New Windows Mobile Smartphone Landscape Emulator Available

Good news for Windows Mobile developers eager to test their applications on (presumably) forthcoming devices - there's a new emulator for Visual Studio 2005 that simulates a 320 by 240 landscape-mode Smartphone device. Is there no end to the permutations of screens and Pocket PC / Smartphone variations? Probably not.

Hopefully this emulator will help you deal with the growing number of oddly shaped screens out there. It's got a cool keyboard too!

Here's some advice to all Windows Mobile developers: make your applications as smart as possible when it comes to screen size and orientation. We're working on some docs and sample code to make this easier, but really: try to make your application adjust on the fly. Is this a pain? Sure it is, but the more you can future-proof your applications, the better.

Download the emulator here. Make sure to restart Visual Studio after installing, and it will then appear as one of the emulator types you can use when testing your application.

I keep hearing that writing apps to make use of the multiple screen sizes is a big pain point: so we're working on the docs and code, as I said. I also hear that security and application signing is another issue - so again, we're working on some more information on that too. Both should be covered by MEDC.

What other pain points do I need to add to my list?