Category: Uncategorized

How To: Cross Platform Animations with iOS, Android & Windows

With the last post on Xamarin Forms we went over using GZip Compression with Xamarin Forms which helps reduce data going over mobile networks. In this post, we’ll be looking at how to perform some simple animations with Xamarin Forms.

At RedBit we have Kevin, our lead designer, who makes our software and customer software usable and visually appealing. When envisioning and designing a project he suggests subtle animations to provide within the app. Then as a team, along with the customer, decide on what works and what doesn’t and then implement it.

In this article we are going to look at simple animations and sliding a panel in and out from the right side of the screen using Xamarin Forms. This is the end result of this article

show-panel-full-wpshow-panel-full-droid show-panel-full-ios

Continue reading How To: Cross Platform Animations with iOS, Android & Windows

How To: Invoking Methods From Xamarin Test Cloud UITests

test-cloud-logoAs a Xamarin Certified Premier Partner and a Xamarin Test Cloud Partner RedBit has been working with customers implementing iOS and Android apps and automating their test processes using Test Cloud. In that time we have come up with some issues but workarounds were always implemented to accomplish what needed to be done and IApp.Invoke is one of those great workarounds. We used this recently on a project where we needed to test the tapping of a map pin on Android but it just wasn’t available.

In this article, we’ll go through how to use IApp.Invoke to invoke some code in both Android and iOS Xamarin based app. If you are interested specifically in the mapping example leave a comment and we’ll do a write up on that, but for this article, it will go through adding items to a list on both Android and iOS and testing it using UITest.

Continue reading How To: Invoking Methods From Xamarin Test Cloud UITests

Windows Phone End User Quick Tips

Many people using Windows Phone or new to it that I meet don’t know some of the ‘hidden features’ of Windows Phone that make the phone easier to use.  Now I’m talking about completely non-technical people who have decided to get a Windows Phone and I’m sure most regulars readers already know these tips.

Switching Apps (Multitasking)

First switching apps, not many know that you can easily switch between apps using how to easily switch between applications on the phone.  I tend to see people hit the back button over and over to get back to the app they were at or hit the start button to get to the start page.

Quick Tip #1: Hold down the back button and you will get a list of all apps that are currently running.  Scroll through the apps you want, click it and it will come back! If you are coming from iPhone world, it’s like double clicking on the main button to get a list of running apps but I find the Windows Phone experience much better. Check out the Windows Phone How-To on Switching apps. Here is a picture of what to expect:

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Why is Vista Using So Much Memory?


So I’ve been running Vista on a new Dell XPS machine for about a week and things have been going well.  I found this SideBar gadget just to see how my machine was doing.  Everything looked good but the screen shot below was taken when the device just started up.  I’m thinking 53% of memory! C’mon! 



So a little bit of searching and I found this great explanation as to why it’s doing what it’s doing.  If you are like me and thinking “why did I upgrade Vista is such a memory hog” think again.  Vista using all the memory is actually good thing!  Now I’m actually thinking why is there only 53% memory usage 🙂

Falsely Skilled Developers

Bill Ryan comments about a post on breeding falsely skilled developers.  This day and age it’s so true.  Just look at what VS.Net 2005 does for you.  I think it’s great but I also look into what it’s creating and try to understand it.  Now it’s all about “auto generated code” and “cut & paste”.  Wonder if there’s a website called cutandpastecoders.com…just did a quick whois and it’s available!! Probably get a ton of hits this day and age 🙂


Check out my other comments on his site

Epic 2014

Nic Wise posts a link that shows a pretty intresting look at the past from 2014  (so really a look at the future) of how blogs,amazon, tivo and a war between MS and Google revolutionise the news world.  I think it’s pretty scary what they suggest could happen about everyone being a news source and computers putting together news stories.  Companies like New York Times have been virtually eliminated.