At yesterday’s MIX10 conference, we got a lot of new information about the upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series devices, including features, options for developers, how applications will be handled and marketed and more. If you weren’t able to attend the conference yourself or tune into the live stream, here’s what you missed:
Windows 7 Phone Series Features
According to the official press release, we learned that the phones would offer accelerometer support, a Microsoft Location Service, a Microsoft Notification Service (aka push notifications), hardware-accelerated video playback with DRM, IIS Smooth Streaming for live video, multitouch, camera and mic support.
For Developers:
Then later, from the conference itself, we learned that the phones will support .NET, XNA, and Silverlight. Also, it was announced that developers can use the following tools to build their WP7S apps: Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone, XNA Game Studio 4.0 for Windows Phone, a Window Phone 7 add-in for Visual Studio 2010 RC, Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone (tech preview), and a Windows Phone 7 Series emulator for testing.
Mary-Jo Foley from ZDNet scoured for answers to some of your “burning questions” regarding these new devices. You can learn more about things like multitask support and the App Marketplace from her post here.
Apps Announced
Microsoft also announced a huge list of initial partners for the new phones, including:
Associated Press, Citrix, EA Mobile, Foursquare, Namco, Pageonce, Pandora, Seesmic, Shazam, Sling, Archetype International, AWS Convergence Technologies (WeatherBug), Clarity Consulting, Cypress Consulting, Fandango, frog design, Glu Mobile, Graphic.ly, Hudson Entertainment, IdentityMine, IMDb.com, Larva Labs, Match.com, Matchbox Mobile, Microsoft Game Studios, Oberon Media, Photobucket, PopCap Games, SPB Software, stimulant, TeleCommunications Systems, Touchality LLC and Vertigo Software.
The App Marketplace
Microsoft unveiled details about how the new Windows Phone 7 Series applications will be sold via the Windows Phone Marketplace. The full post is here, but here are a few highlights:
- The Marketplace will organize apps from Mobile Operators and OEMs, all in one integrated experience.
- It will offer Xbox LIVE games, applications based on latest Silverlight runtime, and millions of songs and podcasts from Zune
- The Marketplace will be its own “hub” featuring content-specific marketplaces, the available application updates, and view a selection of editorially placed application, game and music content.
- Marketplace now adds a new Trial API that gives every application or game developer the option, but not the requirement, to enable a single instance of their code to include trial usage limitations (like time or level) so that users can test drive the app/game they are considering.
