Visual Studio 2008 Beta2 is available for download from http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700831.aspx. So, what's new in Visual Studio 2008 for device developers?

  • Unit Testing for Devices - You can write your smart device managed application, generate unit tests using wizard, implement your testing logic and run them on device/emulator using various different configurations and simulate real world behaviour. You can tweak the security settings on the device/emulator via device security manager.
  • Device Security Manager - You can view the security settings of your real device - tier 1, tier 2 and such, apply different security configurations, view the certificates on device.
  • Device Emulator v3.0 - Many new features including performance improvements, support for accessing emulator via automation interfaces, dynamically reconfigure the emulator and tweak its properties and simulate your real life scenarios such as battery life.
  • Core Connectivity Framework - You can now use core connectivity framework to write your remote tools like remote registry editor, process viewer, file viewer and such.
  • .NET CF v2 SP2 and v3.5 - Loads of new features including LINQ, WCF, profilers, compression etc. More details on http://blogs.msdn.com/netcfteam/archive/2007/03/13/net-compact-framework-2-0-sp2-released.aspx and http://blogs.msdn.com/netcfteam/archive/2007/01/28/net-compact-framework-3-5-included-in-orcas-january-ctp.aspx
  • Development support on Windows Mobile 6 including emulator images.
  • Windows Mobile 5.0 PPC and SP SDKs are now in the box. You don't have to download them separately.
  • SQL Compact Edition v3.5 - Support for writing device applications targeting SSC 3.5 which includes support for new data types, large SDF file, encryption. For additional details see http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlservercompact/
  • Updated Compilers, MFC libraries and toolset for native developers.
  • Side-by-Side support - Yes, you can install Visual Studio 2008 along with your Visual Studio 2005 SP1 without worrying about either of them interfering with eachother. You can now try out VS 2008 without uninstalling VS 2005.

I request all of you to download the Visual Studio 2008 Beta2 and send us your feedback.

Cheers!

Manav