Windows Phone Update + WP8 Support Blog Post

[Motz]

Cause I know you guys love to read what I write

Latest entry in my blog posting:
http://cetoncorp.com/blog/windows-phone ... companion/

[rantanamo]

are you guys ever gonna do an RT or even W8 version? With Microsoft finally opening up distribution with the Surface, there will be a lot more out there.

[Motz]

More details on that soon.

[KFish]

Any word on the windows 8 app status? I know it's been awhile since you submitted it to MS.

[Motz]

Hey everyone, so a quick update on WP7. So We wanted to get it pushed to microsoft last week, however we decided to pack in a few more features such as Wake on Lan. Additionally we needed to take further testing for upgrade paths and also we did a small beta test with real users to ensure that it was solid all around. So the next version will be 1.3.0.2 and it was submitted today. So hopefully by the new years it will be approved. It has a bunch of other great features as well.

[Hflashman]

Great job, can't wait to try on my 920!

[Motz]

Was approved today, so hopefully tomorrow it will be available

[NWW]

Already have it in Belgium.

Nice blue splash screen ^^

[Motz]

Yay glad to see the database upgrade was successful That was my biggest worry. I spent days testing just that single feature for the WoL functionality. Was a bit scary, but after all my testing I was pretty sure it would be just fine.

[rantanamo]

Have not played with it yet, but the update was just pushed to my phone.

[Motz]

I posted the change logs over in the main thread but here they are:
V 1.3.0.2
Live Tile Support
Pick channel in guide
Numeric Pad on Remote
Wake on LAN support
Bug Fixes & UI Tweaks

[cncb]

Is there any way to make the Live Tile "full-width" like I can do for the calendar tile?

[Motz]

Is there any way to make the Live Tile "full-width" like I can do for the calendar tile?

Full width is available on Windows Phone 8. On WP7 i believe wide tiles are only for system applications, although the 7.8 update might change that and I would assume if your app is WP8 optimized it would work but I am not 100% sure to be honest. Microsoft is pretty hush hush on things

[cncb]

Full width is available on Windows Phone 8.

Thanks. I do have WP8 and just had to get the small tile in the right location to be able to make it full-width.

I would request that at this large size maybe you could show more than 1 upcoming recording. Also, it seems to be showing upcoming recordings that are not the next upcoming recording and it would be good if we could disable this (always just show the next upcoming recording instead of ones further in the future).

[Motz]

So right now it is a Windows Phone 7.5 app with WP8 optimizations. You have to do crazy reflection to actually get it working properly and you can only make a release on Windows 8 to actually publish the app. Until we actually make it a separate WP8 app (not sure how much work it will be) what Microsoft has provided to do it only provides a very simple implementation with 1 type of tile. You can read about it here: http://www.techtronic.us/technology/use ... s-phone-7/

Even still it is relatively limited, this is what the templates are like:
http://www.developer.nokia.com/Communit ... 1030181408
http://www.developer.nokia.com/Communit ... 1030182104

So there is a possibility to add in a bit more info in the next build.

Once we do move it over to a pure WP8 app though you will get a whole bunch of Live Tile goodness

As for exactly how the live tiles work is this:

1.) Microsoft allows you to update your tiles every 30 minutes
2.) When this happens I query 4 recorded tv episodes, 4 scheduled, and 2 movies. (depending on what you have enabled).
3.) Every 30 minutes I show a random item from this list that has been queried for the next 3 hours (so 9 different tiles will show depending on the random that is selected)
4.) After 3 hours I will re-query the server for new information.

Windows 8 metro apps actually provide a much better framework for live tiles than the mobile platform so you will see some awesome stuff on that soon.

In future releases though based on feedback i will make adjustments as necessary so keep any and all feedback coming.

[newfiend]

Motz, thanks for the added features to the companion app. I am REALLY loving WOL! That small added addition really makes the app just that much more Awesome! Would there be a way to add a button on one of the screens to trigger sleep on the pc again once you were done with the app? I know that the pc will eventually time out and sleep but it might be nice for some to have the option to manually sleep the pc once done using the app.

I noticed the Ceton app logo looks a bit blurry on the tile this time around as well. It seemed to have cleaner lines last time, I think that may be due to live tile size changes from wp7 to wp8.. any chance the remote control section of the app will get updated at some point to look a little better? It seems the iOS and android remote sections seem to have a little bit better looking remote. I know I'm nit picking here so I'll apologize in advance but I really like the app and want to see it continue to grow and advance. Thanks again for all your hard work on the app!!

Newfiend~

Sent from my Windows 8 device using Board Express Pro

[Motz]

Yeah I think the logos have to do with the live tiles. Although I did make them to spec.

since the app is still a WP7 app all images automatically get scaled up basically. I think I have to go in and add like ... home.scale-100.png, home.scale-140.png, etc.. and then it will pull them....though I am not sure if it has to be a WP8 app at that point, will look into it for next release though.

[Motz]

Ah update... apparently microsoft did it the worst way possible... make the developers figure out which images to use: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... .105).aspx

Although they basically just say to add in the largest images and they they will scale down. So I can probably do this, I just have to do some re-sizing. Luckily there aren't tons of images/icons.

[KFish]

Like the new updates for WP app. The inclusion of the numeric key pad and wol support is much appreciated. I can get the htpc to wake within the home but not from outside so I have some research to do on setting up my router. I have a Linksys ea4500 if anyone has recommendations.

[Motz]

The WoL is just on local wifi so as long as you are on the same subnet it will work. We will be enhancing this over time as well, but you got to start somewhere right