Windows Phone 8 in Action

Summary

Windows Phone 8 in Action is a comprehensive guide to developing apps for the WP8 platform. It covers the Windows Phone Runtime and .NET APIs used to work with a phone's sensors and hardware, including the accelerometer, camera, gyroscope, GPS, and microphone. You will learn to write code to dial the phone, write emails, send text messages, and recognize speech. The book also teaches you to build applications that use location and push notification.

About this Book

With 10 million (and climbing) active handsets, Windows Phone 8 has become a real alternative to Android and iOS. WP users are hungry for great apps, so it's time for you to start creating them

Windows Phone 8 in Action teaches you how to design, build, and sell WP8 apps. In it, you'll learn to use the WP Runtime and .NET APIs to control key features like the accelerometer, camera, GPS, and microphone. This example-driven book also shows you how to write applications that use location and push notification, enhanced navigation services, and WP8's deep multimedia capabilities.

You'll need a working knowledge of C#. No experience with Windows Phone or XAML is required.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

What's Inside

• Build your first phone app
• Master the Windows Phone 8 interface
• How to sell on the Windows Phone Store
• Use features like voice recognition and media

About the Authors

Tim Binkley-Jones has worked with XAML since the first releases of WPF and Silverlight. Adam Benoit is an independent developer with more than a dozen apps in the Windows Phone Store. Massimo Perga is an engineer at Microsoft. Michael Sync is a web and WP architect.

Table of Contents

PART 1 INTRODUCING WINDOWS PHONE
1. A new phone, a new operating system
2. Creating your first Windows Phone application
PART 2 CORE WINDOWS PHONE
3. Fast application switching and resume
4. Scheduled actions
5. Launching tasks and choosers
6. Contacts and calendars
7. Storing data
8. Working with the camera
9. Integrating with the Photos and Music + Videos Hubs
10. Using sensors
11. Network communication with push notifications
12. Using the Speech API
PART 3 XAML FOR WINDOWS PHONE
13. ApplicationBar and context menus
14. Panorama and pivot controls
15. Building a media player
16. Using Maps
17. Building HTML applications
18. Releasing and monetizing apps

Tim Binkley-Jones is a staff engineer in the Enterprise Management group of VMware, Inc. Tim has been developing commercial IT management applications for 17 years using everything from C++ and MFC to C#, Windows Forms and ASP.NET. He has been working with XAML since the early releases of WPF and Silverlight.

Massimo Perga is a software developer in the Windows Phone division of Microsoft. Before joining Microsoft, he has worked as a developer in the mobile division of Motorola and in a robotics manufacturing company, Comau. In total, he has 7 years of development experience in mobile technologies on different development frameworks and operating systems.

Michael Sync has been working in Software industry for more than 8 years. Based in Singapore, he is associated with Memolife as a Solution Architect for building Silverlight and Windows Phone 7 applications. He is Silverlight MVP and a member of Silverlight/WPF Insider team. He is also one of leaders of Singapore Silverlight User Group.

Adam Benoit is a Quality Assurance Analyst at Web.com eCommerce and an independent Windows Phone developer with more than a dozen apps in the Windows Phone Store. Having started his development career writing PHP scripts, he has since moved on to C# as his language of choice with Windows Phone being the target platform.