Microsoft's Clint Rutkas was sent a rather intriguing e-mail a couple weeks back. Could he use a phone he'd never held to control a robot he hadn't built to send T-shirts into the crowd at the Mix10 conference.
Ever the adventurous type, Rutkas readily agreed. And sure enough, when Monday's keynote rolled around, Rutkas' Windows Phone T-Shirt Cannon was ready.
Rutkas said he didn't even get a prototype phone in his hands until a couple days into the project. Although he was 90 percent sure he could just do things remotely via the phone, Rutkas ended up putting a laptop in the robot as well "for safety." The cannon, he said, is capable of firing things off with hundreds of pounds-per-square-inch worth of pressure. "We could clear the room for sure," he said.
Although Windows 7's "XP Mode" has been a welcome feature of the new operating system, there's been a fair bit of confusion brought on by the virtualization layer's hardware requirements.
To work, XP Mode has required a PC processor that supports hardware virtualization, and that feature had to be turned on in the computer's BIOS (basic input/output system). Those requirements caused some consternation, as PC owners didn't always have an easy way to tell if their system fit the bill.
Well, those requirements are no more. As part of a wave of virtualization announcements on Thursday, Microsoft said people running Windows 7 will now be able to use XP Mode without having to know whether their PC processor supports hardware virtualization.
Now that Microsoft has effectively restarted its mobile strategy afresh with Windows Phone 7 Series, third party developers need a way to dig into the platform. So today, Microsoft announced Windows Phone Developer Tools are now available as a free download at developer.windowsphone.com
The tools include: Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone, Windows Phone 7 Series Add-in for Visual Studio, a Windows Phone 7 Series emulator, and XNA Game Studio 4.0. There is also a Community Technology Preview of Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone available as a separate download on developer.windowsphone.com today. This beta provides exactly the same visual development workflow for Windows Phone that was previously used in Silverlight and .Net application development.
Microsoft should make Bill Buxton its front man -- the main spokesperson. Buxton, principal researcher for Microsoft Research, has style, great enthusiasm and vision. In an alternate universe, Buxton founded a company like Apple; only better. Buxton is more visionary than Apple CEO Steve Jobs, has better sense of good design (he is a designer, after all) and understands great design in context of the flow of history. Perhaps if Buxton had more ego, he would run a company as successful as Apple, or Microsoft. But humility is part of his appeal.
Zune -- along with Expression Blend, Silverlight, Visual Studio and XNA -- may yet save Windows Phone 7 Series. During the kick-off MIX10 keynote earlier today, Microsoft product managers showcased features, development scenarios and, most importantly, user experiences derived from Zune HD. Perhaps Windows Phone 7 Series isn't a hopelessly lost cause after all. Microsoft's competitive postion would actually look good, if phones were shipping now and not in six to eight months.
As expected, Microsoft is opening the gates for the first (probably the only) Release Candidate for Silverlight version 4 today, for developers who have been playing with the beta in Visual Studio 2010 since last November. The message of the day for Monday from Microsoft is Silverlight 4 as the functionality platform for Windows Phone 7 Series.
Last month, developers were informed that Silverlight 4 will be the application platform for WP7S. What we learned today is that Express editions of Visual Studio and Expression Blend will be distributed for free, starting today, for developers to build complete S4 apps from Windows-based PCs, and emulate those apps within Windows using a real virtual machine. Silverlight for developers itself is, of course, already free.
Microsoft is using the MIX'10 Web developer conference in Las Vegas this week as a platform for unveiling new details about the upcoming Windows Phone 7 series. One detail, which could drive support for Windows Phone 7 apps, is the reliance on Silverlight as a development platform.
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There are two reasons that using Silverlight as the foundation for Windows Phone 7 development makes sense. First, Silverlight is cross-plaftorm--enabling developers to create Web-based apps that work on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
The Zune HD is a strong music player. It's got a lot of features I wish Apple would add to its iPod and iPhone lineup, particularly wireless sync and queuing. But with the impending release of the Windows Phone 7 Series, which will include full Zune HD functionality in its "Music + Video" hub, I've begun to wonder if Microsoft will phase out the Zune as a standalone music player.
Here's one clue: Microsoft developer Michael Klucher on Tuesday put up a blog post about the upcoming XNA Game Studio 4.0. Thus far, XNA Game Studio has been primarily used to develop casual games for the Xbox 360 and, more recently, to create games for the Zune HD. (Elements of the XNA platform are used by big game studios to develop other Xbox games as well, but those developers use a separate Xbox Development Kit available only to licensees.) Long story short, Klucher confirmed that XNA Game Studio 4.0 will support game development on Windows Phone 7 Series phones, but not on the Zune HD.
Microsoft said on Wednesday that it is halting e-mail-based support for its suite of Windows Live services. Instead, the company said users will have to go to online forums for help with issues. The move is effective Wednesday, Microsoft said. In an e-mail, a Microsoft representative characterized the move as a positive.
"This means that consumers and partners will experience quicker resolution times and will be able to leverage our extensive community forums to post or answer questions, view service alerts and find solutions," the representative said. Forum answers, Microsoft said, will come from peers, volunteer Most Valuable Professionals, as well as Microsoft support moderators.
If you use both Outlook and MySpace, you are part of an interesting demographic. But you are also in luck. Microsoft and MySpace said on Wednesday that they are ready with the beta version of a tool that lets Outlook users see their MySpace connections within the e-mail and calendaring program. A new "social connector" feature for Outlook lets users connect to social networks, including MySpace, LinkedIn, and soon Facebook, too. In a blog posting, Microsoft said the connector for MySpace is now ready.