MIX10: Opening Keynote

by March 16, 2010

Scott Guthrie and Joe Belfiore's opening keynote at Microsoft’s MIX10 conference in Las Vegas, NV provided an overview of the Windows Phone Series 7’s capabilities and development tools.

  • Microsoft’s Silverlight platform is now installed on 60% of all Internet connected devices and being used to develop media, rich internet, and (now) phone based applications
  • Windows Phone Series7 is designed to anticipate what people want to do with their phones. The live tiles on the phone’s start screen create a custom experience for each individual using the phone. You can press and hold any tile to move it around on the home screen.
  • Each hardware device running Windows Phone Series 7 (WPS7) will have three primary buttons: start, search, and back.
  • Pivots are the different views you can pan through in a WPS7 app.
  • App controls are consistently placed in a bar at the bottom of the screen. The most common actions are visible as icons and additional actions are accessible below.
  • Microsoft made multiple designs for the “delete email” task because it is such an important use case. In the final design, muscle memory helps you make use of check boxes to the left of each message.
  • The calendar application also features a common task front and center: the “I’ll be late” button.
  • Hubs are central locations that are task orientated and allow people tp find everything related to a specific object type like: photos, people, music, and movies. Each hub compiles information from third party apps, the phone OS, and the Web related to the specific object type.
  • Developers can integrate their apps into the core hubs pre-installed on the phone. For example photo-editing apps can be integrated into photos hub. This allows developers to connect thier apps with the places where people want to use them and where they make the most sense.
  • Panoramic experience: is wider than the screen. Content is cropped to show there’s more.
  • Silverlight on the Windows phone supports Deep Zoom: starts with low-resolution images and pulls down high-resolution images as needed.
  • The WPS7 marketplace features trial and buy options for apps.