If you are a designer and would love to put together a WP7 app UI design in photoshop, Microsoft has made it easy for you by providing a design template for Photoshop which consists of 28 PSD files and therefore includes most of the design elements used in Windows Phone 7. via istartedsomething.com

A collection of 28 layered Photoshop template files that can be used to create pixel-perfect application layouts, to help guide UI development, or to pitch an idea. These design templates showcase many controls that are a part of the Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta. They also include examples of controls that are a part of Windows Phone, but are not available as a part of the Windows Phone Developer Tools. These additional templates are included to help designers and developers maintain a consistent look and feel across applications for system controls that developers wish to mimic. Templates in the download: Application Bar & Application Menu, Buttons, Check Box, Context Menu, Date Picker, Dialog Boxes, Edit Control, Hardware, Icons, Keyboard & Input, List Picker, List View, Panorama, Panorama Backgrounds, Picker Box, Pivot, Progress Indicators, Quick Jump Grid, Radio Button, Reminders, Slider, Start & App List, Start Tiles, Status Bar, Theme, Time Picker, Toast Notifications, Toggle Switch

Click here to Download

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devslide

Below is a list of new features, improvements and fixed issues in SlideUI version 1.6:

- Memory usage for all controls reduced and drawing speeds increased.
- In the previous release of SlideUI (1.5.3), we added support for transparency for the UILabel control. In this release, transparency support was added for UIButton, UIImageButton, UISwitch, UICheckBox, UIRadioButton, UITextBox controls.

UIPages
- Implementation of new control which allows creation of pages in design or run time.

UIListItem
- Rendering optimized. Now UIListItems appearance will be faster for items inserted into UIList in design time.

UITextBox
- TextHint property added to allow showing a hint (i.e. “Enter your name”) if text value is empty.
- Issue fixed. Previously if UITextBox control was inserted into a form in design-time, and the ‘Text’ property was set to an empty string and then the form was closed / opened, the ‘Text’ property contained default value generated by the designer (i.e. UITextBox1) instead of empty string. This issue has been corrected.

UICanvas / UIList
- Aliases added: BeginUpdate (for BeginAddControls) and EndUpdate (for EndAddControls).
- Issue fixed. Previously if UIList or UICanvas was inserted inside of another container and controls were added in design time, then these controls inside of UIList / UICanvas were invisible in run-time. This issue has been corrected.
- Issue fixed. If UICanvas contains UIGroupBox control and a user starts sliding, the caption from UIGroupBox disappears. This issue has been corrected.

UIImageButton
- Additional icon positions added: IconTopLeft, IconTopRight, IconBottomLeft, IconBottomRight.

UIPictureBox
- Issue fixed. The background image did not refresh in design-time when a new image was assigned or if the value of BackgroundImageDisplay property was changed. This issue has been corrected.

UIProgressBar
- Marquee progress bar style added (new properties: Marquee and MarqueeAnimationSpeed).

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So do you want port flash games to XNA according to WMPU now there is a way. Robin Debreuil has just released the Swf2XNA program to leverage your skills into WP7 games. From what I understood from the developers description Swf2XNA is an open source software that allows you to make XNA games by using Flash for assets and layout, and not an app that actually ports your Flash Games to XNA.. I might be wrong.

You might what to check the developers page for more info. The project is available for download here. Here is some documentation to help you along the way.

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Lessons

Here is what they have to say about the course :

In Windows Phone 7 App Development First Look, Joe Marini introduces the concepts and techniques behind developing Silverlight-based applications for Windows Phone 7. This course enables developers to apply their existing Silverlight programming skills and learn the fundamentals of building and debugging applications with Visual Studio 2010 and Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone 7. The development software and accompanying phone emulator give developers an early taste of how simple it is to create custom apps. Exercise files accompany the course.

Topics include:
* Creating application projects in Visual Studio and Expression Blend
* Adding application controls to Windows Phone pages
* Running and debugging in Visual Studio
* Testing a Windows Phone app with the Emulator
* Handling page orientation changes
* Adding an application bar
* Customizing text box input with InputScopes
* Consuming Web content with the WebBrowser control

Some of the content is available on Youtube , but for full access it looks like you need to have Paid Membership. More info

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Those who have ever used a Windows Mobile device know that many of the apps available for the OS are, how should I put this… “less than attractive”, so the people over at devslide have created their own bunch of UI elements to help us spruce up our apps.

SlideUI Mobile Controls are a bunch of buttons, text boxes & other similar controls which people are used to seeing on their Windows Phone device daily, but the huge difference is they look so much more attractive. Here is a bit about my experience using SlideUI Mobile Controls in my apps.

Simple example app using slideUI controls

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WP7 Video player

Read more about it

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Resco MobileForms Toolkit

The new suite of components will be based on the Resco MobileForms Toolkit — the most complete set of controls for mobile applications development targeting Microsoft Windows Mobile platform.

“When Microsoft announced new Windows Phone 7 Series, our customers were curious whether Resco plans to support the new Phone with the favorite controls,” said Radomir Vozar, Resco Developer Tools & Enterprise Division Director. “Windows Phone 7 Series is a big challenge for us and our plan is to provide developers with a complex set of components that will facilitate the development process for the new mobile platform.”

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If you are looking to develop Windows Phone 7 apps using silverlight this video tutorial will help you implement the cool Page Transitions effect in your app. modern mobile applications need to not only be functional, but also stylish. Simple “snap” transitions just don’t cut it anymore.

Via channel9

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wmgamedev

This book will provide you with a comprehensive guide to developing games for both the Windows Mobile platform and the Windows Phone using the industry standard programming languages C# and VB.NET. You will be walked through every aspect of developing for the Windows Mobile platform—from setting up your development environment for the first time to creating advanced 3D graphics. Finally, you’ll learn how you can make your applications available to others, whether distributing for free or selling online. Using extensive code samples throughout, you’ll gather all the information needed to create your own games and distribute them successfully for others to enjoy.

Aimed primarily at C# developers, almost everything in the book can be used in VB.NET too. For those areas where this is not the case, workarounds are suggested so that VB.NET developers are still able to use the techniques described. The book is aimed at those with an existing background in programming and knowledge of one of the two main .NET programming languages (C# and VB.NET), but who do not necessarily have any knowledge of programming for Windows Mobile or programming games in general. The book will guide the reader through the steps required to become proficient in both of these areas of development.

What you’ll learn

• How to obtain and configure a development environment for Windows Mobile
• How to build a working extensible game engine to reduce development time and increase reusability and distribution
• Tips and techniques for getting games working on a wide range of devices, including older devices, smartphones (with no touchscreens), as well as the latest hardware—all in a single code base
• A full overview of using OpenGL ES, opening up a new world of advanced 2D and 3D graphics and effects
• Everything you need to know to include high quality sound and music in your games
• Advice and information on the best ways to allow the user to interact with your game
• Guidance on distributing your finished games, including information about freeware listings and tips on creating and selling shareware games

Its available from Apress.com
Print Book Price: $49.99
eBook Price: $34.99

More Info : http://www.adamdawes.com/books/wmgamedev.html

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Touch Controls Suite 2.0 is the leading component suite that allows software developers to create graphically stunning and highly intuitive user interfaces (UI) for Windows Mobile Smartphone applications that are based on the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework (.NETCF). One of the major disadvantages of the Windows Mobile operating system is the fact that the user interface controls (such as menus, buttons, lists, etc.) are stylus-oriented but not optimized for finger-based interaction. Creating a finger-based UI requires a lot of technical knowledge. And due to performance issues, developers that write their applications on the easy to use .NETCF platform with languages such as C# or VB.NET are not able to instantly create modern looking applications that have a finger-based UI as previously seen on other platforms such as Apple iPhone.

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