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You heard right -- Skype just went from "nowhere near" Windows Phone 7, to "on the roadmap," to "definitely coming this fall." That last tidbit is courtesy of Microsoft's own Joe Belfiore, stating that "Skype will be coming to the Windows Phone 7 platform this fall" while speaking live at MIX 11. We hesitate to act surprised, but given the prior reports that it may be a pipe dream, we're most certainly breathing a bit easier hearing this. Now, if only a WP7 phone would ship with a legitimate front-facing camera...

We were wandering about here at MIX 11 -- Microsoft's annual web developer event -- when we stumbled upon these lovely people at this tiny Nokia stand peddling several Symbian phones. Judging from the smiles, we're pretty sure they're stoked about the recent Microsoft partnership announcement -- just don't bring up the lack of actual Windows Phone devices. Thomas:  "When you squint, it looks just like Windows Mobile 6." Sean Hollister:  "Ballmer told us developers were important, so we came to see what they looked like." Myriam:  "We don't have any Windows Phone hardware, but we look pretty! Now, about that E7 review..." Vlad:  "And here's our all-new, environmentally friendly roadmap. It's made of 100 percent recycled materials." Darren:  "What, you didn't know? Elop's still on the payroll." Chris Trout:  "Sure we'll pose for a picture, but then you have to tell us where the penny slo...

Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope -- a collaboration with NASA that explores high-resolution photos and 3D renders of the cosmos -- was already pretty cool, but Redmond upped the ante to incredible with the addition of a Kinect depth camera at MIX 11. Using a piece of software created with the company's upcoming Kinect SDK for Windows, Microsoft gave us a virtual tour of Earth and the surrounding stars, guided by a deep-voiced narrator holding the whole world in his hands. Of course, you'd already know that if you watched the video above, so what are you waiting for? Oh, and we've got more MIX video on the way, so stay tuned. Myriam Joire contributed to this report.

Microsoft delivered a big batch of mobile happiness at its annual MIX developers' conference this morn, promising a host of major features including multitasking, background audio, push notifications and raw sensor data (not to mention over 1500 new APIs) in the next version of Windows Phone. Of course, it's one thing to tell you how pumped attending developers might be to bite into a nice juicy mango next month and another to see for yourself, so feast your eyes on the best of Windows Phone Next in the video above. Not bad, eh? Sean Hollister contributed to this report.