New release looming for Windows Phone and its developer tools

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 14 April 2011 09:13

Your IT - Mobility

Microsoft has begun spilling the beans about what users and developers can expect in the next version of Windows Phone.

Microsoft has used its MIX11 conference in Las Vegas to provide developers with details of the forthcoming version of Windows Phone and its associated development tools.

The tools will be available in May, with the next version of Windows Phone being available on new and existing handsets later in the year.



Qantas was one of the organisations previewing design concepts for the next Windows Phone release, along with Skype, Amazon, and others.

New features coming to Windows Phone include access to the camera and motion sensor, application multitasking (for background processing, audio and file transfer, and fast application switching), and Live Agents (including real-time interaction with Live Tiles, push notification, deep linking, and background agents). Live Tile functionality has also been expanded.

Microsoft officials noted that opening up the camera and motion sensor interfaces will allow developers to create augmented reality apps. Existing examples of such apps include Wikitude World Browser (Android; overlays the camera display with information drawn from Wikipedia and other sources) and Pocket Universe (iOS, overlays a view of the night sky with the names of stars, etc).

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