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I’ve been writing Windows Phone apps since before there was a Windows Phone. I was one of the first folks to download the SDK when it first came out and, thanks to my involvement with the Jumpstart sessions, one of the first developers to get his hands on a real device. I firmly believe that I wrote the first ever application for Windows Phone that involved cheese. And now I can target Windows Phone and Windows tablet at the same time, with the same solution. Double cheese for no extra effort.

All my apps from now on are going to be universal ones, built for both the Windows Phone and Windows platforms. In this article I’m going to describe the journey I’ve had as I made the change, highlighting the most important differences from previous platforms. We’ll take a look at the broader issues of writing for two distinct platforms at the same time, and also consider some of the lower level details that might trip you up.

One of the things I explore in my Windows Forms Best Practices course on Pluralsight (soon to be released) is how you can go beyond the limitations of the Windows Forms platform, and integrate newer technologies into your legacy applications. Here are three ways you can extend the capabilities of your Windows Forms applications.

On July 30, Microsoft officials took the wraps off the first update to the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system.

A developer preview of Windows Phone 8.1 Update -- as Microsoft execs curiously have christened what is expected to be the first of several updates to its phone OS -- will be available some time during the week of August 4. The odd naming convention isn't a first; the Microsoft Operating Systems Group also decided to call the first update to Windows 8.1 "Windows 8.1 Update," despite the fact there will be a second update to that operating system, most likely on August 12.

I was very excited when Microsoft announced universal apps for Windows Store and Windows Phone apps. One reason is that I can now use my existing C#/CLR/WinRT skill set to build phone apps. Another reason is because it means my Windows Runtime via C# book now has a new audience. In fact, the book’s content is entirely applicable for Windows Phone 8.1 developers except for the few differences described in this earlier blog post, “Windows Phone updates for Windows Runtime via C#.” I’ve already converted all the book’s code samples to universal apps, and I have them running on both Windows and Windows Phone. You can download this code from the book’s catalog page in the new Microsoft Press Store (via the Downloads tab).

Here is the new SilverlightShow content for Wednesday, July 30th, 2014.

• Background Tasks in Windows 8.1
• Facebook Messenger for Windows Phone gets Video recording and playback
• App development guide for UICC based NFC card emulation for Windows Phone 8.1
• Merging the Code-Base: Combining Existing Windows Store and Phone Apps into Universal Apps
• Windows Phone 8.1 Update brings Cortana to new markets + new features

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Windows Store apps are designed to remain alive and connected even when they are not running. Your app may need to fetch data from a remote server, download large files in the background, scan the file system for changes, or connect with a web service to retrieve updates while the user is performing other tasks. Fortunately, the Windows Runtime (WinRT) provides a mechanism referred to as background tasks that provides this functionality. In this article, Microsoft MVP for Silverlight Jeremy Likness shows you the variety of tasks that are available from updating information on the lock screen, raising alerts from incoming messages, to playing audio in the background and receiving data only when the connection is not metered.

Facebook has released an update for their Messenger app for Windows Phone that brings a few new features I think you will enjoy. This update introduces video recording and video playback so that you can send video messages and watch received videos directly within the app. A new sticker tab is also being introduced that shows recent stickers, as well as some sticker improvements to help save bandwidth. If you already have Messenger installed, you should begin seeing the update soon.

This white paper details the features in Windows Phone 8.1 that you can use to create a UICC-based NFC card-emulation app—an app that lets the phone be used as a credit card, for example, or a transit ticket. In Windows Phone 8.1, it’s faster and easier than ever to create a card-emulation app; you just use the Windows Phone SDK and a regular developer account, and you don’t need special privileges to give your app the basic emulation functionality. (You do have to partner with a mobile operator to launch your app.)

With the release of Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1, developers now have a single runtime that they can use to create “universal Windows apps.” This not only provides a little relief for management of the media assets used in apps for the two separate platforms, but also increases the reusability of feature sets, source code and ultimately know-how.

In order to make use of this opportunity, recently my team and I at CompuSight were tasked with combining our Adobe EchoSign e-signature app for the Windows Store and Windows Phone 8 into a universal app. Even though the implementation logic was inherently the same (considering the fact that the apps were heavily dependent on a service layer and the design scheme was an ordinary MVVM approach), the implementations differed on certain aspects like data management, platform interactions (e.g. content sharing, making use of the device peripherals etc.). However, the tools and templates provided for this very same purpose made this transition less painful.