Some great news from Microsoft:
With today’s Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP refresh, developers and designers can now build Windows Phone 7 apps on the final release of Visual Studio 2010. The CTP refresh also updates the Windows Phone 7 OS image in the Windows Phone Emulator, updates APIs, updates documentation with new and expanded topics and addresses earlier discrepancies.
If you would like to see more information on the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP refresh, check out Charlie Kindles’ blog post, Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP Refresh, where he outlines the updates and includes helpful tips for developers installing the new tools.
The refresh is available now and can be found at http://developer.windowsphone.com.
I’m not sure why this isn’t formatting correctly. :)
Great news, I was waiting for a emulator update now that VS and SL4 are done. This is good news if it shows how MS will be doing updates post-release as well (every month or so it seems).
I wonder what’s new in the emulator now.
I think its quite smart for Microsoft to have developers working on Windows Phone apps long before the release. Much smarter than what Palm did, which was wait like a year to come out with an official SDK.
And Paul, you as a Windows a guy, I have a question for you. I’m sure you saw the story about Microsoft canceling the Courier project. We can debate whether or not it was real. But is it possible Microsoft could use UI elements from the Courier and Windows Phone (Metro) in Windows 8?
I’m sure Sinofsky and his team know that they have to revamp the Windows Tablet stuff (especially with the tablet space getting more and more interesting and competitive).
Heres what I think will happen: Microsoft will move the Windows Phone team under the Windows Client team (Windows, Windows Live, IE), as it should, and what were going to see is Metro and possibly Courier-like designs in products coming from that division.
Im just really interested in the future of Windows Phone and Windows 8 given how intense the competition is getting. And because of all the intense competition, Microsoft will have double on the innovation factors of their products, which is the most exciting part in all of this.
Anything is possible, but any opinions we’d have about this are just speculation.
So this was a disappointingly painful process. Having previously installed the beta version of these tools, I had to manually uninstall *seven* different items, and the stupid dialog that told me that couldn’t even be put in the clipboard so I could make sure I got everything. (I took a screenshot.) I used a single installer to install all this junk. Why is this so hard to uninstall/update?
This is off-topic, but Microsoft really needs to fix this kind of thing.
I suppose that’s why it’s still a CTP? These things should hit a beta 1 and RC stage right?
Just a heads up Paul: Microsoft has re-posted the Office Mobile for WP7 videos, this time with a narrator and explanations:
http://www.fuzemobility.com/wp7-office-and-email-video-revisited/
Thanks!
In case anyone is interested, here is a background video on the emulator tools:
Behind Windows Phone Tools for Developers – The Emulator
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/yochay/Behind-Windows-Phone-Tools-for-Developers–the-Emulator/