Mobile Mania

MIX09 may be in March, but we have the details on the conference for you a bit early. Sign up by February 13 and save $400!

Always hosted in Las Vegas, MIX is an annual conference for developers, designers, and enthusiasts who are interested in discussing Microsoft's latest web-oriented products and services. MIX09 will be the fourth chapter of MIX, held from March 18-20 at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. Scott Guthrie, corporate VP of Microsoft's .NET Developer Division, will be making the two hour keynote speech on Wednesday at 9AM. This will be the only keynote at the conference, which is a bit surprising if you take into account that last year's edition had two keynotes and five separate speakers.

Technologies that will be covered include, but are of course not limited to, the following:

• Windows Live
• Windows Azure
• Expression and Visual Studio 2010
• ASP.NET, C#, and so on
• IIS 7.0
• Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
• Silverlight 3
• Internet Explorer 8

Even if you're not interested in any of the above, MIX09 will attract many Microsoft employees from other divisions, not to mention from other companies; it's always a great opportunity to network with employees and employers of some of the world's largest tech businesses. There will also be many pre-event workshops, sessions (not all of them have been posted yet), and mini-sessions (new this year) that should keep you busy. Mini-sessions are 20 minutes long and grouped into blocks of three by topic. Attendees can attend the full block or pick and choose to attend individual ones.

The registration is not yet full at the time of publishing. The conference is still two months away, but the reason I'm posting this now is because of the discount for early registration. Normally registration is $1395 ($295 for the workshops) but if you register by February 13 you can save $400 (use RSVP code MIX09offer). You can also get an Academic Discounted Registration for $595.

If you're not attending, don't worry; we'll keep you updated all the way through MIX09.

2008 marked the end for many a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), most going under in a flood of bankruptcies or getting consumed but their parent networks. It sure seems like no company in its right mind would want to wade back into that graveyard, but Zer01 is thinking differently, pledging to launch a new network within a network next month at CTIA 2009. Its services will be provided by AT&T, but it'll undercut the competition with a combination of a $69.95 monthly unlimited voice and data plan and a complete lack of contracts, as well as unlimited international calling (to 40 countries) for just an extra $10. What's the catch? The company will rely on a VOIP application for routing of all calls, and right now that app only works on Windows Mobile. That'll be a roadblock for many, and given AT&T's somewhat limited (and generally flaky) 3G data coverage we're a little concerned about call quality, but just the same can't wait to see how this one turns out.