iPhone App Wins Microsoft-Campus Programming Contest

imamac writes "Startup Weekend was a 54-hour coding marathon held on Microsoft's campus last weekend. It was designed to encourage the use of MS programming technologies. However, the winner of the contest was an iPhone app: '"Awkward," whispered Startup Weekend organizer Clint Nelsen into the microphone upon announcing the top vote getter.'"

Comments

Apple apps vs. Micro$oft apps

[mollog]

Do'h!!

This could be the end of that little experiment. Rule 1 is don't say anything good about your competitor. I wonder how much air time this will get in the media. And I can see the Apple vs. Microsoft ads now. Sucks to be a 'softie right about now.

Re:Apple apps vs. Micro$oft apps

[Anonymous Coward]

Do'h!! This could be the end of that little experiment. Rule 1 is don't say anything good about your competitor. I wonder how much air time this will get in the media. And I can see the Apple vs. Microsoft ads now. Sucks to be a 'softie right about now.

It has always sucked to be a Microsoftie. Poor bastards, desperate to feel like part of some big team yet anxious to believe that they really did choose Microsoft of their own free will rather than embracing them out of a defeatest sense of "can't beat em, so join em" and, as they are followers, the desire to be as mainstream and corporate as possible. This iPhone app didn't change anything, it just revealed something.

Re:Is there anything

[natehoy]

Use an industry-standard USB cable for charging AND data transfer without having to resort to proprietary cabling?

Replace the battery?

Upgrade the memory?

Access the data onboard using "mass storage" (like USB memory stick) in the operating system of your choice without the need for proprietary software?

Re:Tangential? Maybe, but

[1shooter]

If they made a decent web browser they could be back in the game!

Therein lies the flaw in your reasoning. If indeed.

Re:Encourage use of MS tech by making the SDK free

[dunkelfalke]

You can develop directly on your windows mobile pda.
You can also develop for windows mobile pda under linux.

Re:Encourage use of MS tech by making the SDK free

[Anonymous Coward]

Visual Studio Express is free as are the WinMo SDKs... but they don't work together. If you want to do WinMo development you need Visual Studio Pro, which isn't cheap. (Yes there used to be free tools, but they're deprecated now.)

Re:Encourage use of MS tech by making the SDK free

[SquirrelCrack]

Actually, you can't.

If you want to install your app on an actual phone it has to be signed using a $99 development key.

I really don't think it's that big of a deal, but folks will get bent out of shape about anything. Hell, if I really cared, I could pay one windows box worth of dollars, then buy visual studio, then buy a Windows Mobile phone, and avoid paying $99 dollars to run my custom application on my phone.

Re:Encourage use of MS tech by making the SDK free

[kalidasa]

No, if you want to develop applications for distribution to other customers, it'll cost you $100. You can install on your own phone in various other ways.

Re:Who created whom?

[mvdwege]

Without Apple, chances are Microsoft would still be a Cygnus-like little shop writing interpreters and compilers for hardware manufacturers.

Microsoft had two big breaks that made them what they are: the Z80 card for the Apple II and the contract to provide PC-DOS. And arguably, without the reputation MS built in the CP/M world with the SoftCard, they might not have gotten the IBM deal.

Mart