Book Description

The Windows Phone 7 platform, now recently updated, provides a remarkable opportunity for Windows developers to create state-of-the-art mobile applications using their existing skills and a familiar toolset. Pro Windows Phone 7 Development, Second Edition helps you unlock the potential of this platform and create dazzling, visually rich, and highly functional applications for the Windows Phone Marketplace—including using new features like copy-and-paste and API improvements in the NoDo and Mango update waves.

For developers new to the Windows Phone platform—whether .NET, iPhone, or Android developers—this book starts by introducing the features and specifications of the Windows Phone series, and then leads you through the complete application development process. You’ll learn how to use Microsoft technologies like Silverlight, .NET, the XNA Framework, Visual Studio, and Expression Blend effectively, how to take advantage of the device’s sensors with the location service, accelerometer, and touch, how to make your apps location-aware using GPS data, how to utilize the rich media capabilities of the Windows Phone series, and much more. Finally, you’ll receive a full tutorial on how to publish and sell your application through the Windows Phone Marketplace. And in this second edition, learn quickly and easily how to take advantage of new API capabilities and HTML5 support right in your browser.

What you’ll learn

• The specifications and capabilities of the Windows Phone series and how to harness that power in your applications Download Now »

Book Description

Windows Phone 7.5 (code-named Mango) marks a significant upgrade to Microsoft’s smartphone products. Packed with sophisticated new features and functionality, the device is a .NET developer’s dream, easily programmable using Silverlight, XNA and C#.

Windows Phone Recipes utilizes a proven problem-solution approach, providing a concise guide to all the phone’s features in recipe book format. First, the problem you’re facing is identified. Then, a clear explanation of the solution is given, supported by a fully-worked code sample that demonstrates the feature in action.

All aspects of development, configuration, testing, and distribution are covered. You’ll find recipes that unlock advanced user interface features, deal with data storage, integrate with cloud services, add media and location services, and much more. It’s everything you’ll need to put a professional polish on your Windows Phone 7.5 applications!

What you’ll learn

• Understand how to design, develop, test and distribute your Windows Phone 7.5 applications
• Create compelling user interfaces using all the phone’s features, including the camera, GPS and accelerometer
• Learn how to debug your applications and package them for distribution Download Now »

Book Description

XNA Game Studio enables hobbyists and independent game developers to easily create video games, and now gives that power to Visual Basic developers. XNA lets you bring your creations to life on Windows, the Xbox 360 and the Windows Phone platforms. The latest release of XNA has added support to Visual Basic and therefore, Visual Basic developers now have the power to give life to their creativity with XNA.

This book covers both the concepts and the implementations necessary to get you started on bringing your own creations to life with XNA. It presents four different games, including a puzzler, space shooter, multi-axis shoot ‘em up, and a jump-and-run platformer. Each game introduces new concepts and techniques to build a solid foundation for your own ideas and creativity.

This book details the creation of four games, all in different styles, from start to finish using Visual Basic and the Microsoft XNA framework. Beginning with the basics of drawing images to the screen, the book then incrementally introduces sprite animation, particles, sound effects, tile-based maps, and path finding. It then explores combining XNA with Windows Forms to build an interactive map editor, and builds a platform-style game using the editor-generated maps. Finally, the book covers the considerations necessary for deploying your games to the Xbox 360 platform.

By the end of the book, you will have a solid foundation of game development concepts and techniques as well as working sample games to extend and innovate upon. Download Now »

Book Description

Windows Phone 7.5 Mango contains support for apps written in Silverlight or XNA. These apps can store data on the device, and also load and manipulate data from “the cloud” and other web services.

This Windows Phone 7.5 Data Cookbook has a range of recipes to help you apply data handling concepts. You will be able to apply the knowledge gained from these recipes to build your own apps effectively.

This Windows Phone 7.5 Data Cookbook starts with data binding concepts at the UI layer and then shows different ways of saving data locally and externally in databases. The book ends with a look at the popular MVVM software design pattern. The recipes contained in this book will make you an expert in the areas of data access and storage.

What you will learn from this book:

• Create data binding to user interface elements with any data source
• Create and save user settings to local isolated storage for later consumption.
• Explore different on device database options such as commercial Perst, open source SQLite and Microsoft’s SQL CE.
• Create and consume simple web services and understand LINQ features.
• Scale the applications and work with WCF web services.
• Understand REST and call different social media services like Twitter and RSS Feeds.
• Create and understand MVVM model. Download Now »

Book Description

Discover the core concepts essential for developing apps for Windows Phone

Silverlight and XNA provide you with a powerful development platform and key tools for programming Windows Phone 7 series applications. This book offers a foundation for using the tools required for Windows Phone 7 development, including Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition, the Windows Phone 7 Series SDK, and Silverlight. Experienced authors provide you with detailed coverage on developing accordingly for an application’s lifetime, accessing cloud services, and developing notification services.

• Explains how to use the most up-to-date tools and development platforms to create applications for the Windows Phone 7
• Walks you through developing notification services and location services
• Demonstrates ways to generate revenue by deploying your apps to the Windows Phone Marketplace
• Details the steps for enabling trial periods for applications and providing updates and new versions of apps

If you’re eager to get started developing applications for the Windows Phone 7, then this is the beginner guide for you.

From the Back Cover
Develop apps for Windows Phone 7

Sharing valuable insight for using the powerful programming tools from Microsoft Download Now »

Book Description

With the release of XNA Game Studio Express version 2.0, the XNA toolkit is becoming more popular for programming both independent and commercial games for the PC and Xbox 360. “Complete XNA: An Exploration of the XNA Framework Library” shows intermediate to advanced game programmers how to use XNA with C# to program games. The book provides a comprehensive look at the entire XNA Framework, combining an analytical approach and examples that cover every class in the Library. Organized in a reference format, from introductory topics through the content pipeline, readers can work through the book in sequence or choose only the topics they are interested in. This is the only book on the market that features advanced-level coverage of XNA, making it suitable for both professionals and serious game development students.

About the Author
Jonathan S. Harbour has been programming video games since the 1980s. His first game system was an Atari 2600, which he played with disassembled on the floor of his room as a kid. He has written on numerous subjects such as C++, C#, Basic, Java, DirectX, Allegro, Lua, DarkBasic, Pocket PC, and game consoles. He is the author of the recent books Visual C# Game Programming for Teens; Beginning Java Game Programming, 2nd Edition; Visual Basic Game Programming for Teens, Third Edition; and Multi-Threaded Game Engine Design. He holds a master’s degree in Information Systems Management. Visit his Web log and game-development forum at http://www.jharbour.com. Download Now »