This makes Flashlight 7 the only app on the market to support constant LED light under the lock screen as well as probably the most feature rich and handy app available.

So grab the update now, what ever language you may have set your phone to:

• In English: Flashlight 7
• In French: Lampe de Poche 7
• In German: Taschenlampe 7
• In Spanish: Linterna 7
• In Italian: Torcia Elettrica 7
• In Portuguese: Lanterna 7
• In Chinese: 闪光灯7
• In Czech: Svítilna 7
• In Danish: Lommelygte 7
• In Dutch: Zaklamp 7
• In Finnish: Taskulamppu 7
• In Greek: Φακός 7
• In Hungarian: Zseblámpa 7
• In Japanese: 懐中電灯7
• In Korean: 플래쉬라이트 7
• In Norwegian: Lommelykt 7
• In Polish: Latarka 7
• In Russian: Фонарик 7
• In Swedish: Ficklampa 7

And here’s a screenshot of the LED:

Enjoy!

And finally some pictures: the app running on a Samsung Omnia 7 and some screenshots of the application. Hope you enjoy the app, grab it from the Marketplace here, it’s free!

Main features of the application are:

• Find bus stops based on your location, by service number or by bus stop codes
• Mark stops as favorites and access them with a simple swipe on the main screen
• Acess the most recently viewed stops from the main screen
• Get automatic Lothian bus service alerts
• … all designed to blend perfectly with your Windows Phone with beautiful Metro design

(A note as to why I chose this name versus Edinburgh Bus Tracker or EdinBus: should you not pin the app to the start page it’s somewhat a drag to scroll all the way down to “E” to start the app. Changing the name to start with “B” seemed to put it at my fingertips in the long list app selector as well).

For more information and screenshots, visit the Bus Tracker Edinburgh home page.

If you’re an Edinburgh resident I hope you’ll find it useful on your everyday commute. (And if the lack of this application was stopping you getting a WP7 you can now reconsider it ) Enjoy!

I originally created the control so that I could dynamically configure ads appearing on Flashlight 7 based on ad culture. In the US I normally prefer using PubCenter as it usually has the highest eCPM, outside of the US I would switch between other providers (AdMob, InnerActive and AdDuplex for promoting of the app). The main reason for changing the ratios of ad providers was that I wanted to experiment how showing more AdDuplex ads impacts downloads of the app – with this little tool I can do so when eCPM has gone somewhat down (Note: I’ve actually found AdDuplex have a positive effect on app downloads and use it despite higher eCPMs as well).

The control allows setting up of ad probabilites based on culture, so its possible to configure (and update) such a configuration as this:

• US: 80% PubCenter, 10% InnerActive, 5% AdMob, 5% AdDuplex ads
• Germany: 80% AdMob, 10% PubCenter, 10% AdDuplex
• France: 100% AdMob
• Other: 25% PubCenter, 25% InnerActive, 25% AdMob, 25% AdDuplex

Read the project description and the WP7 ad rotator documentation on more details on how to integrate the control into projects.

Hope you find this tool useful!

• 18 May, Wednesday, Newcastle at NEBytes
• 24 May, Tuesday, London, Fulham at Tech.Days 2011

Some useful resources to get started with:

• Jeff Wilcox’s Metro Design Guide – an excellent, hands on design guide from the creator of the highly rated 4th and Mayor WP7 application
• Metro in Motion Effects by Colin Eberhardt- examples of creating animations that “feel” Metro
• Conceptual ‘Metro’ Application – USGA Golf, created by Microsoft

Slides of the talk:

The most important things we’ve added this update are the following:

• Valentine’s day cocktails – nearly 30 delicious, themed drinks are added to the application in the Valentine’s package
• Packages can be deactivated and activated. This means if you’ve downloaded one of the holiday packages, but aren’t interested in those cocktails during the summer, simply deactivate the package to hide its contents.
• Extended cabinet – we’ve added a few drinks to the cabinet and from now on the cabinet is dynamically growing based on ingredients in packages.
• Search by ingredients – simply start typing the name of an ingredient in the search field and cocktails containing ingredients with that name are also returned.
• Smarter cabinet – if you select dark rum, lime juice and coke in the cabinet, you’ll see that Cuba Libre is suggested as a cocktail that can be mixed, even though the official recipe suggests using white rum, not dark. However, we’ve introduced substitute ingredients, and in the case of Cuba Libre, both white rum and dark rum can be used to mix this drink.

And finally, here are a few screenshots of some of the new cocktails and new features:

Valentine’s Day package and the ability to deactivate (and activate) packages

Search now looks at cocktail ingredients, not just names

So here’s a summary of what’s new:

• We’ve added support for cocktail packages - these can be downloaded within the application for more cocktails.
• We’ve released a Christmas and New Years package with over 50 new, holiday themed cocktail recipes
• Cocktails can be browsed by color as well and we’ve added brandy and champagne to the base drinks category
• New settings: the lock screen can be configured not to turn the application off and the currency can be changed in the shopping assistant

Of course the updates don’t stop with this; new cocktail packages planned to be released continuously. Should you miss some recipes, just send your suggestion on Twitter @cocktailflow.

Here are some screenshots of some of the new, holiday cocktails, the packages and the new start screen. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

User Interface

The user interface has been designed to fit perfectly with the Metro interface of Windows Phone 7, while making the most out of it. It’s both visually stunning, clean, light and intuitive to explore. Some further screenshots:

Features

The application is much more than just a list of cocktail recipes, it also includes the following useful features:

• Virtual cabinet – tap the ingredients (spirits, liqueurs, mixers) and the app will show cocktails you can create from them.
• Shopping assistant – offers ingredients to buy to create further cocktails. Also includes a price indication estimating how much buying the offered ingredients would cost.
• Step by step recipes – all recipes are broken down to simple steps, outlining the creation process in a clear way.
• Categorized lists – cocktails are categorized by base drink (e.g. rum, vodka, gin) and also by type (e.g. classical, tropical, shooter) making it easy to browse related cocktails
• Search as you type – start typing part of the name of the cocktail in any cocktail list and the list will automatically be re-filtered
• Similar cocktails – all cocktail recipes show a list of cocktails you should try if you liked them.
• Getting started guides – the application’s guides explain essentials needed to know to create delicious cocktails
• Amazing photography – all images have been carefully composed to reflect the fantastic experience you’ll feel when drinking them!

Release Information

The application is to be launched as soon as it’s approved in the marketplace, estimated late October. The title is currently exclusive to Windows Phone 7.

Update: estimated release date is 21 October.

Hope you’ll enjoy!

As promised, here’s a list of resources that I think serve as great starting point on cracking on with WP7 development:

• Download the free developer tools. You’ll need Windows Vista or Windows 7 to run them.
• Getting started with WP7 development: learning the WP7 ecosystem. Check out the list of resources I’ve collected that are extremely helpful on getting up to speed with WP7
• Getting started with WP7 development: learning Silverlight. Go through this article if you have no Silverlight/WPF experience. If you want to master WP7 development using Silverlight, first you’ll have to gain basic understanding of Silverlight
• Download the code of the simple demo application I’ve put together on the event. It’s a very simple application, but shows you how to do basic things like navigating between pages, binding data, saving to and loading from isolated storage, using gestures and theming.

Also, here is the slideshow I’ve presented at the event:

Good luck on getting started!