Could you tell us about your experience developing apps for Windows Phone?
I loved Windows Phone with its revolutionary idea of live tiles which keeps the user up-to-date without even opening an app. I am pretty impressed with the social networking integrating it has which helps us to be in touch with our buddies all the time.
When it comes to developing apps for Windows Phone, it is very easy, simple and straight forward for a developer to implement his thoughts and give it the shape of an application.
Visual studio is an excellent IDE which does almost half of the work helping the developer to focus on his logic and user interface design rather than managing the boring writing part.
What inspired you to start developing? What age were you when you started?
As every active child, I was very much happy to have a computer in my home and started the journey with computers as a user. I was enthusiastic and wanted to know HOW DO THINGS ACTUALLY WORK? Which lead me to the developing side of the computer applications. My first program was just few lines of batch script!
At the age of 16 I started learning Visual Basic since it doesn't have scary braces kind of stuff( '{' , '}' braces were scary for me because they meant "tough and hard programming"). I did a few Windows forms, WPF and Silverlight apps using Visual Basic. Then I ported to C# since it was recommended.
Then I came across Windows Phone 7.0/7.5 through the I Unlock Joy Program by Microsoft for Students of India. It was a nice opportunity and I started development for Windows Phone. I was successful in developing 4 apps and getting them published in the Windows Phone Store and I won a Windows Phone 7.5 device. I was very glad to achieve it and didn't want to stop there.
I continued Windows Phone app development and now I have 12 apps published in the Windows Phone Store.
Tell us about the apps that you have built:
I would like to share three of my apps in store. The first one and the most difficult one to develop isLZ FTPIt. It is an advanced FTP Manager application for Windows Phone which enables you to manage your server via file transfer protocol. It is user friendly and has a superb user interface. It contains a File Manager to manage local instance of the FTP server is completely custom built and the most appreciated functionality in it is multi select. Most of the operations like upload, download, delete, move, copy work with multi-select which makes it very easy to manage multiple files on a single click.
Second one is the Active WiFi application designed to keep your phone's WiFi connection alive even when your phone is pin locked .This is a paid app and the most downloaded one among all my apps in store.
My third app that I am sharing is one for Windows Phone 8 which makes use of the newly introduced feature in Windows Phone 8 i.e. lock screen API. The app’s name is Dynamic Lock Screen. As the name specifies, this allows you to change your phone's lock screen image from time to time. The images are downloaded from the internet and also the ones which you import from your phone's picture hub.
Is there anything that you have had to overcome while developing? Did you ever hit a bump, what and how did you learn from it?
The first problem I faced was when I started Windows Phone development my PC did not have the necessary system requirements for the emulator to run. I looked for a solution. We have a Microsoft I-Spark Centre at my college which provided me with a PC but I had to stay at college after hours and develop apps for Windows Phone there. I had a little bit of hard time until I got a better laptop. I learned not to step back but just move ahead even when it is difficult, things will be better and probably the best someday .
Do you have any advice for your fellow student developers?
When I started, I faced challenges and some hard times but I came through it as time went on. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. Just do it and then tell the people how hard it was to achieve it, they will appreciate it!
Do you participate in any other Microsoft programs?
Yes, I am a Microsoft Student Partner for the current academic year 2012-2013.
I am a Microsoft Student with a valid DreamSpark account.
I have also participated in I Unlock Joy program for both the seasons IUJ and IUJ: Phase 2, I won Windows Phone devices both times.
How can students connect with you?
Students can find me in the Windows Phone Store, my developer name is Nizam (LeoZues). I can be reached through Facebook, Twitter and my YouTube channel.