A recent article by Megan Garber of the Nieman Journalism Lab shows how the New York Times Company R&D Lab is using Surface to envision the not to distant future where reading the newspaper on a tabletop is commonplace. According to the article, they are "betting breakfast will be less about sharing out newsprint and more about swiping through stories, ambient commerce, and the quantified self."

Full article here

New York Times R&D Lab: The kitchen table of the Future from Nieman Journalism Lab on Vimeo.

Dr. Neil Roodyn (nsquared), one of our MVPs, just posted a video showing integration between multiple devices and Microsoft Surface. I personally liked some of the scenarios he describes, and how interactive objects (in this case phones and tablets) are used in conjunction with the Surface unit.

Congratulations Dr. Neil!

The Surface development community has been asking for a WPF map control. Well, I have good new for you. We brought the request to the Bing maps team and they just got it done! Today, the Bing team posted the Beta release for a WPF version of their Bing maps control! We are really excited about the outcome because they will be able to provide an official story around mapping on WPF.

Download the map control and write some awesome Surface applications.

I like the control because:

1. It is consistent with Silverlight version of the control.

The Bing Map APIs will be consistent with the Silverlight version of the control. If you already know how to use the Silverlight map control, you are set. It will support the following map styles: Road, Aerial and Hybrid.

2. It is easy to use.

The XAML below says it all…

<s:SurfaceWindow x:Class="SurfaceApplication7.SurfaceWindow1"

    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:s="http://schemas.microsoft.com/surface/2008" xmlns:m="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Maps.MapControl.WPF;assembly=Microsoft.Maps.MapControl.WPF" Title="MyMapApplication"  >

  <Grid>
        <m:Map
            x:Name="Map"  Mode="Aerial"
            CredentialsProvider="_your_key_goes_here__"/>
  </Grid>
</s:SurfaceWindow>

3. It is designed with multi-touch in mind

The map uses WPF4’s manipulation events for scaling, translation and rotation – providing a consistent familiar experience for Microsoft Surface users. The WPF control supports full rotation and inertia with options to turn both
off. Plus, infinite scroll maps, touch to lat/lon to pixel conversions (think touch to add a pushpin) and the ability to plug into the Bing Maps REST API for geocoding and routing or the Bing API for search.

Want to learn more about the WPF map control? 
Check out the Bing Team Blog, or check out the documentation that is part of the download.

Enjoy! 

Luis Cabrera
Platform Program Manager
Microsoft Surface