If you’re a coder of any ilk, you won’t want to miss the Winter Coders’ Social, the regular gathering of all coding types here in town. But tonight, there’s also a Silverlight gathering that could prove worthwhile for motion designers and UX folk.
Now, I know if may be difficult to pry yourself away from your space heaters and heat registers, this evening. But despite the drop in temperatures, Portland’s event schedule remains chock full. Tonight, there are a couple of really cool events that make it worth bearing the chilly weather.
If you’re a coder of any ilk, you won’t want to miss the Winter Coders’ Social, the regular gathering of all coding types here in town. And tonight, there’s also a Silverlight gathering that could prove worthwhile for motion designers and UX folk. Read More
Today, Portland-based StepChange Group took the stage at MIX08 to demonstrate a groundbreaking new application: the world’s first gesture-driven, Microsoft-Silverlight powered user interface on a mobile device.
The data-driven touchscreen interface, dubbed MIXr, runs in the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 environment, and was a proof-of-concept to showcase the functionality of these cutting edge development environments for the MIX audience.
“It was lots of fun—though nerve-wracking—to have our team sharing the stage with Ray Ozzie and Scott Guthrie,” said StepChange’s Kevin Tate.
Aside from the Portland angle, why is this newsworthy?
In my opinion, the release of the MIXr application is important for two specific reasons.
Second, it gives us a glimpse into the future of social networking.
Unlike many of today’s “social networks on mobile devices,” the MIXr application, developed by StepChange in partnership with San Francisco’s Stimulant, demonstrates how the future of social networking may transition to your mobile device.
In other words, this isn’t a “m.” mobile view into an existing social network application; it is the social network application:
[MIXr] uses real-time user updates to track the mood and status of clubs and venues—and helps friends to connect and coordinate with one another during a night out.
It aggregates user ratings, such as a venue’s mood, line length, and music, and uses interactive data visualization to make it easy to figure out what’s hot and what’s not.
“Rich mobile applications are going to quickly change the way we use the Web everyday,” said Tate. “We’re focused on creating applications that leverage the powerful advantages of location, personalization and communication that the mobile environment provides – and have chosen Silverlight as our platform because of its portability and performance.”
