After the first day and keynote#1 at Mix10; let's see what kept people busy talking during the day.
The actual focus in today's keynote was the Windows Phone and how it is going to leverage existing Silverlight technologies. The news about streaming to multiple screens in the final release of Silverlight 4
planned for April or the
Pivot control coming to Silverlight; which will add magic to data visualization
created a lot of buzz; but it was the day of the Windows Phone 7 Series.Visual Studio 2010 Express for Win-dows Phone, Windows Phone Emulator, Silverlight for Windows Phone and XNA 4.0 Game Studio 4 previews are all released today in the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP. Windows Phone 7 Series development tools are free and will remain free for Windows Phone developers.
The most outstanding feature of the Windows Phone was the emphasis on having a simplified intuitive UI with less variations. Developers will be able to deploy their app directly to their device or the built-in emulator; so the development environment is self-contained and there is no need for hardware. During the keynote the emulator was described simply as "having the phone without the phone". While developers are happy with working ona familiar development platform through Visual Studio and Silverlight, the Windows Phone user will have a unique UX; that is what counts the most for ROI. As a side note; developers will be able to monetize their mobile apps also through online advertisements.
The most crowded session I attended today was Laurent Bugnion's "
Understanding the Model-View-ViewModel Pattern" presentation. After his presentation, Emil Stoychev and I even had a chance to chat with him for a while. So today we congratulated him in person for getting the Silverlight MVP of the year award.We also talked to Dave Campbell about winning the Silverlight MVP award of the year and the exceptional community work he is doing. Actually during the breaks, the Commons Area was a great place to geek out, talk to experts, MVP's and product teams.
Being located in Southern California (Socal), thanks to the Socal developer evangelists' invites, I attended the Developer & Platform Evangelism Mix10 Exclusive Event. The location was pretty cool, the Gold Lounge at the Aria Hotel, with a fun crowd and non-stop networking! Great way to end day#1 at Mix10.
Keynote#2 is coming up tomorrow. Stay tuned for more details!