Microsoft announced the launch of an exciting new search product called Bing ™.  The new site will begin rolling out on June 1st and will be available to the world on June 3rd at http://www.bing.com/. Location information, mapping, and imagery are important investment areas for online search.

On June 1, Microsoft's mapping platform brand will change from Microsoft Virtual Earth to Bing maps for enterprise. Bing maps for enterprise is the mapping platform that underpins the Bing maps service (Bing.com/maps) and serves you and the thousands of organizations that use Microsoft mapping technology on their Web sites and in their applications.

 FAQ

Q. How will this affect my organization’s solution?
A. If you are using our mapping APIs, you will see the Bing watermark on content starting on June 1. This is a logo change only. This update will not introduce changes in performance or functionality of your application. The contract for your mapping service does not change in terms or duration. There is no action that you need to take.
Q. Do the API calls change?
A. No, the API calls will not change. They will still refer to Virtual Earth and MapPoint to help make sure that your implementation does not break and you do not need to make changes.
Q. Will the API Terms of Use change?
A. The API Terms of Use will be updated to replace the Microsoft Virtual Earth name with Bing Maps for Enterprise, but there is no other change to the terms.
Q. What if I have implemented the logo myself?
A. If you are not implementing the logo through the Virtual Earth, MapPoint Web Service, or Multimap APIs, please update your application to use the new Bing logo by September 1, 2009, at the latest. Logos may be obtained from your Microsoft contact for use with the mapping content in your application.
Q. My organization is featured in a Virtual Earth case study or press release. Will you be updating it with the new brand?
A. All new case studies and press releases after May 28, 2009, should feature the new brand. We will be updating some case studies to reflect the new brand and will contact you if necessary. We will not be updating press releases that predate the change.
Q. What if I refer to the Microsoft Virtual Earth brand on my Web site?
A. If you refer to Microsoft Virtual Earth on your Web site, we would like you to change your implementation to use the new name as soon as possible. If you would like to use the Bing logo or brand treatments on your Web site, please contact your Microsoft contact for approval and permission.

Thanks for inviting me to speak at the Mobile Alabama .NET User Group.    I enjoyed meeting everyone and I hope the presentation was informative.  Here are the Slides / Demo from the presentation.  Click the links below to download.

Slides

Demos

Feb. 16, 2009 — Today at Mobile World Congress 2009, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer along with key mobile partners, HTC, LG and Orange, unveiled new Windows® phones featuring new user-friendly software and services. The next generation of Windows® phones will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and feature a new user interface and a richer browsing experience. In addition, Windows® phones will feature two new services: My Phone, to sync text messages, photos, video, contacts and more to the Web; and Windows® Marketplace for Mobile, a new marketplace that will provide direct-to-phone mobile applications and can be accessed from both the phone and the Web.

“Windows® phones bring together the best of the Web, the PC and the phone so you can connect instantly to the experiences you care about, no matter where you are,” Ballmer said. “We’re working with partners across the industry to deliver a new generation of Windows® phones that break down the barriers between people, information and applications and provide great end-to-end experiences that span your entire life, at work and at home.”

Windows Mobile 6.5 Delivers New User Experience

The new Windows Mobile 6.5 home screen keeps people up-to-date on important information by providing a dashboard-like experience to items such as new e-mails, texts, missed calls and calendar appointments. It also includes an improved touch-screen interface, making it easy to take action with a finger, and an updated version of the latest Internet Explorer Mobile browser, which in a third-party research study sponsored by Microsoft supported execution of up to 48 percent more assigned tasks than the other browsers and phones studied.

My Phone Service Connects the Phone to the Web

The free My Phone service will enable people to access, manage and back up their personal information on their device to a password-protected Web-based service, making it easier to upgrade phones without the worry of losing important information. With automatic syncing and backup, users can count on their contacts, appointments, text messages and other information being kept up to date and easily restored should they lose or upgrade their phone. Consumers also will be able to automatically upload photos and video from their Windows® phone directly to the My Phone service, making it simple to preserve content that, in the past, would have lived and died on the phone. The My Phone service is currently available in a limited invitation-only beta.

Rich and Integrated Marketplace Service Will Offer Easy Access to Mobile Applications

The new operating system features Windows® Marketplace for Mobile, a rich and integrated marketplace for searching, browsing and purchasing mobile applications from Windows® phones or from a PC by simply using a Windows Live ID. The new marketplace will be included with all Windows phones based on Windows Mobile 6.5, which will help consumers to easily find, install and experience those applications that fit their needs and make the phone truly personal. Developers, who have already built over 20,000 applications for Windows® phones, will be able to offer applications to customers through the marketplace via a simple security and compatibility check from Microsoft.

I have noticed several questions regarding how to add the SL toolkit to Visual Studio 2008 or Expression Blend 2.  There are a lot of posts out there that show how to do one or another but sometimes we work in both applications and need to add it to both.  Here it goes:

 You first have to download the Silverlight Toolkit.

1. Download the latest release of the Silverlight Toolkit -- December 2008
2. Unzip the file and extract to a location on your OS (e.g. D:\Projects\Silverlight\Source\Silverlight Toolkit\December 2008

How to add the Silverlight Toolkit to Visual Studio 2008 Toolbox

Note: You can add the controls anywhere in the Toolbox.  I will create a new tab (Silverlight Toolkit) for this example.

1. Right click in the Toolbox and select Add Tab then name it Silverlight Toolkit.
2. Right click in the empty space of the Silverlight Toolkit Tab and select choose items.
3. Select the Silverlight Components tab.
4. Click Browse then browse to \Binaries folder and add Microsoft.Windows.Controls.Input and Microsoft.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization
5. The controls will now appear in your Toolbox.

Adding the Silverlight Control Toolkit to Expression Blend Asset Library

It is now easier to add to Blend, even though you have to repeat this process for every project.  When you make controls available in Blend you need to add references to your project, which increases your download size. 

1. In the Project Pane -- right click on References then select Add Reference.
2. Add references to Microsoft.Windows.Controls, Microsoft.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization, Microsoft.Windows.Controls.Input.
   
3. The controls will now appear in the Custom Controls section of the asset library.
4. 

This is a list of what is in each assembly:

Microsoft.Windows.Controls

• AutoCompleteBox
• DockPanel
• Expander
• HeaderedContentControl
• HeaderedItemsControls
• Label
• TreeView
• TreeViewItem
• Viewbox
• WrapPanel

Microsoft.Windows.Controls.Input

• ButtonSpinner
• NumericUpDown

Microsoft.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization

• Charting (with associated Axis, DataPoint and Series

You can find good support for the Silverlight Toolkit on the forums for Silverlight.Net.

The source code for the Silverlight 2 controls was published.  This is the source code for the controls as shipped in the runtime and SDK.  Here is a snapshot of the project:

 The source code for the Silverlight 2 controls includes implementations for the following controls:

• ButtonBase
• Button
• HyperlinkButton
• CheckBox
• RadioButton
• CheckBox
• ToogleButton
• RepeatButton
• RangeBase
• Slider
• ScrollBar
• ProgressBar
• Calendar
• DataGrid
• DatePicker
• GridSplitter
• TabControl

Unit tests for the SDK controls have also been included as well!  Very cool! 

You can download it from here: Source code for Silverlight 2 Controls 

Microsoft has released a stand-alone ASP.NET and Windows Forms Chart controls for the .NET Framework 3.5 and VS 2008.  This is similar to what previously existed as built-in chart functionality in SQL Reporting Services 2008 (Very Cool).

You can use them in any of your existing applications (Web or Win) to produce a professional set of charts.  Here is a snapshot of available chart types available in this release:

Here are the download links:

• Microsoft Chart Controls for Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
• Language Pack for Microsoft Chart Controls
• Microsoft Chart Controls Add-on for Visual Studio 2008
• Documentation for Microsoft Chart Controls

You can find samples on MSDN to help get you started (http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/mschart).

Here are the Slides / Demo from the presentation.  Click the links below to download.

Slides

Demos

Microsoft has recently released the Silverlight Toolkit. 

What is the Silverlight Toolkit?

The Silverlight Toolkit is a collection of Silverlight controls, components and utilities made available outside the normal Silverlight release cycle. It adds new functionality quickly for designers and developers, and provides the community an efficient way to help shape product development by contributing ideas and bug reports. This first release includes full source code, unit tests, samples and documentation for 12 new controls covering charting, styling, layout, and user input.

 You can download this set HERE.

I will be presenting on Virtual Earth tomorrow night in Lafayette, Louisiana.  Hope to see you there.

Topic: Microsoft Virtual Earth, and what can it do for you

Silverlight 2 has now been RTM'd.  Here is a quick overview of whats new in Silverlight 2.

• Text Rendering - a lot of improvements went into overall text rendering.  This is an area that we will continue to improve and focus efforts.  The Portable User Interface font (default font if no FontFamily value is provided) looks a heck of a lot better in my opinion.
• Controls - Read Shawn's post about the new controls
• Networking - The ability to call secure (SSL) services from a non-secure hosted Silverlight XAP.  The only caveat is the new service endpoint must specify a policy via clientaccesspolicy.xml at the root of the endpoint domain.  Once this is in place (at the root of the endpoint domain), your XAP hosted in a non-secure SSL HTTP instance can call an HTTPS-based service.
• ADO.NET Services - Finally made it in!

 Some links to download:

• Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008
• Silverlight 2 Developer Runtime (Windows)
• Silverlight 2 Developer Runtime (Mac)
• Silverlight 2 SDK offline documentation (CHM) 
• Blend 2 SP1

Host of other good information about the release - Recommend reading the official release here.