Want to find out the great apps enterprise developers came up with during our AT&T Mobile App Hackathon at IBM Impact 2013?

This last weekend was a big first of many to come. Our hackathons have come a long way since the early days of 2011 and we thank our developers for sticking with us all the way. The AT&T Developer Program worked with AT&T Sustainability and the Environmental Defense Fund this last weekend at TechCrunch Disrupt to challenge developers to build an app that gives buildings a water conservation effenciency score, similar to that of Klout. 

On Wednesday, Microsoft provided a glimpse of the new Windows Phone 8 devices shipping this fall. GigaOm’s Kevin Tofel noted recently in a blog post that the changes to come are precisely what Microsoft needs to help kickstart its Windows Phone sales. For users, increased personalization and features will be a major selling point. For developers, Kevin believes the shared core code between Microsoft’s mobile and desktop platforms will result in not only better hardware choices, but also a stronger application ecosystem and unified experience among phones, tablets and Windows computers.

(Image source: Slashgear)

A recent article from TechCrunch discussing Android fragmentation got us thinking about the increasing number of challenges mobile app developers are facing. The article highlights some research done by OpenSignalMaps tracking 681,900 separate Android devices in 195 countries. The results likely aren’t surprising, but they clearly tell a story of fragmentation, or “differentiation” as stated by Google chairman Eric Schmidt. While this makes it tough for developers, OpenSignalMaps points out in their research that there is a clear benefit for device consumers – “Fragmentation allows users to take their pick from thousands of devices… It's a triumph for Android that as a single OS it can target so many markets.” It may be a triumph for Android, but it’s nearly impossible for most developers to test their apps on all 3,997 distinct Android devices (as found by OpenSignalMaps).

Register today to join the AT&T Developer Program and Microsoft for this free webcast to learn how you can do cross-platform HTML5 based development targeting Windows Phone. HTML5 and Javascript are more and more used by developers who need and want to target multiple mobile platforms with a common code base. Open source framework such as Apache Cordova (previously known as PhoneGap) and jQueryMobile are fully supported on Windows Phone and this session will show you how to use the Cordova tools along with the recently released Metro theme for jQueryMobile to integrate your application into the Windows phone experience.

All attendees can enter to win an AT&T Windows Phone Smartphone. Winner will be notified via email after the Webcast.

Registration Required

Please Note: Registrations must be submitted at least 1 HOUR prior to scheduled event start time in order to be considered for approval.

When: Thursday, May 24th, 10:00-11:00 AM Pacific Time

Register today for Thursday's free webcast, presented by Microsoft Developer Evangelist, Daniel Egan.

In this session you will learn how to take advantage of the global marketplace to increase the reach of your application. We will discuss localization, Globalization, and Strategies for making more money.

Registration is Required

Back in October, Microsoft’s Daniel Egan presented an informative session that went into detail about Windows Phone Mango development, “Windows Phone Deep Dive: Live Tiles, Background Agents, and Augmented Reality Using the Motion API”.

The webcast has been archived, and is available for members to watch on the AT&T Developer Platform website.

In this part, I’ll explain how you can store basic data on the phone from within your application. Start by creating a new Silverlight for Windows Phone Application project as described in Part 1.