Microsoft: Developing Windows Phone apps and games on the Mix 2010 agenda
Windows Mobile news and rumors dominated a lot of the Microsoft headlines this week, but that wasn't all that was happening in Redmond-related circles. Here's a quick rundown of some of the stories that I didn't get to:
Mobile dev is back on the Mix agenda: The folks running the Microsoft Mix 2010 conference decided after pulling a placeholder note announcing that Windows Mobile content would be on the show agenda, to reinstate the placeholder. They also added a new tidbit to it, claiming that Microsoft officials would be discussing both app and game development for next-generation Windows Phones at the show. Interesting they didn't say Windows Mobile 6.6 or 7.0 (or Pink)...
That leaves the door open for a variety of potential topics, including how Microsoft plans to add mobile-dev support to Visual Studio 2010 (the Softies removed mobile-dev support from the VS 2010 betas, as I noted previously), as well as exactly what Silverlight on Windows Mobile 7 will enable developers to do.
Windows Mobile devs complain about not getting paid: As Ars Technica reported, some Windows Mobile developers are none too happy that they aren't getting their expected 70 percent cut of sales from Windows Marketplace for Mobile apps. Microsoft officials are attributing some of the complaints to lack of clarity about when and how developers will get paid. Still, Microsoft doesn't need any more Windows Mobile black eyes, especially with the Mobile World Congress show right around the corner.
Microsoft releases a Windows Experience Pack: This isn't another Ultimate Extra kind of thing (although if there were a Windows 7 Ultimate Extra program -- not that I'm advocating for one -- the new Experience Pack freebies would likely be in it. The Experience Pack is a free add-on for Windows 7 and Windows Live Essentials that allows users to customize avatars and backgrounds.
EU antitrust regulators are seeking comments on the Microsoft-Yahoo partnership: Reuters reporters have seen a 38-question document that the EC is circulating in Europe that is asks "Will the merger make Microsoft a better competitor to Google?" To be clear: The Microsoft-Yahoo arrangement is not a merger; it's a partnership unveiled in the summer of 2009, via which Bing becomes Yahoo's primary search engine across various properties and Yahoo execs sell ads on Microsoft sites. The EC is accepting feedback through January 29, and has given itself a deadline of February 19 to clear or bar the deal. (That date can be extended, however.)
Microsoft is suing Tivo (on behalf of AT&T): The issue is DVR patents that may or may not infringe on technology used by Microsoft in its Mediaroom IPTV offering. The show-down results from a lawsuit filed by TiVo against AT&T last year in federal court in Texas over the telecom company's U-Verse system, an IPTV service built on top of Microsoft's Mediaroom technology, according to TechFlash, which has the posted the full text of the lawsuit.
Bing: Now indexing more recipe sites near you. Microsoft's search engine is indexing more food/cooking sites and making queries about what to make with particular ingredients more easily discoverable and clearly displayed. Now, if you enter ingredients, such as "scallops" or "dried cherries" into the Bing engine, one of the results categories on the left pane is a collection of recipes using those ingredients.