The Channel 9 Live at MIX10 schedule has been posted here (I'll be updating times with GMT offset soon)

We'd love for you to have a look through the schedule, work out which sessions you want to watch and start sending us your questions in advance either via Twitter (@ch9live) or by posting them here in the Channel 9 Coffee House.

Tips: Don't forget to tell us who the question is for and if you're providing additional info/context please bold the actual question so it's easier to identify.

Please note: We wont be answering your questions in this thread. You'll still need to tune into Channel 9 Live (http://live.visitmix.com) from 10:30AM to 5:30PM (PST) on March 15th and 16th - or watch the on-demand recordings afterwards - to see if your question was answered.

We hope you enjoy the show!

Windows Mobile, from its beginnings as the Palm-top PC (anyone remember the Philips Nino?), has had native C/C++ code as its first-class development language, it has allowed games like Doom and Quake to be ported to the platform easily, and of course allows for maximum performance, which is important on low-power devices. If I understand the 'leaked' information regarding development correctly am I right in believing ISVs will be limited to managed code development with WPF and Silverlight, and that only the OEMs/IHVs will have access to the underlying native Windows CE APIs?

Whilst I recognise the advantages managed/CLR programs have for the platform, and especially the marketplace (see footnote), I feel you'd be shutting out huge swaves of developers and their ideas. I imagine that native applications can still be developed and deployed independently of the Marketplace, but might Microsoft consider having a programme that native developers can join? Everyone wants to play Doom and Quake on their phone, but I doubt many fancy re-implementing everything in C# (and don't say C++/CLI ; )).

Footnote:

• Platform independence: if you decide to bring back MIPS or even SH3 then applications available on the Marketplace are guaranteed to work on the device)
  
• Easier static analysis makes it possible to easily identify malware code
• Code Access Security
• Protection from buffer-overruns
  

W3bbo said:

For Charlie Kindel (I hope it isn't too long):

 

Windows Mobile, from its beginnings as the Palm-top PC (anyone remember the Philips Nino?), has had native C/C++ code as its first-class development language, it has allowed games like Doom and Quake to be ported to the platform easily, and of course allows for maximum performance, which is important on low-power devices. If I understand the 'leaked' information regarding development correctly am I right in believing ISVs will be limited to managed code development with WPF and Silverlight, and that only the OEMs/IHVs will have access to the underlying native Windows CE APIs?

 

Whilst I recognise the advantages managed/CLR programs have for the platform, and especially the marketplace (see footnote), I feel you'd be shutting out huge swaves of developers and their ideas. I imagine that native applications can still be developed and deployed independently of the Marketplace, but might Microsoft consider having a programme that native developers can join? Everyone wants to play Doom and Quake on their phone, but I doubt many fancy re-implementing everything in C# (and don't say C++/CLI ; )).

 

Footnote:

• Platform independence: if you decide to bring back MIPS or even SH3 then applications available on the Marketplace are guaranteed to work on the device)
  
• Easier static analysis makes it possible to easily identify malware code
• Code Access Security
• Protection from buffer-overruns
  

For longer "questions" I recommend bolding the actual question(s) you want asked. The context is useful, but for efficiency reasons we would appreciate it if we can easily pinpoint the question(s) that we will ask on your behalf.

Thanks,
C

Charles said:

W3bbo said:

*snip*

For longer "questions" I recommend bolding the actual question(s) you want asked. The context is useful, but for efficiency reasons we would appreciate it if we can easily pinpoint the question(s) that we will ask on your behalf.

 

Thanks,
C

Good idea. I've modified my post.

It would improve the on demand stuff. I can't watch all the time but if I'm home it night it's nice to know where i need to scroll to. Last time different guests were makers on the timeline, that was very good!

CKurt said:

Will the questions be easily locatable in the on demand video video's ? If the stream has been running for 5 hours and I want to know what questions have been asked it would be nice if you could click the quetion on the webpage (next to player) and let the player jump to the location it is answerd.. (But then somebody must be taking notes on timestamps)

 

It would improve the on demand stuff. I can't watch all the time but if I'm home it night it's nice to know where i need to scroll to. Last time different guests were makers on the timeline, that was very good!

@CKurt That's a really good idea and one we've been discussing. We definately have the ability to add markers to the video stream - both live and on demand - however we haven't yet nailed a solution for capturing the time stamps for each question and then adding them to the stream without creating a massive ammount of clutter. It's a problem we hope to solve for future events.

We will have markers for the individual sessions though so you can jump forwards and backwards through the stream based on which sessions you want to watch.

Bass said:

Will Microsoft sell unlocked developer phones similar to what Google does with Android?

Great question - Can you let us know who the question is for though so we ask the right person?

I'm assuming Charlie Kindel and/or Joe Belfiore but let us know anyway. Cheers -Nic

Bass said:

Will Microsoft sell unlocked developer phones similar to what Google does with Android?

As an aside, and as my own answer to the question: WinMo phones are all "unlocked" in that there's no restrictions on what software you run on them, which makes them great for corporations rolling out their own software and indies who want to run their own software. I remember Smartphone 2002 initially required phones to have application-signing disabled by running some CAB, but I don't know if that continued through to WinMo 6.

I doubt they'd add restrictions like Apple has: one of the selling points of WinMo is its relative openness compared to the iPhone platform.

W3bbo said:

Bass said:

*snip*

As an aside, and as my own answer to the question: WinMo phones are all "unlocked" in that there's no restrictions on what software you run on them, which makes them great for corporations rolling out their own software and indies who want to run their own software. I remember Smartphone 2002 initially required phones to have application-signing disabled by running some CAB, but I don't know if that continued through to WinMo 6.

 

I doubt they'd add restrictions like Apple has: one of the selling points of WinMo is its relative openness compared to the iPhone platform.

It might be a US thing. In USA, often phones are locked to a specific carrier, and require signing a contract of obligation with that carrier. An "unlocked" phone in this context is one without these restrictions.

nic said:

Bass said:

*snip*

Great question - Can you let us know who the question is for though so we ask the right person?

I'm assuming Charlie Kindel and/or Joe Belfiore but let us know anyway. Cheers -Nic

Either of those people would probably work.

Bass said:

nic said:

*snip*

Either of those people would probably work.

For Charlie Kindel (probably):

We've (the group I work with) have been thinking about mobile applications a lot lately.  I hear an awful lot about Windows Phone 7 and gaming (with XNA 4, etc.), but we don't develop games-- what does Windows Phone 7 provide me as an applications developer (not a games developer)?  What distinguishes Windows Phone 7 from Android and iPhone OS as far as application development goes?  Will Windows Phone 7 provide me with everything I need to produce rich client applications for the device that behave consistently with the system and meet users' expectations of the interface (without having to go through a bunch of hoops to reimplement controls or UI metaphors in WPF)?

(didn't bold here--  all but the first sentence of the previous paragraph are questions; figured it would be easier to read not bolded)

Who is the target market for WinMo7?  Are you trying to appeal to the mobile gamers?  Enterprise-connected users?  General consumers?  Seems to me that a great many developer issues start with this question.  If you say you are trying to appeal to everyone, then I know it is a doomed effort.  Nothing appeals to everyone.  If you are looking to follow Google, direct selling of phones to consumers ought to drive a bit of market share gain.  The carriers are a big roadblock when it comes to which phones make it to the US market....any market for that matter. 

Personally, it want my phone to be an extension of my desktop.  The games are a bonus and not the motivation for deciding on the model.  I want VPN access via WiFi and 3G data.  I want multi-tasking.  I want an easy way to switch between running apps.  I want to have my own skin.  I do not like the Zune interface.  Others do.  Be different.  Let the customer choose the skin and publish the APIs to the underlying services so that all the functions are exposed but the look and feel is of the customer's choosing.  If I want my desktop to be widget-based, I should have that option.  If SPG looks better, I can use their GUI. 

I do not want tweets in my mailbox but I do want all my different mailboxes to be consolidated with the ability to respond via the source system.  Think of it as "pipes"  Some I want to be viewed uniquely.  Others I want merged.  Let the consumer decide how they want the pipes combined.  Today, there are way too many people deciding what everyone "should have".  Do not join that crowd!  Embrace choice and accept the challenge it presents.  That positioning will make WinMo7 different and help you regain lots of lost market share.

fix "my IE is not working (suddenly offline mode is enabled)"

fix "where is my saved file because some jerk changed the dir to c:/windows/temp/8473984/8547394/this is unintentional/IE loves to screw people up/directory/"

And other obvious issues like memory not released ofter tab is close and rest of tab horror.

Can Silverlight Apps developed with WP7 in mind be submitted to the Marketplace as an alternative to hosting them on the web?

I suppose this is for Charlie Kindel.

nic said:

CKurt said:

*snip*

@CKurt That's a really good idea and one we've been discussing. We definately have the ability to add markers to the video stream - both live and on demand - however we haven't yet nailed a solution for capturing the time stamps for each question and then adding them to the stream without creating a massive ammount of clutter. It's a problem we hope to solve for future events.

We will have markers for the individual sessions though so you can jump forwards and backwards through the stream based on which sessions you want to watch.

Thx for the inside details! Looking forward to C9Live

CKurt said:

nic said:

*snip*

Thx for the inside details! Looking forward to C9Live

Charlie Kindle:

Will the WP7S phone software be upgradeble by me via a simple interface, eg: Upgrading from WP7 to WP7.5 without any carrier involvement?

-------------

Will Zune HD ever run a WP7S software without the 'phone' part? So people can run the newest games on the powerfull tegra chip and develop apps in XNA Studio 4.0.

2) Silverlight 4 and Sql Reporting Services - have any plans been made yet to have a report viewer control for SL4 in the next say 6 months ? - Scott or others if someone on the sql reports team is there.

about sql reports:  i have been asking about this for a while now. I have been told they are "looking at it" but not any kind of commitment so far.  if we do not have a control coming then i may have to talk the boss into buying a 3rd party offering and the company is one i have not used before ... so i would rather have MS provide the control.

Any news for Zune HD  ? Any project?

Bas said:

For Michael Klucher and Shawn Hargreaves (or maybe Scott Gu, but I'm guessing this should go to the XNA guys): the development story for WP7S seems to be XNA and Silverlight. Suppose I want to use Silverlight as a graphics engine for my XNA games, for instance because I want to create a game that uses the Bing Maps Silverlight control, or because I want to be able to bring my game not just to phones but to everywhere that runs Silverlight. What are the possibilities in this regard? Is it either XNA or Silverlight, or will there be some sort of way to use the two together? There's currently a 3rd party library that lets you run your sprite based XNA game on Silverlight, but with XNA and Silverlight being the primary development platforms on WP7S, will there be anything from Microsoft itself to adress this?

For Scott Gu.

What is the correct way to play a short sound file, perhaps for a user click or touch in Silverlight?  After registering the sound as a resource I (and I've noticed others) are doing this in order to get a result:

MyClickSound.Stop();

MyClickSOund.Play();

That feels wrong?

PS I have cross posted this in tech off.

What is the real position on multi-tasking with WinMo7 ?

Thanks first is more important to me last one is less

This! 5 buttons instead of 3 is not an excuse.

There has been many comparisons drawn between the windows phone 7 series and the Zune. Will the new windows phone, in part, represent an international zune offering with subscription music service similar to that available in the United States? Will the hardware and software capabilities of the windows phone 7 series media player be at the same quality level as that of the Zune and offer the same quality of audio playback and features such as gapless mp3 playback?

Thank you in advance and feel free to ask whomever you feel would most likely provide a relevant answer and not just re-hashed marketing pitches.

Question: Will the OS and apps for Windows 7 Series be accessible to people with disabilities via for example a built-in screen reader for the blind, like the one on the iPhone, or will native and built-in accessibility come later in a future version?

Comments: Personally I would think that accessibility through a built-in screen reader or magnifier should be a priority, since Microsoft is the worst of all the vendors on accessibility at the moment:

Google has an open source screen reader/magnifier plus speech recognition for more than one language, Nokia has built-in text-to-speech, Apple has a built-in screen reader and magnifier plus text-to-speech for numerous languages plus speech recognition,

whilst Microsoft has no screen reader/magnifier, no text-to-speech, no multi-language support for text-to-speech and no dictation, and buying such accessibility tools for Windows Phones is currently extremely expensive $400 plus.

Second question:

If the words "7 Series" are now used to denote Windows Phone 7 Series Phones, then how are you going to manage to find names for the future versions (8, 9, etc) of this same platform if they are all part of the "7 Series"? "Windows Phone 8 Series" would then tend to  denote a completely new platform and so numbers above 7 will not be usable.

Also, will there be other input methods? For instance, the camera or microphone.

Finally, what kind of accelerometer data can we expect? Will it be able to tell the phone's orientation to the ground, for instance, or just movement around a certain axis? What about the precision?

Bas said:

For Michael Klucher and Shawn Hargreaves: what input methods can be expected when building games? So far I've seen touch and the accelerator. As far as I can tell, a directional pad is not part of the spec. Will developers have to build their own control scheme based on the raw touch and accelerator data, or will there be built in support for, for instance, an on-screen directional pad or touch gestures?

 

Also, will there be other input methods? For instance, the camera or microphone.

 

Finally, what kind of accelerometer data can we expect? Will it be able to tell the phone's orientation to the ground, for instance, or just movement around a certain axis? What about the precision?

At PDC09 one of the first things they said was "For Windows Live news we'll gladly talk to you at MIX next spring". What gives? No news about windows Live and the Live FrameWork ?

Bas said:

For Michael Klucher and Shawn Hargreaves: what input methods can be expected when building games? So far I've seen touch and the accelerator. As far as I can tell, a directional pad is not part of the spec. Will developers have to build their own control scheme based on the raw touch and accelerator data, or will there be built in support for, for instance, an on-screen directional pad or touch gestures?

 

Also, will there be other input methods? For instance, the camera or microphone.

 

Finally, what kind of accelerometer data can we expect? Will it be able to tell the phone's orientation to the ground, for instance, or just movement around a certain axis? What about the precision?

I'd like to know why Microsoft pulled the 4-day D-pad from the hardware mandates of PPC2002: the requirement of 4 front buttons, the D-pad, and the side-buttons made the PPC a nice platform for games (granted, only Compaq's PDAs had well-built D-pads, but that's besides the point). If you fancy making WinPho a compelling rival to Nintendo, bring back the d-pad.

W3bbo said:

Bas said:

*snip*

I'd like to know why Microsoft pulled the 4-day D-pad from the hardware mandates of PPC2002: the requirement of 4 front buttons, the D-pad, and the side-buttons made the PPC a nice platform for games (granted, only Compaq's PDAs had well-built D-pads, but that's besides the point). If you fancy making WinPho a compelling rival to Nintendo, bring back the d-pad.

iPhone games seem to be doing well without one. But yeah, personally I'd prefer to game with hardware buttons.

cernajose said:

Question 1 Will HTC and Microsoft provide an update for the HTC HD2, if not why not. If  the excuse is the buttons why not sell the update for a reasonable price and ship button stickers to replace current icons.?  
 
Question 2 On the apps list why a list and not a grid like in 6.5 the list icons seem small and hard to hit?  
 
Question 3 Is it possible to install applications and move remove files from the phone without using special software like zune. This is possible in 6.5  
 
Question 4 is removable media supported like microsd cards?  
 
Question 5 what video formats will be compatible?  
 
Question 6 will this finally work with Windows Media Center as a type of extender, I want to watch recorded shows and movies?  
 
Question7 Is the netflix app coming and can I watch my streaming movies  
 
Question 8 Is IPTV coming to these devices? When? Are you going to use someone other than AT&T? I really want to pay one fee a month to watch tv in computer, living room, phone, zune etc.  
 
Question 9 Why the name? Windows Phone 7 Series, how will you tell a customer to go get one should they say. Do you have any Windows Phone 7 Series Phones or what  
 
Question 10 Can you please make sure that google voice works, if your not going to allow it then when is Microsoft releasing a similar services as part of LIVE

 

Thanks first is more important to me last one is less

Question7 Is the netflix app coming and can I watch my streaming movies  

That was a yes nice demo
 

Will websites with Silverlight content be viewable from within the mobile browser?

Update: I would still like this question answered please!  Though it seems more petty to ask a second time. 

Cheers,

Clint

digitalsurgeon said:

I heard Silverlight was now available for Symbian as well ? Is that true ?

Does the notification system ( from cloud ) mean no background applications ?

Is it expected as we near final release that the performance of the transitions will improve?  How much of the optimization needs to come from the end developer vs the platform.

Are there plans to make Silverlight XAML pages indexable for search engines like Google and Bing via an SDK for search engines like the Flash Headless Player? Until then developers will be compelled to develop a 2nd website or portion of a website using HTML wherever Silverlight is used in order for all text in a site to be indexed by search engines. The need for this extra work relegates Silverlight primarily to business to business LOB applications rather than public facing web sites like Amazon for which Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a necessity. Here is a longer version of my question: When will Silverlight Search Engine Opimization (SEO) catch up to Flash?

yijiehu said:

What kind of exclusive contents (hardware, software, other support) would be available for MIX10 attendees (after losing an arm to pay for the ticket)?

For Charlie Kindel:

Any plans for Silverlight on 6.5.n?

gray imp said:

For ScottGu--

There were rumors of Silverlight plugins for iPhone and Android.  Will the focus on Windows Phone 7 derail that?

Silverlight and SVG compete with eachother. How come that Microsoft suddenly shows interest in SVG? Is it because of HTML5?

Richard.Hein said:

What happens to Silverlight when HTML5 reaches critical mass?  What has been taken from Silverlight/WPF and has been brought into (or will be brought into) HTML5, by Microsoft?

Damn you

ZippyV said:

Richard.Hein said:

*snip*

Damn you

Will we ever see a download manager (maybe BITS based) for IE?