Weekly Links – January 7 2013

Windows Phone

• Mark Cuban has a Nokia Lumia Windows Phone – and discusses this fact in standard Mark Cuban style, of course.
• Where to buy NFC tags and how to edit them (Adam Fraser) – Some great pointers to getting good NFC tags for sample development
• Registering Extensions in Windows Phone – There are a lot of ways to get your app to integrate with other parts of the device in Windows Phone. Usually, this involves registering an extension (so the device knows to integrate your app appropriately). Here’s a step-by-step guide to doing so.
• Adding a Flip Tile (FlipTileData) in Windows Phone 8 (Matthias Shapiro)
• Windows Phone 8 & 7.x Design Cheat Sheet (Nathalie Belval @nbelval) – A wonderful poster/card summarizing much of the important info for Windows Phone icons, colors, and screens.
• Get the GeoCoordinate of a Tap on the Map Control in Windows Phone 8
• Proximity Tapper NFC sample for Windows Phone 8 & Windows 8
• Adding Tilt in Windows Phone

Windows 8

• Using Windows 8 Metro icons from the font file (Jonathan Antione) –  Using the font “Segoe UI Symbol”, we can add Windows 8 icons to our apps. This also works in Windows Phone 8.
• Windows Store Icon Maker – create icons for Windows Store and Windows Phone 8 quickly and easily

Design, Usability and Stuff

• Windows 8 App Design Sheet (Jeremy Foster @codefoster) – I  much prefer starting my app brainstorms with a pencil and a design sheet rather than staring at a blank screen.
• 8 Reasons C# is the Best Language For Mobile Development
• Chuck Close on Creativity, Work Ethic, and Problem-Solving vs. Problem Creating – “Inspiration is for amateurs – the rest of us just show up and get to work. And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will – through work – bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of…”
• PBS short on Processing and Creative Coding (6 minute video)
• 1000 Gaming Icons – just because
• Dynamic Visuals: Motion, Tweening, and Easing  – I love motion in UIs and @rainypixels recommended this very highly
• Facebook as a clean Modern UI style – I always love these theoretical design excursions
• Lego Mindstorms EV3 – the next generation of Mindstorms. I’m pretty excited.