During the second day of its MIX11 conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft demonstrated the next version of its Windows Phone operating system and delivered a beta of the Kinect for Windows software development kit and a Silverlight 5 beta.Microsoft also announced that with the forthcoming release of Windows Phone, the company will provide developers with more hardware capabilities, better browsing and improved tooling, as well as expanded opportunities and Windows Phone Marketplace options.

In May, according to Microsoft, developers will gain access to updated Windows Phone Developer Tools. These improved tools include a performances profiler and sensor simulation, enabling developers to build more integrated and high-performing apps.

The forthcoming Windows Phone operating system upgrade -- code-named "Mango" and first promised in February by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer -- enables application multitasking for background processing, audio and file transfer, and fast application switching. Holding a phone's back button down will reportedly provide a card-like view (right) of all running applications.

According to Microsoft, Mango will provide deeper phone integration so apps can better take advantage of things like Live Tiles. And the platform provides access to the camera and Motion Sensor library so developers can build apps the incorporate device hardware and build augmented reality experiences.

Mango functionality was detailed as follows in a February blog entry by Andy Lees, president of Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business:

• Twitter integration in the People Hub -- The popular social networking service Twitter will be integrated into the People Hub in the second half of 2011
  
  
• Office document storage in the cloud -- Document sharing and storage in the cloud via Windows Live SkyDrive will be added to Windows Phone in the second half of 2011
  
  
• Next-generation browsing with Internet Explorer 9 -- A dramatically enhanced Internet Explorer 9 web browser will be added to Windows Phone in the second half of 2011. It will feature the same standards support (HTML5, etc.) and hardware accelerated graphics as the PC version
  
  
• Additional multitasking capabilities -- We will add the ability to switch quickly between applications, run applications in the background (such as listening to music), along with a number of other capabilities in the second half of 2011

Meanwhile, Microsoft said the Kinect for Windows Beta SDK will come out of Microsoft Research and be available in the spring time frame.

And Microsofts Silverlight 5 provides advances in rich media and application development. New capabilities include Hardware Video Decode for enhanced video quality and performance, and "Trickplay," which provides variable-rate video playback with audio pitch correction. The Silverlight 5 beta also offers a new Microsoft XNA-based interface for delivering 3-D visualizations within applications.

Further information

More information on the Mango platform and developer tools may be found in this post on the Windows Phone Developer blog by Microsoft's Matt Bencke. The Silverlight 5 Beta is downloadable here.

Darryl K. Taft is a writer for eWEEK. Jonathan Angel added reporting to this story. .

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