As requested by master Frank Arrigo, here we are sitting in Bloggers’ Lunch at Microsoft TechEd Australia 2007, blogging about Bloggers’ Lunch – a discussion over lunch about Web 2.0 (and even blogging).

The lunch, including a salad in a smoothie cup, came in a picnic-style box.

The panel of ‘experts’ each providing their own unique perspective on the subjects.

(Proud) Frank Arrigo, responsible for moderating the discussion.

Philip Sim – CEO of Media Connect, Australian PR company. His blog is “Squash“.

Darren Niemke, from Readify. Blogs at “MarkItUp“.

Des Walsh, business coach working from home. Blogs at “deswalsh.com“.

Jane O’Connell, products and strategy at NineMSN, mainstream media. Does not blog.

Michael Platt, director of web application architecture at Microsoft. Blogs at “michaelplatt.net“.

Nick Hodge has an in-depth summary of what was discussed at the lunch. Including value of blogging, information overflow and management, censorship, journalism, Web 2.0 and privacy.

Last night, TechEd Australia officially started with a welcome party for the delegates at the exhibition hall. It was a balanced diet of shouting, screaming, bull riding, drinking, food and freebies.

Welcome board with the names of most TechEd attendees.

A (free) drinks dispenser running SQL Server. Great uptime and efficiency!

People can’t wait to get the booze information on the latest products.

There was an ambigious connection between “Longhorn” and bull riding, but why not?

Silverlight and Popfly merchandise. I find it weird you even have to pay to be a walking billboard for Microsoft.

I swear, people were surfing MySpace and Facebook on these computers. They paid money to do this?

Booths and banners from inside the exhibition hall.

The awesome Polycom CX700 IP Phone. Like an iPhone, for the desk.

The day ended with a Halo 3 hoodie! Score!

Minutes ago, Palm has officially announced the availability of the free Windows Mobile 6 Professional edition upgrade, as speculated, to Treo 750 for customers “in Australia”.

Customers on the “3” network will be able to upgrade from mid-August, and other carriers to follow in early September. No word for international customers. Press release as follows,

MEDIA ALERT: Palm Announces Availability of Windows Mobile 6 for Treo 750 Smartphone in Australia

GOLD COAST, Australia, Microsoft Tech Ed 2007 Australia, Aug. 8, 2007 — Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) today announced the upcoming availability of the Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition operating system update for Palm(r) Treo(tm) 750 smartphone customers in Australia.

“Building upon the successful launch of the Treo 750 in Australia earlier this year, Palm is pleased to introduce the new Windows Mobile 6 update to the Treo 750 smartphone,” said Olivier Rozay, Palm’s country manager for Australia and New Zealand. “The hallmark Palm experience combined with the Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition on the award-winning Treo 750 delivers a compelling mobile experience to customers.”

Hutchison 3 customers in Australia can download the free update from mid-August from Palm’s Australian website (www.palm.com/au). Other customers will be able to download the update from early September.

The Treo 750 is a 3G/HSDPA (High-speed Downlink Packet Access) five-band world phone that combines a phone with email, messaging, web browsing and organisation software.(1)

Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6 brings a powerful computing experience to the small screen, improving how people do business on the go on a single device. Windows Mobile 6 delivers an experience that’s easy for people to use, and simple and cost-effective for businesses to deploy.

For more information on the Palm Treo 750 smartphone is available at http://www.palm.com/au/products/smartphones/treo750/.

I quickly rushed down to the Palm booth in the TechEd exhibition area to grab some quick device demo photos.

The ‘welcome screen’ on the demo Treo 750 WM6 phone.

The release version firmware appears to be “CE OS 5.2.1239 (Build 17746.0.2.4)”.

At the annual SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group for Computer GRAPHics) conference – more exciting than it sounds, Microsoft presented a lecture on the new Direct3D graphics platform and even newer Direct3D 10.1 framework. The whole course has been subsequently published to Microsoft Downloads. Here is their Powerpoint presentation for a quick summary.

Direct3D 10.1 looks to be quite a significant release for DirectX. Some of the interesting points to note:

• Will require Windows Vista SP1
• Not “supported” by current-generation DX10 hardware
• “Extension” to Direct3D 10 – “complete” D3D10
• 5 new API
• Improves rendering quality
• Enforces floating point 32 rendering
• Enforces 4x multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA)

For argument’s sake, Direct3D 10.1 didn’t come out of the blue. Microsoft had always planned for a 10.1 update when they released version 10. However that is no excuse as to why is it not compatible with DX10 hardware? People who have to dish out hundreds of premium dollars to buy DirectX-10 hardware today will be outdated in less than 6 months.

Rumor is, if you rip them apart, you will find a USB key with Service Pack 1. No I’m kidding, just a $25 teddy.

Scott Adams knows this Microsoft thing inside out. Thanks to Bernard Oh for the tip.