Edit: It’s out! Grab it now at http://dev.windows.com

Fresh out of the BUILD conference in Anaheim, Microsoft has officially revealed all of the cool new features in Windows 8. New features like the Metro Start screen, ribbon explorer, new task manager, HTML5/Javascript app development, WinRT, I could go on.

But even bigger news for those of us early adopters is the announcement that at 1pm AEST (today, Wednesday 14/9), the Developer Preview will be released for anyone to download and install.

Now remember this is an early preview, so it isn’t a complete representation of the final product, and there is no support in place if you break something by installing this. However if you’re ready to take the risk, you can try out the awesome new features today.

Head on over to http://dev.windows.com at 1PM and you can grab the preview (assuming the servers aren’t taken down by millions of downloaders like Windows 7).

While you’re there, try out the new Windows Live ID integration, login with your Live ID and sync with other Windows 8 PCs easily.

Not a software developer? Do you prefer to create short films? Enter the digital media category. Do you consider yourself an IT pro, there’s the IT challenge. There are plenty of categories available to compete ion, all with their own prizes.

Are you creative, can you get together a team to make an awesome game about the theme? Then enter game design, not only could you win monetary prizes, but you can also get feedback and meet top industry developers and peers.

However with Microsoft being a software company, and the organizer of the event, the big money is in software design. Come up with something original and unique that can help to solve one (or some) f the worlds toughest problems using software (and hardware if you want) and you could win $25,000.

The theme of the 2012 competition is “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the worlds toughest problems.”

Teams are permitted and encouraged, although check with the category you plan to enter for maximum team sizes and rules.

This theme is open to interpretation and imagination, so come up with some awesome ideas, register, and make your awesome solution that will get you through to the finals, and maybe even into 1st place!

Register now at www.imaginecup.com and start creating!

Need some inspiration? Check out the 2011 Software Design winners – Team Hermes:

Join us as Microsoft hosts the annual Australian Imagine Cup finals at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney this Thursday, the 5^th of May 2011.

The Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition. Each year the Imagine Cup
challenges students from Australia and around the world to use technology to help solve some of the world’s toughest issues.

This year’s competition culminates at the Australian Imagine Cup finals event, with 5 teams selected to battle it out in front of a live judging panel to see who will be selected for the coveted 1^st place spot in the Australian Imagine Cup finals and represent Australia at the world wide Imagine Cup finals in New York later this year.

There’ll be plenty of great door prizes on the night for the audience in attendance, including two XBOX360
Kinect Bundles and XBOX360 Games up for grabs!

Register now as seats are filling fast! https://www.microsoft.com.au/events/register/home.aspx?levent=672344&linvitation

Yours Truly,

Albert, Aarohi & Michael

But on to the really cool stuff… The local student experience team has launched the Student PC Offer.

For AUD $1099 (34% off RRP – incl. delivery), you get a Microsoft Signature Dell XPS 14. This awesome laptop features the following tech specifications:

• Intel Core i5-480 (2.66Ghz, or 2.93Ghz with Turbo Boost)
• 6GB 1066MHz RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M (1GB)
• 14” WLED Screen (1366×768)
• 2x3W JBL Speakers
• 640GB Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
• 5+ Hours of Battery Life

All of this runs Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit Edition, and comes with Office Home and Student 2010.

If you are interested, head on over to the Microsoft Store for more details and to take advantage of this great deal.

Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 has also been released to manufacturing. This one does have some nice features, like RemoteFX, which uses the server’s graphics card to render out 3D content and videos for remote desktop – so now you can get the full desktop experience remotely.

The goal for RemoteFX is to give full desktop capabilities to low end client machines, that can remote into a powerful server and take advantage of the hardware there – this could be pretty cool for low power client slate/tablet devices running over Wireless N.

There are some other features and changes regarding HyperV and memory, you can read more here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2011/02/08/windows-server-2008-r2-and-windows-7-sp1-releases-to-manufacturing-today.aspx

But onto the news you’re looking for, if you have a MSDN subscription (maybe through work) then you can start downloading SP1 on the 16th of February. If not, it will be made publicly available on the 22nd of February.

Remember, downloading the Windows Update version is usually the best, it will only download and install what it needs to, however if you want an offline ISO, I’m sure that will be available publicly as well.

I will make another post when the public release occurs on the 22nd.

Microsoft has decreased the price of the upgrade version on www.itsnotcheating.com.au to $49.95 (from $119).

Not much else to say, if you haven’t upgraded already and are looking to, now is the perfect chance – before the price goes back up (maybe).

For those who do not know, Dream Build Play is (was) an annual competition where XNA developers would compete to create the “best” game, with the chance for big prizes and usually an XBOX Live Arcade contract.

Every year the winners won tens of thousands of dollars, and received great publicity, so just becoming a finalist means you can usually do well on the XBOX Live Indie Games service.

In previous years, the competition has consisted of two parts:

• A “warmup” competition, usually themed.
• The main event, no theme.

Interested? Well the competition hasn’t started yet, but in the meanwhile you can head over to the competition website and sign up to be notified when registration opens.

If previous years are anything to go buy, simply registering when the main competition opens should get you a free 12 month Creators Club App Hub trial, and those who submit an entry usually get a premium subscription.

We will post more details when they appear, but for now, start thinking about your game ideas, and feel free to start by grabbing XNA 4.0 from the App Hub website, and start looking through the great learning materials they have there.

So

1. Sign up for notifications about the competition
2. Download XNA 4.0
3. Start creating a winning entry!

Microsoft Student Film Festival

You can also download them direct from the link below:

For those of use that prefer our technical information printed on paper, Microsoft Press has a book that should hopefully get you started with the new APIs, creating rich Windows 7 enhanced applications in no time.

Introducing Windows 7 for Developers is that book. A collaborative effort between Yochay Kiriaty, Laurence Moroney, Sasha Goldshtein and Alon Fliess, this book looks at most of the cool new features in Windows 7, and how to use them in your own applications.

What it Covers

The book covers the major new features in Windows 7 like the Superbar and Multi-touch, as well as the how to implement the Ribbon that is included for all developers in the new OS. However the book does not cover the new DirectX APIs like Direct2D and DirectWrite, claiming that the APIs are simply too large to cover. Small overviews are provided of each technology so you have somewhere to start from.

The book covers developing for Windows 7 as both a native (C++) developer and a C#/.NET developer, however I noticed quite a large focus on the C++ side of things. The big strength of the book is in explaining the process for working with these new technologies, rather than the syntax. If you find the .NET explanation insufficient, there should be numerous resources online that provide the syntax and class definitions for working with the .NET Windows 7 libraries.

A very short overview is provided at the end for developer oriented features such as troubleshooting or profiling. I would have liked to have seen more detail on these topics, and some of the other “hidden” features of Windows 7 that make maintaining and developing applications easier.

Style

The book approaches each topic with an overview of the new feature, before diving into implementing some example applications that make use of the features. This hybrid theory/hands-on approach works quite well, however the authors expect the reader to know how to work with the other technologies used like WPF.

I found the examples to be simple, but effective. They get straight to the point and tell you what you need to know to get the specific task done. In the topic on multi-touch, they provide examples on what each type of touch should be used for, and throughout the book they provide small overviews of the API relating to that particular topic.

There are plenty of diagrams, tables and screenshots that demonstrate what is going on, and many of those will even provide a little hint on where you can go past the samples and play around with more advanced features.

Conclusion

For those who have a solid background in developing for Windows in general, either using MFC or WPF/WinFoms for .NET, you will find this book to be a good starting point for enhancing your applications with the new features in Windows 7. Topics are explained in detail before they work on implementation, and through this you can gain an understanding of how the features should be used in your application. This is especially important with multi-touch, where there are standard gestures that you should not alter – although you certainly can go your own route, and the book will explain how to do that as well.

Weighing in at 395 pages (including Index), this book is not a hefty tome like many other programming books. The abundance of lists, figures and code samples means that you won’t be reading giant blocks of text all of the time, which makes the reading experience much nicer. This is certainly an introductory book for a very specific topic, and if you are interested in working with these technologies, I would highly recommend using this book as a starting point.

MS Press Australia sells this book through its online store for $69.95 AUD.

Book Details

Title: Introducing Windows 7 for Developers
Author: Yochay Kiriaty, Laurence Moroney, Sasha Goldshtein, Alon Fliess
ISBN: 978-0-7356-2682-9

Buy from Microsoft Press Australia (AU $65.95)