14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Phone 7 seems to be one of the main characters at the MIX10 conference, as Microsoft has unveiled a wide range of details on the development of applications for the new mobile operating system. Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president, .NET Developer Platform, and Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president, Windows Phone Program Management, were there to provide developers with info on the technologies they can use for delivering compelling applications and games for the platform, while also benefiting from the capabilities mobile phones come to the market with.
[ADMARk=1]According to Microsoft, mobile applications developers can built solutions for Windows Phone 7 Series devices while taking advantage of device features like: - Accelerometer, an intuitive control that responds to motion - A Microsoft Location Service to provide developers with a single point of reference to acquire location information - Microsoft Notification Service for pushing information to the phone, regardless of whether or not an application is running - Hardware-accelerated video with digital rights management (DRM) - Internet Information Services Smooth Streaming for the industry’s highest quality content viewing experience - Multitouch - Camera and microphone support.
The Redmond-based company says it plans to support in any way it can the development of software solutions for the new Windows Phone 7 Series devices, and has announced the availability of a series of tools in the area. These tools come for free to developers, and the list includes the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone, Windows Phone 7 Series add-in to use with Visual Studio 2010 RC, the XNA Game Studio 4.0, Windows Phone 7 Series Emulator for application testing, and Expression Blend for Windows Phone Community Technology Preview, which has been made available as a separate download.
The Silverlight 4 RC made available for download on Monday comes with powerful media and enterprise application and media capabilities, and can deliver out-of-browser flexibility, as well as tools support via Visual Studio and Expression Blend with Sketchflow, so that developers can come up with rich interactive experiences. At the same time, the company notes that the Expression Blend 4 Beta comes with new features, including Path Layout, so that developers can build innovative user interface designs, and that the solution features support for Silverlight 4, .NET Framework 4 and Visual Studio 2010.
“Windows Phone 7 Series brings together a rich application environment, powerful hardware, a fresh approach to software and a smart new design,” Belfiore said. “It was designed to generate incredible opportunities for developers and designers to quickly and easily deliver compelling applications and games. With the best developer tools, an established ecosystem and marketplace, and a path for developers to use their Silverlight and XNA Framework skill sets, we are delivering an application platform that is simple, powerful and inspiring.”