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Captivate features questions

I have had my windows phone for a couple of weeks, the HTC Surround. I went to the AT&T store and was looking at the Captivate. Did some quick browsing and to my surprise everything worked. I loved the icon format, the animated background, the ease of navigation, the multitasking, the sound was ok, it looked like flash was supported. I did not get to view any movies but the screen looked good. So I am thinking about exchanging my Surround. But I need a few questions answered.
1. Are there many available (free) apps
2. Does the software convert movies, and is the movie player included
3. Is there a FM radio built in
4. what is the available storage
thanks for any help
panflute

panflute said:
I have had my windows phone for a couple of weeks, the HTC Surround. I went to the AT&T store and was looking at the Captivate. Did some quick browsing and to my surprise everything worked. I loved the icon format, the animated background, the ease of navigation, the multitasking, the sound was ok, it looked like flash was supported. I did not get to view any movies but the screen looked good. So I am thinking about exchanging my Surround. But I need a few questions answered.
1. Are there many available (free) apps
2. Does the software convert movies, and is the movie player included
3. Is there a FM radio built in
4. what is the available storage
thanks for any help
panflute
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone running 2.1 does not support flash 10.1 but there are froyo roms in the development section that do.
The android market has many free apps.
The stock video player supports many formats but if you need to convert I'd suggest handbrake.
Currently there is no FM radio support and I'm not sure if there ever will be.
16GB internal and an external micro sd card slot.
Sent from my Captivate

3rd party apps?
Is the phone open for 3rd party apps or just the apps thru AT&T?
Is there an IRC chat client or a police scanner?
What about video news and AM/FM talk radio apps?
Any GPS apps?
thanks

You can sidelad apps if you read a "how to" here in XDA there are also more than 100,000 apps in the android market and I would say that at least 40,000 are free, switch to android, wp7 will die soon, plus the captivate will have true expandable storage. Seeing as how you can't even get official WP7 SD cards and u can use any SD with android.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

got it
AT&T exchanged my Surround for the Captivate (Galaxy S) today. So far very happy. Better everything except the Surround had more sound, but its an OK tradeoff. I liked this phone the moment I saw it. Plenty of free apps, there's even an IRC client. Thanks for the advice. I'll be hanging around here learning the phone
-panflute

rooting phone
OK I got handbrake...not sure what is the right extension and resolution is best or what it will allow.
Does rooting your phone reset the phone back to default or do your settings and programs remain intact?
I enabled USB debugging mode, and now when i go back to the USB menu I now see 4 options (kies,media player, mass storage, and ask on connection)...is that right?
When i connect and choose media player the phone appears on my PC...if i choose mass storage, a new drive letter appears but i cannot access the phone...maybe it is becasue I dont have an SD card installed?
After rooting, should i delete the update.zip file on my phone?
thanks

Rooting gives you access to system files and folders. Nothing is lost unless you do a factory reset or master clear.

File Manager?

Has anyone found out if there is a File Manager? One which can access network shares on a wlan? Or one available as an app?
If no, sticking with Android...

There is no local File Manager. Apps that can access remote Network Shares are already available on WP7.5. Given that WP8 allows Apps to launch other Apps that support certain file types you could use one of those Apps (when they are updated to WP8) to grab a Video from your NAS-Box and launch it in the built in Video Player.

StevieBallz said:
... you could use one of those Apps (when they are updated to WP8) to grab a Video from your NAS-Box and launch it in the built in Video Player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great, thanks for the info. Could not find it googling. And you guessed what I'd like local and/or network share access for: playing media at home from the NAS. Will need to check out Windows Phone 8 at a store, maybe upgrade the phone hardware soon.

hardy81 said:
Great, thanks for the info. Could not find it googling. And you guessed what I'd like local and/or network share access for: playing media at home from the NAS. Will need to check out Windows Phone 8 at a store, maybe upgrade the phone hardware soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most NAS boxes currently support UPnP or DLNA servers. This can be played through various software. Before jumping in I'd still wait to see if the required Apps are updated to allow for a seemless transition because at release the Apps are almost certain to not have been updated (given that the SDK was just released yesterday). So the possibility is there but at the moment the Software isn't really.
Might be worth checking wether your Media Files are currently stored in a format supported by the phone, given that similar to iOS WP is pretty picky when it comes to file formats.

Windows Phone 8 questions

Based on what I've seen today it still has no:
- system dictionary for definition lookup(only for predictive text). The Kindle App does nothing when I press & hold on a word, unlike on my iOS device.
- hi-speed media scrubber for music. you know the little round knob on the progress bar that allows you to move the time index to any point in a song or video.
- unified search aka Local Search(apps, music, videos, contacts, emails)

The music app is pretty bad. I had several attempts to build a proper one, but the developer can not interact with the music library, other than playing existing playlists or songs.
You can't make custom playlists(actually you can, but it very, very, VERY complicated and prone to error and simply does not worth the shot), change the order of music inside the list and stuff like that for a third party app, and that sucks.
There are no new APIs for XNA (which is used to access the songs in the phone) so there is no way of making one.
If there is something I can say it is not right on WP, that's the music app.

mcosmin222 said:
The music app is pretty bad. I had several attempts to build a proper one, but the developer can not interact with the music library, other than playing existing playlists or songs.
You can't make custom playlists(actually you can, but it very, very, VERY complicated and prone to error and simply does not worth the shot), change the order of music inside the list and stuff like that for a third party app, and that sucks.
There are no new APIs for XNA (which is used to access the songs in the phone) so there is no way of making one.
If there is something I can say it is not right on WP, that's the music app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does that imply that there´s the same limitation for video? ...and ...as a result of that a videoplayer with support for more codecs is very unlikely to ever happen?

TarKin said:
Does that imply that there´s the same limitation for video? ...and ...as a result of that a videoplayer with support for more codecs is very unlikely to ever happen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The File-Assosciation feature in WP8 works like this. Your App can define certain file endings (e.g. .mkv) which it can handle. If those are found on a SD-Card or downloaded the according registered App is then started for those files. The App can then do whatever it is it does as long as it keeps to reading the file (the original can't be manipulated although the app could copy it into it's isolated storage and manipulate it their). But there is one Caveat - there are several file extensions that are reserved for the OS which means that 3rd party Apps can't register for them. One of them is .mp3. Avi is another one of those (you can look them up in MSDN).
.mkv on the other hand is an extension that Windows Phone itself does not know so people could build Apps that would be able to consume them. Given that we now have Native Code capabilities writing a decoder or recompiling one written for another platform is possible, though it remains to be seen wether anyone will put the effort into it.

StevieBallz said:
The File-Assosciation feature in WP8 works like this. Your App can define certain file endings (e.g. .mkv) which it can handle. If those are found on a SD-Card or downloaded the according registered App is then started for those files. The App can then do whatever it is it does as long as it keeps to reading the file (the original can't be manipulated although the app could copy it into it's isolated storage and manipulate it their). But there is one Caveat - there are several file extensions that are reserved for the OS which means that 3rd party Apps can't register for them. One of them is .mp3. Avi is another one of those (you can look them up in MSDN).
.mkv on the other hand is an extension that Windows Phone itself does not know so people could build Apps that would be able to consume them. Given that we now have Native Code capabilities writing a decoder or recompiling one written for another platform is possible, though it remains to be seen wether anyone will put the effort into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok. i was mainly into psp dev. before, and never had a winphone in my hands so far.
but if you say that´s possible, then i´ll go for the lumia920, reg. for a dev account and see what i can do

StevieBallz said:
The File-Assosciation feature in WP8 works like this. Your App can define certain file endings (e.g. .mkv) which it can handle. If those are found on a SD-Card or downloaded the according registered App is then started for those files. The App can then do whatever it is it does as long as it keeps to reading the file (the original can't be manipulated although the app could copy it into it's isolated storage and manipulate it their). But there is one Caveat - there are several file extensions that are reserved for the OS which means that 3rd party Apps can't register for them. One of them is .mp3. Avi is another one of those (you can look them up in MSDN).
.mkv on the other hand is an extension that Windows Phone itself does not know so people could build Apps that would be able to consume them. Given that we now have Native Code capabilities writing a decoder or recompiling one written for another platform is possible, though it remains to be seen wether anyone will put the effort into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had the chance to look over what the native code can do and what it can't do, but it is to be expected that it will have limitations, just like C# has.

You can render images (obviously) and output them using Direct3D which is pretty much what e.g. VLC does on the Desktop. You have complete read access to files on the SD-Card for your registered filetypes. MKV could be registered, MP3 or AVI could not (because they are in use by the system already).
But of course you would not be able to offload processing to the dedicated decoding units like with the built-in Codecs, which will mean more processor utilization and worse battery life. Still as a programmer I don't see too many actual road blocks (but it's a bumpy road to do this to be sure).
@TarKin: before you drop the money perhaps it would be best to start looking into the SDK. I'm not an expert in Multimedia-programming by any measure so you might be able to spot problems in there beforehand.
If you're still going for a L920 with these uncertainties for your use-case: welcome to the family, I'm anxiously awaiting mine.

What in built libraries I can use to protect my videos ?

I want to write my own c#/XAML/javascript code for phone 8 (so that I learn a bit of coding related o phone 8) for keeping all my videos safe by a password.
I want to create a app which will ask user a numeric password when user tries to play a video from my phone. So, how can I implement it ?
p.s. I'm not asking for exact code to do it. I want to know how I can achieve this feature through c#/XAMl/javascript code

1. Create screen for entering password on open of App
2. If it's true, open the Application isolated Storage area
3. If not, quit it.
4. If you want to add a video [secure it], open the library and ask user to select the video, copy it to your app isolated storage area and remove from original library.
5. to un-secure it, you can follow the reverse step.

That is not locking a video .
I want to lock a video in its present location, I mean without cut-paste soln. you gave. . But my intent behind asking question was, is it possible to have a lock on a video or all videos together without copy-paste or cut paste from it's original location ?

Apps have no way of interfering with system functions: that includes access to the image/video library. So: you can't implement that feature in the way you described.

there are some apps in the store that can insert media into the system media folders like music videos etc..
How do they do it? That's a very good question....

They do something similar, that is they import files and then you have delete the video from original location .
And this is one reason for me to develop my own app to protect my videos.

StevieBallz said:
Apps have no way of interfering with system functions: that includes access to the image/video library. So: you can't implement that feature in the way you described.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, you mean I cant develop it . So, is it possible to develop something like applock (for android) which lock apps but not individual video. I'll lock the video player itself if it is possible

[Q] Things to know before beginning a music player app for WP8

First of all, hello to everybody. I have just joined xdaDevelopers.
To business now..
I recently bought my first Windows Phone (Nokia Lumia 520). One of the reasons for getting it was for developing my own WP8 apps.
I would like to start with a music player app - one that can play mp3 files from phone memory and SD card; arrange songs according to name, albums and artists; create playlists; have capabilties of fast foward and rewind (seeking); and recognise album arts.
What do I need to know before I can start building it?
I have zero experience in app development; I am a web designer.
I noticed that there are very few "polished" music players (which function properly as well as have a nice UI) in the WP store. Any particular reason for that (other than the platform being relatively new)?
I created this post mainly because the lack of quality music players appeared a bit strange to me. I have heard that a particular file type can be accessed by only one app (please correct me if I am wrong). So does it mean that one has to somehow uninstall the default music player in order to use the newly downloaded one?
For instance, I have "Adobe Reader" which can read PDFs from my MicroSD card. But the "PDF Reader" app (which I installed just yesterday) cannot even find them! So I had to uninstall the latter.
So I wanted to know if there was something about WP8 that doesn't allow such things - if these "security measures", which render apps like file managers less useful, are also responsible for the lack of music players in this otherwise very fantastic platform.
Please note that I come from Android, and am very new to Windows Phone platform. So kindly point out if there's something incorrect about my assumptions.
Thanks and regards.

Hi,
Welcome to Windows Phone. The Lumia 520 is a great choice in my humble opinion. In regards to why there are so few music apps, there are probably several reasons. One such is the fact, that the easiest way to make one is to integrate with the built-in music features, which however limits you in several ways, like not being able to add more file types, not being able to customize the experience too much, playlisting is limit as far as I know, which basically puts you in the position, that the only actual improvement you can do upon that is implementing a new streaming service. The other route is to implement your own music player, but then you're going to have issues making it work in the background (not to mention, that implementing a music player isn't entirely simple).
gdebojyoti said:
What do I need to know before I can start building it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Make sure you have hardware for it. I recommend a minimum of Windows 8 Pro 64bit, but you can find instructions for Windows 7 on this forum as well. You'll need VT-x support on your CPU, plenty of RAM.
2. Download and install the WP8 SDK.
3. Once you open Visual Studio, you can start by creating a new project, you'll need a UI project (I recommend Windows Phone App or HTML5 App templates) and a music playback project (WP Audio Playback Agent -OR- WP Audio Streaming Agent).
4. For tutorials on how to get started I usually go to Pluralsight.com, because I have a subscription there, and they're plain awesome, but I'm sure there are a bunch of other sources as well, which are for free.
gdebojyoti said:
For instance, I have "Adobe Reader" which can read PDFs from my MicroSD card. But the "PDF Reader" app (which I installed just yesterday) cannot even find them! So I had to uninstall the latter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have both Adobe Reader and PDF Reader installed, once you tap on a PDF file (say after downloading one in IE) an option should appear for you to select which app you wanna open it with.
gdebojyoti said:
So I wanted to know if there was something about WP8 that doesn't allow such things - if these "security measures", which render apps like file managers less useful, are also responsible for the lack of music players in this otherwise very fantastic platform.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can install and use as many audio/music apps you like, but obviously only one can have the background music feature used at one time. (You can only have one music playing in the background).
Also:
"Developers must pay an annual subscription fee of $99, (this, according to Todd Brix, the General Manager for Windows Phone Apps and Store team, is currently on an ongoing promotion at $19) to become an App Hub member and submit apps to the Windows Phone Store. There's no limit on the number of free submissions for paid apps. There's a limit of 100 free submissions for free apps; thereafter, there's a fee of $19.99 per submission for free apps." - Wikipedia
Hope I helped, and happy coding!
:fingers-crossed:

@TheGoldrocker: Thank you for your reply. It did clear up quite a few things.
As of now, I am okay with "integrating with the built-in music features" as you said.
What I want to do is modify the UI and UX a bit. Some of the features can be as follows -
1. Introducing a scroll bar;
2. Option to get rid of the grouping system by name;
3. Control over the font size;
4. Allowing the currently playing song to continue if I select the song (currently it starts playing from the beginning);
5. Enabling the seeking feature (tapping the timeline of the song so as to play from that point of time);
6. Having a tile feature in the start screen with options to pause, change song, etc (number of options would depend upon the length of the song);
7. Showing the album art of the currently playing song in the tile;
8. Having an animated background in the app (just a wide photo which slowly slides from left to right).
Am I allowed to do the above?

You're welcome.
"Integrating with the built-in music features" doesn't mean you get to rewrite the UI/functionality of the current Music+Videos app. What it means is, you get to use the built-in classes for simplifying music playback in your new app. You'll still have to build up a new UI around your classes, you'll also have to write quite a few lines of code for the playback functionality (but obviously way less than if you tried to write your own music player from scratch).
Now sadly I cannot answer all of your questions with absolute certainty, because I haven't tried writing a music player yet, but I'll give them a shot.
I numbered your list:
gdebojyoti said:
1. Introducing a scroll bar;
2. Option to get rid of the grouping system by name;
3. Control over the font size;
4. Allowing the currently playing song to continue if I select the song (currently it starts playing from the beginning);
5. Enabling the seeking feature (tapping the timeline of the song so as to play from that point of time);
6. Having a tile feature in the start screen with options to pause, change song, etc (number of options would depend upon the length of the song);
7. Showing the album art of the currently playing song in the tile;
8. Having an animated background in the app (just a wide photo which slowly slides from left to right).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Yes, since you'll have to make a new UI from scratch, and you'll have the ability to include any logic behind it you want.
2. Yes, the grouping can be avoided AFAIK.
3. Same as 1.
4. Same as 1.
5. Don't think so. Someone else with more knowledge will have to answer this to be sure, though.
6. If you mean a tile on the start screen, which, when tapped will play/stop/next/prev/whatever and STAY on the start screen? No. Tiles (sadly) always open a program (even if for only a millisecond). You can use this for deeplinking to favorite songs/playlists/streaming services though, which is cool.
7. Same as 1.
8. Same as 1.
Hope I helped.

Thank you for your reply.
TheGoldrocker said:
6. If you mean a tile on the start screen, which, when tapped will play/stop/next/prev/whatever and STAY on the start screen? No. Tiles (sadly) always open a program (even if for only a millisecond). You can use this for deeplinking to favorite songs/playlists/streaming services though, which is cool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By "deeplinking", do you mean pinning songs to the start screen by 'long pressing' on them?
I do hope that Microsoft introduces interactive tiles in some future update. Sort of start screen widgets.

gdebojyoti said:
By "deeplinking", do you mean pinning songs to the start screen by 'long pressing' on them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Deeplinking is launching an app with a link toward a specific page with parameters. Imagine it as a URL to a specific page on a website. If your app and pages support it, you could tap on a tile (say on the start screen), which opens your app, and instantly navigates to a playlist, album, song, whatever you made that tile link to.
Pinning items to the start screen can be triggered by anything you want. You, the coder, decides how you're gonna allow the user to pin their songs/albums/playlists/artists/whatever.
Here's a little tutorial on this topic:
http://wp.qmatteoq.com/first-steps-...-links/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Okay, thanks. I'll have a look at that.

To make a media player for windows phone is to know insanity.
Why we no join forces?
There are a couple fo things the guys here forgot to tell you:
You can not read Mp3 files from SD card.
You can not read mp3 files from the user music folder.
You only have access to web resources or your app's isolated storage.
You basically have to engineer a way to get them to the app storage.

mcosmin222 said:
To make a media player for windows phone is to know insanity.
Why we no join forces?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think I have enough knowledge to be able to help you. I am just a beginner.
mcosmin222 said:
You can not read Mp3 files from SD card.
You can not read mp3 files from the user music folder.
You only have access to web resources or your app's isolated storage.
You basically have to engineer a way to get them to the app storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's why I will try to "integrate with the built-in music features". Hopefully it will be okay then.
I am not trying to make the next best thing in the music player app category.
I am just trying to make one which has a slightly different UI and is able to play mp3s.
Sort of a project of mine.
By the way, can someone please tell me if I can use technologies like HTML5 to create this app? Actually I don't know C#.
Or should I learn C# before attempting this app?

gdebojyoti said:
I don't think I have enough knowledge to be able to help you. I am just a beginner.
Well, that's why I will try to "integrate with the built-in music features". Hopefully it will be okay then.
I am not trying to make the next best thing in the music player app category.
I am just trying to make one which has a slightly different UI and is able to play mp3s.
Sort of a project of mine.
By the way, can someone please tell me if I can use technologies like HTML5 to create this app? Actually I don't know C#.
Or should I learn C# before attempting this app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can not integrate with the built-in player.
There are too many limitations to explain. You will see.
Yes, learn C#

Okay.