PDC 2010

I just came from attending a web-simulcast at the Microsoft Portland office (in Tigard really). The video was streamed from the Microsoft HQ in Redmond WA. No, I was not given a windows 7 mobile phone like the people who attended in person.

Here are the major take-aways and what they talked about:

• Windows phone 7 (WP7) - Lots of hype on this by the MS folks. Due to be released in mid-November in the US. It is based on Silverlight, which was exiting until they also said in the same breath that it is also based on IE 7. I guess that they needed a baseline and did not follow the technology as it developed. See this URL for more details: http://www.mobilebusinessbriefing.com/apps/article/microsoft-details-wp7-development-at-pdc-2010
• HTML 5 - This seems to be the next big push, despite it not having being finalized yet by the W3C http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1863215/microsoft-claims-html5
• Azure - Microsoft's entry into the cloud http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Microsoft-Puts-Developer-Focus-on-the-Cloud-at-PDC-103713/
• Silverlight - this was conspicuous by its absence. Some thought that this technology is not being supported as much as it was in the past and might already be passed its time.

A side comment here about a useful web-tool: http://http://www.instapaper.com/ which allows you to have a "read me later" bookmark.