It happens sometime that a specific theme like Light or Dark looks good in some application. In such case, you have to specify all the colours manually to background foreground etc. This is very hectic job. Is there any easy way doing this?

Yes, we have. Jeff Wilcox simplified this process by releasing a ThemeManager library (open source) for you which you can use in your app and force a specific theme for your Windows Phone application.

Today in this blog post we will discuss about Compass APIs available in Windows Phone SDK. After reading this post, you will be able to use your Windows Phone’s device sensors and build some apps and/or games for your targeted users.

Before using the compass in your game, make sure to check whether the device supports it or not. The SDK provides APIs to check that too. Let’s start discussing about it.

These days almost everyone has a smartphone for Net surfing, Music, Games, Messengers, Official works and many more. If you use the device and subscribe to many services, it will consume more battery power and drain quickly than expected.

In this post we will discuss how to increase the battery power of Windows Phone series devices while in standby mode. If your device battery is draining quickly, check out the solution.

Everyone wants to build their apps, whether you are a geek or not. And when you have a website or blog with RSS, it’s by nature to build a RSS phone of your blog. A developer who has knowledge of programming can easily start with that. But what about non-techie?

Microsoft has recently launched a tool called “App Studio” which will allow you to build a Windows Phone app without any programming skill. Today we will discuss how to use this tool.

One of my friend, who bought a Windows Phone recently, asked me to build an app for him which will calculate bank’s interest rate. He is more into the investment market and this would really help him. I accepted the idea and built this app for him.

First I thought to keep it as private but later made it public so, others can also use it on need. It’s a free app which you can download from the Windows Phone store (link available below).

As a WPDev, sometime we want to show a callout type information box or a notification popup within the Windows Phone application to the end user. Building such type of control needs a lot of effort before using that in an application.

Infragistics came up with their own control to help the Windows Phone developers to save their effort building it from the scratch. Today we are going to discuss it here with step-by-step code snippet.

Last day we learnt “How to Integrate WP7.8, WP8 Live Tiles in your WP7.5 apps?” which was using the default APIs provided by Windows Phone SDK. That does not provide additional APIs like transparency, front and back content etc. to control the live tiles of your application.

In this post, we will learn how to customize the primary live tile of your Windows Phone 7.8 or 8.0 applications easily using the Telerik libraries.

The Windows Phone SDK update for WP7.8 is already there and many people already started receiving the WP7.8 OS update in their existing WP7.5 handsets. If you are a developer, you might want to integrate the new Live Tiles in your existing application to give it a good look.

In this post, I will guide you to update your existing apps to include the new live tiles. Continue reading to find out the step-by-step process to integrate it.

It was the nice Friday morning when I woke up and picked up my Lumia 800 to check out the time, mails and tweets. I discovered a small little enhanced feature (possibly a bug) on my device. My device was in charging mode though it was not connected to power cable.

First I was not able to believe my eyes but after few minutes, I confirmed that as an issue and took up the camera to record it. Sharing it here…. just enjoy.

Nokia rolls out the Windows Phone 7.8 update globally to it’s entire set of Windows Phone 7 devices which already have WP7.5 installed. It comes it some new features already available in Windows Phone 8 devices.

Among all the features, the most awaited feature that a WP7.5 user want to see in their screen is the all new Start Screen with those small, medium and large icons.

Above expectation, Microsoft released the WP7.8 SDK update for the Windows Phone 7 developers who wants to upgrade their apps to target the new WP7.8 OS rolling out after 31st January 2013. This update brings some prominent features like the new start screen.

In this post, I am going to share the downloadable links of the new SDK and the instructions to install this SDK update.

Windows Phone 8 is already in the market and people having the Windows Phone 7 device is waiting for the WP7.8 update to test few features that is already available in the WP8 devices because the WP7 devices can not be upgraded with the WP8 operating system.

WMPoweruser reported some new features which we will get in WP7.8 update from a Nokia Customer Feedback page, but it is still not officially confirmed yet.

Nokia announced that, they are coming up with a new Software Update for Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 in June – July timeframe. According to their announcement, this will be available in US and China from 22nd June and all other countries will get the update during July. You can get this update through Zune software. According to Nokia this update will be required for the new applications to work in Lumia 710 and 800.

Among the software updates, the most important update will be the Camera Extras which will include “Smart Group Shots”, “Action Shots”, “Panorama” and “Self-Timer” showcased for Windows Phone 8. Continue reading to know more about the Camera Extras.

Yesterday in Windows Phone Summit, Microsoft announced the new features of Windows Phone 8 consists of some interesting stuffs those coming in the way. Microsoft also announced that the existing devices running Windows Phone 7.x will not get the update of WP8, but there will be a update for those devices which will call as “Windows Phone 7.8”. Check out the post “Can we Upgrade our WP7 Device to Support WP8?” for more details about WP7.8 update.

Many of you might attended the Summit In-Person or Live from web. In this post, I will share the points on “What’s New in WP8” for you to bookmark for future. If you missed the event, this post will give you brief idea about what is coming next in Windows Phone 8. Continue reading.

Today in the Windows Phone Summit, Microsoft clearly mentioned that, there will not be any kind of upgrades of Windows Phone 8 in Windows Phone 7.x devices. Instead of that, they will throw a upgrade to WP7.8 for all the WP7.x handsets to fulfill the transitions between Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8.

This post will cover the new interesting stuff (from the Windows Phone Summit) that Windows Phone 7.8 will have to give you a look & feel of Windows Phone 8.