Datasheet

Windows Phone can provide location information. This topic will be covered in detail in the context
of the location services offered by the platform in Chapter 12, but it ’ s enough to say that having a
GPS is essential in order to accurately geolocate the user.
One thing that you will notice about Windows Phone is that it is the fi rst mobile offering from
Microsoft that has been designed with a consumer rather than enterprise or business user focus.
Previously, Windows Mobile was more tailored for the mobile worker, with support for enterprise
features such as device deployment and management at the expense of a consistent set of hardware
capabilities. As a consumer device Windows Phone will offer a minimum of a 5 - megapixel camera
with integrated fl ash. Windows Phones will also include light and proximity sensors that will be
used to enhance the user experience.
In building your application, you need to be very aware of the experience you are constructing for
the user. Where you would have once provided simple on - screen feedback, you can now use more
complex animation and sounds and even have the device vibrate. You should use all visual and
hardware effects sparingly as it is easy to overwhelm the user and drain the phone ’ s battery in the
process.
Screen Resolution
Dealing with differing hardware was just one of the challenges faced by developers working with
the Windows Mobile platform. In seeking to be a platform that could be tailored to a wide variety
of user scenarios, Windows Mobile 6.5 supported six touch - screen and fi ve non - touch - screen
resolutions. As you have already learned, there won ’ t be support for non - touch screen in Windows
Phone, but what ’ s even more exciting for developers is that with Windows Phone there will only be
two different screen resolutions that you need to accommodate.
The initial platform will be released with WVGA (480 ⫻ 800) resolution. A second resolution,
HVGA (320 ⫻ 480), will follow sometime in the future.
Whenever you see a Windows Phone being demonstrated, it is likely that it will be in Portrait mode.
In fact, if you look at some of the core areas of Windows Phone, such as Start, they only support
being displayed in Portrait mode. However, this doesn ’ t prevent you from taking advantage of
running in Landscape if that ’ s more suitable for your application. In fact, the best applications are
those that allow either orientation, reorganizing the layout in order to make best use of the available
screen real estate. Windows Phone also provides the necessary extension points for your application
to handle the change in device orientation during operation, such as sliding out a physical keyboard
on a device that has one.
METRO DESIGN LANGUAGE
Before getting much further into the ins and outs of Windows Phone, it ’ s worth taking a step
backward and looking at the approach that Microsoft took in designing the user experience. Rather
than simply refi ning what they already had, it was time to make a clean break and come up with a
revolutionary design. The outcome of this process was not only a unique mobile interface but also a
design language that you can, and should, adopt as part of building your application.
Metro Design Language
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