Microsoft Talks Windows Phone 7 At MIX11 : April 13, 2011
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12:02 - Near ready, no staff on stage yet. Events tend to start slightly late at these conferences.
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12:06 - Joe Belfiore is up on stage. Notes the designer of a CG intro video (Brandon Foy) for Windows Phone was made by a 24-year-old after being contacted about a YouTube video.
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12:07 - Talking a bit about updates and why he was wrong when most people had the February WP7 update.
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12:08 - Why did the update come later than expected? Had handed it off and started deploying, but found issues with how it was deploying; things it hadn't anticipated as phones were manufactured.
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12:09 - Example: firmware setting to flag a device in production stages. Wasn't in pre-production phones, and when an update hit, it put the phone into a non-working state.
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12:09 - Gone through that learning process and hope not to repeat it.
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12:11 - Who controls updates? Carriers think of updates like they do phone sales. Want to make sure it works. That's "quite reasonable." Difference is that we make the update and deploy it. Quicker approval process at a carrier means it goes faster there [read: AT&T is slow to test].
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12:13 - Manufacturing issues are different on phones than on PCs. Tried to improve the team that handles this update infrastructure. Trying to get better at communicating about this. "Where's my update" page is being updated frequently.
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12:14 - Over 15,000 (?) apps. Very cool apps, examples like ESPN and Zillow. "Deeply appreciative" of what they've done.
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12:16 - Talking about the Mango update later this year. Things for developers: opportunities in the ecosystem, countries, and app discoverability. Browser, phone integration, and multitasking features. Improvements to developer tools.
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12:18 - Happy to see ABI analysts predicting Windows Phone would be number 2 in the market. Marco Argenti from Nokia (head of developer experience) up. Working on the first WP7 phones at Nokia. Aim is to bring the creative work of developers to over 190 countries and 112 carriers.
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12:18 - Notes carrier billing is the ideal way in some countries to reach customers.
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12:20 - 16 more languages: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Czech, many more. App creation to go from 30 to 38 countries. From 16 to 35 countries for actual app purchasing.
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12:25 - Jump lists in apps; you can use the same alphabetic letter list from contacts to jump to a particular app. You can also search for apps, and the results will let you search the marketplace if it's not in your library. Marketplace searches go straight to apps and show a lot of metadata (ratings, etc.). You can also search specifically for podcasts and music. App pages are easier to navigate, with separate columns, and have related apps [similar to the App Store].
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12:26 - Music + Videos (Zune) hub now has a third-party section for extras, like Netflix, Slacker, or other third-party titles.
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12:29 - Searches for movies on the web now have an "extras" section for apps, like IMDB. Deep linking means tapping the extra takes it directly to the relevant movie title.
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12:31 - Talking the IE9 engine: developers and users benefit because the web is a lot faster and, importantly, the markup language (HTML) is the same on the desktop and the phone. Won't be the same site, but a huge advantage.
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12:35 - HTML5 music app demo up: shows it playing music. The browser can now do background audio, which works without a hitch in the demo. Also shows off an HTML5 video from Boston.com with Microsoft's own controls.
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12:36 - Shows an HTML5 speed reading test: Windows Phone 7 runs at 23FPS, a Nexus S with Android 2.3 at 11FPS, and an iPhone 4 at 7.
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12:37 - More sensor integration for developers: raw camera data, compass, gyroscopes [note: gyros aren't in WP7 phones right now].
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12:39 - Skype is coming to Windows Phone 7 this fall to take advantage of access for voice and other features. Ringtone API demo: a picker that lets you download and install a sound file (Ballmer's "developers, developers, developers") as a ringtone.
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12:41 - Home tiles can now jump directly to a given feature in an app, like a barcode scanner.
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12:43 - Showing a WP7 version of Layar's augmented reality app using the motion sensor API.
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12:44 - Multitasking will have fast app switching: if you switch away, it keeps the app alive for as long as possible before shutting it down to preserve memory. Background services like audio, file downloads, alarms.
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12:47 - Spotify is coming to Windows Phone 7. When you navigate away, music keeps playing, and volume/skip controls work for the app. Angry Birds is coming too, May 25. Will take advantage of multitasking when it comes.
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12:48 - Live Agents: background agents that strike a balance between letting devs run code in the background and conserving battery. Android lets a lot of code run but often forces users to manually manage their apps.
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12:50 - Showing that you can pin specific elements in an app to home tiles, such as Qantas flight schedules. Apps can issue their own alarms.
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12:51 - Lets you jump directly into directions, not just maps, from an app.
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12:52 - Developer tools coming next month. "Waiting on the delivery of unicorn tears." Free, complete tools. Bringing Scott Guthrie up.
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12:55 - Developers can't do motion sensor simulation in the emulator until now: you can use computer input to make it work. Pre-recorded gestures can simulate things like shakes.
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12:57 - Location testing also now works, including manual selection and loading in predefined areas to test. Profiling tools: lets you easily identify hotspots and identify problems in code.
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12:59 - Somewhat like Apple's Xcode tools: lets you identify where an app is slowing down, its memory usage, garbage collection [iOS doesn't have this] and other parts of the OS.
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1:02 - Example points to the code; in this case, need to just move a process to the background to speed it up. You can even analyze on a per-frame basis to see if a very brief line of code or an object is a problem.
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1:07 - Optimized scrolling, especially with infinite lists. Faster load times, especially for reloads. Stays responsive even if external data hasn't come in yet. Spent a lot of time optimizing memory usage. About 25-30 percent reduction, and developers don't have to do anything to see it.
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1:12 - Talking FeedReader (RSS newsreader) experience: It's considerably faster with the new optimizations. Search is now practical inside the app. One line of code was all it took.
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1:15 - Network sockets are also now in WP7. An example of an IRC app, wpIRC. Shows it working in a real, live IRC channel. APIs are very familiar and work properly.
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1:20 - Kik Messenger up: shows how it has live chats and will create notifications for when new chats arrive.
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1:22 - Showing camera acccess in apps: the USAA will have an app to let you pay for something by snapping photos of the front and the back.
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1:22 - Apps in Mango will let you have both Silverlight (native WP7 code) and XNA.
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1:25 - Shows a demo app with a virtual Scott Guthrie: the 3D model is XNA, the zoom and other controls are Silverlight.
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1:26 - Silverlight 5 is coming to the browser in WP7.
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1:27 - Silverlight will support hardware decoding, including for pages that do both HTML5 and Silverlight. Trickplay lets you change the speed of a video without affecting pitch. Supports remote control for a "nine-foot experience" on a TV [when docked].
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1:31 - Blue Angels launching a new website to take advantage of Silverlight. Live demo coming up.
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1:38 - No actual demo of WP7 with Silverlight, just the website's high-quality videos and interactive animations. Talking 3D in Silverlight now, again on the desktop.
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1:42 - [Note: updates may be sporadic from now on, since desktop Silverlight isn't the focus and isn't showing public-facing features]
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1:44 - Walks through a 3D preview of creating and walking through a house. Silverlight 5 beta is available on the desktop today.
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1:46 - Talking Kinect SDK: skeletal tracking, writing in Visual Basic, C, C++. Non-commercial at first, but it will be commercial later. Showing a live demo of making an app.
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1:50 - Live demo of a basic app: it shows both the real camera footage and the depth camera. Devs can tell it to check values when an object is near or far.
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1:55 - A more advanced app demo: a moving, real-world vehicle with a recliner chair that can be controlled by using your hands to pivot two virtual pads. Microsoft will actually release the instructions on how to get the app and the hardware together.
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1:58 - Demonstrating a space system demo where you use the Kinect to navigate the planets. Zooms out all the way into the galaxy level and eventually the universe.
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1:59 - You can also go through to events in time, like the August 21, 2017 eclipse. Worldwide Telescope already has a preview of this.
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2:02 - Showing a project that uses the Kinect to let poor-sighted and blind people get a sense of their position. QR codes can cue audio instructions to turn away or stop.
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2:04 - The system uses a computer in the back to show what's being looked at and what's detected. A "cummerbund" also helps with the system.
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2:06 - Demoing Wall Panic 3000, a demo game that makes you adopt positions (much like a Japanese game show) to clear a wall. Has an 8-bit aesthetic and works smoothly.
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2:06 - Every developer in the room is getting a Kinect.
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2:07 - Today's keynotes are over.
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