Jerry Huang apps and developing apps

UPDATE: The beta now is completed successfully and you should be able to download IP CAM Controller 3.0 from Windows Phone 8 Store now!

The next version number of IP CAM Controller for WP is going to be 3.0 which indicates it's a major upgrade. I still remember the last major upgrade was from 1.x to 2.x that drop the support for Nodo and went for Mango. Live tile feature was introduced by last upgrade if memory serves me right

So again, I guess we are going to have a kiss good bye to WP 7.x and jump into WP8 finally. It's a kind of sad, even myself is still using Lumia 800 (I don't have a WP8 yet, and that's why I need you as a beta tester). Nevertheless, it's worth it!

What's new?

Audio!!! Right now I'm working on 1 way audio while I believe 2 way will be coming at some point as it's just a reversed transfer of 1 way audio. Here is a list of cameras will be supported for audio:

Panasonic (naturally always the first, as I own one)

Foscam: including all old series such as FI8908W, FI8918W, even some brandless (or small brand) OEM version could be supported, AND the new H264 series: FI8602W, FI8608W, FI8620, FI9820W

Toshiba IK-WP41A, this is the one I have tested, but I guess other similar models will be supported as well

D-LINK, I tested on 5222L, so if your model is compatible with 5222L, shouldn't be a problem.

EasyN F2 series.

TRENDNet 672

LogiLink WC0008A

More features will be supplement (with snapshot) in this post later (whenever I finished the development).

Ok, let's see what's new in the single view:

Please note these snapshot are just for preview, the final version might be different:)

Basically I decided to put some frequently used functions onto the panel as buttons: Pan-scan, tile-scan, zooming in/out. As for preset positions, only first 4 could be accessed directly, the rest is hiding in "Goto".

Update 1 on June 6:

1) In app live tile

2) Share camera setting with a link by email or SMS

For those who are interested to get a beta for your WP8, please kindly contact me via this link:

http://www.jerryhuang.net/contact.aspx

And provide the following info in your message:

• Windows Live Id that using on your phone, in case you have no idea what is Live Id, it's the default email account on your phone, normally the first one
• What phone you are using
• Brand and Model No of your camera

In case your camera does support audio while not listed above, feel free to provide me access info and I would be more than happy to check if could be added.

If you are from US or your Live Id's country setting configured as US, you will notice that something is seriously wrong on the Windows Phone store (marketplace) about ranking: The display order of "Top" apps in all categories (except the "All" one) seem reversed on this morning. Please have a look at the photos I just took: 

This problem apply to the web market as well:

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/top-paid-apps/music-video/musicandvideo 

As you could see, most of the "top" apps do not have or have very few review and rating. I hope Microsoft could resolve this as soon as possible. Yesterday my IP CAM Controller was ranking at the top 11 position in the "Music + Video" category.

The new version (BTW Microsoft finally support 4 digits version number) contains a new function - to share your camera's snapshot to social networks (Facebook and Twitter at the moment). How to do it? Pretty simple...

1) tap the share button (the 4th button at the bottom)

2) Choose which social network you would like to share

3) One off: if this is the first time you choose the social network, you will need to input your username and password of Facebook (in this case) and authorized my app to post update on behalf of you

4) then input the message (a.k.a status update), and share

Multi-View has been enhanced from this version, and free to use for trial users (while the new grouping functionis for paid version only).

How to use:

1) tap "Multi View" icon

2) select cameras you would like to put into your view

3) tap save button (at bottom) and enter a name to save current grouping

4) done

Note:

• Multi View is mainly for people who own many (at least more than 1, obviously) camera, with which you are able to view multiple cameras in one screen at the same time. You can even control each of them by tapping on image from this view!
• Grouping is even more powerful if you want to have different views for different group of cameras, e.g. a view for cameras in building #1 another for building #2, etc.

For some reason, I need a calendar control in a WP7 app, a special one, or a simple one. However, within the most exciting Metro world, it doesn't easy to get high sometimes - officially you don't have calendar control, you need to google it and, you don't have too many opotions after google. This is one of the biggest problem of WP7 development in my opinion. There is too few controls for developers to use.

Anyway, the control I need is a months view calendar that shows 12 months of the year and probably highlighted the current month. The year could be changed somehow. Eventually I found the regular calendar here:

http://adayofrequiem.blogspot.hk/2012/03/month-view-calendar-for-wp7.html

It said it's a "month-view-calendar" but it''s not really the month-view in this article, so based on the author's source code, I made my own MothView control. Take a look:

It doesn't look very excited, you may need to decorate a little to make it looks pretty. Here is the full source code:

monthview.rar (174.37 kb)

I'm glad to annance that the v2.0 has been released to marketplace:)

V2.0 Relase Note
* App upgrades to Mango
* digital zooming
* pin camera to start and live tile update
* support new cameras: TP-Link, COMPRO, Level One, WansView,LogiLink
* new language: Swedish
* gesture support for pan and tilt scan
* Alarm and IR toggle for foscam, light toggle for axis

the new version is now based on the Mango WP7, that's why you will have those cool features like pin to start and live tile.

Although the Nokia officially annanced that the pre-order starts from Dec 2, I have just verified by myself that Nokia Lumia 800 pre-order could be made right now at Nokia's local store at HK. You need to pay HK$300 deposit for each phone you order. The deposit is un-refundable if you decide to cancel the order while it will count into the total amount when you pick up the phone and pay the rest.
 
According to the staff, the free earphone offer is available per phone if you place the order now. However, it won't be shipped with the phone at Dec 12, it will be provided later instead.
 
In case you are wondering, I ordered 3 lumia 800 myself at the Nokia store which next to Time Square at Causeway Bay.
 

• Price at HK$4,398
• online pre-order starts from Dec 2
• deliver at Dec 12
• free Nokia WH-920 Purity earphone offer to the first 2000 orders
• 3 colors available: Blue, Pink and Black
• built-in local Apps include WhatsApp (well, this is not local), OpenRice, MyTV, TownGas, AAStock, HK Weather (mango update)
• Internet Sharing will not be available initially, but will be avaialbe through update or download

Whatsapp just released its beta, it's private beta however, so you are not able to download from market. However, you could directly download from here if your phone is dev unlocked:)

WhatsApp.rar (873.45 kb)

It's not quite stable however. It directly access to all your phone contacts and add those who already used whatsapp to a "favs" list. Then you could send message from people in that list, but it seems couldn't locate my overseas friends whose phone number have a country code prefix. You can also see all your contacts in an "all" list, but sometimes it crashs when I scroll down the list.