At our recent Windows Phone Hackathon, The Maung Brothers, Lwin and Min (or more appropriately – Accolade Systems), showed off their latest invention: a Windows Phone 7 controlled robot!

Lwin and Min are crazy smart. They are mad scientists (kind of like this guy and this guy). They are always tinkering and always building electronic gadgets. In this video, Brian Gorbett discusses with Lwin and Min the virtues of the BizSpark program and how it’s helped them get their company off the ground. We also get to see this crazy robot that they built and control through a Windows Phone 7 app.

I asked the Maung Brothers what the inspiration behind this robot was and all of all things it was pure laziness! Or some would say – pure genius! They basically wanted to create something that allowed them to mow the grass for them while sitting in the comforts on their living room. A remote-controlled lawnmower! Aside from the potentially maiming and harm a runaway lawnmower could do on account of a software bug, the Maung brothers took it upon themselves to investigate the possibilities. Prototyping off of a Power Wheels Barbie Jammin Jeep Wrangler and taking it from there, they built a solid chassis and all the techno gadgetry to make a wannabe Maker blush. Not to mention the addition of strobe lights and a cannon!

Check the video for more:

windows phone 7 robot from brian gorbett on Vimeo.

I only wish I had the talent and the brain power (and not to mention the funds) to build some of this crazy stuff. The first step for me is learning how to solder! Once I get past that hurdle, who knows?!?! Maybe I’ll get a cover story in Wired magazine like super-smart Maker, Limor Fried. A nerd can dream.

Today, the Microsoft Interoperability team (yes… that’s right, we have an Interoperability Team) released a new tool and white paper to help iPhone developers migrate their iPhone apps to Windows Phone 7.

As we know in today’s mobile app market, there are a multitude of challenges for mobile app developers to reach their largest potential target audience – EVERYONE. Ideally, as an app developer, you want to be on ALL platforms, but with constraints on resources, time and knowledge, that’s not particularly conducive with today’s tools. Sure, there are tools that are trying to be all things to all platforms, but there are limitations. Many limitations. To truly produce the best app for a particular platform, you need to be able to code to that platform’s strengths and differentiators.

The iOS to Windows Phone 7 Mapping Tool is a set of documentation and samples to help you understand how to port your code from iPhone to Windows Phone. You search for a given iOS API call and find the equivalent WP7 API along with code samples to help you along.

In this first version of the tool, the focus of the mapping was applied to the top core elements of app development – Network/Internet, User Interface and Data. More segments will be added over time.

The Mapping Tool and White Paper are elements of the Windows Phone Interoperability site. This site includes Developer Stories of real developers building real apps, sharing their experience with Windows Phone 7. There’s quite a few nuggets of wisdom in these videos. I highly recommend watching these videos to strike up some inspiration for you to go off and build that next great app!

In reading today’s announcement, I especially like the statement:

Even if you have a solid expertise on a particular platform/language, I think it is essential to be a “polyglot” developer. In other words, you might have a native or preferred language, but opening your mind to others can be very stimulating and will bring considerable value to your abilities and your resume.

That is so true and a mantra I live by even though I work for Microsoft. those of you that know me personally know that I love to dabble in all forms of development tools and frameworks. It harkens back to my consulting days where making yourself marketable was a function of job growth and security. However, with the rapid change in technology and multiple platform opportunities that exist today, it’s more important than ever for developers to expand their toolset; consultant or not. Go out and learn something new!

My team is going to be hosting a week-long Windows Phone Accelerator Lab in Dallas (week of May 9th) and Chicago (week of May 16th). The purpose of the lab is to provide technical and design assistance to developers who are currently building Windows Phone apps and who need a little extra help in getting their apps into the Marketplace. We have very limited seating for this lab and registration is not guaranteed. Priority registration will be based on:

• Apps currently in development with a plan to completion by May 31st
• Developers who have apps on other platforms that are looking for assistance to port over to Windows Phone 7
• Someone who has a great idea and needs help in getting their project kicked off
• Application must be ready to submit to Marketplace by May 31^st.

During these labs, you will be provided a working space, access to technical experts, access to phones to test your app on and access to all the caffeine you can consume! Plus a few other surprises thrown in for good measure!

MIX’11 provided the opportunity for us to talk about the opportunities for developers in the next version of Windows Phone (codename “Mango”). There are over 1500 new API’s with many of the features developers have been clamoring for. Including multi-tasking, background agents, built-in SQL CE database, IE9 as the built-in browser, background transfers, as well as enhancements to notifications, tiles, launchers & choosers, etc.

In addition, there were announcements around the next version of the dev tools which will include support for emulating sensor data such as location and the accelerometer, as well as a new performance analysis tool. This new version of the Windows Phone toolset will be available sometime next month (May 2011). Mango itself will be available to all existing and new Windows Phone devices in Fall 2011.

As has become customary with Microsoft conferences, all of the keynotes and breakouts are available for on-demand viewing. Here is a list of the Windows Phone specific sessions:

Keynote:

MIX11 Day 2 Keynote (Joe Belfiore, Scott Guthrie)

Windows Phone 7 Sessions:

Expert Lessons: Top Tips for Building a Successful Windows Phone Application (Stefan Wick)

Application Design for Windows Phone (Megan Donahue)

Building Windows Phone 7 Applications with the Windows Azure Platform (Wade Wegner)

Flickr API: Tap Into Billions of Photos for Windows Phone 7 (Markus Spiering)

The Tale of Two Apps: Making a Splash in the Windows Phone Marketplace (András Velvárt, Bálint Orosz)

Deep Dive MVVM (Laurent Bugnion)

Who Would Pay For That Feature? Adding Analytics to Your Windows Phone 7 Applications (David Poeschl)

Rx: A Library for Managing Asynchronous Data and Events in your Windows Phone 7 Application (Jim Wooley)

XNA Game Studio for Fun, Profit, Danger, Excitement and Windows Phone 7 Games (Rob Miles)

All Thumbs: Redesigning an Existing UI to Suit Windows Phone 7 (Ward Bell)

Mango Sessions:

What’s Coming Next to the Windows Phone Application Platform (Andrew Clinick)

Going Mobile with Your Site on Internet Explorer 9 and Windows Phone 7 (Joe Marini)

Get Ready for Fast Application Switching in Windows Phone (Adina Trufinescu)

What’s New in the Windows Phone Developer Tools? (Vibhor Agarwal)

Multitasking in the Next Version of Windows Phone, Part I (Darin Miller)

Multitasking in the Next Version of Windows Phone, Part II: Using Background Agents (Peter Torr)

Windows Phone Architecture: Deep Dive (Istvan Cseri)

What’s New for Windows Phone Development with Silverlight? (Shawn Oster)

What’s New for Windows Phone Development with the XNA Framework? (Brian Hudson)

New Data Access Features Coming to Windows Phone (Sean McKenna)

Sensor and Camera Access in the Next Version of Windows Phone (Mark Paley)

Enhanced Push Notifications and Tiles for Windows Phone (Thomas Fennel)

Making Money with your Application on Windows Phone (Todd Brix)

Creating Windows Phone Applications Using Expression Blend (Unni Ravindranathan)

Analyzing and Improving Windows Phone Application Performance (Jeff Wilcox)

During the Day 2 Keynote at last week’s MIX conference, Joe Belfiore called Brandon Foy up to the stage. Brandon is a recent graduate of Full Sail University for Motion Graphics + Composting. He was inspired by the design of Windows Phone 7 and put his passion and talents behind the We Love WP7 video. His efforts were did not go unnoticed by the Windows Phone team. The team reached out to Brandon to invite him to create another video to be premiered during Joe Belfiore’s Keynote at MIX. Joe let it be known, to Brandon’s surprise, that if the video can get over 200K views, Microsoft would turn it into a national primetime ad spot!

This would be a tremendous boost to a young man’s career and not to mention an opportunity for Microsoft to have an amazing ad showcasing Windows Phone 7. Do us all a favor – go watch the video!