XAML Wonderland

Corporations will not create internal Windows Phone 7 applications unless they have a way to restrict deployment of their apps to controlled list of registered phones.  As it stands today, it is not possible to do private deployments.  The next version of Windows Phone 7, known as Mango, aims to change that.  Microsoft previewed the [...]

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Conserving memory is a huge issue in Windows Phone 7 programming.  You must be diligent in checking your memory footprint during development for obvious reasons.   For one, your application is destined to run on a limited resource device.  For another, Microsoft will refuse to certify your app if you exceed the memory limits.  Here’s the [...]

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There are times when I want to preview file content in Windows Explorer.  The Preview pane in Explorer makes this a simple task.  Just click the Preview pane button and select the file as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2. Figure 1: The preview pane button.   Figure 2: Viewing a .txt file. In [...]

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Microsoft created a compact on-screen keyboard for the Windows Phone 7.  The keyboard is winning praise among users for being fast and easy to use, even if you have big fingers.  But there is one task that seems to stump a lot of new users ; how to find certain symbol keys  on the keyboard. [...]

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I heard this nugget from Derek Lakin on Twitter:  Press and Hold is  the discovery combination that every Windows phone 7 user should know.   We were having a conversation around the Windows Phone 7 on-screen keyboard.  In order to keep the keyboard compact Microsoft stows alternate character beneath common keys.  Take punctuation for example.  [...]

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All  Windows Phone 7 applications undergo a security analysis when uploaded to the Windows Phone Marketplace.   The analyzer checks to see what services your app requires and verifies that you have requested those services in the Application Manifest. Windows Phone provides a capabilities-driven security model where a user must opt-in to certain functionality within the [...]

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I’m working on a Windows Phone 7 application that is using the Microsoft ad network.  Microsoft simplifies the process by providing an AdControl control in the Advertising SDK. To add the control to your XAML is easy.     <my1:AdControl Grid.Row=’0′                   ApplicationId=‘ba766 etc.’                   AdUnitId=’100xxxxxxx’                   Width=’480′                   Height=’80′                   HorizontalAlignment=‘Center’                   VerticalAlignment=‘Center’ /> Next, [...]

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I’m one of the lucky few to have access to a developer device.  I’m currently using the Samsung Taylor and it is really a nice phone.  I’m looking forward to seeing the production phones, which have a faster processers, more RAM etc. Having the device is invaluable for debugging and testing.  For example one of [...]

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You can customize the image shown in your Windows Phone 7 Tile.  All you need to do is change the BackgroundImageURI value in the WMAppManifest.xml file. <Tokens> <PrimaryToken TokenID="MyAppToken" TaskName="_default"> <TemplateType5> <BackgroundImageURI IsRelative="true" IsResource="false"> /Images/Coins/tileImage.png</BackgroundImageURI> You can also change this value in the Visual Studio 2010 Property page. Figure 1:  Change Background Image in Property [...]

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It’s easy to embed information inside your assembly. Just add it to the assemblyInfo.cs/assemblyInfo.vb  file or use the Visual Studio properties window. Reading the AssemblyInfo data When you want to read this information from a Silverlight/WindowsPhone assembly you can call on the Assembly class to get the desired data. You can use the GetExecutingAssembly method [...]

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