Windows Phone 7 Preview Phones Coming July 19

Great news. It runs Silverlight natively. Sign me up!

I cannot wait for this platform to be released. After what has happened with Apple in the past few weeks, it will be refreshing to go back to a platform that "just" works.

*Apple has official destroyed all of my data even though it did a complete backup.. Apple's lack of allowing access to the file structure is another big turn off.

Yay! I can't wait to buy a Win 7 Phone!

Its about time these phones were released.

Can it play Mafia II?

yeah... this is for people who like the iphone model, but want something that actually works, and a choice in hardware. apps will also be much easier to develop for this BUT! it will be VERY hard to port to and from this platform! something Microsoft is almost certainly counting on ("exclusives?"). stuff like "XBLA games can be ported by changing 4 lines of code" is complete BS. stuff ports between iphone, android, and almost every other smartphone platform ALOT easier, because they all use the same language, winmo does not. on the plus side, any xbox indie games WILL port very easily to it.

at anyrate, its great if your a Microsoft fanboy. for everyone else, just remember, its just like the iphone "walled garden" and apps will take time and money to be ported to it.

hey matt87_50...huh? iPhone, android and every other smartphone porting is a lot easier because same languages? Where did you hear this?

Android, Java is the official supported, though linux apps can be written in C and C++ with a bit of know how.
iPhone, Objective C. Period. (yey for languages that nobody uses! Way to support interobability. Require complete re-writes for apps to be ported, and primarily only because of your damn EULA.)
Most every other smartphone, well, I believe blackberry is C++ with its own unique API which isn't compatible with android... Don't know of any other smartphones with fairly open APIs.

can i say im a developer to take one of those phones even when i dont know how to place a wallpaper on my phone?

When is "The Fall", I live in a country that does not have a session call "fall", and if we did, it wouldn’t be at the same time as your, there are other courtiers other than the USA, you know.

- Now, I have seen some good moves forward from Microsoft in many areas in the last few years, WM6 seem to be still a struggle, so here’s hoping that MS will make a great move with MP7.

If I recall correctly, windows phone 7 does not have file system access either.

if microsoft can release the xbox360 before the other consoles and it still be one of the best consoles, imagine what they can do with a little more time and effort.

trust me, I make iphone games, objective c is built ON TOP OF c++, all you have to do is wrap all the objective C libraries (just input and music, audio and graphics, via openAL and openGL are already in C) something you would have to do anyway, in order to have a common api between platforms (an "Engine" if you like). I agree objective C is horrible. I still barely know what any of it means, but that hasn't stopped my writing full games, completely in c++.

I hear that android's NDK is acceptable for making games in, it is android's new c++ SDK (n for 'native'). this is something they released FOR THE SPECIFIC PURPOSE of making it easy for people to port their existing c++ code to the platform. I haven't done it my self, but I have heard from the maker of a big game that it takes literally a couple of days to port from iphone to android, using the NDK. its not ideal - if you were targeting android only from scratch, you should use java - but it will do.

many other smart phone makers, and their OSs, like symbian and Palms web os I believe also have changed from using obscure languages to using c++ and openGL, to make life easy for developers.

it is fine to have completely different APIs for each phone, as long as the language is the same. different APIs can just be wrapped around a common wrapper ONCE, so that no game code needs to be changed between platform. writing in a different language means THE WHOLE 10'000s of lines of game code need to be re-written, AND MAINTAINED, with any updates needing to manually be brought across to the other code base too!

I mean, I do hate Apple, and their dodgy attitude towards developers, culminating in that STUPID EULA rule (that unity seems to be magically immune to) but facts is facts: you can use c++ and openGL, thus portability is alot easier.

Woah, that is about all I read and had to stop. The fact is regardless if you can port it from Apple's iOS to any other or vice versa, Apple's API is still closed. You should know, you make games for the Iphone. When was the last time you were able to port you iPhone game to the Andriod phone or any other platform? It defeats the purpose in your argument doesn't it?

i fail to see how windows phone 7 will be great... after there previous attempts... well im not too sure, though im sure they can IMO its a little too late android has come and taken over IMO. Dont get me wrong i used to love windows mobile when there was no iphone or android

it seems that android is far more friendlier to older phones. And we dont know how windows phone 7 will be like, of course there hardware limits will suck and being closed... you wont be able to put it on older hardware at all, unlike android that is being even ported to old windows mobile phones that have similar chip sets/cpus etc... that is pretty cool, good example att tilt

Windows Phone Kin flopped, I think Wondows Phone will flop in its entirety. Even Symbian has more apps. Android and the iPhone is far far ahead. The interface is really ugly and slow.

I want an open Operating Systems

*No multitasking* = deal breaker for me!

P

Using IMAP instead of POP and copying Photos manually should prevent That...

LoL, unless it is ported to OpenGL ES 2.0 and with a Snapdragon or OMAP processor...

Initially I was excited...then I kept seeing announcement after announcement of how Microsoft would cripple the OS, lock it down, charge development subscription fees, lack much needed features lick multitask, etc... etc....

Now I have an android and dont really care.

Blackberry is java based I believe.

again, at matt85_50, where do you get your info? I'm a developer too, but instead of iPhone games, I do cellular core network design and implementation. I do a lot of platform evolution and as such have to take code written for one platform in one language and port it to another platform in another language.

C++ is built on top of C to add OO abilities with an emphisis on static typing of objects. Objective C is built on top of C to add OO abilities with an emphisis on dynamic typing. Objective C and C++ are siblings, they aren't inherited from one another.

One thing I've had to do several times is port OSE applications written in C to C++ code to run on windows and/or linux. Trust me when I say that even though C++ is a superset of C, this isn't easy. These projects usually take 2 or 3 dedicated devs in excess of 9 or 10 months to port with an amount of up front design which would possibly stagger the imagination to get the wrappers correct.

Now, at no point have I said that it's technically impossible to program an iPhone in C++, which would in turn make the porting effort a fair bit easier, but I did state that thanks to Apples EULA, this is forbidden. So thus your claim of writting apps for the iPhone in C++ using wrappers, if these apps are popping up in the app store means you are either lying or breaking the terms of service Apple requires you to follow when developing for their platform.

And at tokenz, I'll take your word, I've never done blackberry programming, I was just taking a shot at it.

Maybe I should sign up to be a dev so I can get one

oh God look... do any of you even make games for smart phones?
I work at a company that comes from making games for consoles, DS, PSP ect, all in c++, I had NO PROBLEMS AT ALL writing our games for iphone in C++, that EULA text is JUST LIP SERVICE in order to hide some back end deal they did to make Adobe go away. as I said: can ANYONE explain to me how UNITY doesn't break that rule too?? ITS STILL THERE! and IF YOU READ IT, all it says is that the code has to be "originally written in objective c OR C PLUSS PLUSS!!!"

trust me when I say c++ is FULLY supported by the iphone, aside from a strict and at some times buggy compiler, all standard c++ code that works on any other c++ environment, works on the iphone.

I can also tell you we are in the middle OF PORTING TO ANDROID as I speak! as I said before, it doesn't matter that the iphone libraries are CLOSED and DIFFERENT to every other platform, THAT IS THE SAME FOR ANY PLATFORM!! at least they use openGL! LIKE EVERYONE ELSE! only Microsoft force you to use a different graphics API! so if anything, its Windows phone 7, who's apis are the most 'closed'.

but as I said, thats understandable and doesn't matter, because you just write wrappers!

do you guys think I'm lying?? I have sat here and done it with my own hands! so maybe you should trust me.

also, I agree that porting C to C++ does take forever, even though at face value you would think it would be easy, thats why people should appreciate just how much work is required to convert from c++ to c# (for win phone 7), those languages are alot more different. on the other hand, as I've said, any C++ code that you have used for PSP, DS, PS3, XBOX360, Wii, < insert any other gaming hardware here> just WORKS on the iphone.

I'm sorry if I come across a bit angry, but I am as we speak currently in the middle of the horrible procedure of porting one of our games to wp7, and it is very rage inducing. for any other game developers out there, I implore you to listen to what I've said, it will make porting between platforms (at least platforms that aren't wp7) a lot easier.

I know AS FACT that the iphone supports c++, I am also fairly certain that Android, Nokia's symbian, and Palm's WebOS also NOW (they didn't in the past) support c++ to the extent that is required.