Windows 7 Microsoft readies new Surface 2.0 develo

Microsoft officers confirmed off a few of the new features that the firm plans to deliver inside the Surface 2.0 software program improvement kit this summer on April twelve at the Mix ‘11 conference.
The Surface 2.0 product, if you need a refresher, is the “smaller ass table” cousin to the Surface 1.0 (known affectionately in some circles as the “big ass table”). Surface 2.0,Office 2007 Activation, which is being manufactured and distributed via Samsung, is expected to be priced at around $7,600 when it debuts later this year. The Floor two.0 is expected to be thinner, cheaper and more versatile (able to be used horizontally or vertically) than the Surface area 1.0.
At Combine ‘11,Office Home And Stude/nt 2010, Floor developer Luis Cabrera touted the coming SDK as enabling developers to create “write once, touch anywhere” applications. He noted that the SDK will allow programmers to create applications targeting both Windows 7 and Surface area two.0 devices, which makes sense, given the underlying UI inside the Surface 2.0 is Windows 7.
On top from the core Windows 7 operating system inside the Floor 2.0,Windows 7 Home Basic Key, Microsoft is providing a Windows integration layer, as well as a shell UI (user interface) and relevant application programming interfaces (APIs). There will be “core” APIs and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) APIs. The core APIs supported will be for raw images and touch events that are not tied to a particular framework, and mostly used for XNA. The WPF APIs will include framework APIs, common controls and specialized controls, Cabrera said.
The Surface team created its own common controls — things like SurfaceWindow,Office Professional Plus 2007, SurfaceButton, SurfaceInkCanvas and SurfaceSlider. These controls were necessary because Windows isn’t touch-optimized,Windows 7 32 Bit, and existing comparable controls were designed for a mouse. Microsoft also has built an Input Simulator, which will allow developers to create Surface area APIs on any Windows 7 PC. The Input Simulator will allow programmers to use a mouse to simulate multi-touch experiences, like grabbing a photo in two places and stretching it to enlarge it, as Cabrera demonstrated during his standing-room-only session at Mix.
Cabrera said there will be a Floor 2.0 configuration tool that will allow developers to choose color themes, backgrounds and specific Surface applications to launch. There also will be a Surface Migration PowerToy tool to allow devs to move Floor 1.0 applications to the Surface area 2.0, he said.
I’m curious whether any with the shell/API features that Microsoft is building and supporting with Surface area will be carried over to Windows 8 — at least concept-wise. And it looks like I’m not the only one with that question:
Cabrera said the Surface area two.0 SDK will be free and on MSDN when it is ready this summer time. Inside the interim, he advised developers interested in Floor two.0 to use the existing toolkit for Windows Touch, calling it a “step in right direction.”