There I will provide a session about “Intel AppUp – Your HTML5/.NET App in the App Store”:

 If you want to sell a product as an developer every new distribution channel is welcome. One of them is the app store AppUp operated by Intel that is already pre-installed on many newly sold notebooks (e. g. Dixon’s Retail). In this session Andreas Breitschopp will show how an existing HTML5 or .NET app is prepared for AppUp. The participants are welcome to bring their own products. These will then be prepared for AppUp together.

Of course, there will be also other interesting topics at the conference and the attendance is free.

Therefore I’m looking forward to see you there!

I was invited to give a speech there about the topic Black Belt and theAccelerator Program summarizing the reputation system of the AppUp Developer Program and explaining the opportunities of the Accelerator Program for developers. Download the PowerPoint presentation.

It was a pleasure for me to discuss together with other Intel Black Belts like Chris Skaggs (Soma Games), Lee Bamber and Rick Vanner (The Game Creators) and Suresh Kumar (Blue Innovations) as well as Bob Duffy (Intel AppUp Community Manager and moderator of this panel discussion) the pros and cons, but also the challenges of developing apps for multiple devices and platforms.

Have you been to the IDF 2011, too?

How long is a code signing certificate valid?

Normally one year, but you may be able to order code signing certificates that lasts up to 5 years.

Is it necessary to resign apps or files after the code signing certificate has expired?

No, because together with your digital signature a timestamp is included and therefore the signature of a signed app or file never expires – even if your certificate itself expired already.

Do I have to resubmit an app to Intel AppUp after the code signing certificate expired?

As the signature of the app itself does not expire (see above), this is not necessary. Only if you want to release an update, you have to sign the app again and resubmit it afterwards.

How many apps or files can I sign with one code signing certificate?

There is no limit: you can sign any number of apps or files with just one code signing certificate.

What documents are needed to obtain a code signing certificate?

Depending on whether you request the code signing certificate as an individual person or a company, you may need an articles of incorporation or a business license. You should also be prepared that you may be asked for a copy of your phone bill. Then somebody will call you at the phone number stated on this bill to verify it is valid.

How to obtain a certificate and how to sign files?

Do you have more questions?
Just leave a comment and I’ll try my best to answer them.

That’s really great as one of many benefits resulting from this award is that I’ll be invited to come to the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco this year.

Do you also participate in the Intel AppUp Developer program?

The speakers spoke about details of the Intel AppUp Developer Program, the advantages of the MeeGo platform, the numerous tools (in particular the MeeGo SDK & Qt), the binary code validation and the app developer community.

I was invited to give a speech there on the topic Getting Your Windows and MeeGo Apps Into AppUp. Download the PowerPoint presentation.

But why is the digital signature of binary files so important?

If a binary file is digitally signed the user, who wants to execute the file, can make sure it is the original file and it was not modified in any way. Additionally Windows Vista and Windows 7 User Account Control displays

instead of this ugly message box:Beside that also app store systems like Intel AppUp require that your setups are being digitally signed.

To start you will first need a code signing certificate. If you are a developer in the Intel AppUp program, you get this directly from the AppUp developer website. Otherwise you can get cheap certificates from Comodo here: http://codesigning.ksoftware.net

After you have received your code signing certificate, you can use a small GUI application for signing binary files.

Or, if you don’t like GUI applications or want to include the signing into your build process, you can create a small batch file like this and just drag & drop the binary file that you want to sign on this batch file (or pass it as parameter):

signtool.exe sign /f "certificate.pfx" /p "password" /t "http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timstamp.dll" "%1"

Obviously you need to exchange certificate.pfx with the file name of your certificate (which should be placed in the same directory as the batch file and the file signtool.exe) and password with your certificate password that you have chosen while exporting it from your web browser. To get the file signtool.exe, you need to download the free Microsoft Windows SDK.

Here are some frequently asked questions on code signing certificates and digital signature.

Do you already digitally sign your binary files, too?

I was invited by Intel to be at their booth and talk about Intel AppUp, the new app store for netbooks and tablets.

• English
• French
• German
• Spanish

As I do have a lot of German apps, too, I’ll start to submit them to AppUp now. Obviously there won’t be much downloads of the German apps at the moment, because Intel needs to fill the store with apps first, before they can start to distribute the store to end customers. But I’m confident that when distributed there will be good download counts as for the English system then.

But what the heck is “MeeGo”?

Yes, I also did not hear about this operating system before. So let’s see what the MeeGo webpage itself tells us about this system:

The MeeGo project provides a Linux-based, open source software platform for the next generation of computing devices. The MeeGo software platform is designed to give developers the broadest range of device segments to target for their applications, including netbooks, handheld computing and communications devices, in-vehicle infotainment devices, smart TVs, tablets and more – all using a uniform set of APIs based on Qt. For consumers, MeeGo will offer innovative application experiences that they can take from device to device.

OK, so basically MeeGo is (yet) another platform for netbooks, tablets and other mobile devices. But Intel really is focussing on pushing this new platform and we’ll see how much success it will have at the end.

Anyway, I’ll try to port at least one of my apps to this new system – just to see how it works.

Did you tried MeeGo yourself already or even published an app for it?