Microsoft is holding its Professional Developer Conference (PDC) on its Redmond, WA campus this week. The event kicks off with a two-hour keynote hosted by the company’s CEO Steve Ballmer and Bob Muglia, Microsoft’s president of its server and tools division. Microsoft generally holds these events when it wants to tell its developer community about major platform developments, so we expect to hear a lot about Microsoft’s new mobile platform Windows Phone 7 and its cloud computing initiatives. We have also heard some rumors that we could hear something about Windows 8 today.
The keynote is scheduled to start at 9am PT/12am ET and you will be able to see our play-by-play account of the event right here or head over to the conference website for the live video stream.
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8:55: We’re sitting down. The keynote room is filling up quickly.
8:57: Time to silence the phones. About to get started.
9:01: And there is Steve Ballmer. “I’m pumped up to have a chance to be here today.” Talking about the virtual PDC events around the world. It’s the same technology as the one behind March Madness and the Olympics. “It’s an honor and privilege to have you here. We have some exciting things to talk about: Internet Explorer, Windows Phone, Azure.”
9:04: Talking about the history of software technology. Smart devices – the cloud allows us to create a new generation of exciting applications. “You will see a range of exciting things people will be doing with Windows.”
9:06: Microsoft is driving this with a number of platforms: Windows, phone, Xbox – and on the cloud, with Azure, Windows Live, Xbox live etc.
“The glue that allows this to come together is HTML5.” “Allows a level of independence between the back-end and the front-end.”
9:08: “People increasingly think about that as the lingua france to talk about all of these smart devices. At Microsoft, all of this starts with Windows.” 240 million Windows 7 licenses sold. “The PC is the most popular smart device on the planet.”
9:09: High hopes for tablets that use the touch capabilities that are already in Windows 7.
Internet Explorer
9:10: Internet Explorer: Microsoft’s focus on HTML5. How can Microsoft integrate applications and websites on Windows 7? “We try to make the Web feel more like native applications, so developers can focus more on innovation and less on recoding their applications for different platforms.”
9:11: “We think the modern Web really gets a chance to take off with HTML5.” “Unlocking the full power of the PC and the Web in one seamless exercise.”
So far: 10 million downloads on Internet Explorer 9. The most downloaded beta release of IE.
9:13: Dean Hachamovitch from the IE9 team takes the stage. Talking about 3 things today: advantages of HTML5 on Windows, making your apps work well with Windows 7, and what’s coming next for IE9.
9:14: Demo of KEXP site rendering in HTML5. Highly interactive. Using hardware acceleration to make it better. Including video playing in the background. “We are using the whole PC.”
9:17: showing Track Splash – HTML5-powered game. All done in Canvas, running at 60 frames per second.
9:18: Now comparing IE9 with the latest Chrome beta. “You will notice that it runs – but the performance isn’t there.” “IE accelerates the whole Web. Accelerating only pieces of the browser holds back developers and your sites.”
9:19: Demoing the ability to pin sites to the Win7 task bar. Nothing really new here so far.
9:20: Showing how to create these jump lists for websites in the task bar.
9:22: IE9 Platform Preview 6 is now available for download. Increased performance and standards support (HTML5 semantic tags, 2D transforms).
Just like the earlier previews, this one does not have a user interface.
Sorry – network went down here for a little bit.
9:28: “Windows Phone 7 is thoroughly modern. Giving away Windows 7 phones to everybody in the audience.
9:29: Clip of Windows Phone 7 advertising.
9:30: “You will see a lot of these ads in the months going forward.
9:31: Scott Guthrie on stage. Over 1000 apps and games already uploaded to the marketplace.
9:32: Game demos. Bejewled.
9:34: Facebook app. Looking very slick and very Windows Phone 7-like with Pivot controls, live tiles etc.
9:35: Demoing the photo hub feature that gives users a single place for seeing all of their photos no matter where they are (Facebook, Smugmug).
Kindle app is also coming to Windows Phone 7. Built-in Kindle store right in the app (that’s a first among mobile Kindle apps).
9:37: Demo of Intuit app – Taxcaster.
9:38: Developing for Windows Phone 7. Talking about free SDK and tools.
“Let’s build an app on stage.”
9:40: Still building the app on stage. Looking very easy.
9:42: New OData library shipping for Windows Phone 7 developers shipping today.
9:43: And the network went down again…
9:44: New capabilities coming to the tools: profiling tools to run apps on the device (and not just in the emulator.
10:46: Application profiler gives developers very detailed stats of how the app really performs on the device.
10:48: Wrapping up Windows Phone 7 part. Ballmer takes the stage again.
10:50: Ballmer, of course, is his usual energetic self. Talking about WP7 apps he saw in France earlier this year.
10:49: “We need your best work. We think the tools are great. The phones are great. We will put our muscle behind the marketing.” “We’ve taken a different pivot on how we can put the user at the center of experience.”
“Some of the reviews have pointed out a few things we could still add to the phone.” Reiterates that everybody in attendance will get a phone and a free registration in the marketplace.
10:53: Switching to Windows Azure. Ballmer: “I hope you will continue to fall in love with Windows Azure.”
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