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Will XNA be available in Windows 8 Metro Apps?

One of the big things I’ve seen flying around Twitter lately is the question of whether or not XNA is being depricated or faded off into the sunset or whatever.  I can understand how if you base your entire career on a single technology this might be scary, but remember that XNA isn’t available in METRO UI apps only, and that’s because Metro UI uses DirectX 11, and the current XNA implementation uses DirectX 9, which is still supported by the standard desktop view.  This means that XNA is still very much alive and well in the Desktop, and I would say thriving.  XNA isn’t going away anytime soon, and here’s why:

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Articles Software

A first look at Codename: Windows 8 OR "Will there be Silverlight in Windows 8?"

Today at D9, Microsoft opened up about Windows 8 with a bang.  Not only does does Microsoft FINALLY have a viable operating system for tablets/slates, but they also announced that the gorgeous new Windows Phone 7/Xbox 360 UI will heavily leverage HTML 5 and Javascript.  This really comes as no surprise since IE9 has hardware acceleration and can push beatuful HTML 5 graphics just like a desktop application.  To coincide with this, Microsoft has also announced that their wildly popular Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC) will now be rebranded to Build.  The new UI looks absolutely gorgeous and I can’t wait to play with it live on a tablet.  Take a look at the video to see it in action: