WPF Real-World Apps for Windows Vista - Part 2

Many of you have probably seen some of the popular WPF real-world apps, like the New York Times Reader (if you have a NYT subscription, you can now take your experience to a new level). So instead of starting with the more known apps, I thought I should start with some new ones that you may not have seen so far. While we may be familiar with many of the US based companies providing WPF solutions, we are also seeing many new and exciting experiences being created all around the world. Last week, our team in Japan sent me some really cool WPF apps which I have highlighted below (BTW, some of these apps have audio too).

Windows Vista/WPF Real-World: Weather News

https://weathernews.com/wpfglobal.xbap

As a weather information provider, Weather News wanted to provide customers with rich 3D functionality and flexible animation of global view of weather with real time weather mapping and zoom in and out. Be sure to click the different views on the bottom, like clouds, day-night, and world climate.

Windows Vista/WPF Real-World: Microsoft Japan (Windows Vista Web Showcase)

https://labs.microsoft.com/japan/xbap/dominoken.xbap

Microsoft Japan leveraged the UI and media/3D functionality of WPF to provide customers with a beautifully crafted interactive experience. This one is powered by Bascule. I really liked the energy of this app. And the scenario looks interesting too. Crank up the audio for this one, hear the chef’s noodles sizzle in the pan, and if you are listening carefully, hear the restaurant customer burp while eating the noodles…the attention to detail makes it so real.

Notice the intensive use of 3D. Clearly, 3D is really popular in Japan.  

Another thing I noticed is how many of these apps use WPF deployment model of XBAPs or XAML Browser Applications (another WPF deployment option is installed/windows stand-alone apps). XBAPs are Windows applications that run in a partial-trust sandbox within IE on Windows Vista, XP or Server 2003.  WPF Security is important to application developers, and this partial trust model allows a subset of WPF functionality to be supported securely.

As you can see, there are a lot of new WPF enabled applications that not only provide business solutions, but also are very cool and fun to use. Other cool WPF applications also from Japan I have seen include Impress Japan, Shiseido and Microsoft Japan (special site of TV program).

And, if you want to share your app description/screen shot/link, let me know.

Namaste!