phone app development notes.

1. When a Windows Mobile phone idles, none of the threads in your app will get any cycles even if they're waiting for timers unless you tell the OS you really want to run your thread in the background no matter what (System.Thread.IsBackground, for you .NET folks). I wouldn't be surprised if this behavior also applied to any Windows installation that's configured to save power that way, i.e. laptops, which I've never developed on.
2. I haven't found an obvious .NET way to grab the screen and the soft keys if the device is locked. Yeah, this may be a duh because such a feature would weaken the lock, but I figure if the telephony and alarm apps can grab the phone, why can't I?
3. Speaking of device locks, some kinds of input event handlers appear to intercept them. I don't think that's right.