Microsoft recently held their Professional Developers Conference, at which they discussed some of the improvements that will be incorporated into the next version of the Windows Mobile OS. Thanks to Robert Levy and David McNamee at Smartphone Thoughts (http://www.smartphonethoughts.com), who attended the conference and allowed us to republish some of the material on his site discussing these improvements.
Future of Windows Mobile multimedia
Microsoft has announced their plans to bring DirectX down to mobile devices in the next generation of Windows Mobile. First on the list of features are DirectDraw and Direct3D Mobile. This is a COM-based subset of Direct3D 8 from the desktop and is designed from the ground up specifically for mobile devices. Direct3D Mobile features a flexible architecture that allows work to be done in software or using graphics acceleration hardware, or with a hybrid of the two. And, of course, it will be accessible through both native and managed code on both Pocket PC and Smartphone. This innovation will bring Windows Mobile applications to the next level in terms of their graphical display abilities. If you find today’s Windows Mobile games to be attractive, just wait until developers and hardware manufacturers start taking advantage of Direct3D Mobile.
Also in the plans for the next version of Windows Mobile is a subset of DirectShow. A standardized camera API is something that developers have been asking for over the last few years. Currently, developers must establish close relationships with each device manufacturer and code against the unique API that each one uses. At long last, developers will have a standardized set of APIs for accessing built-in cameras and for video capture. For .NET Compact Framework developers, a new camera class will give easy access to image capturing capabilities that are built into devices. This innovation will open the door to all developers to build applications that take advantage of the camera hardware provided by all manufacturers.
Lastly on the list of multimedia plans announced by Microsoft, Windows Media Player is being redesigned to support plug-in codecs and to allow other applications to host it using a new OCX control. With this, developers can extend the capabilities of WMP by writing codecs that allow it to play additional formats or by building new user interfaces around the OCX control.
New display capabilities coming for Windows Mobile
Pocket PCs will support VGA (640x480), “square”, and “standard” resolutions in both landscape and portrait modes. Smartphone will support QVGA (320x240) and the current “standard” resolution.
Telephony object model for .NET developers
.NET developers will be provided with a unified model for accessing telephony features with managed code. Specifically, the features being made available through the .NET Compact Framework will include access to the telephony UI, the ability to make and end calls, determination of the phone state, access to the call log, and notifications.
Unified notifications services
Applications will be able to receive notifications via window messages, CE message queues, application activations, and .NET event delegates. There will be a unified set of notifications for networking state, SMS, e-mail, synchronization state, telephony events, device state, and third-party events. This is a huge step forward from the current system in which there are different notification models for different components. This advancement will allow developers to easily build apps that are more tightly integrated with each other and that automatically adjust to changes in the device’s state and in the environment, such as battery power levels and connectivity.
Pocket Outlook object model for .NET developers
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