Part 2. Core Windows Phone

Now that you understand the Windows Phone platform and how to use Visual Studio and the SDK tools, it’s time to learn the low-level details on how build mobile applications. Part 2 of this book will introduce concepts that are brand-new to Windows Phone, as well as concepts that have been adapted to operate within the phone’s limitations.

We start in chapter 3 with a discussion of Fast Application Switching, Microsoft’s name for the battery saving technology that allows a dormant application to be quickly restored when a user switches from a foreground application to a background application. Chapter 4 will show you how to use launchers and choosers to interact with built-in applications such as the phone dialer, email, and the People Hub, while chapter 5 explains how to store your application data.

Chapters 6 and 8 show you how to read data from the phone’s hardware including the camera, accelerometer, compass, and gyroscope, while chapter 7 discusses how to integrate your app with the Pictures and Music + Video Hubs. Part 2 wraps up in chapter 9 with a discussion of networking topics such as using TCP sockets and push notifications. Push notifications provide the ability for an external application or web service to send messages and updates to particular Windows Phone devices.