Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2012 team has a purple fetish. At their launch event today in Seattle, they showed off the vibrant color loud and proud. If you’re planning to host a purple-themed party in the future, here’s some inspiration.

Purple carpet

Purple signage

Purple hallways and lighting

Purple flowers

Purple donuts

Purple presentation stage, purple chairs

Purple slide-deck

Purple (melted) ice cream, blueberry flavor

Purple martini

Purple tablecloth

Purple cupcakes

At the purple-everything Visual Studio 2012 launch event on Seattle’s waterfront today, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Developer division Soma Somasegar announced the first update to the Visual Studio 2012 development suite coming before the end of the year.

In an interview with Jason Zander, CVP of Visual Studio, I learned a bit more about what’s in the update and the CTP preview coming at the end of this month.

First and foremost, the update will bring forth a range of post-RTM bugfixes from the long backlog of changes and requests the team has been compiling and actioning from internal and external feedback from emails, UserVoice and Microsoft Connect.

To help Windows Store app developers, there will be improvements to memory profiling tools. This will be aimed to make it easier for developers of “Windows Store apps/WinRT apps” better analyze memory problems and hopefully manage leaks. This will be quite an important tool since Windows Store apps can have a long memory lifecycle with the suspend/resume state.

To improve compatibility, the update will also improve targeting to current and upcoming platforms like Windows Phone 8 and browsers which has since changed since Visual Studio 2012 went “gold” a couple of months ago.

Last but not least, the UI critics (myself included) might also welcome some minor user interface changes. It won’t be any major revamps of the UI though. Expect only subtle things like adding color to more icons that didn’t make the RTM release.

The Community Technology Preview to be released later this month will be “as close to done as possible” to make the feedback loop practical. The update will be available to Visual Studio 2012 Professional and above.

For Express users, there may be updates where applicable but there may be different update cycles for targeted environments such as Windows Phone which will align with their SDK availability, or unavailability.

At a waterfront convention centre in Seattle today, the Microsoft developer group made a big splash officially launching the Visual Studio 2012 suite of tools and services to help developers build the next generation range of apps for new connected devices.

The Windows Phone 8 team also made some announcements today, but not from this event. Of course not. That would make too much sense.

The announcements strategy surrounding Windows Phone 8 to date has been bizarre to say the least. For consumers, it’s been making big splashes whilst leaving big question marks. No release dates, no pricing information, and no preorders.

It’s almost a shame Nokia left such a positive impression on a lot of people with the Lumia 920 last week, but not provide any ways for users to act on their immediate urge, an urge that will cost a lot more time and money to recreate.

But probably more importantly in the mobile app-centric ecosystem we live in today, developers are also left out in the dark, with much frustration. “Is this some sort of cruel joke? If so, it’s not funny. Really.” writes one commenter on the Windows Phone Developer blog today.

Since the first unveiling of Windows Phone 8 three months ago, the only taste developers have been able to sample is from the leaked SDK. And Microsoft is setting up for the same to happen again.

Announced today on the Windows Phone Developer Blog is a week-long open invitation for private (and confidential) access to a Windows Phone 8 SDK Preview. The strategy is confusing is not contradictory.

For example, Microsoft wants to keep the access limited because they want to prevent the new features (which are included in the SDK tools) from being revealed. At the same time, they state “we expect the majority of published developers in this situation to qualify for access” which would imply the doors are wide open. Seriously, they don’t expect this to leak, again?

Even Apple, renowned for their secrecy, operates with the strategy to announce features and the SDK at the same time, ahead of a product’s retail availability. This strategy has so far proven to be largely a success with a plethora of new and updated applications for new platforms.

In contrast, the iPhone 5 shipping next week (a week after announcement) will have iOS 6 apps developers have been preparing since June (when WP8 was announced).

Understandably Microsoft has the right to maintain a shroud of secrecy around Windows Phone 8 until when it’s finally ready for retail. Having said that, the sweet tastes left by the teaser announcements are slowly turning sour. It looks like the rumor the development team is struggling to finish Windows Phone 8 client features and the developer platform on-time is true.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team are teaming up with Skybound’s “Thief of Thieves” comic book series for an online game promotion to create a virtual character, train as a thief and “pull off the virtual heist” with Internet Explorer 10 and Windows 8.

According to Wikipedia, the plot of the comic book circles around “Conrad Paulson, a highly-successful thief who quits the business and begins a new life stealing from other thieves”.

From the illustrations on the teaser page, the game appears to feature a graphic-style inspired by comic books and contain interactive puzzle-based elements which may employ multi-touch HTML5 & Canvas functionality which is supported by both Internet Explorer 10 and Windows 8.

Internet Explorer is known to run several interactive and game campaigns throughout the year to promote the browser and this game, “coming Fall 2012” could tie-in with the general availability of Windows 8 next month on October 26. Keep an eye out.

Australian developers, start your Windows 8 app engines.

Attendees of the Microsoft TechEd Australia 2012 conference over the next couple of days will have the opportunity to win one of 50 Windows RT tablets for submitting three Windows 8 apps to the Windows Store by October 1.

The $50,000 AUD contest (50 x Windows RT tablet each worth $1,000) starts today on September 10 and closes three weeks later on October 1. During this time, the developer must create an Australian Windows Store account, submit three Windows 8 applications, complete a virtual lab session and email Microsoft Australia with their apps.

The first 50 developers who successfully publish three or more new apps will win the Windows RT tablet, to be delivered by 30 November 2012. There is a buffer until October 26 for certification and publishing in the Windows Store.

Although Microsoft Australia isn’t saying which particular device it will be, there’s a good chance it will be the Microsoft Surface. Having said that, the $1,000 value is interesting but it could be considered “up to”.

Interested Australian developers can find out more about the challenge and sign up on the TechEd Australia App Fest page.

The island state of Tasmania is no longer part of the Commonwealth of Australia suggests a world map published on the Microsoft Kinect for Windows blog overnight. (Thanks to a tip from my friend Rory)

Microsoft’s map graphics, which are known to be highly accurate, highlights that while the Kinect for Windows hardware is currently available in mainland Australia, it is neither available in Tasmania or coming soon.

Admittedly there is a minute chance this is a clerical oversight, the more practical explanation for this is that the state has successfully seceded from the country and now joins a list of smaller markets that Microsoft do not currently serve.

While this is a minor setback for the software developers in the population of 507,626 (2010) who I’m sure were eagerly awaiting to start developing Kinect for Windows apps, this event is the realisation of an ongoing debate in Tasmania to secede from the Federation since the 1930’s.

From the mainland, we wish our newly formed country beneath the best of luck.

Coming up next: how the disappearance of Hawaii affects your holiday plans.

Update: Microsoft has since corrected the map to include both Tasmania and Hawaii.