New book - Professional Windows Vista Gadgets Programming

I am extremely excited to announce that my new book - Professional Windows Vista Gadgets Programming (Wrox) is on track to be released in Dec 07. I have worked hard to make this book a useful resource for developers building Windows Sidebar and SideShow gadgets.

Check out the following for the synopsis and head to Amazon.com to reserve your copy today!

As an easy-to-use application that provides information at a glance, a gadget basically takes the concept of portal dashboards and moves them to the more accessible Windows desktop where users can quickly and easily obtain weather information, RSS news feeds, and much more. In Windows Vista, there are two types of gadgets – Sidebar and SideShow gadgets. Sidebar gadgets are mini applications hosted in the Sidebar pane located on the Windows desktop, while SideShow gadgets are applications that send information to SideShow-enabled devices such as an external LCD display, or even a remote control.

With this hands-on guide, you’ll discover the simplicity of developing Vista Sidebar and SideShow gadgets that can run on the Windows desktop as well as send information to SideShow-enabled devices.

This book contains two parts – the first covers Sidebar gadgets while the second part covers SideShow gadgets. In each part, Microsoft MVP author Wei-Meng Lee begins by walking you through the development of a simple gadget, introducing you to the key concepts in the process. Each chapter breaks down the specific APIs that are relevant to enhancing a gadget, and helpful code samples throughout every chapter detail the step-by-step progression of how a gadget is built. By the end of the book, you will be confidently programming Vista gadgets.

What you will learn from this book
* Components of a Sidebar gadget
* Detailed description and code samples on using the Sidebar APIs
* Using .NET Interop to enhance Sidebar gadgets
* Interfacing Sidebar gadgets with SideShow-enabled devices
* Localizing Sidebar gadgets
* Debugging Sidebar gadgets
* Detailed walk through of a Sidebar gadget project
* SideShow architecture
* Using the SideShow managed class for .NET development
* Understanding the Simple Content Format (SCF) content format for sending SideShow data
* Interacting with SideShow-enabled device
* Detailed walk through of a SideShow gadget project

Who this book is for
This book is for developers who want to build Windows Vista gadgets that target both the desktop as well as SideShow-enabled devices.