windows phone 8

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Windows Phone 8 Apps : Camera (part 4) - Adjusting Video Settings, Using the Video Light

Just as you can configure various settings for the still camera, you can adjust various video settings, such as the video resolution and the focus mode. Again, the actual settings that are available are device specific and vary among phone models.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Camera (part 3) - Using the Front Camera, Activating Video Mode

The Front icon toggles between the front camera and the rear camera. Most of the features that are available for the rear camera are also available for the front camera, but with one notable exception: The front camera has no flash.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Camera (part 2) - Controlling the Camera’s Flash, Changing the Camera’s Behavior with Lenses

Windows Phone 8’s camera is extensible through the use of software add-ins called lenses. Lenses change the camera’s behavior according to the lens design. Some lenses are purely artistic.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Camera (part 1) - Adjusting Photo Settings

Different camera settings are useful to adjust before snapping a picture. These settings affect things like the picture’s brightness and aspect ratio.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Calendar (part 9) - The To-Do List - Viewing Tasks by Priority, Displaying Tasks on Your Calendar

As previously mentioned, Windows Phone 8 enables you to prioritize your tasks. You also can sort the list of upcoming tasks by priority.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Calendar (part 8) - The To-Do List - Completing a Task, Viewing and Reactivating Completed Tasks

When you have finished a task, Windows expects you to mark the task as completed. This ensures that the task does not continue to appear among future tasks.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Calendar (part 7) - The To-Do List - Creating a New Task, Editing a Task

If you choose to synchronize the Task List from your Exchange Server mailbox (this can include Microsoft Hotmail, Live, and Outlook.com email accounts), the items from the Task List display in the calendar’s To-Do view.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Calendar (part 6) - Enabling, Organizing, and Disabling Calendars

When you link your phone to multiple email accounts and their associated calendars (or if you have more than one calendar for an account), the Calendar app aggregates them all into a unified calendar view.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Calendar (part 5) - Responding to a Meeting Invitation

When someone sends you a meeting invitation, that invitation shows up in your inbox just like any other meeting invitation. When a meeting invitation is viewed through the phone, it looks like any other e-mail message.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Calendar (part 4) - Understanding Appointment Status

When you create a new appointment, one of the options that you can set (after tapping the More Details button) is the appointment’s status. When you set an appointment’s status, you are actually configuring your free/busy information for the block of time the appointment occupies.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Calendar (part 3) - Appointments

The Calendar app enables you to create appointments. An appointment is essentially a scheduled event for which you want to be reminded. When you create an appointment using the Calendar app, the appointment can be synchronized to the calendar that is associated with your E-mail mailbox.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Calendar (part 2) - Viewing Another Day’s Agenda, Accessing a Full Month

Even though Month view displays your appointments for the month, the text is generally way too small to read. You can access Day or Agenda views for a specific day by going into Month view and then double-tapping the day you want to look at.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Calendar (part 1) - Calendar Views

The Calendar opens to Day view, which displays all your appointments for today. To see different calendar views, flick left or right on the current view.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Calculator

A good calculator has become a staple for almost every mobile device, and Windows Phone 8 is no exception. The built-in calculator is useful for simple arithmetic or for scientific calculations.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Alarms

Windows Phone 8 has a built-in app that enables the phone to act as an alarm clock. This app can be handy if you travel and either forget to bring an alarm clock or prefer not to bring one.

Windows Phone 8 Apps : Searching for an App

All apps covered in this chapter are accessed from the Apps screen and listed in alphabetical order. You can access this screen by pressing the Start button and flicking the screen to the left.

Windows Phone 8 : Configuring Mailbox Settings (part 5) - Configuring Automatic Replies

If you are going to be unavailable for a period of time, you might want to configure your phone to answer inbound email with an automated reply telling the person who sent you the message that you are not available.

Windows Phone 8 : Configuring Mailbox Settings (part 4) - Lightening the Display,Changing the Mailbox Sync Settings

Some types of mailboxes download new messages automatically, as they arrive. Other types of mailboxes download mail according to a set schedule. Using the mailbox settings screen, you can customize the download schedule and the retention period for messages stored on your phone.

Windows Phone 8 : Configuring Mailbox Settings (part 3) - Message Signatures, Blind CCing Yourself

By default, Windows Phone 8 devices add the phrase “Sent from my Windows Phone” to the end of each message that you send. However, you can turn off this signature or customize it.

Windows Phone 8 : Configuring Mailbox Settings (part 2) - Unlinking Mailboxes, Conversation View

If you later decide that you want to unlink your mailboxes, you can easily do so. To unlink a mailbox, open your linked mailbox and follow these steps

Windows Phone 8 : Configuring Mailbox Settings (part 1) - Linking Mailboxes

Although Windows Phone 8 supports the use of multiple mailboxes, some people prefer to access all their mail through a single mailbox. This can be accomplished through mailbox linking.

Windows Phone 8 : Scheduled Tasks - Scheduled Task API Limitations

Scheduled task agents do not have access to the entire set of APIs that foreground apps do. There is a set of APIs that are off-limits, and using an API from the set either raises an UnauthorizedAccessException at runtime or causes the app to fail certification during submission to the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Windows Phone 8 : Scheduled Tasks - Updating Tiles Using a Scheduled Task Agent

The background agent for the sample is the TaskScheduler class, which is a subclass of the ScheduledTaskAgent class. TaskScheduler is registered using the WMAppManifest.xml file.

Windows Phone 8 : Scheduled Tasks - To-Do List Scheduled Task Sample (part 5) - Editing an Existing To-Do Item

The TodoItemViewModel can be in one of two modes: creation mode or edit mode. Either a new item is to be created, or an existing to-do item is being edited. This is indicated to the view using a VisualState property, which is of type string.

Windows Phone 8 : Scheduled Tasks - To-Do List Scheduled Task Sample (part 4) - Creating the To-Do Item Shell Tile, Saving a To-Do Item

Saving an item involves instantiating a new item and sending it to the ITodoService to be stored in the database (see Listing 7).

Windows Phone 8 : Scheduled Tasks - To-Do List Scheduled Task Sample (part 3) - Debugging Scheduled Tasks

Debugging a task agent is done by calling the ScheduledActionService.LaunchForTest method. Calling LaunchForTest is a way of forcing the OS to run your task agent.

Windows Phone 8 : Scheduled Tasks - To-Do List Scheduled Task Sample (part 2) - TodoService, TodoItemViewModel

A custom service provides for all CRUD operations for the TodoItem objects. It serves as an intermediary between the LINQ to SQL DataContext for TodoItems and viewmodel logic.

Windows Phone 8 : Scheduled Tasks - To-Do List Scheduled Task Sample (part 1) - TodoItem,TodoDataContext

To-do items are represented by the TodoItem class, which contains three properties: Id, Description, and DueDate. DueDate is of type DateTime and indicates when the to-do item should be considered overdue.

Windows Phone 8 : Scheduled Tasks - Using Scheduled Tasks

Using scheduled tasks in your app involves creating an agent class and adding an XML fragment to your WMAppManifest.xml file.

Windows Phone 8 : Scheduled Tasks - Background Agent Types

Windows Phone supports three types of background agents: ScheduledTaskAgent, AudioPlayerAgent, and AudioStreamingAgent.

Windows Phone 8 : Windows Phone Toolkit Animated Page Transitions - Reusing the Transition Attached Properties

The transition attached properties are rather verbose, and adding them to every page in your app adds a substantial amount of duplication. Fortunately you can create a reusable style that can be applied to each page.

Windows Phone 8 : Windows Phone Toolkit Animated Page Transitions - Using Windows Phone Toolkit Transitions

If the RootVisual is assigned in the App.xaml.cs file, as is the case by default, modify the InitializedPhoneApplication method to assign the TransitionFrame, as shown in the following excerpt

Windows Phone 8 : Messaging - Composing a New Message (part 8) - Checking for New Mail

Depending on the type of mailbox you are connected to, new messages might not show up in your Inbox immediately.

Windows Phone 8 : Messaging - Composing a New Message (part 7) - Adding Emoticons and Clip Art

When you compose an email message, Windows Phone 8 gives you an easy and fun way to insert clip art emoticons and clip art images into your message.

Windows Phone 8 : Messaging - Composing a New Message (part 6) - Adding Recipients Through CC and Blind CC

Windows Phone 8 gives you the option to copy or blindly copy other recipients on a message. To do so, create a new message and follow these steps.

Windows Phone 8 : Messaging - Composing a New Message (part 5) - Setting Message Priority

When you compose a new message, you have the option to set the message’s priority to high, normal, or low

Windows Phone 8 : Messaging - Composing a New Message (part 4) - Removing a Message Attachment

When you add an attachment to a message, you have the option to remove the attachment before sending the message.

Windows Phone 8 : Messaging - Composing a New Message (part 3) - Sending a Picture from the Camera

Although the message composition screen contains an attachments icon, the only type of attachment you are allowed to add to messages is a photograph.

Windows Phone 8 : Messaging - Composing a New Message (part 2) - Adding Message Attachments

Windows Phone 8 enables you to send photographs as message attachments. You have the option of sending a photograph either from your Camera Roll (or albums) or directly from the built-in camera.

Windows Phone 8 : Messaging - Composing a New Message (part 1) - Writing a Message

These above assume that you are going to be manually entering the message recipient’s email address. However, Windows Phone 8 gives you the option of sending an email directly to one of your contacts by tapping the Add Contact icon.

Windows Phone 8 : The Multimedia Experience - History, Displaying New Content

The Music+Videos hub’s History screen displays the media you have played most recently. You can use the History screen as a quick playlist if you want to replay something that you recently listened to or watched.

Windows Phone 8 : The Multimedia Experience - Playing Videos

As you synchronize your videos to the phone, you might discover that, regardless of the video type, all your videos are lumped into the All container and are not listed in other containers.

Windows Phone 8 : Playing Music Through the Phone (part 5) - Sharing Music, Playing Music Using Smart DJ, Accessing Playlists

Windows Phone 8 devices include a Smart DJ feature that automatically plays a music mix based on the contents of your collection. The device provides one-touch access to the Smart DJ feature.

Windows Phone 8 : Playing Music Through the Phone (part 4) - Playing Music in the Background

Windows Phone 8 devices are capable of playing music in the background. In other words, if you start up some music and then press the Start button, switch to another app, or even turn off the phone’s display, that music continues to play.

Windows Phone 8 : Playing Music Through the Phone (part 3) - Playing a Music Genre,Playing a Specific Artist

If you want to hear all the songs on your phone that belong to a certain genre, open the Music section of the Music+Videos hub and complete these steps

Windows Phone 8 : Playing Music Through the Phone (part 2) - The Play Screen,Playing an Album

Just as you can play an individual song, you can play an entire album. To do so, go to the Music section of the Music+Videos hub and complete these steps

Windows Phone 8 : Playing Music Through the Phone (part 1) - Playing Songs, Using Jump Lists

If you have more than a couple albums stored on your phone, the list of songs can be pretty long. Instead of scrolling through a list of hundreds or even thousands of songs trying to find the song you are looking for, it is usually faster to use jump lists.

Windows Phone 8 : Orientation and the PhoneApplicationPage Class - Setting Page Orientation at Runtime

The Orientation property of the PhoneApplicationPage class cannot be assigned at runtime. Another approach is required to change the page orientation. For this turn to the SupportedOrientations property, which is assignable at runtime.

Windows Phone 8 : Orientation and the PhoneApplicationPage Class - PhoneApplicationPage Orientation Property

You see that changing the page orientation at runtime is not as straightforward as it might first appear. The Orientation property’s set accessor has an effect only at design time and not at runtime.

Windows Phone 8 : The Multimedia Experience - Xbox Music Pass (part 2) - Playing Music from the Xbox Music Pass

After you’ve connected your phone to your Xbox Music Pass subscription, you have immediate access to everything Xbox Music Pass has to offer.