MIX '11

To say this week was huge for Windows Phone 7, and Microsoft in general, would still be a massive understatement. There were announcements left and right starting from Monday morning until Thursday, with a few spilling over to today.

If you were under a rock, getting drunk in Florida for spring break, flying around the world in 80 days, or whatever other obscure reason you had to miss this event, catch up on all of that news below:

MIX '11 Windows Phone Keynote: Mango Details & Improved Developer Tools
Since MIX'11 is a developer-centric event, we saw a lot of news today for what kinds of updates the development tools would be receiving. With that in mind, Microsoft announced a slew of new features on the development-side of WP7 and the biggest takeaway from the presentation was the promise of tigther integration between apps and the OS.

Did You Miss The WP7 Keynote? Watch It Now!

We've already covered the end-user highlights with Joe's 14-minute interview with Channel9 but if you want to experience Mandalay Bay filled with tech nerds talking about a huge software update for a beautiful OS, check out the full video!

Ringtones, IE9, App Searching and More Shown Off
The bulk of today's announcements from the MIX'11 Developers Conference in Las Vegas were mostly for developers and hinted at beefed-up apps coming in the near future...but that doesn't mean features that users were expecting to see were overlooked!

Internet Explorer 9 In Action
Internet Explorer 9 was once again shown in a browser speed test at MIX '11 today.

Joe Belfiore Demos New WP7 Features in 14-Minute Video
This is a brand new video coming out of Channel9 today in which Joe Belfiore, who delivered today's Windows Phone 7 keynote, does a personal demo of all of the cool new features you'll find in the upcoming Mango update.

Will Mango Be Called Windows Phone 7.5?
Daniel Rubino from WPCentral, who is live at MIX '11 right now in Las Vegas, managed to snag a picture from the Windows Phone 7 keynote that happened earlier today. The picture in question is part of a slideshow and it specifically refers to Mango as "7.5"

Mango Will Feature Parental Controls for Apps & Games
WMPoweruser is also live at MIX '11 right now in Las Vegas, and they've brought word of a new feature in Mango that might ease recent controversies over adult content in the Marketplace. Namely, that Mango will bring along with it a new content rating system from Microsoft and parental controls through which to enforce those ratings.

Angry Birds Will Be Available on May 25th
For one reason or another, Joe Belfiore decided to announce at MIX '11 that the highly-anticipated Windows Phone 7 port of Angry Birds now has an official release date: May 25th.

Watch Brandon Foy's WP7 Ad and Help It Go National!
Imagine that you made an advertisement about your favorite smartphone platform. Then the video went viral and since its debut received over 100,000 views on YouTube. Pretty sweet so far, right? Then imagine that the same company that owns the platform called you up and asked you to make another ad, this time to be shown at the beginning of their huge annual developer conference. Not only that, but the company also promises you that if the video receives over 200,000 views it will go live on national television. That's freaking awesome!

Chassis 1 Requirements Updated with New Chipsets & Gyroscope Support
Before you get your hopes too high: calm down! This is not the next-generation Chassis (expected to launch this Fall) but Microsoft has decided to introduce a few new hardware features to their original Chassis 1 specs.

New Trailer for XBL 'Must Have Games', Starting in May
Microsoft unleashed this brand new trailer for the upcoming Must Have Games program for Xbox Live.

Official List of New Countries Supported
Despite having a worldwide launch, Windows Phone 7 hasn't been nearly as feature complete in other countries as it has been in the United States. However, Microsoft announced earlier yesterday that they were adding 35 additional countries to their support list for Mango and yesterday WPCentral got their hands on the specifics.

More Info On New Mango Features
WPCentral and WMPoweruser have been absolutely killing it with their live coverage of MIX '11, and I would be a fool not to use them as a valuable resource. While at the show, both outlets spied plenty of new features in sessions that weren't mentioned in-depth during the keynote presentation on Tuesday.

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MIX '11: Did You Miss The WP7 Keynote? Watch It Now! (Update)

The video of the WP7 keynote presented by Joe Belfiore is provided by Microsoft's own Channel9 and as of right now there is no ability to embed the video so you'll have to visit the site directly. We've already covered the end-user highlights with Joe's 14-minute interview with Channel9 but if you want to experience Mandalay Bay filled with tech nerds talking about a huge software update for a beautiful OS, check out the source link below!

UPDATE: Engadget has posted a condensed 20-minute version of the keynote that covers basically everything important to know for the everyman or the developer. It's embedded above and if you want you can hit up the site for their own take.

UPDATE 2: ...and now the official video is up on Channel9's Events page for MIX 11, so the old links have now been updated.. Now you can either watch the video in your browser or you can download it for later or for your Windows Phone (that's what I'm doing!).

Source: Channel9, Engadget

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MIX '11: More Info On New Mango Features

WPCentral and WMPoweruser have been absolutely killing it with their live coverage of MIX '11, and I would be a fool not to use them as a valuable resource. While at the show, both outlets spied plenty of new features in sessions that weren't mentioned in-depth during the keynote presentation on Tuesday. Here's a quick rundown of the ones they spotted yesteday:

• In Mango, the live tile system is getting a pretty huge expansion of features that more closely matches what Microsoft has been able to do with their own native apps. For example, now the user is free to add multiple live tiles per app (the demo showed a MSNBC app split up into 3 different tiles for Local, World, Political News) and since this feature may fill up users' Start pages quickly, the total limit of tiles has been bumped up from 15 now to 30 with Mango. Another feature mimicking the functionality of native apps is "deep" toast notifications--now apps can send a toast notification that will jump directly into the content it is telling you about, just like how notifications from Messaging takes you directly to the newest text in a conversation. Live Tiles are also getting a nice aesthetic feature called Flip in which a tile will literally flip over and show you text or an image and flip back to its original state. Besides those new features, tiles are said to be much more efficient overall. [Via WPCentral]
• Speaking of apps pushing stuff in the background, those processes are completely controllable by the end user in Mango A new option in Settings called Background Tasks will present a simple list of the apps programmed to run in the background and you simply tap on it to change its permissions. [Via WPCentral]
• Of course when it comes to background tasks and pushing data, one has to wonder just how taxing those will be on your precious battery life and performance. Luckily Microsoft was prepared for those questions and has decided to limit those features' 'budgets' to just 10% of the CPU process and only 5MB of the phone's memory. Mango will also automatically schedule these processes so that battery life can be managed more efficiently and you're not assaulted by 40 notifications within 5 minutes. [Via WMPoweruser]
• Another cool feature in Mango related to multitasking is the ability for apps to download in the background. So for example, if you have an app like Bring Cast which downloads podcasts you no longer have to leave the app open and can instead let it download in the background while you do something else. I believe you can already do this with Marketplace downloads so its great that Microsoft is now extending that feature to developers. [Via WPCentral]
• One big story in recent weeks has been what approach is Microsoft going to take in order to control adult content in the Marketplace--will they kick apps out like Apple or will they turn a blind eye like Google? Clearly Microsoft was already thinking about it as they introduced a new rating system for apps. Basically apps will be assigned ratings based on their content, but as of right now the process hasn't been thoroughly detailed for apps. On the other hand, games will be required to go through the gaming industry's external ratings systems like the ESRB (the U.S. video game ratings system), PEGI, and others. That move is a bit questionable as it could potentially delay games since they are relying on an external source with their own agenda, but at least they've come up with a solution instead of being forced to pull apps. [Via WPCentral, WMPoweruser]
• Developers now have new publishing options for the Marketplace and they are surprisingly more fully featured than any other app stores to date. We're already familiar with public distribution, which is what all apps submitted to the Marketplace today go through. In Mango, Microsoft is adding two new methods of distribution: Beta and Private. Beta is just what you think; developers can publish apps to the Marketplace but they will only be accessible to a select number of people (limit is tentatively at 100), they will not be required to go through certification, and they will not be available to find through public search. Private is a little different, as it is similar in execution to Beta publishing but seems intended for enterprise. Privately published apps can be used by an unlimited number of users, will require certification, and will not be publicly searchable. The ideal use scenario for Private is for company-specific apps that can be easily deployed to employees without any manual execution. [Via WPCentral]
• If coded with the Mango tools, apps will now support access to the user's contacts and calendars, but there are a few rules developers will have to play by. The interaction with contacts and calendars seems to be a 'read-only' affair when it comes to non-Microsoft sources like Facebook, which is limited to only name and picture, and Twitter, which is completely barred. While its a bummer that we won't get such powerful features, Microsoft seems to be taking the 'better-safe-than-sorry' approach to avoid any potential security disasters. [Via WMPoweruser]
• Finally, Mango will include new APIs for custom camera apps, which will be huge for photo apps like Apict. However, there are a few limitations to the feature: apps cannot substitute the native camera app when pressing the shutter button (external apps have to be launched first) and the apps won't have access to OEM driver customizations. But one cool if basic new feature is the ability to create an on-screen 'soft' shutter button, similar to the way iPhones take pictures. [Via WPCentral]

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MIX '11: Official List of New Countries Supported

Despite having a worldwide launch, Windows Phone 7 hasn't been nearly as feature complete in other countries as it has been in the United States. However, Microsoft announced earlier yesterday that they were adding 35 additional countries to their support list for Mango and yesterday WPCentral got their hands on the specifics.

While this is not the list of the entire 35 new countries, at the very least these eight countries are definitely confirmed to support the Marketplace soon:

• Chile
• China
• Colombia
• Czech Republic
• Hungary
• India
• South Africa
• South Korea

Via: WPCentral
Source: WindowsPhoneGeek

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MIX '11: New Trailer for XBL 'Must Have Games', Starting in May

Microsoft unleashed this brand new trailer for the upcoming Must Have Games program for Xbox Live. Here's an official quote from the Must Have Games website:

Delivering on the promise to bring a fresh catalog of fun, quality games on Windows Phone games, we're proud to announce our exciting collection of Must Have Games -- six weeks of smash hit games you don't want to miss. No matter what kind of games you enjoy, the lineup of Must Have Games has something for you, delivering the biggest names in mobile games complete with Xbox LIVE Achievements, leaderboards, and more.

This new Xbox Live program was originally slated to begin on April 6th but was then delayed for unknown reasons. But now as you may already know, the program is back on. Angry Birds is the only title to receive a definitive release date thus far but the rest of the Must Have Games lineup is also expected to debut beginning in May.

Via: @WindowsPhone (Twitter)
Source: Must Have Games, YouTube

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MIX '11: Windows Phone 7 Chassis 1 Requirements Updated with New Chipsets & Gyroscope Support

Starting off with the new horsepower, WP7 can now support Qualcomm's second-generation Snapdragon SoC (system-on-a-chip), the MSM8x55 which is clocked at 1GHz and is coupled with the excellent Adreno 205 GPU chip. Microsoft went even further than that an expanded the requirements to include the 800Mhz MSM7x30 chipset and will include the same aforementioned Adreno graphics. The 8x55 wasn't heard about earlier than today, but the 7x30 chipset was originally rumored to debut in WP7's chassis specs at MWC back in February. Also notable about these requirements is the consistent use of Adreno 205 in both, which suggests we could be seeing some new phones that are a little more skilled at handling gaming than the current crop.

Microsoft also officially added support for Gyroscope sensors to be built into upcoming handsets, but the choice is entirely optional for the manufacturer. In case you didn't know, Mango is adding support for gyroscopes so that augmented reality apps will work, but the current handsets on the market don't have it built in. But don't worry--Microsoft has come up with a solution for those without the feature in their phones by utilizing a new Motion Sensor API built into Mango that will detect whether or not the phone has the hardware and if it does not, the app will instead use the accelerometer and other sensors to create the same effect. The only difference is that those with gyroscopes built in will perform somewhat better than those without, but besides that there's no real harm done to affect current phones.

There is also a video available of the session where the new Chassis specs were announced and that can be seen on Microsoft's Channel9.

Source: Engadget, WMPoweruser (1), (2)

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MIX '11: Watch Brandon Foy's WP7 Ad and Help It Go National!

Imagine that you made an advertisement about your favorite smartphone platform. Then the video went viral and since its debut received over 100,000 views on YouTube. Pretty sweet so far, right?

Then imagine that the same company that owns the platform called you up and asked you to make another ad, this time to be shown at the beginning of their huge annual developer conference. Not only that, but the company also promises you that if the video receives over 200,000 views it will go live on national television. That's freaking awesome!

And that is exactly what Microsoft has done with Brandon Foy, the creator of the original fanmade ad "We Love WP7" (embedded after the break in case you missed it) and now the ad above. Microsoft reached out to him and so Foy responded by making yet another new ad which aired just before the WP7 keynote began at MIX '11 on Tuesday. Plus, I wasn't making up that promise--if you spread word about the video and it manages to reach 200k views on YouTube, Microsoft will air it as an official commercial on national television!

So spread the word about this video to your friends. It is pretty phenomenal in its own right and would definitely help Brandon with his street cred!



Via: WPCentral
Source: Windows Phone (YouTube)

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MIX '11: Angry Birds Will Be Available on May 25th

For one reason or another, Joe Belfiore decided to announce at MIX '11 that the highly-anticipated Windows Phone 7 port of Angry Birds now has an official release date: May 25th.

If you remember from before, Microsoft already announced Angry Birds as part of its 'Must Have Games' for Spring 2011. The Xbox Live program was supposed to start on April 6th but was quietly delayed for reasons unknown. Angry Birds is the first game of the program to receive a launch date but the others (Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Plants vs. Zombies, Doodle Jump, and more) still haven't. Either way, we can't wait to see those pissed off feather-balls launch themselves at the Windows Phone Marketplace come next month...but they already have some stiff competition.

Source: WPCentral

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MIX '11: Mango Will Feature Parental Controls for Apps & Games

WMPoweruser is also live at MIX '11 right now in Las Vegas, and they've brought word of a new feature in Mango that might ease recent controversies over adult content in the Marketplace. Namely, that Mango will bring along with it a new content rating system from Microsoft and parental controls through which to enforce those ratings:

One of the new features in Mango will be parental controls, with developers being able to mark their app as M-rated, and this restriction being enforced by the phone. Joe Belfiore notes this should allow the selection of games to expand, which should be great news for developers like those of Twin Blades, who had their game pulled due to the Blood and Gore involved.

This is certainly a step in the right direction for Microsoft and a definite improvement over other app stores' draconian policies on adult content.

Source: WMPoweruser

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MIX '11: Will Mango Be Called Windows Phone 7.5?

Image courtesy of WPCentral

Daniel Rubino from WPCentral, who is live at MIX '11 right now in Las Vegas, managed to snag a picture from the Windows Phone 7 keynote that happened earlier today. The picture in question is part of a slideshow and it specifically refers to Mango as "7.5":

7.5 allows you to build deeply integrated phone experiences

However, when Rubino asked Microsoft employee Andrew Clinick about the name slip-up he said it was exactly that and that they were unsure about what they would eventually call 'Mango' when it goes public. But considering the sheer number of new features and developer APIs slated to ship with Mango, they shouldn't even bother denying the name change and embrace it instead.

Source: WPCentral

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MIX '11: Joe Belfiore Demos New WP7 Features in 14-Minute Video

This is a brand new video coming out of Channel9 today in which Joe Belfiore, who delivered today's Windows Phone 7 keynote, does a personal demo of all of the cool new features you'll find in the upcoming Mango update. Features shown off include new UI tweaks, app searching features, redesigned Marketplace search, out-of-the-box support for podcasts, Apps or Games-specific Marketplace 'hubs', "Search Extras" in Bing, barcode scanning via video, augmented reality app Layar, Angry Birds for WP7, Multitasking, and new Live Tile features demoed via the Qantas app. Until Microsoft uploads the video for today's keynote, this is the best chance for you to get a look at all of the awesome new enhancements you'll get to play with once you get your hands on Mango later this year.

Source: Channel9

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MIX '11: Internet Explorer 9 In Action

Internet Explorer 9 was once again shown in a browser speed test at MIX '11 today. Video comes courtesy of Geekwire and via WMPoweruser.

Via: WMPoweruser
Source: Geekwire

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MIX '11 Keynote: Ringtones, IE9, App Searching and More Shown Off

All photos courtesy of Long Zheng

The bulk of today's announcements from the MIX'11 Developers Conference in Las Vegas were mostly for developers and hinted at beefed-up apps coming in the near future...but that doesn't mean features that users were expecting to see were overlooked!

WMPoweruser pointed us towards some pics taken by Long Zheng of the Mango update that displayed some much-requested features like custom ringtones (above), multiple Live Tiles per app, Internet Explorer 9 Mobile, a slightly-tweaked video player, larger media playback controls, a refreshed Games Hub, new app searching features, and redesigned Marketplace searching (with podcasts!). Check those out below and more at Long Zheng's Flickr Photostream.

Via: WMPoweruser
Source: Flickr (Long Zheng)

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MIX '11 Windows Phone Keynote: Mango Details & Improved Developer Tools

All Photos Courtesy of Long Zheng

We told you that today was going to be a pretty good day for Windows Phone fans and Microsoft certainly delivered on that promise. Get ready to read a lot as we break down all of the highlights past the break!

Since MIX'11 is a developer-centric event, we saw a lot of news today for what kinds of updates the development tools would be receiving. With that in mind, Microsoft announced a slew of new features on the development-side of WP7 and the biggest takeaway from the presentation was the promise of tigther integration between apps and the OS. WP7 will become a much more powerful and cohesive experience once Mango rolls out and that developers will be able to tie their apps into the OS. The features that are a part of the new 'Live Agents' (which encompasses Push Notifications, Live Tiles, Deep Linking, and Background Agents along with Multitasking) are all going to be improved so app developers will have greater access to them.

Speaking of Multitasking, Microsoft revealed that not only is it powered through fast app switching (similar to the iOS approach), it will also allow background audio for apps (!) and background file transfers as well. We will also be seeing the 'Extras' menu, like the option found in the Pictures Hub and the Music + Video Hub, will be found in even more places in the OS. One demonstration showed IMDB tying into Bing search through the extras menu.

There was also a lot of attention brought to expanded access to WP7's motion library and camera functionality. One of the main reasons Microsoft wants to do this is to allow for increasingly-popular Augmented Reality apps to become available for WP7. Microsoft later demoed Layar, one of the most popular mobile AR apps, which was made from the new Mango toolkit. Windows Phone is also finally allowing socket access to apps, which makes VOIP apps a possibility now when they weren't before. Speaking of VOIP, Microsoft demoed the much anticipated Skype app for WP7 and sure enough, everything worked perfectly.

Microsoft announced that the brand-spankin' new Mango Development Tools will be released next month. The new toolkit will be bringing a lot of features that will improve WP7's already excellent apps. Specifically, it will bring with it support for Silverlight AND XNA in the same project (which could dramatically amp up the visual quality of both apps and games), new calendar and contacts APIs for apps to use (another huge boost to app features), and more.

But that's not all! Besides the staggering amount of new development tools, Microsoft is also pledging to expand 'opportunities' for developers. Here's the list taken directly from the Windows Phone Developer Blog:

More countries – 35 Mango countries with creation and commerce.

More Reach – Dedicated games Marketplace, beta distribution

More Discoverability – Exposure through Bing Search “Extras,” search functionality and new merchandising opportunities

More Monetization – More MO billing, expanded country support for advertising SDK

While all of this just sounds like nerdy tech mumbo-jumbo, these are actually quite important features that will dramatically improve the functionality of apps. The fact that Microsoft is managing to include all of these features in a single update is huge and Windows Phone 7 may manage to catch up to most of Android's and iOS' features in one fell swoop. It's a mind-boggling accomplishment on Microsoft's part and Mango may warranting the title of "Windows Phone 7.5" after all.

Images Source: Long Zheng (Flickr)
Source: Windows Phone Developer Blog, WPCentral

Sorry I'm late with this post. I'm in university right now and I had two classes back-to-back today until 11am PST, and I couldn't skip my classes for a keynote!

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Reminder: MIX 11 Keynote Speech #2 Tomorrow at 9AM PST, Plus You Can Stream It!

Sorry if I mislead any of you with last night's reminder post. I was also expecting big WP7 news today but Microsoft never said which keynote would happen on which day, so it turned out today was the keynote regarding the web hence the Internet Explorer 10 announcement.

But based on today's slip from Microsoft's in the MIX11 Sessions schedule, we can definitely expect Windows Phone-related announcements, both expected and unexpected, at tomorrow's event. So when exactly is that presentation you ask? Tomorrow at 9AM PST/12 PM EST. And just like today's keynote, you can also stream tomorrow's keynote from live.visitmix.com.

Yeah, it's still not too late to add your own predictions for tomorrow's event! Leave a comment below on what you think might happen!

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WP7-Related Sessions at MIX'11 Revealed, Hints At What's To Come

Click to enlarge

Today's keynote presentation was entirely unrelated to WP7 and instead focused on the web with the big headline being an Internet Explorer 10 announcement. Instead, tomorrow is the next keynote presentation where Joe Belfiore is expected to spend most of the time talking about the smartphone platform.

And now we may have a pretty good idea what he's going to talk about! Microsoft let loose details about those previously TBA'd sessions related to Windows Phone just a little early and the topics give us a bunch of hints at whats going to be discussed at tomorrow's presentation. If you aren't bothered looking through that list, here's a list of what we've spotted:

• What’s Coming Next to the Windows Phone Application Platform - Andrew Clinick - 4/13
• Going Mobile with Your Site on Internet Explorer 9 and Windows Phone 7 - Joe Marini - 4/13
• Mini-Session: Get Ready for Fast Application Switching in Windows Phone - Adina Trufinescu - 4/13
• What’s New in the Windows Phone Developer Tools? - Vibhor Agarwal - 4/13
• Windows Phone Multitasking - Darin Miller - 4/13
• Multitasking in the Next Version of Windows Phone, Part II: Using Background Agents - Peter Torr - 4/13
• Sensor Access in the Next Version of Windows Phone - Mark Paley - 4/14
• What’s New for Windows Phone Development with Silverlight? - Shawn Oster - 4/14
• What’s New for Windows Phone Development with the XNA Framework? - Brian Hudson - 4/14
• Enhanced Push Notifications & Live Tiles for Windows Phone - Thomas Fennel - 4/14
• New Data Access Features Coming to Windows Phone - Sean McKenna  - 4/14

As you can see, about six of these are happening tomorrow and the other five are on Thursday which suggests that the Windows Phone keynote will be tomorrow. Of course we can see that IE9 will be a definite topic of conversation, along with multitasking being discussed in three separate sessions which is quite a few.

However, much more notable are the other topics as a majority of them hint at new areas of access and tools for developers to tinker with. Developers have been asking Microsoft to open some much needed APIs and it seems to be doing just that with access to more sensors, new changes in Silverlight development, new changes in XNA game development, and new "data access" features (maybe NFC?).

While none of those topics are directly hinting at new features, one of them is: Enhanced Push Notifications & Live Tiles for Windows Phone. Not only does this title suggest we'll be seeing a much-needed overhaul on the developer-side of live tile implementation, we could also be seeing our first glimpse at an improved notifications system something which hasn't been rumored thus far.

Obviously we don't know specifics just yet, but you can bet we'll be hearing more about it in less than 24-hours so keep your eyes glued to WPD for the rest of this week!

Via: WMPowerUser

Source: Microsoft

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Reminder: MIX 11 Keynote Speech Tomorrow at 9AM PST! Plus You Can Stream It Online!

Slow news weekend, am I right? Well that might all change tomorrow!

Just a friendly reminder that tomorrow is the keynote presentation of the MIX 11 conference and we're expecting big news to be announced, especially for Windows Phone 7. The event is taking place tomorrow at 9AM Pacific Standard Time in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Bummed you aren't there to see the action go down live? Here's the next best thing: Microsoft is streaming the keynote for the entire world to watch from the comfort of their own home! Bookmark live.visitmix.com and make sure to visit the site before its showtime to see the entire show.

It's not too late to make some predictions of your own! What are you expecting/hoping/dreaming to see tomorrow at Microsoft's biggest developer event of the year? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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MIX 11 Predictions: What Will, Won't, and Might Happen

The much anticipated MIX 11 conference starts in just 3 days and we're expecting big headlines in regards to Windows Phone 7 and the Microsoft ecosystem in general. So what are the rumor mills churning out and is there a good chance they might happen? Also, are there going to be any surprises that no one is expecting? We won't be able to know anything for sure until news comes straight from the horses mouth, but instead we can have some fun and make some predictions of our own! Jump past the break to see what will, won't and might happen at MIX this year!

What Will Happen

Joint Silverlight-based Marketplace Between Xbox 360 and WP7
I wouldn't doubt the insider sources that Tom Warren from Winrumors has, especially about a rumor that makes a lot of logical sense. Also, we know at least half of the rumor is true as Microsoft was apparently going to show off Silverlight on the Xbox 360 back in December but pulled out at the last second. Beyond that, if you take a look at the list of Windows Phone-related developer sessions to be held at MIX this year, many of them say TBA and include Silverlight as a tag. I don't know about you, but the likelihood of this one coming true seems pretty darn high to me.

Chassis 2 Hardware Teased
This was originally rumored to happen at MWC back in February but somehow it never happened. Well what better way to introduce the new finalized chassis requirements than to do it a year later at the same conference they were originally introduced? Microsoft knows it needs to catch up and fast and the Chassis 2 phones promise to keep the experience the same but for a lower price, which means potentially better volume of sales. They've already waited a year since talking about it, so if they're gonna go through with it you can bet it'll be at MIX.

Another Update Before Mango with Release Timeframe
Considering the fiasco that was the Pre-NoDo and (still is) the NoDo update release, Microsoft will need to chop up that juicy Mango into smaller pieces so they can spread it out over time. WMPoweruser received that news from a reliable tipster who said that the big feature of this update would be IE9. If this does launch before Mango, Microsoft will also most likely announce a release timeframe for when to expect it.

More Mango Details
This one has been confirmed by multiple personalities to be discussed at MIX so this one isn't a big surprise. However, we could be seeing a few new surprises that have yet to be disclosed. We've already covered the joint Silverlight marketplace, but there are other hints quietly making the rounds like new app sorting features which have been spotted in the wild. I'm also expecting to see the update bring along more APIs which Windows Phone developers desperately need in order to more fully integrate with the OS--the missing APIs is the reason VOIP apps like Skype have yet to appear on the platform.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop Will Be There
Yep, I am fully expecting former Microsoft employee and current Nokia CEO Stephen Elop to make a cameo at their little MIX shindig. Microsoft loves talking about their partnership with Nokia at every given opportunity and they know full well the media will be paying attention to what's going to go down at MIX so you can expect at least a wave and a handshake here and there.

What Won't Happen

Release of Mango
Microsoft is definitely going to talk about Mango, but don't count on it getting released--even as a developer build. Instead, if Microsoft is planning to do an update before Mango we could see the developer build release of that a few weeks after MIX. But I sincerely doubt we'll see Mango up and running in public before Summer.

Nokia's First WP7 Handset
Considering that Nokia is only hoping to get their first Windows Phone released before the end of 2011 suggests they might not even make it to the market this year at all. The possibility of Nokia unveiling their first Windows Phone-powered handset at MIX next week is basically nonexistent at this point. It's just too early. I'd still love to see some of those concept photos though!

Next Generation of WP7 Hardware
Microsoft will be emphasizing software at MIX, which is sort of the point of the conference anyway. Plus, Microsoft is most likely going to go dual core for their next generation handsets and Qualcomm's dual core Snapdragon chipsets won't be available for mass market production until Summer anyway (HTC's EVO 3D will be one of the first handsets to market with the processor). So for those holding out hope that we'll be seeing some next generation Windows Phones in the middle of April may want to snap out of that pipe dream.

What Might Happen

Bing Navigation for WP7
This was rumored early last year when we were all naive enough to believe copy/paste and multitasking would come in the same update in early 2011. Well that dream never came to fruition, but turn-by-turn navigation from Bing Maps could be one of the big surprises Microsoft has in store for Mango this year. It's already done it for Windows Mobile 6.5, so why not WP7? On the contrary, we've heard that Microsoft was planning to leverage Nokia's Ovi Maps database for that purpose and there simply may not be enough time to prepare Bing Navigation for a public showing at MIX.

HTC's Ignite and Prime Officially Announced
What's better than seeing Chassis 2 requirements announced? New hardware to go along with it! There's a chance we'll be saying hello to the rumored Ignite and Prime mid-range HTC Windows Phones for the first time in an official capacity. Adding some credibility to this rumor is the fact that HTC also just so happens to be throwing a shindig of its own on April 12th in London. But this is no guarantee, as HTC may instead be announcing their highly anticipated Pyramid phone running Android instead and end up ignoring WP7 altogether. But the timing is pretty coincidental and while I don't doubt they are launching the Pyramid at that event, I also wouldn't be surprised if they slipped in their mid-range pair for Microsoft before announcing the main attraction.

Windows Phone 7's Homebrew Solution
Hackers from the ChevronWP7 were so confident in Microsoft's plans for homebrew development after meeting with them, they pulled their jailbreaking tool only a few days after its release. That is certainly a positive impression but no one besides those present in that meeting would even know the timetable for that kind of development. So this is a bit of a wild card, as the chances of it happening and not happening are split pretty much down the middle. Then again, MIX is the ideal place to talk about it...

Zune Rebranded
There has been plenty of evidence to support the claim that Microsoft isn't as fond of the Zune brand as it used to be, especially in recent months when we've heard rumblings that Zune hardware was to be discontinued. However, there's no telling if Microsoft will discuss that topic at MIX since Zune is their own closed system which developers have zero access to and is considered as more of a 'service' than a product. That is, if Zune is even rebranded at all which no one even knows for sure at this time.

Windows 8 Revealed
As outlandish as this prediction may sound, the potential of it happening is present. We know that manufacturers already have their hands on the Milestone 3 version of Windows 8 which has been steadily leaking new information everyday. Plus there were those rumors that Microsoft could be showing off Windows 8 tablets as early as Summer, so a sneak peek at the future flagship product wouldn't be too surprising to see in April. But it still feels too early for any kind of public Windows 8 showing and considering how ambitious the OS is supposed to be, Microsoft may be planning to wait until they have a more polished build to dazzle the crowds with.

Do you agree with my own predictions? Or do you have some of your own ideas for what Microsoft may be coming out with next week? Tell us about it below in the comments!

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