Windows Phone 8 Development Succinctly - Free ebook

I'm so glad to announce the new free ebook from Syncfusion:

Windows Phone 8 Development Succinctly

This ebook is written by my friend Matteo Pagani and you can download 243 pages in PDF or Kindle format.

Before starting, please remember: if you are a beginner in development, this ebook is not for you. You need to know the basic concepts of the C# programming.

This book covers all the features of Windows Phone so it's also a good read if you are new in wp development.

Main chapters:

1. Introduction: 
2. The User Interface: Basic XAML Concepts
3. Core Concepts
4. Data Access: Storage
5. Data Access: Network
6. Integrating with the Hardware
7. Integrating with the Operating System
8. Multimedia Applications
9. Live Apps: Tiles, Notifications, and Multitasking
10. Distributing the Application: Localization, the Windows Phone Store, and In-App Purchases

Pro

• free! :)
• easy and fast to read
• all development cycle
• a lot of samples and tips
• Kindle format
• finally an ebook that explains all storage approaches

Meanwhile you can download the Syncfusion wp controls (now at special price) to make more fast your development. Hurry up! ;)

Windows Phone 8 - WriteableBitmap and app resume

When I upgraded my WP7 projects to Windows Phone 8, I discovered a strange behavior.

I usually update the tiles in the Application_Deactivated and Application_Closing event, but in wp8 the app crashes while it resumes.
The tiles were created in the storage, so all works good.

The problem seems related to the WriteableBitmap.Render method. I don't know why it blocks the UI thread!

If you have the same behavior, you can use a workaround:

In the App.xaml.cs add the Navigating event in the InitializePhoneApplication method

RootFrame.Navigating += RootFrame_Navigating;

Use the app://external/ string to know when you are exiting from the application

void RootFrame_Navigating(object sender, NavigatingCancelEventArgs e)
{
 if(e.Uri.OriginalString=="app://external/")
 {
  // update my custom tiles
 }
}