I saw the story at Visual Studio 2008 adds mobile application features that summarised the new features in Visual Studio 2008 for mobile application developers and realised that developing for the small platform is getting easier and easier.  I plan to see a master at work in a couple of weeks on using the .Net Micro framework, which is even smaller, but the stuff you can produce with the stuff for mobile is amazingly flexible.  Eric has an update on training available for Visual Studio 2008 which includes the Compact Framework stuff at Visual Studio 2008 Training Kit updated for RTM

Visual Studio 2008 adds mobile application features

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Microsoft says, "developers will be able to build a mobile device client application that works [even] in a partially connected environment. The application will be able to send and receive data from a server, even if the device disconnects or roams."
New features for developers, summarized previously by a post on the Windows Mobile Team Blog, include:

• Automated functional testing of managed code
• An enhanced device emulator (version 3.0) that permits simulation of real-world changes in device state, such as signal dropoff or battery running dead
• NET Compact Framework 3.5, introducing new features such as LINQ and as an implementation of the Windows Communication Foundation enabling device to device and device to server communication over the Exchange Activesync transport
• The ability to build SQL Server 3.5 Compact Edition applications using the Visual Studio 2008 designer experience

Mobile developers need to use Visual Studio 2008 above to build Windows Mobile applications, according to the blog post. Those who already have the Windows Mobile 6 SDK or SDK Refresh installed will need to reinstall it after they're done with installing Visual Studio 2008.
Visual Studio 2008 supports the following platforms:

• .NET Compact Framework 3.5
• .NET Compact Framework 2.0
• .NET Compact Framework 1.0 (projects will be upgraded to 2.0)
• Windows Mobile 6 (by installing the Windows Mobile 6 SDK Refresh)
• Windows Mobile 5.0
• Pocket PC 2003 (managed and native code)
• Smartphone 2003 (native code only)
• Windows CE 6.0
• Windows CE 5.0

<snipped - more at Visual Studio 2008 adds mobile application features>

ttfn

David