Romo second generation protocol has been revealed

It seems that Romotive has released a full description of the new protocol to talk to their second generation Romo smartphone robots on their blog. I have not yet found the time to dig into upgrading my Romo SDK for Windows Phone with this, but I really want to, so keep checking the Codeplex site and this blog for more information on that.

Time for the yearly Layar update, it seems...

After all, I seem to be doing one each calendar year. Except that - surprise, surprise.. - there really isn't one, as far as I'm concerned.

I actually just said it out loud: I've given up on Layar. They are apparently never going to release their software on any device that I (want to) own.

Bye bye, Layar. I wish you all the best without me as a user...

Romo codeplex site is live

It does not contain much (yet), but the Codeplex site I created for my work on a WP7 SDK for controlling a Romo smartphone robot is now published and available.

If you have a revision 1 Romo and a developer unlocked Windows Phone you can now download a pre-alpha XAP file of an app that turns your Romo+smartphone into a moving compass.

Zaagmans has been featured on AppFlow

I just had a look at my phone, and this is what I saw on the AppFlow live tile:

This caused me to pause for a while.
I knew that app icon...
That's Zaagmans, the silly app I made!

Starting AppFlow proved that my app is the one featured app in there:

I'm guessing this is just for the NL marketplace (AppFlow recommends per marketplace now), but I still think it's cool!

The "guy in the Netherlands"

Oh, just two things I mentioned on Twitter before, but not yet here:

• I am the "guy in the Netherlands" mentioned in the "Romo the smartphone robot raises $1.5M, seeks world domination" article.
• My work on writing WP7 software to control Romo is mentioned as the first "something cool you've built" hack on the Romo hiring page.

I must say that I like both of them.

Romo has landed in the Netherlands

Last week brought the Microsoft TechDays in The Hague. And as part of the Caesar Experts booth, lots of people here in the Netherlands finally saw a Romo smartphone robot in person!

Elsewhere on this blog you can see how I got to know Romo and how I am writing software support for him for Windows Phones. As we expected lots of Lumia phones would be available as winnable goodies at TechDays (and we were right...) I suggested we'd go for completely different: show off my work on WP7 Romo, get people in the Netherlands to actually see one in action and have two to raffle off to registered visitors of our booth. This was actually a great succes, as far as I'm concerned. I've received lots of questions and people really seemed to like the Romo concept.

Unfortunately, the new Februari revision Romos could not be here in time, so the two winners will receive their robots later, as soon as I receive them. I hope this should not be long. Also based on the information I now have, these new revision should have support for some extra frequencies to maybe add some better control to turning the robot and ways to turn the 5V auxiliary ports on the front of the robot off and on again. When I have received information on these frequencies, included them in the Windows Phone library and have the library tested on both my original #42 revision one Romo and a new revision one, I will make my library public so anyone could write WP7 apps that drive a Romo robot.

If you have any questions, please don't hestitate to ask.
And stay tuned for more Romo information!