Whitechapel A. - Windows Phone 8 Development Internals

Given that youve picked up this book, its probably safe to assume youre familiar with the Windows Phone operating system. Maybe youve seen a television or magazine ad showcasing unique features such as customizable Live tiles; maybe youve watched one of the Smoked by Windows Phone videos online; or maybe youre even carrying a Windows Phone with you right now as your daily driver. And, with a title like Windows Phone 8 Development Internals , its also pretty safe to assume youre interested in developing for Windows Phone, whether for fun, education, profit, or just because your boss asked you to.

Whatever the reason for your interest in Windows Phone development, youve selected the right book to get you started (or to help take your expertise to the next level). This book is jam-packed with expert advice, best practices, design guidelines, and clear explanations of features that will teach you not just the how and what of building great Windows Phone applications, but also the why. And, as youd expect from any modern development book, theres a large set of sample code that serves both to illustrate the features and concepts covered within as well as to serve as the starter code for your own applications.

Released in late 2012, Windows Phone 8 is the next evolution of the Windows Phone operating system. It offers many new end-user features such as the more customizable Start Screen, family-friendly Kids Corner, background turn-by-turn directions, deeply integrated VoIP functionality, Enterprise application support, and so much more. But todays smartphone experience is defined as much, if not more, by the rich set of applications and games that are available to downloadand thats where you come in!

Windows Phone 8 is an even bigger release for developers than it is for users. Whereas Windows Phone 7 and 7.1 focused strictly on managed-code development with Microsoft Silverlight and XNA, Windows Phone 8 adds native-code development with C and C++ and facilitates the creation of high-performance games with Direct3D and XAudio2. Windows Phone 8 also shares a common kernel and many APIs with its big brother Windows 8 operating system, making it possible for developers to share much of their code (and their development costs) across phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops.

In addition to the incremental updates to Microsoft .NET and XAML and the large number of APIs borrowed from Windows and DirectX, Windows Phone 8 also adds APIs for more than 60 brand-new scenarios such as speech synthesis and recognition, high-performance camera access, and a world-class mapping platform. Although theres no effective way to quantify the surface area of a platform as complex as Windows Phone, it would be fair to say that this release roughly doubles the amount of functionality available to developers from the previous releasethats a lot of functionality!

Theres a saying in software development that it takes 80 percent of the time to do 80 percent of the work, and another 80 percent of the time to do the last 20 percent. Thats because theres so much more to building a great application than just knowing which APIs to call: your application needs to be easy to use, secure, reliable, and aesthetically pleasing. It must also perform well, protect the users privacy, and (in many cases) generate a profit. Andrew and Sean cover all these areas and more in this book, focusing not just on a long list of APIs but rather on the entirety of the application lifecycle, from design and coding, through analysis and monetization. Its that last 20 percent that turns a good app into a great app, and this is what will set your applications apart from the others in a crowded marketplace.

Finally, I want to thank Andrew and Sean for giving me the opportunity to review this book and do my part to help developers such as yourself participate in (and hopefully profit from) the burgeoning Windows Phone application ecosystem. Ill close with the same words I used in the foreword to Andrews previous Windows Phone development book: I also learned a lot while reviewing this book, and I know you will too.

Program Manager in the Windows Phone Application Platform team