At first it appeared that Marketplace was missing four more categories than it was because of its use of nested categories.  It turns out that Marketplace is more fine-grained when it comes to Business and it has a Communication category that App Store doesn’t.  But Marketplace is missing categories for Education and Medical.  I think it is a huge oversight to not have a top-level Education category in Marketplace.

Now let’s compare the Games categories between the two stores:

It is surprising to see that App Store has 5 more categories than Marketplace with Classic being the only category that Marketplace has that App Store doesn’t.

I suspect that as more applications are developed for (or ported to) the Windows Phone 7 that developers will be asking Microsoft to add categories to Marketplace.

Download and copy the Caliburn.Micro.WP7.zip file to the following directory on your computer: \Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Silverlight for Windows Phone

Start up Visual Studio and create a new project.  You will see an option for Caliburn.Micro (WP7):

After the project is created, you will see the following project structure:

Fix the reference to Caliburn.Micro (download from CodePlex), set a breakpoint in the constructor of MainPageViewModel, and run the application.  You will see that when navigation happens to MainPage, that MainPageViewModel is created. 

Continue execution to view the app in the emulator:

I like Rob’s idea of doing View-first for pages and ViewModel-first for components on a Page.  I have chosen the following naming: MyPage/MyPageViewModel (pages) and MyView/MyViewModel (user controls).

The user is shown multiple views of the same item side by side using the Pivot control. The buttons on the Application Bar remain consistent across Pivot pages.

Example: E-mail (all, unread, urgent, flagged); Appointment (details, attendees)

(video)

The user is presented with a panorama containing multiple pages of content. The first is a list that acts as a menu. Clicking on a list items takes you to another panorama with the specific content. The Application Bar is not used.

Example: AP Mobile

(video)

The July 2010 release of the UI Design and Interaction Guide for Windows Phone 7 is a document that all designers and developers of Windows Phone 7 applications need to become thoroughly familiar with.  It is a beautifully laid out 101-page document that discussed the phone’s capabilities, controls, and interactions.  As I read the guide, I took notes that I could refer to quickly as needed.  The result is a 10-page summary of the UI Design & Interaction Guide for Windows Phone 7.  I hope others find it useful.

Now there are rumor leaks of new Dell phones: Flash, Thunder & Lightning. But what do their buttons reveal?

According to Engadget and pocketnow.com, the Dell Flash will run the Android Froyo OS. The posted image shows 3 buttons that might be similar in functionality to the 3 Windows Phone 7 buttons:

Another phone leaked to run the Android OS is the Thunder and its buttons match the icons on the Flash:

The Lightning icons more closely match what you might expect on a Windows Phone 7 namely the Windows button and the Search button:

It is interesting that the 2 Android phones have 3-button designs. The first appears to be a Back button and the second a Home button. On the Windows Phone 7, the third button is Search which will bring up Bing. The Android phones’ third button appears to be a Menu button although some could argue that it represents search results.

Why has Dell chosen to have 3-button designs on phones for two different operating systems that mostly do the same thing?  I wonder how Microsoft feels about this dual usage of the 3-button design?

Windows Phone 7 introduces concepts such as live tiles, an application bar with buttons and menus, and panoramic applications.  The UI templates should take those things into account as well as the WVGA display that can show 800×480 pixels in either portrait or landscape orientation:

When an application is pinned to the Start screen, the application tile is shown:

Applications can receive notifications to let the user know of important updates even when the application is not running.  One type is the tile notification which can update a pinned tile with a background image, text, and a counter:

An application can choose to include an Application Bar which appears at the bottom of the screen in portrait orientation and vertically on the side when in landscape.  The Application Bar should be limited to a few important buttons that can easily be represented by images.  Other actions should be put in the menu.  The Windows Phone Development Programming Guide encourages the use of no more than 5 menu items as it will force the user to scroll:

One type of application that can be developed for the Windows Phone 7 is a Panorama application which spreads the UI across multiple screens with a slight overlap to tease the users on to the next screen:

When creating the 5 UI templates for Windows Phone 7, I made sure the above concepts were included.

The first two templates include a WVGA screen inside a phone device chrome.  When printed the phone image is roughly the size of an iPhone or Nexus One.  The template includes two tiles to be used for the application tile and the updated tile based on notification.  Three Application Bar images have been included for 2, 3, or 4 buttons.  As well as a place to write up to 5 menu items.

The next two templates display 6 screens per page in either portrait or landscape orientation:

The final template is for Panorama applications and allows for 5 portrait screens side by side with a slight overlap.  The template uses alternating red & blue borders to show each screen’s full width.  The two grid spaces between red & blue lines is the tease overlap for the next screen:

The templates are available for download as a PowerPoint file.

Have you already started designing Winodws Phone 7 Series applications?  Do you find these templates useful?  What changes would you like to see in these templates?  Would you be willing to share some of your designs with others?

There are a few things we know already about Windows Phone 7 Series, but many questions will need to wait for the MIX10 conference next week.  We know that the phone will be released for the holidays, that its UI contains multiple hubs, that custom app development can be done using XNA or Silverlight in Visual Studio 10, and that this fits in with the 3 screens and a cloud story.

But there are other questions that hopefully will be answered at MIX:

1. Is there a more specific release date?  November 2010?
2. Will I be able to do Silverlight development for Xune HD and XBox360?
3. Will there be changes in Windows Azure pricing to match Phone + Cloud consumer apps?
4. Will a WP7 Simulator be released?  Will it work in VS10, Expression Blend, or both?
5. Are there updates to SketchFlow for sketching WP7 apps?
6. What is the debugging experience for WP7 apps?
7. WP7 hubs allow content to span multiple “screen” widths on one large panel.  Will this be possible in custom apps or is it limited to hubs?
8. How can I integrate my content into existing hubs?
9. What .NET Framework features will be available for WP7 and what is missing?  For example, would MEF even make sense for WP7?
10. When will the marketplace be available to upload custom apps and what will the process be?
11. As an attendee, will I get special pricing when WP7 devices are available or a free Zune HD to use for development?

What questions about Windows Phone 7 do you want answered at MIX? What sessions are you planning on attending? If you are not going to MIX, which session videos will you watch first?

Here are the answers to the above questions:

1. No specific release date other than Holiday 2010
2. Currently Silverlight development is not available for XBox 360, but that is likely for the future.  No mention of Xune HD supporting Silverlight.
3. A representative at the Windows Azure booth said that many people are asking this question and that they are “listening”.  Not sure what that means as far as a price change.
4. Windows Phone emulator is released and it works with VS 2010 Express for Windows Phone (free), VS 2010, and Expression Blend 4.
5. No updates to SketchFlow yet to support WP7 controls or panoramic applications.  Not sure when support is coming.
6. I know you can debug in the emulator, but I didn’t get an answer for debugging on a device.
7. Panoramic applications will be supported.  A demo was shown at the MIX10 first day keynote.
8. There a limited content extensibility points for hubs, but some custom content will be possible.
9. My understanding is that the features available for WP7 is a Silverlight version between 3 and 4.  In other words not all of Silverlight 4 functionality will make it into WP7.  I heard that there is working to get MEF assemblies working on the Windows Phone.
10. There was an entire talk at MIX10 about the marketplace.  The current Windows Phone marketplace will be used but by May there should be more information specifically about Windows Phone 7.  To submit applications to the marketplace, you need to pay $99 a year.  It should take about 5 business days for a submitted application to appear for sale in the marketplace.
11. No hardware was available with no roadmap to when development devices would be available or it there would be discouts for MIX attendees.

Windows Button

The main function of the Windows button is to take you to the Start screen:

The Start screen has live tiles for the hubs and your applications.  Applications not as frequently used will appear on a separate application launcher screen.

Back Button

The Back button will allow you to get back to a previous hub or application without going through the Start screen.  As it was explained, the Start screen is “above” the apps & hubs:

As you traverse the various hubs and applications, the phone remembers where you have been and the Back button lets you get back there.  Let’s say that you are at the Start screen and go to the People hub, then back to Start, then to the Pictures hub, back to Start, then to the Application launcher and finally click on some application.  Clicking the Back button once will take you to the Pictures hub and a second click on Back will take you to the People hub.  At least that is what I understand from the explanation.

Search Button

The last button is responsible for promoting the search functionality across all hubs & applications.  From the Start screen, it brings up Bing search but in the Peoples hub it would allow you to search for individuals.  I wonder if all hubs support search.  It is likely that search will be available for applications.

Watching The Engadget Show Live! today gave me a little more insight into how the phone navigation works.  I am excited to attend MIX10 in a few weeks and get a lot more details.