Microsoft Melbourne Office at Freshwater Place
So I had the chance to attend the Melbourne BizSpark Windows Phone 7 Hands-on-labs last Friday, I was under the impression it was going to be a hands on session with the actual WP7 device but it was actually a hands on WP7 coding session for developers. As you folks know I am not a developer but I did get to attend a hands on session with Dave Glover a Developer Evangelist with Microsoft Australia. Before the actual workshop and coding sessions began I was given the opportunity to get some hands on time with the LG Prototype device. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take pics / video of the device coz the device is a prototype device ( looks like the folks from Singapore had better luck in getting some pics of the Prototype LG WP7 device )
I didn’t get a lot of time to play around with the device but one thing that I can tell you guys about the device is that the device is extremely responsive to touch input and all the transitions were very smooth. ( Now this is a test device that Dave was using and we have to keep in mind that this is a device that has no 3rd party apps on it ). One thing they wanted people to keep in mind was that the device was a protptype and the OS was a work in progress, but with the few minutes I had with the device I was quite impressed with WP7, it definitely has the wow factor.
I also had a quick demo of Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition with Dave, this is what developers will use to develop Silverlight apps for Windows Phone 7. He informed us that Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition is completely free and developers can use this to develop apps for WP7. The other tool that was demoed was Expression Blend ( i am not sure if it was Expression Blend 4 ), from what I gathered this is what a designer would use to develop the UI for an app and the coder would use Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition to work his magic to convert that to an app.
Dave used these tools to show off a quick demo of how the designer can work with Expression Blend 4 and create a really compelling UI with some great transition effect, mostly involved a few point and click ( you have to keep in mind he knew what he was doing ). He said the designer could use the UI with some fake data and the skeleton of the app is ready with bogus data and then you can launch that in to Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition and the coder does his thing and then you can run the app in the emulator, most of the developers there were impressed by that so I am guessing that is a good thing for developers ( coders and designers ).
If you are looking to develop for WP7 , you might want to keep an eye on Dave’s pdf on resources for WP7 : Developing for Windows Phone 7 Series
It has got some great resources for WP7 developers. I am still not sure why Microsoft has no official Panoramic controls but if you need it before the official release (http://bit.ly/bTnZAu)
- Windows Phone 7 Panorama Control from Clarity http://bit.ly/aAWUbV
- Pivot and Panorama control http://bit.ly/cNKvcn
Here is another useful tutorial : Use 2 mouse on your non touch PC to simulate multitouch for your WP7 Emulator.
He was also enthusiastic about WP7 Marketplace and the TRIAL API , which should allow developers to have one version of the app in the marketplace and offer trial version for that app, if users decide to get the full app they pay for it and the full features of the app gets unlocked. This means there is no lite versions and demo versions filling up the marketplace. The best part about this is the ability for the developer to allows any type of demo , it can be time-limited access to full applications or ad-supported trials with partial features. One other thing that interested me was the that developers can send out beta invites for their app ( it will still go through the Marketplace ) so beta testers can test the app on their device before the app is made public via the marketplace.
We did try and get some answers to a few of the questions send in by our readers via comments and twitter but most of them was answered with the usual ” We have not made a public announcement on that yet ” .. so questions involving things like specs for front facing video camera, sensor influence on the lock screen , etc are still a unanswered. In regards to silverlight on IE .. Dave said that it will NOT be present in the initial release ( with stress on initial release ) . USB Disk drive mode is something that will most likely be absent from WP7 , coz of the limitation to file system access on WP7. Questions on Tell Me voice search and Internet tethering was also unanswered.
NOTE : Since this is an unreleased product and some details about WP7 is still not announced to the public yet, they could not talk much about the device and the their plans for the platform in Australia. I was lucky enough to get some hands on time with the device all thanks to Dave. Hopefully I can organize another hands on session closer to release date and get some video and pics of the device to you guys
If you are a Windows Phone 7 Developer in Melbourne and want to run your app on an actual device, then Dave Glover is the man you need to speak to. You can get in touch with him via mail | blog | twitter | facebook
In regards to the developer interest in the platform I did meet a few developers who were interested to develop for WP7, most of them were PC silverlight app developers and most of them did not develop for Windows Mobile ( 6.X and below ) but were interested about WP7. Microsoft’s strategy with introducing silverlight and XNA on WP7 seems to be going in the right direction, of course we will have to wait and see how the developers will adopt WP7 but if the current trend is any indication the app and games market should be quite an active scene.
The winners for Melbourne BizSpark Windows Phone 7 Event was announced today read about it here.
Microsoft Melbourne Office is located at
level 5, 4 Freshwater Place,
Melbourne,
Victoria.
image via walkingmelbourne.com
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How was the device build ? Was it sturdy ? I know its a prototype and all but just wanted to know.
it was quite good, considering that its a prototype. :)
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