Zune Multimedia Management Software

The Windows Phone can be connected to a computer using the Zune software. It provides the ability to manage multimedia content and transfer it from the computer to the phone and back. The Zune software can also update the Windows Phone firmware to new versions. Zune is also the link between the Visual Studio design environment and the phone itself.

Programs can use multimedia content downloaded to the phone through the Zune software. Programs can download images and play music and videos stored in the phone. You can also create music programs that run in the background along with other running programs.

Windows Live and Xbox Live Services

A Windows Phone owner can register a phone with a Windows Live account. If the Windows Live account is associated with an Xbox Live account, the game profile is imported to the device, and users can participate in mobile games using the same ID as the console.

Bing Maps

The phone contains hardware that allows it to determine its location. The Microsoft Bing card service provides maps that cover most of the land. The Windows Phone program can use a network connection to contact the Bing card service and download maps and views from the air. With Silverlight, you can control the display of maps, which allows programs to use the location mapping.

Windows Notification Services

Although the phone uses various technologies to connect to the network, there are times when the phone can not connect to the network. Windows Phone provides a notification service that allows programs to receive notifications from the network, even when programs are not active. Notifications are saved and managed by the notification service, which buffers them if the phone is not connected to the network when a notification is received.

For example, the sales system should inform the customer when the reserved product will be available. The order application on the phone can register with the notification service, and then the warehouse management server can use the notification server to inform the customer about the availability of the product. This system can also be used in games if one player wants to send an invitation to play to another player.

Executing programs in Windows Phone

Switching Windows Phone applications    

The screen of the mobile device is not large enough to display two programs at the same time, so there is no need to run several programs at the same time. Therefore, instead of the simultaneous operation of several applications in Windows Phone, the mechanism for switching applications is implemented.

When the user launches the application, the phone does not execute any other application. The applications started at this moment stop their work and wait for their turn. In this case, the user can quickly switch between active applications.

It should be noted that at any time the program can interrupt its work and free up system resources for another program. If the user calls the stopped application again, it must continue from the same location.

The Windows Phone operating system uses "fast application switching" technology when an application is stored in memory while it is waiting for its call. In this situation, the program remains intact the whole area of ​​memory and resources until the program resumes work. Because application space is limited, the application will be removed from memory if there is no more memory available. An application that needs to be loaded back into memory will take a little longer to resume.

Development of applications for Windows Phone

Applications for Windows Phone are created in exactly the same way as applications for desktop computers running Windows. To do this, use the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) of Visual Studio. You can debug a program running on a Windows Phone device as easily as a program for a computer. You can also create solutions that share components of the desktop system, Windows Phone, and even the Xbox platform.

Windows Phone Emulator

The Windows Phone design environment includes an emulator that allows you to use Windows Phone functions directly on the desktop. If you have a computer that supports multi-touch input, you can use this function in the emulator to verify the correct handling of multi-touch gestures in your Windows Phone programs.

The emulator is a software copy of a Windows Phone device that behaves like a real phone. In this case, the programs running in the emulator use the power of the computer, which can be much more than the processor of the phone.

The emulator allows you to check the reaction of programs to move and rotate the "virtual" phone on the computer screen. You can also pre-record a sequence of movements, which will allow you to perform repeated tests using the same movements or gestures.

You can also emulate the location. You can select on the map the desired "location" of the phone's emulator. You can also enter paths to move the phone and then play them - so you can create trips to test applications to locate.

Software access to Windows Phone tools

The Windows Phone platform provides software resource libraries that allow programs to use the functions available in the device. Programs can use the phone camera, make phone calls and send SMS messages. They can also use means to locate the phone to create geolocation applications and navigation applications.

Applications can call the phone functions using startup tasks that allow the program to call other applications, and selection tasks that can select system objects and pass them to the application.

Phone applications can use the TCP / IP protocol to connect to servers on the Internet. Programs can use Web services and establish REST connections to nodes. The current version of the operating system does not support direct connections to other phones using sockets.

Silverlight and XNA

Applications for Windows Phone can be created using Silverlight or XNA technology. If you are creating an application, for example, a word processor, email client or calculator, then you can use Silverlight. Silverlight provides a set of tools for creating such programs. If you create a game, you can use XNA. XNA provides tools for creating 2D and 3D games with high performance.

You can also create a calculator in XNA or a simple game (for example, puzzles with words) in Silverlight. In particular, Silverlight is ideal for games with small graphics requirements, or using vector graphics, rather than bitmap, or the speed of which depends on the response of the user, not the timer. And XNA can be difficult to use in those tasks where Silverlight is usually used. The implementation of the XNA list box can be interesting for some developers, but for many programmers this is a rather difficult task.

The type of application you are creating is selected when you create a new project in Visual Studio. The application can share Silverlight and XNA. You can create a program on Silverlight with a page containing the game on XNA. You can create a menu and user interface for playing in Silverlight, and the gameplay in XNA. You can also add Silverlight elements over the running XNA game.