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Is it possible to launch system/third party app using an NDEFLaunchApp record to get the URI and by using LaunchUriAsync without NFC Tags?

So I have spent the whole night looking like a zombie in the morning trying to figure out how the OS handles an NFC tap for an NDEFLaunchApp Record and I have known the following.
I'm pretty sure that there is a workaround which lets you launch a system app / third party app (if you know the product Id / GUID) from your app. As there are apps in the Windows Phone Store which I have somehow figured out what I've been trying to.
I have come up with the following code:
NdefLaunchAppRecord appLaunchRecord = new NdefLaunchAppRecord();
appLaunchRecord.AddPlatformAppId("WindowsPhone", "{App GUID}");
appLaunchRecord.Arguments = "_default";
// Creating a new NdefMessage from the above record.
var message = new NdefMessage { appLaunchRecord };
// Getting the record from the message that we just created
foreach (NdefLaunchAppRecord record in message)
{
var specializedType = record.CheckSpecializedType(false);
if (specializedType == typeof(NdefLaunchAppRecord))
{
var x = String.Join(" ", record.Payload);
// Getting the payload by GetString gets a formatted Uri with args
string result = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(record.Payload, 0, record.Payload.Length);
// result = "\0\fWindowsPhone&{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5630}\0\b_default";
// result = "(null)(form feed)WindowsPhone&{App GUID}(null)(backspace)_default
// So this will be sent to the OS and I believe the OS will then launch the specified app by an unknown protocol
// like xxx://result
// and the app will be launched?
// So is it then possible to somehow call the following:
await Windows.System.Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(new Uri("OUR MAGIC RESULT?", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute));
If anyone has / can figure out a way for this, it would be a REAL Service to the WP Community as developers are restricted by Microsoft to open certain settings / apps which are actually needed by those apps. For instance (speech settings, audio settings, about settings, alarms, region settings, date+time);
APPS that possibly have a workaround:
Music Hub Tile (Launches the old Music+Videos Hub)
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/music-hub-tile/3faa2f9e-6b8d-440a-bb60-5dd76a5baec1
Tile for Bing Vision
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/tile-for-bing-vision/05894022-e18c-40a4-a6cc-992383aa7ee8

There are reserved uri schemes for bing and zune.
See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/jj207065(v=vs.105).aspx
Those two apps propably use these and have found some undocumented use of the scheme.
If there is an uri scheme that launches any app by guid from within your app, it is hidden well.
Currently you can only launch apps that registered for an uri scheme or file association.

Call Navigation/Maps/Drive with an Address in WP8.1 Application

I was wondering if it's possible to call the default navigation application within my Windows Phone 8.1 application. I have an address and I would like for the user to press a button and be able to navigate to that address through the default navigation app. If this is possible, how do I do it?
Thanks for your time,
Johan

You can launch turn-by-turn directions apps using the ms-drive-to and ms-walk-to schemes (depending on the type of directions you want) but you first need to get a geocoordinate for the address that you have. Since you're targeting Windows Phone 8.1, you can use the MapLocationFinder class in the Windows.Services.Maps namespace.
string locationName = "Empire State Building";
string address = "350 5th Avenue, New York City, New York 10018";
var locFinderResult = await MapLocationFinder.FindLocationsAsync(
address, new Geopoint(new BasicGeoposition()));
// add error checking here
var geoPos = locFinderResult.Locations[0].Point.Position;
var driveToUri = new Uri(String.Format(
"ms-drive-to:?destination.latitude={0}&destination.longitude={1}&destination.name={2}",
geoPos.Latitude,
geoPos.Longitude,
locationName));
Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(driveToUri);

the official solution is:
Uri uri = new Uri("ms-drive-to:?destination.latitude=" + latitude.ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture) +
"&destination.longitude=" + longitude.ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture))
var success = await Windows.System.Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(uri);
if (success)
{
// Uri launched.
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("error");
}
But, there is a problem with this solution.
If you use the nokia programs (HERE), it works fine.
if you want to use waze, you have to add origin.latitude and origin.longitude.
in the MSDN page, They said that it is not necessary, but in fact, you have to write it.
I am already not enable to load moovit but if someone has an issue, it'll help me a lot.

Using PowerStatus class in windows phone 7 app

I am new to windows phone app development.
I am trying to use the powerStatus class in a windows phone 7 app. I have searched quite a bit regarding that and learnt that it is necessary to add reference of System.Windows.Forms
But in the add reference of the project 'System.Windows.Forms' is not present.
How can I use the powerStatus class?
Please help.
Thank you.

Please Refer this msdn link that will clearly shows that how can you get the status of the Battery. i.e. The remaining Percentage of charge in phone;s battery.
Know the battery status in windows phone
In this link, use the RemainingChargePercent() Method this will return the value that indicates the percentage of the charge remaining on the phone's battery.
This things will used in windows phone 8 only.
But, you are with windows phone 7. so, currently there is no API available for windows phone 7 to know the remaining charge in phone's battery.
You will get the information like the if your phone is connected to power source or running in battery.
I will show here some important msdn question links that shows that there is no method or the class is available to get the charge level in windows phone 7.
The MSDN Question link: how to get the battery status in windows phone 7.
if you have the need to show the battery charge percentage, then i suggest you to proceed with windows phone 8.

It work for wp8. but I am not sure about wp7.
_battery = Battery.GetDefault();
var remainingCharge = string.Format("{0} %", _battery.RemainingChargePercent);
var remainingTime = _battery.RemainingDischargeTime.TotalMinutes;
_battery.RemainingChargePercentChanged += OnRemainingChargePercentChanged;
private void OnRemainingChargePercentChanged(object sender, object e)
{
var remainingCharge = string.Format("{0} %", _battery.RemainingChargePercent);
var remainingTime = _battery.RemainingDischargeTime.TotalMinutes;
if(Microsoft.Phone.Info.DeviceStatus.PowerSource == Microsoft.Phone.Info.PowerSource.External)
var text = "Charger Connected";
else
var text = "Charger Not Connected";
}

Distinguishing between phone and tablet browsers

I know this question as been beaten to death, but I don't want anything super complicated here.
We have a companion app with our site that is only compatible with 7 and 10-inch tablets. We need to only alert users on those devices about our app. Problem is, I can't go by resolution. My Galaxy S3 has a 1280 x 720 screen, but is obviously not a tablet. I also can't for the life of me find out a way to get the physical size of the screen. The only solution I have come up with is detecting whether the device can make calls with MobileCapabilities.CanInitiateVoiceCall. Unfortuantely, by boss isn't happy with that solution.
So... How can I distinguish between a phone and a tablet in my web app (Server or client side)?
UPDATE: So far it seems that the best approach for Android is something from a blog post by the Android team: All Android phones use "Mobile" in the UserAgent string, so checking for "Mobile" *and "Android" will tell you if it's a phone, while just "Android" should be a tablet. iOS devices should be just as simple--checking for "iPhone" vs "iPad" seems to have worked so far.

I know this is a little late, but I was looking for the same thing.
Wurfl has wat you want. You can implement it easily and and even have an api you can query.
For ASP.NET application first you must place the one-off initialization.
public class Global : HttpApplication
{
public const String WurflDataFilePath = "~/App_Data/wurfl.zip";
private void Application_Start(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var wurflDataFile = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(WurflDataFilePath);
var configurer = new InMemoryConfigurer().MainFile(wurflDataFile);
var manager = WURFLManagerBuilder.Build(configurer);
HttpContext.Current.Cache[WurflManagerCacheKey] = manager;
}
}
And then use it like this.
var device = WURFLManagerBuilder.Instance.GetDeviceForRequest(userAgent);
var isTablet = device.GetCapability("is_tablet");
var isSmartphone = device.GetCapability("is_smartphone");
For more info check ASP.NET implementation
Hope this helps anyone else looking for this.

You can try to do a user agent detection and search for the keywrords, for example, all Non tablet devices have a "Mobile Safari" key words on their user agent.

live tile is not updating in Windows Phone

i am developing a windows phone app where application has an option to pin the application to home screen. And i am using ShellTileSchedule class to do schedule the update periodically. Some reason my app is not pushing any update to tile. My app data is completely local, no data is coming from outside.
In my tile update, i am not updating any image on the lile, but only changing the data to display.
foreach (ShellTile tile in ShellTile.ActiveTiles)
{
IconicTileData tileData = GetTileData();
tileSchedule = new ShellTileSchedule(tile, tileData);
tileSchedule.Interval = UpdateInterval.EveryHour;
tileSchedule.Recurrence = UpdateRecurrence.Interval;
tileSchedule.Count=GetUserData();
tileSchedule.StartTime = DateTime.Now;
tileSchedule.Start();
tile.Update(tileData);
}
Any help in this regard? Or do i need to background agent to update the tile?

ShellTileSchedule can only pull images off the web, not from the phone itself. This is one of the limitations of ShellTileSchedule. If you want to set background images to resources on the phone, look at using push notifications instead.
Source: http://www.silverlightshow.net/news/WP7-Using-ShellTileSchedule-to-update-your-app-s-Live-Tile-background.aspx

Shouldn't you be setting a ShellTileSchedule.RemoteImageUri somewhere? I mean, that's kinda what ShellTileSchedule is there for, to update your tile image from a remote Uri on a regular interval... See sample of how to use this class for secondary tiles here.

You have to fill the properties of IconicTileData. In your sample you just create empty data structure and use it for the schedule, that won't work. I use it like this:
IconicTileData newTileData = new IconicTileData
{
Title = SharedResources.AppName,
Count = BatteryHelper.BateryLevel,
SmallIconImage = new Uri(#"/Assets/IconicSmall.png", UriKind.Relative),
IconImage = new Uri(#"/Assets/IconicMedium.png", UriKind.Relative),
};