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Seeing the light
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Microsoft recently released the third version of their web application framework, Silverlight, which enables web developers to create fully featured rich internet experiences for web sites (For those still confused, think of it as a better version of Flash). Along side the Silverlight 3 launch came the launch of Expression Blend 3, the development tool for creating these Silverlight experiences, and inside it comes a few nice little demo applications.
One of them just happens to be a Zune Originals demo app, allowing users to rotate their Zune in 3D, whilst fully customizing it with designs, colours and personalised text. It’s a cool little experiment, and just for you guys to get a taste of it, I’ve uploaded it here for you to check out! (Requires Silverlight 3, obviously! Note that you’ll need as big a window as possible for it to work properly, no netbooks here!)
Also, slightly less news worthy is the fact that I’ve decided to take advantage of Silverlight, and if you’ve been on the site the last few days you’ll have noticed our new features box at the top of the page, with 3D transitions and such. I’ve written it from the ground up in about 3 hours following the Silverlight 3 launch, so there are still a couple of quirks I have it work out, but by and large its usable, and looks kinda nice!! Depending on what you guys think, I may transfer more meaning parts of the site into Silverlight as well to create a far more interactive user experience.
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Bored? Join in with us in the forums!
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Here in London we’ve just had one of those brilliant weekends: The Sun is shining, the air is warm, everyone’s relaxed and taking a break, and the radio’s are up full blast listening to some well chosen Summer beats, and you just sit back and think to yourself; “Hell yes, Summer is nearly here!” It’s been a perfect day for relaxing and socialising and enjoying yourself.
But for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of enjoying such a beautiful day (especially any unlucky people up in Scotland), why not take the jump and join in and socialise in our community forums? We’re all here ready to talk about anything and everything, and hey, maybe we can light up our days with something funny, insightful, thoughtful or utterly charming. Here’s just a couple of things you can jump straight into to get you started and familiarise yourselves with our community!
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Post a picture of your Zune
Simple as, just post a picture of your Zune for us too see! Dress it up, lay it somewhere cool or just take a picture of it being normal, just add it to the collection, and admire everyone else’s! |
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Post your Home Music Set-up
Post a pictured tour of your home music set-up, your bread and butter, your pride and joy on which you enjoy your favourite music, loud and proud. Everyone’s different, whether its your 2 metre high Electrostatic speakers or your run-off-the mill compact audio player, share it with us! |
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Posted by Johnny on 21 Mar 2009 in Other, Site |
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Games Marketplace 2.0
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Update (20/02/09 23:38 GMT): It’s now LIVE! Check out the Games Marketplace here, or click games in the nav bar above, or the link in the nav bar on the right. Enjoy =) Comments and user registration will be coming soon, and I’ll be letting Dev’s know how they can get involved real soon too. Oh, and please visit the Feedback thread in the forums to vote in the poll and, y’know, leave us some feedback on it!
Simple to browse. Pleasing to the eye. Easy to contribute to. Full of everything Zune XNA related. That was my entire design document for the original Games Marketplace. Did I succeed? Well I got the first half I reckon. But that’s not good enough, only reaching half your goal. So I took the entire thing back to the drawing board. I needed to re-think. I scrapped the oddball, re-jiggered forum backend, and decided to find something powerful and flexible enough to achieve my goal. And I found it. Meet the all new Games Marketplace.
Over he last few (looooong) days, I’ve been working on replicating the general interface of the older Marketplace onto our new system, but improving it in the most important area: the download pages themselves! Gone are the hard to read and un-intuitively laid out pages, replaced with cleaner and more clearly laid out ones.
Notable features and changes include:
- Bigger, fatter, chunkier download button, which has been moved up the page from the bottom, to make downloading easier
- CCGAME downloads take centre stage with the download button
- Cleaner, more compact download pages
- File information is now tabled and easier to read
- Ability to upload additional related files (e.g. extra skins, themes, etc)
- Developers now only have to simply fill in the required fields to have their downloads automatically entered to the database
- Advanced sorting options
- Users can now rate downloads
- Users can now comment on and discuss downloads
- New sorting options
- Added “Email to a friend”
Okay, it doesn’t sound like much, but trust me, when you see the new system in action you’ll appreciate how much better it really is. This new system is FAR easier for both games developers and myself to maintain and add games and applications to, as well as FAR easier for users to find and download programs. Hopefully you’ll all like what I’ve done with the place! I’m just putting the finishing touches on it, and within the next 24 hours I’ll open it up to the public!
So then, have I succeeded in my original 4-point plan then? Well, I’m now 3/4’s of the way there, and now the last part is just going to get easier!
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Welcome to The Zoone!!
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So, after 4 long months of on and off development, the zoone is finally ready to launch to the public!!
Inside you’ll find the latest Zune news, detailed articles, games downloads, International Zune guides and more, as well as a friendly social forum community.
Okay. So maybe we’re not quite there yet. But as we head into the new year you should hopefully see the site expand rather rapidly, and the same with our community as a whole heap of new Zune users join us after the Christmas festivities!!
Want to be part of the action? We’re still looking for News Writers, Articles Writers, Graphic Designers and a CMS Programmer to help our site evolve. What ever your experience, feel free to PM Johnny with any offers of help.
Over the next few weeks you can look forward to an improved forum layout and the start of UK & International Zune guides!!
Chat here in the Forums!
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Posted by Charge on 09 Dec 2008 in Site |
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Site Design Copyright 2008 Johnny M.D. Westlake.
Certain design elements based on those used in the official Zune software, no
copyright infringement intended. ZUNE and the ZUNE logo are Trademarks of Microsoft.
This site has no affiliation to Microsoft. News posting powered by WordPress.
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