extra points to an existing shape, and see it update live on the map.

If you want to add an extra shape, add this to a click event to see the databinding happening interactively

shapeLists.Add(new LocationCollection()
{
    new Location(-37.8207645163828, 144.961630711604),
    new Location(-37.8200356576319, 144.96164144044),
    new Location(-37.8197136014726, 144.96321857934),
    new Location(-37.8206882408042, 144.962092051554)
});

Step 7. Pushpins

Pushpins are a little more involved. Here i have created a “Point of Interest” class, that has the location and extra details. Here i’m just going to use the location property to databind to. The good thing is that you can use any control as your pushpin. In the included sample my PushPin control expands out when you hover, and collapses when you move off it.

<DataTemplate x:Key="MicrosoftPushPin">
    <Controls:PushPin VirtualEarth:MapLayer.MapPosition="{Binding Loc}"
        VirtualEarth:MapLayer.MapPositionMethod="Center"  />
</DataTemplate>

public class POI
{
    public string Loc { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
}

//In the class constructor
PushPinLayer.DataContext = new ObservableCollection<POI>
{
   new POI() { Loc = "-37.8222600730785, 144.962552763317" }
};

Sample app

In case you just want to see it working, I’ve included the demo I built live at the Melbourne Silverlight Desiginer & Developer Network. Good luck!

http://cid-fc3a2c38819e3e29.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Blog/VirtualEarthBindingDemo.zip

There has been a lot of discussions over the new Google Chrome OS announcement lately. I just read this article Google’s Chrome OS: Maybe Not a "PC" OS After All and this paragraph caught my attention

“The OS that would drive such a system would require a lot of work beyond just hosting a browser on Linux, which may be why Google says it is a year or more away. That’s because many of the add-ons that we need to enable web sites to properly function would need to be moved from desktop applications to become a part of the OS. I’m talking about things such as media players, codecs and add-ons that support PDF and other file formats, Adobe Flash, or even Microsoft Silverlight.  Google Gears, or whatever caching technology, also needs a lot of work."

That last sentence is what caught my eye. Now it is no secret that Google have been promoting HTML5 VERY strongly. There have been a number of articles on the web since the Google conference last month about how much they are promoting HTML5, and what their motives could be. Most of the articles come to the conclusion that in the end, will we even need plugins like flash or Silverlight.

Google have made it very clear that “for application developers, the web is the platform”, implying that you won’t be able to develop for the linux kernel it is running on top of.

If you tie Google’s push for HTML5 with the Chrome OS announcement, then maybe we are onto something. Perhaps they aren’t trying to displace windows at all, but instead increase the number of devices that support HTML5 and not Silverlight / Flash / Java. They could be aiming this announcement at web developers here. When web devs are thinking what platform they should create their new web app on, they may default to using HTML5 over Silverlight because of the additional reach HTML5 is going to give them.

So there is my angle, they aren’t targeting Microsoft at the desktop, but are instead trying to dislodge them from the web and stopping adoption of Silverlight.

While i’m posting some of my old slides, here are the ones from the Workflow talk that i did. This time i was able to include the demo that i did. I created a workflow from scratch in front of the group to simulate a hamburger being created. It demonstrated how to load an object into a workflow that we would work on, if statements, custom activities, etc.

The Slides: 20081215-vicnet-wf.pptx

The Demo: HamburgerWorkflow.zip

I did a talk at the victoria .Net usergroup on WPF, so i decided to share my slides in case anybody finds them useful

A lot of my talk was done using demos that i would create from scratch in front of people, so there it might be a little light on. But it could be useful for anybody else wanting a base to start from.

During the presentation i showed the WPF bag-o-tricks http://j832.com/bagotricks/, as it is a great way to show people the shinyness of WPF.
And as always i point people to my list of WPF links for beginners http://davidburela.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/wpf-links-for-beginners/

The Slides: 20081215-vicnet-wpf.pptx

The speaker list for Codecamp Oz 2009 has been released and there are some real gems listed http://notgartner.wordpress.com/2009/02/15/code-camp-oz-2009-speakers-sessions-announced/

For those who don’t know, code camp oz is a yearly event run in Wagga Wagga (since it is directly between Melbourne & Sydney so no one can complain), it is run by people in the community. Last year’s conference was my first and it was a blast.

But the thing i am excited about is that I’ve been listed as a speaker this year, my presentation brief was accepted:

Cloud computing: A-life using Windows Azure

David Burela takes the Windows Azure platform and tries to find some other uses for the cloud. Azure gives developers easy scalability and methods to send messages between machines, perhaps this is a great way to play around and create some A-Life

Hope some of you can make it along so you can see the presentation, or course I’ll upload all of the materials after code camp.

A bunch of new videos have been uploaded to MSDN to help demonstrate a lot of the fundamentals of Windows Azure.

10 videos have been released to the front page so far:

• 6 on core Windows Azure
• 2 on .Net services
• 2 on Live services

At the time of writing there is also an additional video you can get by going directly to the RSS feed.

All videos can be found on the front page http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/dd439432.aspx
but i recommend subscribing to the RSS feed so that you can access them as soon as they are released http://www.microsoft.com/feeds/msdn/en-us/videos/azure.xml

Hope you all learn something new!

A short while ago, Damian Edwards released Visual Studio 2008 XHTML 1.1 templates on CodePlex that gave you a “set of item and project templates for ASP.NET developers using Visual Studio 2008 that provide XHTML 1.1 compliant alternatives to the standard web form and master page templates”. This is a great starting point to ensure that your new websites start off on the right foot by providing a set of files (web forms, master page, stylesheets, etc.) that are preconfigured to be XHTML 1.1 strict compliant.

I decided that since this is such a great thing that I’d re-release the template as a Windows Azure Web Role, meaning that you can all create new cloud services that start off as being XHTML 1.1 compliant.

Installation

I didn’t mess about creating a fancy installer, so you’ll have to do 2 things.

1. download the file and place it into the visual studio Azure template folder (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates\CSharp\Cloud Service\Roles or C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates\CSharp\Cloud Service\Roles if you are on x64)
2. Start the visual studio 2008 command prompt in administrator mode and type ‘devenv /installvstemplates’

Using the template

1. Create a new blank cloud service
2. In the solution explorer, right click the roles folder and add a new “web role project”
3. The “Add a new project” window will appear and the new Web Role (XHTML 1.1) template should be there ready to use!
   
4. Read the FAQ on codeplex for the template. You’ll have to modify one of the references to use the CSSfriendll.dll

Download
http://cid-fc3a2c38819e3e29.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Blog/XHTML11.CS%7C_IndiWebRole.zip

David Aiken just announced that they have released the latest revision of their Azure training kit. If you are getting started with Azure then this is definitely what you’ll want to download to help you get started with it.

From the download notes:

The Azure Services Training Kit includes a comprehensive set of technical content including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Azure Services Platform. The February release includes the following updates:

19 demo scripts that walkthrough several of the services
10 presentations covering the entire Azure Services Platform
3 additional hands-on labs for Live Services

This technical content covers services including: Windows Azure, .NET Services, SQL Services, and Live Services.

The download is available here

I came across an article Adobe cooperates with Apple on Flash for iPhone , which suggests that Apple is now working with Adobe to provide flash on the iPhone. Now previously i’d heard that this wasn’t going to happen because the apple SDK doesn’t allow the creation of other “platforms” for the iPhone. But with flash now being ported to it this now opens up the question “Could silverlight be seen on the iPhone in the future?”

Now there are 2 key differences between Flash & Silverlight

1. Apple got into trouble because “Apple recently got into some hot water with the United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority because of the iPhone’s inability to support the nearly ubiquitous Web technology. The company had been running advertisements that claimed the handset can access “all parts of the Internet,” but the agency said the ads were “misleading” because of the lack of Flash and Java support.”
   As much as Microsoft tries to tell us that it is on 25% of computers, i don’t think that it could be seen as a critical thing needed to experience the web
2. Apple & Microsoft cooperating… seriously

I’d love to see silverlight on the iPhone and who knows, with silverlight for mobiles being released for Nokias & windows smart phones in the near future, it may just put enough pressure on Apple to collaborate with Microsoft to get Silverlight ported to the iPhone

Update: There is an article here with more information, although the title of it is misleading since the content contradicts its own title.