Windows Phone 8 SDK Preview open now for existing Phone developers

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Windows Phone

Windows Phone SDK 8.0 Preview now open. Apply Today!
 

Self-nominations are now being accepted for access to the Windows Phone SDK 8.0 Developer Preview Program. With this program, we will provide tools to developers of the top apps, giving them a chance to fix known issues and to optimize their current apps for Windows Phone 8. To apply for program access, please visit Microsoft Connect to complete a short survey and accept the program terms. You will need the following:

 

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Developer ID
 

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Application Product ID
 

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Name of your local Phone Champ (if you don't know, check out the Find My Champ app)

Self-nominations will be accepted until Monday, Sept. 17. Those accepted will hear from us in the following week with instructions for how to proceed. For more detailed information, please check out Todd Brix's blog post outlining the program. Additionally, please read on, as we have included many useful tips for creating a great app, whether you participate in the preview program or not.
 
 

Future-proofing your Windows Phone apps
 

Utilize these quick tips as you build your Windows Phone 7.5 apps so they work well on Windows Phone 8 and beyond. Take a look at the article we posted today on the Windows Phone developer blog on "future-proofing" your apps. To summarize, here are a few tips.

 

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Avoid unsupported and undocumented features, such as event ordering, timing dependencies and non-public APIs.
 

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Prep for hardware diversity by actually checking for everything your app uses and taking appropriate action if it's not there. For example, to reach the widest possible target market, constrain your app to run within 90MB of memory to run on low-memory devices.
 

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If you choose to obfuscate your code to protect IP, do so conservatively to ensure version-resilience. Specifically, try to avoid optimization features of obfuscators that eliminate unused code and data, coalesce strings and merge assemblies.

For more great suggestions on how to best develop your Windows Phone 7.5 apps, we've put together this list of MSDN Magazine articles that cover camera use, data binding, feed-readers, and more.

 

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Using Cameras in Your Windows Phone Application
 

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Windows Phone Data Binding
 

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Get Your Windows Phone Applications in the Marketplace Faster
 

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Behind the Scenes: A Windows Phone Feed-Reader App
 

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Pragmatic Tips for Building Better Windows Phone Apps
 

Maximize your opportunity - build apps in the top downloaded categories
 

In January we published an infographic that provided an at-a-glance view of Marketplace statistics. Since it was one of our most popular and shared posts, we thought we'd do it again. Here's a snapshot showing a few key stats, including overall growth of apps in Marketplace, as well as the breakdown of most downloaded apps by type, both free and paid. Watch the Windows Phone Developer blog later this week for the full graphic containing more quick and useful facts.

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Dream.Build.Play Challenge brings high-quality, fun games to Windows Phone
 

Microsoft recently announced the winners of its annual Dream.Build.Play Challenge, which invites developers to compete for cash prizes by creating games for Windows Phone or Xbox 360. Check out the winners here – all were selected based on the following criteria – Fun Factor, Innovation and Production Quality. Inspired? Submit your game and be the next big game developer for Windows Phone!
 

Windows Phone partner offerings
 

Tap into offerings and resources from partners, communities and people from the Windows Phone developer ecosystem. For a complete list of what's available from Windows Phone partners, from components and tools to Web API & Cloud services – visit our partner resources page.
 

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Add sleek, smooth and finger-friendly experiences to your Windows Phone applications with Bee Mobile XAML components.

  
     

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Handle scoring, leaderboards, in-game notifications, game achievements, player login, built in CRM features, game management and more the with Scoreoid server platform.

  
     

Student Developer? Start here!
 

"Interested in developing Windows Phone Apps, but not sure how to get started? Meet Peter, a student developer with 2 apps on the Windows Phone Marketplace. Also, check out this guest post from Martin Gernegross, student developer of Windows Phone App Flying Tiles. Ready to get started building Windows Phone apps? Download the Getting Started Guide here. "