More Windows Phone 8 SDK information coming out.

[George P Global Moderator]

Leaked Windows Phone 8 SDK confirms Peer to Peer Bluetooth functionality:

Today?s leaked developer SDK has revealed one interesting new feature. Developers will be able to access the Bluetooth stack via the API and allow applications to communicate from one handset to another using the short-range technology.

Developers will also be able to program the stack to connect to peripherals such as heart rate monitors via Bluetooth.

Windows Phone 8 handsets will also be able to discover other Windows Phones and devices in their proximity using the new API features, making it a substitute for NFC if this is not available.

The documentation does not make reference to other Bluetooth Stack improvements, but it does suggest developers will have more freedom to add what is missing in Windows Phone 8.

New Data Sense app and Camera lenses:

Using Data Sense you can keep track of your data usage details on your Windows Phone 8 device.

The camera UI has been changed and there is an addition of camera lens apps button in the app bar which will allow 3rd party apps integration. Zune branding is gone for the Music and Videos hub. Ability to allow apps upload content automatically in the background. 3rd party apps can now access lockscreen notifications.

[George P Global Moderator]

App Development

Windows Phone 8 Developer Preview supports native C++ development and is able to support a significant subset of the Windows 8 SDK, allowing developers to share a significant amount of code between apps on Windows Phone and Window 8. The lack of native development support in Windows Phone 7.x has proven to be an issue with developers in the past, which has now been recognised by Microsoft.

The SDK Preview reduces the need to port and maintain components such as compute engines, graphic libraries, and API sets. Direct3D is also making its way to Windows Phone, which will enable developers to create and release games built using DirectX and share code base between PC titles (D2D, DWrite and WIC aren't supported). The supported vertex shader model version is 2.0, as is the pixel shader.

Should you be a HTML developer, you'll be disappointed to know that apps built using the language are not a supported model in Windows Phone 8 Developer Preview. Workarounds are available however, and Internet Explorer 10 will bring new features and extended functionality for web content.

"A developer could create a managed app with a XAML front end that uses an embedded browser control to display local HTML content, and it?s possible, if cumbersome, to access phone APIs by using the InvokeScript method and ScriptNotify events. It?s also possible to use 3rd party tools such as PhoneGap, which fully supports HTML-based Windows Phone development. Also, in Windows Phone 8 Developer Preview, the phone?s browser has been upgraded to Internet Explorer? Mobile 10, with a host of new features such as a robust HTML5/CSS3 implementation, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), ES5, IndexedDB, mouse and gesture events, and the addition of the high-performance Chakra scripting engine."

Native API Additions

As well as new development opportunities, Windows Phone developers will also have additional Windows 8 Native APIs to play with. We've covered a few of these previously, but to recap, here's a list from the leaked SDK:

Keyboard / TextComposition - Developers of Direct3D games will be able to create their own text boxes that behave just like the ones provided by HTML and XAML, using APIs that represent text as it's being composed, and show / hide the on-screen keyboard when a custom text box has focus.

Speech - New APIs enable speech recognition, synthesis, and shell interaction so apps can be launched using speech commands.

Camera - Developers can make use of additional APIs for deeper camera configuration, access to live previews, and multiframe capture scenarios.

Launchers - Data will be able to be returned to a Windows Phone app that has been tombstoned, but the FileOpenPicker does not support generic file picking from system folders, and will only bring up the Photo Chooser in the Preview.

Bluetooth - New APIs enable a native Bluetooth stack. The Windows Phone 8 Developer Preview version of the API adds the ability for two phones to communicate running the same app, and an app installed on a Windows Phone can communicate directly with a paired device.

In-App Purchasing - As we've covered before, in-app purchasing is to be supported for consumers to be able to download content from within an app, which is already present in a few Xbox LIVE games available for Windows Phone.

[Cereal Bawks]

Based on chatter on Ars Technica, I took the VHDs apart. Here's what WP8 gives you on top of WP7:

- A low level of DX11.

- NTOSKRNL.EXE

Anything beyond that are really minor improvements. The system UI is still based on UIX, and .NET development still uses Silverlight. Matter of fact, if you have a WP7.5 device and don't game, keep it. For the most part, the new start screen will bring it up to par with upcoming WP8 devices. Only real reasons for a new device are a HD screen and/or a better camera.

Unless Microsoft pulls a rabbit out of their hat in the regards of APIs when it's officially revealed, I for one will skip WP8.

[George P Global Moderator]

Based on chatter on Ars Technica, I took the VHDs apart. Here's what WP8 gives you on top of WP7:

- A low level of DX11.

- NTOSKRNL.EXE

Anything beyond that are really minor improvements. The system UI is still based on UIX, and .NET development still uses Silverlight. Matter of fact, if you have a WP7.5 device and don't game, keep it. For the most part, the new start screen will bring it up to par with upcoming WP8 devices. Only real reasons for a new device are a HD screen and/or a better camera.

Unless Microsoft pulls a rabbit out of their hat in the regards of APIs when it's officially revealed, I for one will skip WP8.

They've already showed things at the API level, like direct VoIP integration for 3rd party services. All the NFC stuff, support for newer and more Bluetooth stack which developers also get access to. There are other API changes over WP7.x as well, why you think it's just those two is odd, they're giving developers almost the whole WinRT API to use instead of Silverlight and XNA ( which are still there for backwards compatibility with WP7.x apps.

[Cereal Bawks]

I've actually checked the VHDs of the emulator. There's barely any WinRT in there. It's still Silverlight. The whole System.* namespace. It's still .NET CE.

--edit: For that matter, if you don't believe me, create a WP8 app with the SDK. It's all Silverlight namespaces.