My first WP7 app: Speedo Plus

Since spending quite a bit of time on the roads last week, I was desperate for an aesthetically pleasing speedometer app for Windows Phone 7. After sampling the Marketplace, I realized sometimes you just have to get down and dirty to make an app just the way you want.

Having read, written about and evangelized the WP7 development ecosystem for a while now, it’s always good to walk the walk. With MSDN documentation in one hand and Visual Studio in the other, my first app “Speedo Plus” is now available in the Marketplace.

As anyone who’s seen my code would attest to my amateur C# skills, I make no guarantees on the quality of the code except for the fact that it works, or at least have fooled myself and the Marketplace testers. The design and UX however I do make guarantees about.

The tools were great, documentation was a little patchy but making it was a lot of fun, even though certification was frustratingly unpredictable (i.e. the same app passed and failed on policy 2.7.3).

The app is essentially free. The trial is fully featured and does not display ads. Buy the app for US$0.99 only if you want to support me and I look forward to everyone’s feedback.

35 insightful thoughts

  1. Can can you put up a microsoft tag for the app for those of us on mango? Its so much easier to just scan it πŸ™‚

  2. Its beautifully simple, something you don’t see very often from applications. Congrats!

  3. Your so smug aren’t you long with your fancy new app and everything?

    Well, let me tell you something: I have been writing applications since way before you were born – my first application I wrote back in 1964 was for the IBM System/360 and even that puts your Speedo Plus app to great shame! Somehow, I doubt your programming skills can beat my verteran programming standards!

    And because I have worked with computers for other purposes as well since 1956, I don’t think you quite posess the level of computer expertise that I do!

    1. I keep reading to look for a “j/k” somewhere at the end but didn’t see it, I guess he was serious πŸ™‚

  4. At first I thought this was a bit of a pointless app but I had a look and love the idea of the windscreen mode. I’ll give it a go on the train home!

    Any reason you chose to use the tap and tap/hold option as opposed to a … menu bar at the bottom?

    Also, this is the first time I’ve scanned a Tag with Bing Vision in Mango. Works really nicely, seemed a lot quicker than the QR codes I’ve been scanning.

  5. Long, you are truly one of the few people that gives Windows users hope that better UI can still exist on Windows. Thank you for your work! I only wish there were more focus on design in the Windows ecosystem; there’s so few new apps on Windows today it’s pitiful.

    At any rate, as far as mobile goes, I’m an iOS user now, but if I used a WP7 I’d definitely grab your app. Keep up the great work!

  6. congratulations man. Looks great & practical. I’ve been working on my app since November and making very slow progress. Released 1.0 to the marketplace a few weeks back only to revoke it later after I played w/ it more on my actual Mango device and found quite a few bugs.

    I hope yours fares better!

  7. Love the app Long. Thanks, helps me out cause I was about to buy a new speedo becuse mine is broken. One small thing though, On the Marketplace your third screenshot is inverted.

  8. Long, I will be buying the app just to show some support for WP7 and my favorite Windows blogger! πŸ™‚

    Now if you could just develop a good Remote Desktop application, I’d be thrilled! πŸ˜€

  9. Thanks for the App Long! Very simple and minimal, I hope others follow suit. I bought the App as well, you deserve it!!!

  10. What phone hardware features does this require? Would it be trivial to port it also to the Zune HD using XNA?

  11. bought~ i really like the windshield mode, but my car’s dash is too steep so i gotta rig it somehow =(

  12. Downloaded, tried, liked, paid for it. Well done, really nice, simple Metro implementation. If only there were more that took the Metro ideal and applied it so successfully.

    So, App 2?

  13. I really like this app, and find it very useful too. Where I live there are traffic cameras and the max speed alert feature is awesome. Just two minor enhancements for future releases: One: I wish I don’t have to activate manually the alert every time I start the app, it should remember that I have this feature active and alert me every time. Two: Depending on ambient noise the alert could be hard to notice, it would be nice if we can select the alert and if one of them is VERY loud, plus having the nimbers intermittent or turn red will do the trick… Cheers!

    1. Thanks for the feedback. I’ve submitted a new version to the Marketplace with both requests – alerts are now saved and the alert noise is made slightly louder by default.

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