Free Windows Phone 8 Book

I’m very pleased to be able to report that my Windows Phone 8 Book (the Blue Book that is a companion to the Yellow Book) is now available for free download from Microsoft Faculty Connection. There are around 250 pages of developer goodness spread over 15 chapters, along with a over 50 demos.

This is the button that you use to download the content. Click on the word Download. You don’t need to be a member of the Faculty Connection to get the content, it should just arrive as one large zip archive with the Blue Book document and all the demos.

Here’s a quick overview:

• Getting Started with Windows Phone
  • The Windows Phone Platform
  • The Windows Phone Ecosystem
  • Windows Phone Program Execution
  • Windows Phone Application Development
• Making a User Interface with XAML
  • Program Design with XAML
  • Understanding XAML
  • Putting Program Code into an Application
• Visual Studio Solution Management
  • Getting Started with Projects and Solutions
  • Debugging Programs
  • Performance Tuning
• Constructing a Program with XAML
  • Improving the User Experience
  • Working with XAML text
  • Using the TextChanged Event
  • Managing Application Page Layout
• Advanced Application Development
  • Data Binding
  • Displaying Lists of Data
  • Pages and Navigation
  • Using ViewModel classes
• Isolated Storage on Windows Phone
  • Storing Data on Windows Phone
  • Copying Files into Isolated Storage
• Using Databases on Windows Phone
  • An Overview of Database Storage
  • Creating Data Relationships with LINQ
• Networking with Windows Phone
  • Windows Phone Network Support
  • Networking Overview
  • Addresses and Networks
  • Creating a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) Connection
  • Creating a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Connection
  • Reading a Web Page
  • Using LINQ to Read from an XML Stream
• XNA Game Development
  • XNA in Context
  • Making an XNA 4.0 Program
  • Player Interaction in Games
  • Adding Sound to a Game
  • Managing Screen Dimensions and Orientation
  • Using MonoGame
  • Making a MonoGame XNA program
• Using Speech in Applications
  • Speech Synthesis
  • Controlling Applications using Speech
  • Simple speech input
  • Using grammars
• Maps and Location
  • Determining the geoposition of the phone
  • Using the Map component
• Using Bluetooth and Near Field Communications
  • Using Bluetooth
  • The Intercom Program
  • Using Near Field Communications
• How Applications Run
  • Background Processing
  • Adding a Live Tile to an Application
  • File Transfer Tasks
  • Scheduled Notifications
• Marketing Windows Phone Applications
  • The Windows Phone Icons and Splash Screens
  • Preparing an Application for Sale
  • Windows Phone Store
  • Making your Application Stand Out

Enjoy.

Comments

[Brent]

Is this only available for instructors?

[Anthony]

Can you update it on your university page?

[Jules]

Excellent, what a great gift. Just like Paul Thurott [http://winsupersite.com] offering a free WP8 user guide book, you both deserve to set up a pay pal for donations.

I am looking for a simple way to cope with all the new WP8 screen resolutions. Like was simple with WP7, with a single Screen resolution, now we have to be smarter on how to manage the fragmentaiton in WP, just like in Android.

So if/when this book is made available to wider audience, the Managing Screen Resultions will be of particular interest.

[Rob]

Anybody should be able to get the document from the Microsoft Faculty Connection page if they use the link above. If you have problems, let me know and I'll look into it.

[Martin]

Great!
I'm wondering: will it become possible to buy a printed copy of this book?