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Great news for all Kinect for Windows developers and NUI enthusiasts: a new version of the SDK will be available for download on Monday March 18th, 2013 from the official site http://www.kinectforwindows.com.

A comprehensive list of the new tools and features is available in the official Kinect for Windows Blog:

• Kinect Interactions tools for creating smooth applications with interactions like push-to-press buttons, grip-to-pan capabilities, multiple users / two person support;
• Kinect Fusion tools for creating accurate 3-D renderings of people and objects;
• OpenCV and MATLAB Samples;
• Kinect for Windows Code Samples on CodePlex through an open-source license.

Happy Kinecting everyone!

The last week has been very exciting for Microsoft developers: The //build/ conference in Redmond was full of amazing content including Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 SDK, Microsoft Surface, Xbox SmartGlass, Kinect for Windows and the new language TypeScript.

Unfortunately I hadn’t the possibility to participate at the conference but had some free time during the week-end to watch some of the recorded sessions available here on Channel9: this is really a great resource and I suggest everyone interested in Microsoft technologies to download some videos and have fun with it.

I decided then to take a look at the new features available in Windows Phone 8 and the related SDK: Justin Angel has a great article about this topic in the Nokia Developer Community.

To get my hands dirty I moved then on my personal Open-Source project “Multi-Touch Behaviors” on CodePlex: this is a set of Epression Blend Behaviors for different platforms including Windows Phone, Silverlight and WPF for applying gestures and manipulations (like the one available in the “old” ScatterView control) to generic XAML elements.

The project was not yet updated to Windows Phone 8 so I took this opportunity and experimented with the new SDK: this was really a great experience since I was able to upgrade quickly all my samples to the new platform using the same codebase used for the Silverlight version.

Unfortunately I haven’t the possibility  to test the performance on a real Windows Phone 8 device at the moment but the first impressions are really positive.

I have already checked in the code for WP8 here, I’m planning more testing and development in the future.

Happy XAMLing everyone

A new version of Expression Blend for Silverlight 5 is now available for download with these features:

• Expiration date - June 30, 2013;
• Go-live license;
• updated Silverlight 5 SDK.

Check out the original post by the Expression Blend Team and download the new bits from here.

Happy Silverlighting!

As announced on the Windows Phone Developer Blog, Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1 Update is now available for  download on the Microsoft Download Center.

The WPSDK 7.1.1 Update provides a WPSDK patch that enables developers to develop and test for the recently announced Windows Phone 7.5 256 MB devices, as well to run the WPSDK 7.1 on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview release via the following:

• Updated 512 MB OS Emulator Image: An updated build Windows Phone OS 7.1 (Build 8773)
• New 256 MB OS Emulator Image: A new Windows Phone OS 7.1 emulator image (Build 8773) that emulates running on 256 MB devices
• Emulator Choice: Ability to debug or run your WP apps in either the 256 MB or 512 MB emulator
• Windows 8 Support: An updated emulator is included, which can run on Windows 8
• IntelliSense support for adding the new 512 MB requirement to the Windows Phone App Manifest file

News since the CTP release last month:

• ‘Go Live’ license: The update now has a ‘Go Live’ license; developers running WPSDK 7.1.1 are now empowered to publish their Windows Phone apps to the Windows Phone Marketplace
• Full Localization: WPSDK now supports all 10 IDE languages; and the OS image now has Malay and Indonesian
• Windows 8 Support: The updated emulator will now run on Windows 8; note that the OS is still not officially supported by developer support until the final OS release

Useful links:

Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1 Update CTP Download Center page

• Full URI
• FWLink
• WPDev.ms

Documentation

• What’s New
• Developing for 256 MB Devices

For additional information on this release, please refer the post on the WP Developer Blog.

Fellow MVP Daniel Vaughan has published in these days on CodePlex a new version of his “Calcium” framework targeting Windows Phone.

From the official release notes:

“Calcium for Windows Phone is a consolidation of the infrastructure code that has been written for the book Windows Phone 7.5 Unleashed, and is already used by a number of published apps. 

Some of Calcium for Windows Phone features include: 

• A user option’s system that allows you to add a settable option to an options page, with a single line of code.
• A bindable application bar with toggle buttons and menu items, hyperlink button/menu items, which allows you to host multiple application bars in a Pivot.
• Built-in support for localization. Bindable resources allows the user to change the interface language at run-time.
• An IoC container and DI infrastructure, and templates to allow you to hide or show a Purchase link in your app depending on the • Trial state of your app and so forth.
• Templates for Views with ViewModels.
• Attribute based state persistence system.
• Message service that allows you to display messages and ask the user questions from your ViewModel.
• Launchers and Choosers abstraction layer.
• Input Validation system, with styles customized for displaying validation errors.

And much more! 

Unlike Calcium for WPF and Silverlight, Calcium for Windows Phone does not depend on Prism and has a smaller footprint, more suitable for the mobile platform.”

Other useful resources:

• “Windows Phone Experts” Group on LinkedIn;
• The new book “Windows Phone 7.5 Unleashed” by Daniel.

Fortify your apps with Calcium for Windows Phone!

Prism provides guidance designed to help you more easily design and build rich, flexible, and easy to maintain Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) desktop applications and Silverlight Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) and Windows Phone 7.1 (“Mango”) applications.

The new version 4.1 released on February 2012 is available for download here.

Read the official announcement by Blaine Wastell: Prism for Silverlight 5 Ships.

A new project has been recently announced in the “Silverlight Experts” group on Linkedin by fellow group-member Laith Alasad:

The XAML Project contains “Free vector design resources for XAML-based technologies such as Silverlight, Metro, WP7, and WPF. Search and download pure XAML graphics for your web, desktop, and/or mobile applications.“

It’s a very useful resource, I’ve already inserted it in my favorites!

Happy XAMLing everyone

Big congrats and kudos to all the Silverlight team: Silverlight 5 RTW is now available for download!

Check out the official site for a complete list of download links and updated documentation including feature list, Breaking changes and Release History.

Don’t forget to read the official announcement, this is a special and fantastic release with tons of new features:

Improved media support

• Low Latency Audio Playback
• Variable Speed Playback
• H/W Decode of H.264 media
• DRM Key Rotation/LiveTV Playback
• Application-Restricted Media

Improved Text support

• Text Tracking & Leading
• Linked Text Containers
• OpenType and Pixel Snapped Text
• Postscript vector printing
• Performance improvements for Block Layout Engine

Building next-generation business applications

• PivotViewer
• ClickCount
• Listbox/ComboBox type-ahead text searching
• Ancestor RelativeSource Binding
• Implicit DataTemplates
• DataContextChanged event
• Added PropertyChanged to the UpdateSourceTrigger enum
• Save File and Open File Dialog
• Databinding Debugging
• Custom Markup Extensions
• Binding on Style Setters

Silverlight 5 performance improvements

• Parser Performance Improvements
• Network Latency Improvements
• H/W accelerated rendering in IE9 windowless mode
• Multicore JIT
• 64-bit browser support

Graphics improvements

• Improved Graphics stack
• 3D

Silverlight 5 extends features of the “Trusted Application” model

• Multiple window support
• Full-Trust in-browser
• In-browser HTML support
• Unrestricted File System Access
• P/Invoke support

Tools improvements

• Visual Studio Team Test support

As usual go, grab the new bits and Happy Silverlighting!

Today I’ve received the official communication: for the third year I’ve been awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for the Silverlight expertise!

It’s always a great honor to be recognized and having the possibility to be part of this group of awesome people sharing knowledge and… passion.

My heartful thanks to all the people who supported me: my family, the great Silverlight team, my MVP lead Alessandro Teglia and all the community. You, all, rock!

I’m looking forward to a new year of amazing technologies: Silverlight, WPF, Windows Phone, WinRT, XAML, Windows 8 – WOW!

As usual, happy Silverlighting all!

During the //Build conference in Anaheim the release of Windows 8 Developer preview has been announced: you can download it from this link.

To get started an impressive number of video tutorials is available in the official site of the conference: http://www.buildwindows.com/.

Check out also this great post by Michael for downloading all the Build videos in your pc.

Useful resources are available in the SDK: all the XAML Metro style app samples are available following this link.

It’s possible to install Windows 8 side by side with your operating system using a boot from VHD: I’ve followed the instructions described here by Mister Goodcat and all went smoothly.

Also available for download:

• Visual Studio 11 and .NET Framework 4.5 Developer Preview;
• RIA Services update for //build;
• Windows Azure SDK and tools update.