1500 APIs, Mature Rating, New Devices And More Coming To Windows Phone This Year

If you missed anything, or everything, from MIX11 today we have a small recap for you. The biggest news was 1500 new APIs becoming available to developers. We could go on and on about what is possible with each API of only the 60 shown in the image below; Instead we will let your heart pound as your imagination runs wild with possibilities. Remember, most features mentioned below (including some APIs) will be available with the release of the “Mango” update expected to release this Fall.

Post-keynote today there were several Q&A sessions that also took place via the MIX11 live stream, with question being answered from Twitter. At these Q&A sessions some more information was revealed, we provide some of it below.

• There will be a “Mature Rating” system implemented for applications that need it
• If you notice the API list mentions Gyroscope access, Microsoft has indicated this will be implemented in new devices to be released as soon as Fall of this year; Current devices do not have gyroscope integration in any way
• The App List will receive jump list implementation (similar to how phone contacts are sorted)

• The App List will also receive a small search button under the arrow to return to start screen, which can be used to search your app list or even search the marketplace directly

• The Marketplace will receive pivot style categorization, built-in support for podcasts (management and subscribing)

• Bing search now has “extras” integration much like pictures hub and music hub to access installed applications that may be useful to the user ie. search for movies and IMDB will show up under the extras section (only if it is already installed)

• The Camera API will allow developers to integrate such things as barcode scanning into their applciations
• The Live Tiles API will be further developed to allow applications to have more than one live tile for different uses

All screenshots above were taken during an interview with Joe Belfiore where he demoed great things coming with the Mango update for WP7. If you noticed he’s also using an Asus device (the one many have seen around the Internet by now) it looks mighty fast and with a healthy looking screen. Hopefully this means Asus devices might be available sooner than expected. You can find a link to the interview below. Let us know what you thought about the MIX11 announcements this year, and what you are looking forward to, in the comments below.

Windows Phone 7 Announcements & Demo’s from MIX 11 with Joe Belfiore