I'm in Las Vegas this week to attend MIX'10. Here, you can find links to all my coverage of the show.
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March 15, 2010
As part of an ongoing series of revelations about its upcoming Windows Phone platform, Microsoft on Monday discussed the developer story for the platform. This information follows the initial Windows Phone announcement last month at Mobile World Congress and some game developer info at the Game Developer Conference earlier this month. And Microsoft plans to provide some enterprise-oriented announcements in the future as well.
"Windows Phone 7 Series was designed to generate incredible opportunities for developers and designers to quickly and easily deliver compelling applications and games," said Microsoft corporate vice president Joe Belfiore. "With the best developer tools, an established ecosystem and marketplace, and a path for developers to use their [existing] skill sets, we are delivering an application platform that is simple, powerful and inspiring."
Monday's announcements included providing developers with information about the tools they will use to create Windows Phone applications. These tools include the Visual Studio 2010 development environment with a Windows Phone add-on, the Expression Blend user interface designer tool, and new versions of the Silverlight and XNA development frameworks.
Microsoft is providing these Windows Phone developer tools for free, as well, and the company made a prerelease version of the tools, including a Windows Phone software emulator, available for download on Monday. The company also discussed its plans for Windows Phone Marketplace, which will be available on all Windows Phone devices as well as on the PC via an updated version of the Zune software. Any paid Windows Phone apps can be made available as a free trial version via the Marketplace, the company said.
In various meetings throughout the day, other interesting aspects of Windows Phone 7 were revealed. Microsoft told me that it would "own" the entire Windows Phone experience, and would not allow its partners to replace the UI, as they had with Windows Mobile. This also means that Microsoft will provide a Windows Update facility for Windows Phone, so that wireless operators can't prevent users from getting various software updates and new functionality.
The company is also locking down the application deployment process with Windows Phone: Now, third party sites will not be allowed to provide users with Windows Phone applications. Those applications will have to come directly via Windows Marketplace only. (An exception for corporate applications will be announced later, the company told me.)
On potentially sticky area is multitasking. While the company claims that Windows Phone will support "full multitasking," first generation third party applications will only be able to use a push notification system, similar to what Apple promised to iPhone developers. (Microsoft's Windows Phone applications will support native multitasking capabilities, however.) The company plans to open up the system's multitasking functionality to third party developers over time, I was told.
Tomorrow, Microsoft will reveal some developer information about Internet Explorer 9, the company's next web browser. As always, please stay tuned to the SuperSite for Windows, where I'll be providing ongoing news from MIX'10, including a Day 2 keynote liveblog.
March 15, 2010
This week, Microsoft will hold its annual MIX conference in Las Vegas, and while the show isn't as big as, say, CES--heck, it's got less hype than an Apple press conference--it's a big deal for the software giant and its customers. That's because this MIX is a bit different than past shows. In addition to the normal web developer focus, MIX'10 will also focus on Windows Phone 7 and, less specifically, on Microsoft's efforts to bridge the gaps between the PC, web, and phone.
MIX promises, among other things, to provide new information about...
Internet Explorer 9. Microsoft gave a very early look at its next web browser last fall at the Windows 7 launch, but developers this week can expect a closer look at what the company will be focused on for this release. And make no mistake about the audience here: Any IE 9 information we receive this week will be targeted at developers, not the general public.
Windows Phone 7. Last month, Microsoft revealed that it was abandoning Windows Mobile and developing a completely new mobile platform called Windows Phone 7. This week at MIX, we'll get a better look at what the developer picture is for this platform. This will involve Silverlight for traditional applications and XNA for games.
Silverlight. Speaking of Silverlight, while the advent of HTML 5 and other next-generation web technologies could one day cause the end of browser plug-ins like this (and Flash), Microsoft is quickly advancing this .NET-based runtime environment with additional capabilities and support for a while range of PC and mobile systems. Expect an update on Silverlight 4 at the show.
Expression. Microsoft's Express suite targets standards-based web developers, designers, and anyone else that's working on content-rich web sites. In tandem with Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft will be revving these products to take advantage of the next generation platforms and technologies listed above.
I'll be covering the show live from Las Vegas, and will be live blogging the Monday and Tuesday morning keynotes with bloggers Ed Bott (ZDNet), Mary Jo Foley (ZDNet), Long Zheng (I Started Something) Ben Rubenstein (Neowin), and Kip Kniskern (LiveSide). Stay tuned to the SuperSite for Windows for all of my MIX'10 coverage.
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Hopefully, you kept up with the MIX'10 Day 1 keynote via our live blog. But if not, here's a recap of the day's announcements, courtesy of Microsoft. Read more...