Attention to all hackers! The Kinect for Windows SDK beta is now available for you to download! For those who don’t know, the Kinect for Windows SDK beta is a starter kit for applications developers that includes APIs, sample code, and drivers which enables the academic research and enthusiast communities to create rich experiences by using Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect sensor technology on computers running Windows 7.

The Kinect for Windows SDK beta includes the following:

  • Drivers, for using Kinect sensor devices on a computer running Windows 7.
  • Application programming interfaces (APIs) and device interfaces, together with technical documentation.
  • Source code samples.

I think now I have a reason to buy the Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect to use with my Windows 7.

 

Microsoft really wants you, all you iOS and Android developers, to port your apps to Windows Phone 7, and they’ve done a great job by offering lots of guidance and even API mapping tools to help you transfer your skills and knowledge of iOS and/or Android skills quickly to Windows Phone 7.

Here’s what they’re offering:

iOS Developer Guidance to Windows Phone 7

Android Developer Guidance to Windows Phone 7

General Developer Porting Guidance to Windows Phone 7

  • a series of “developer stories”, in which developers share on video their experience porting applications to Windows Phone and explain why and how they did it.
  • “App Guy”
    • Get app porting assistance

With this many resources and help, there really isn’t any excuse for you not to try developing for Windows Phone 7. Head down to App Hub and download the Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools.

 

An update to the MSDN Office 2010 Developer Training Course and downloadable training Kit has just been released. Updates include two new training Modules around developing your own custom Outlook Social Connector Provider and connecting up Office with Azure Services. There is also new content for the Open XML 2.0 SDK, using the JavaScript Object Model (JSOM) with Excel and Visio Services and how to migrate an Excel client solution to a new service-based Web solution.

Developing an Outlook Social Connector Provider:

The Outlook Social Connector (OSC) is a set of new features in Outlook 2010 that help you keep track of friends and colleagues while enabling you to grow your professional network. As your read your email, you can view information in the People Pane such as the picture, name, and title of the sender along with a rich aggregated collection of status updates and activities related to the sender. This module has a hands-on lab that provides the basics on developing a custom Social Connector Provider that can bring social or line-of-business data directly into Outlook 2010.

Using the JavaScript Object Model (JSOM) with Visio and Excel Services:

Visio Services includes a JavaScript Object Model that allows developers to integrate JavaScript code with a Visio Web Access web part. The objective of this hands-on lab is to provide you with a foundation for using the Visio JSOM to expand the functionality of a Visio Web Access web part.

Likewise, the Excel JSOM provides a way to interact with the Excel Web Access web part. The hands-on lab provides the fundamentals for doing so.

Open XML SDK 2.0:

For the Open XML SDK 2.0 there are two new videos with demo scripts and source code. The demo scripts and source code are located in the Open XML Programming Lab’s source folder.

  • The first video is an introduction to the Open XML SDK 2.0. The demo shows how to pull data out of an Excel document and generate a Word employee appraisal document on the client.
  • The second video discusses using the Open XML SDK 2.0 for solution development and demonstrates using the SDK for highly scalable document generation on SharePoint coupled with Word Automation Services.

Designing Excel Solutions for the Web:

Excel Services, part of SharePoint Server 2010, offers new capabilities to developers looking to create server-based Excel solutions either on-premises or in the cloud with Office 365. This hands-on lab will explore some of the common tasks that developers perform while designing and migrating Excel client-based solutions to Excel Services-based solutions.

In the two videos that accompany this module, Larry Waldman, Excel Program Manager, discusses how to think about designing Excel solutions for the Web and shows how to execute the migration of an Excel client solution to a web-based Excel Services solution. Larry discusses how to use the Excel Services JavaScript object model, the Excel Services REST API and the Excel Web Service to round-out the new web solution.

 

These are just my notes for the Microsoft XBox 360 Media Briefing at E3 which I’ll sort out later:

New Games on the Microsoft XBox 360

  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – November 8th 2011
  • Tomb Raider for XBox 360 – Fall 2012
  • Tiger Woods PGA Tour (with Kinect) – 2012
  • Madden NFL (with Kinect) – 2012
  • Fifa (with Kinect) – 2012
  • Sims 3 Pets (with Kinect)
  • Family Game Night 4 (with Kinect)
  • Mass Effect 3 (with Kinect, voice recognition)
    • Choose decision with voice recognition
    • Tactical assault commands with voice recognition
  • Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (with Kinect)
    • Customize weapons (gun smith) using gestures or voice
    • Quick optimization, randomization, testing of weapons using voice
  • All future Tom Clancy’s francise will come with Kinect

Microsoft XBox Live

  • Using voice to control entertainment, play games, watch movies, listen to music, share with friends
  • New XBox Live interface
  • Increase partnership by a factor of 10
  • Increase number of content to millions
  • Youtube is coming to XBox Live
  • Bing is coming to XBox
    • You say it, Bing finds it
  • XBox Live TV
  • Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

Microsoft Studios and Exclusive Games

  • Gear of War 3
  • Ryse
  • Halo Anniversary
  • Forza Motosport 4
  • Fable: the Journey
  • Minecraft – this winter exclusively on XBox 360 + Kinect
  • Kinect Disneyland Adventures
    • Recreated the Disneyland Park
    • Share with Kinectshare.com
  • Starwars (with Kinect)
  • Sesame Street: Once upon a Monster (with Kinect)
  • Kinect Sports Season 2
    • Golf
    • American Football
  • Dance Central 2
  • Halo 4 – Holiday 2012

Microsoft Kinect

  • Kinect Fun Labs
    • Permanent addition to the XBox Live Kinect
  • Kinect Me
    • Become your avatar
    • Create your own avatar with Kinect
  • Finger tracking
  • Scan objects in and interact as object with Kinect
  • Live today
 

I was the keynote speaker for iCreate Mobility Challenge 2011 held by NUS. If you want to catch me, fast forward to the 6 minutes mark and that’s were I start my presentation on “Mobile Devices and Beyond”. I talked a little about the history of mobile devices, and presently what was the situation in the mobile space, and what is coming up in the future going forward with mobility.

 

Here are all the listing for the press conferences at the E3 2011 Expo:

Microsoft E3 2011 Press Conference
9:30AM PST Monday June 6, 12:30PM EST Monday June 6, 12:30AM SGT Tuesday June 7
http://www.ign.com/events/e3/2011/live-video
http://e3.gamespot.com/press-conference/microsoft-e3/
http://www.g4tv.com/e3-2011/press-conferences/microsoft/94/
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Community/E3

Electronic Arts (EA) E3 2011 Press Conference
12:30PM PST Monday June 6, 3:30 PM EST Monday June 6, 3:30AM SGT Tuesday June 7
http://live-event.ea.com/e3/press
http://e3.gamespot.com/press-conference/ea-e3/
http://www.g4tv.com/e3-2011/press-conferences/ea/97/

Ubisoft E3 2011 Press Conference
2:30PM PST Monday June 6, 5:30PM EST Monday June 6, 5:30AM SGT Tuesday June 7
http://e3.gamespot.com/press-conference/ubisoft-e3/
http://www.g4tv.com/e3-2011/press-conferences/ubisoft/98/

Sony E3 2011 Press Conference
5:00PM PST Monday June 6, 8:00PM EST Monday June 6, 8:00AM SGT Tuesday June 7
http://www.ign.com/events/e3/2011/live-video
http://e3.gamespot.com/press-conference/sony-e3/
http://www.g4tv.com/e3-2011/press-conferences/sony/95/
http://www.nowlive.com/ms/sonyplaystatione3

Nintendo E3 2011 Press Conference
9:00AM PST Tuesday June 7, 12:00PM EST Tuesday June 7, 12:00AM SGT Wednesday June 8
http://www.ign.com/events/e3/2011/live-video
http://e3.gamespot.com/press-conference/nintendo-e3/
http://www.g4tv.com/e3-2011/press-conferences/nintendo/96/
http://e3.nintendo.com/

 

Nordkapp, a group of experienced designers, strategists and technologists, recently made available a downloadable Windows Phone 7 Cheat Sheet to help mobile interaction designers with designing Windows Phone 7 apps. This A3 size cheat sheet is based on Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Design Guideline document(s) with only the important bits, added some other comments and highlighted the parts that might come as a surprise of existing Symbian, iOS or Android designers and developers.

Extremely useful if you’re trying to design a proper app UI for Windows Phone 7. Head down to nordkapp.fi/blog/2011/05/wp7-for-designers-cheatsheet/ to download the cheat sheet.

 

This first video of Windows 8 – Building “Windows 8″ – is a series of videos over the next few months showcasing the new features of Windows 8. In this video, it shows the first look of the new Windows 8 user interface (UI) which covers the following features:

  • Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.
  • Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps.
  • Fluid, natural switching between running apps.
  • Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using the capabilities of Windows.
  • Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.
  • Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10.
  • New “Thumbs” keyboard layout.

Look at that smooth buttery scrolling and several physics “bounce”. It really looks like nice merger of the Windows Phone 7 UI into the new Windows 8 UI. I would definitely love to see some of the new UI trickle back to Windows Phone 7. Thumbs up for creating a great user experience with the new Windows 8. Maybe Microsoft finally gets it. I can’t wait to get my hands on Windows 8 in September.

 

Microsoft just announced at their Windows 8 preview event at Computex 2011 in Taipei, Taiwan, that they will reveal everything about Windows 8 at their new conference called “BUILD“.

BUILD is a new event that shows modern hardware and software developers how to take advantage of the future of Windows. Learn how to work with the all new touch-centric user experience to create fast, fluid, and dynamic applications that leverage the power and flexibility of the core of Windows, used by more than a billion people around the world.

The details of the new BUILD conference are as follows:

Date: September 13th (Tuesday)  to September 16th (Friday)
Place: Anaheim, California, USA

Who should be going?

If you are a contemporary developer, a geek who thrives on the newest and coolest, who loves the freedom of the web and the power of all devices from mobile to desktop, you need to join us to help BUILD the future.

For more information or to register, head over to www.buildwindows.com.

 

The Samsung SUR40 with Microsoft Surface 2.0 includes the following features:

  • PixelSense
    • Recognizes fingers, hands, and objects placed on the screen
    • Up to 50 simultaneous touch points
    • Information of the object is immediately processed and interpreted
  • Microsoft Surface 2.0
    • New version of Microsoft Surface SDK to support object recognition and multi-touch
  • Thin Form Factor with multiple configuration options
    • 4″ thin
    • Vertical deployment – hang on the walls with VESA mount, embed in walls or custom enclosures
    • Standard legs available for horizontal deployment
  • 40″ HD screen
    • 1080p, 16:9, 1920×1080 display
  • Powerful embedded system
    • AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core Processor 2.9GHz
    • AMD Radeon HD 6700M Series GPU featuring DirectX 11 support

The suggested retail price for the Samsung SUR40 starts at US$8,600 (for Singapore) and will be available later in 2011 in 23 countries worldwide including: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, france, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, India, Italy, Korea, Norway, Netherlands, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, United Kingdom, USA.

For those developers out there, the Microsoft Surface 2.0 SDK will be made available (hopefully in a few weeks) to everyone for free. The Microsoft Surface 2.0 SDK will include the Surface Simulator for developers to start writing Surface applications immediately.

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