Mix 11 Keynote Windows Phone Fun

Scott Guthrie describing all the new goodies for Visual Studio and Windows Phone Mango.

Went to the Mix 11 keynote today. The new Windows Phone version, codenamed Mango and due for release later this year, looks very good. It seems as if they’ve worked through the wish list from the previous release and just about added everything.

Mango gives task switching, background processing (in a very well managed way), sockets, an on-board database, application powered Live Tile support and some lovely enhancements to the user interface. Furthermore, the emulator enhancements in Visual Studio will make it really easy to simulate the accelerometer and GPS system. And we will also be getting some impressive performance monitoring tools.

Applications will also now be able to use both Silverlight and XNA components in the same program, which will make creating game menus much easier. There was so much stuff I’ve probably forgotten something..

The tools will be available next month, the phones start being upgraded around autumn. This is great news for Windows Phone lovers like me, and anyone who fancies following the easiest path to mobile development that there is.

After the keynote I went for a wander.

This is a Kinect controlled LazyBoy recliner. Just move your hands in front of the sensor to move around and even recline the seat. Amazing.

Over at the Curious Cloud stand they are now getting readings from teams who have devices that are uploading sensor data to the cloud.