Windows Phone Projects Marked Inactive/Private?!?

I noticed this morning that all of the Windows Phone projects (Gospel Library, LDS Tools, etc.) have been marked inactive. The project pages indicate that each project has been made private until the Church determines what next steps will be taken for this application. Is this platform being abandoned?

I've had a WP7 phone for the past 6 months or so, and I really like it, with one exception - it often seems to get left out when it comes to app development.

LDS Tools on my WP7 quit updating. Says it doesn't recognize my username/password.

This is probably due to the eventual rollout next year of Windows 8 and it will have versions for PCs, tablets, and phones right out of the box.

You will get things via an 'app store' setup, probably Zune Marketplace, and one app will be licensed to share on five devices (PCs, phones, tablets, etc) and while that looks good for phone and tablet users, there are a lot of places that will want to still do software through their own locations so how all that will work out with this has yet to be seen.

Target date for release is probably September, unsure if that one means this year or next though. We're really only about two years out from Windows 7, and so this may parallel the period between Windows 2000 and XP in a way.

Can someone who is developing the WP7 apps please respond to this thread? Is there a way to take over the development of these apps if those who are involved do not want to develop for this platform anymore? This is very upsetting that a simple thing like login and apdating the info has been shut off for all those who have downloaded this app. Please give us some info and not speculation as to what is happening.

gjswank wrote:Can someone who is developing the WP7 apps please respond to this thread? Is there a way to take over the development of these apps if those who are involved do not want to develop for this platform anymore? This is very upsetting that a simple thing like login and apdating the info has been shut off for all those who have downloaded this app. Please give us some info and not speculation as to what is happening.

I am working on trying to find someone to respond to this. The first person I contacted had worked on the initial release, but not since then. The person he referred me to just responded to me, and it turns out he is no longer on the project either. But he referred me to someone else. I will continue to follow up until I find someone who can respond.

aebrown wrote:I am working on trying to find someone to respond to this.

See an important update on the authentication problem here.

AndersonJ wrote:I noticed this morning that all of the Windows Phone projects (Gospel Library, LDS Tools, etc.) have been marked inactive. The project pages indicate that each project has been made private until the Church determines what next steps will be taken for this application. Is this platform being abandoned?

I've had a WP7 phone for the past 6 months or so, and I really like it, with one exception - it often seems to get left out when it comes to app development.

Good question. I am interested in the answer also. I am also curious about the Mormon Channel App. At one point it was an active project, but apparently not any more?

jkentner wrote:Good question. I am interested in the answer also. I am also curious about the Mormon Channel App. At one point it was an active project, but apparently not any more?

Hi,

I am the developer on the Mormon Channel application for Windows Phone and I can tell you that I am actively working on it. You should be able to find it in the Marketplace right now.

There is also an update that will be submitted to Microsoft in the next couple days so you should be getting that as soon as it passes certification. It will add a more complete Mormon Channel experience.

Cheers,
Clint

Clint, thanks for chiming in. That is good to know that development is moving forward. After watching the Windows Phone Summit today, Windows Phone is here to stay! It would be nice though to have www.lds.org/mobile updated to show that the mormon channel app is available on Windows Phone.

On a side note, do the different mobile app teams talk? There appears to be a gap in functionality across the platforms (IOS, Android, WP7) in the church developed apps. I don't think there is that much of a limitation in the OS dev capabilities. It just seems like there is no oversight, so each team can put out a different feature set if they choose. Case in point, the Gospel Library on WP7 you can listen to the scriptures or general conference, IOS and Android you can't. In LDS Tools, on Android it pulls in the pictures from lds.org directory of families/individuals, WP7 does not.

@jkenter - Agreed regarding the different features, quality, etc between the different platforms. I am sure there are a number of reasons for this. No doubt that it would be ideal to have the same general features across the board. But I think there is no question that user demand/market penetration and quality of available devices & development tools plays into what features are brought to which platforms.

There is a recent thread in the forums with a user asking for better support for the BlackBerry playbook. In my opinion (as well as market analysts') BlackBerry is a dying platform. Not to mention that even current market penetration for the playbook is tiny. So to me it doesn't make sense to spend resources to growing a platform that is now very small & dying.

I would like to see iOS, Android & Windows8 (including Windows Phone 8) generally sport the same apps & features.

Hi Guys,

Being that I am just a community developer working on Mormon Channel and the only one at that, I have been trying to get features into MC based on my available time. This is one of the reasons why the features are different.

There are still a bunch of ideas that I have that I intend on implementing as time permits.

I also have contributed to LDS Tools.

So, if you have some ideas that you would like to see implemented, please feel free to post them.

Cheers,
Clint

dkmortensen wrote:@jkenter - Agreed regarding the different features, quality, etc between the different platforms. I am sure there are a number of reasons for this. No doubt that it would be ideal to have the same general features across the board. But I think there is no question that user demand/market penetration and quality of available devices & development tools plays into what features are brought to which platforms.

There is a recent thread in the forums with a user asking for better support for the BlackBerry playbook. In my opinion (as well as market analysts') BlackBerry is a dying platform. Not to mention that even current market penetration for the playbook is tiny. So to me it doesn't make sense to spend resources to growing a platform that is now very small & dying.

I would like to see iOS, Android & Windows8 (including Windows Phone 8) generally sport the same apps & features.

I would say there are more playbooks than windows based tablets. Everybody is entitled to an opinion, but I disagree with yours. BlackBerry is not a dying platform.

proubinet wrote:I would say there are more playbooks than windows based tablets. Everybody is entitled to an opinion, but I disagree with yours. BlackBerry is not a dying platform.

Market share isn't particularly a matter of opinion -- you can do the research and see what the market share actually is. According to this study, iOS and Android have over 96% of the tablet OS market, and the others lick up the remaining crumbs. But Microsoft at least got 1.5% of the market -- the Playbook is simply lumped into the "Other" category.

I don't know that I'd say that BlackBerry is "dying" quite yet, but there's no question that its market share is declining. But regardless of anyone's opinions or interpretation of facts, the bottom line for mobile app development for Church apps on platforms other than iOS and Android is that much of the work is done by the the community, and so the platforms where there are more energetic, dedicated developers volunteering their time get more effort. If Playbook were super popular among developers, it would get more attention.

Are any church apps being developed for the new BB10 platform?

clintsinger wrote:Hi Guys,

Being that I am just a community developer working on Mormon Channel and the only one at that, I have been trying to get features into MC based on my available time. This is one of the reasons why the features are different.

There are still a bunch of ideas that I have that I intend on implementing as time permits.

I also have contributed to LDS Tools.

So, if you have some ideas that you would like to see implemented, please feel free to post them.

Cheers,
Clint

I do not see the Mormon Channel app in the Marketplace on WP8?

As far as LDS Tools suggestions:

1)pull in photos from the LDS Directory
2)when mapping an address, please launch Nokia Drive
3)under Calendar, add a function to Add to your Calendar a certain event