Windows Developer News for the week of Aug. 13th, 2010

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News and Updates

Chapters 6,7, and 8 for the Hilo series have been published.  If you are trying to learn how to write a windows app, this is one of the best places to start.  Chapter 6 of the Hilo series covers Hilo integration with D2D.  Chapter 7 covers how Hilo is using Windows animation manager.  Chapter 8 covers how Hilo is using Windows 7 libraries and the shell.  These articles conclude the first application in the Hilo series and next week, we'll be starting the next app for the hilo project. You can follow the Hilo team's progress on the Hilo Twitter feed.  You can find out more about the first app in Yochay's intro to Hilo.

Lee Howe's lecture on GPU accelerated physics was posted to Channel 9 and he'll be answering questions in the comments. 

We're working on improving the Windows Developer Learning paths on the developer center and are actively working on getting a learning path created for power aware applications.  In the mean time, if you have questions about developing power-aware applications, post them in the the Developing Applications with Power Management forum.  Experts within Microsoft should answer them there.

Reminders

If you are using the Direct2D Debug library, make sure you have the latest update which is available on the Code Gallery page for the Direct2D Debug Library.

Check out the Windows 7 Application Quality Guide if you are developing Windows 7 applications.  It has great pointers for creating fault tolerant applications that run smooth, fast, and that are easy to use.

Some fun stuff

It has been frustrating for many of us in Microsoft to see the iPad swoop in and garner market share with consumers when at Microsoft we've been innovating in the Tablet space for nearly a decade. As many people aren't aware, slate form factor tablets are actually not new to Microsoft, the Motion tablets, which have been around for a long time are a good example of this.  Here's a review that an artist made of a motion tablet in comparison to an iPad:

 

See Also:

Jim Travis's Blog has a few great posts on sensors in Windows 7.