Good news everyone! Last night at the Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 in Washington, DC, we have released the Beta version of the Windows Phone Developer Tools.  You might remember that our last update prior to this was the April CTP version.  So what does this mean to you developers?

• If you are currently building on the April CTP version, you may want to uninstall that and install the Beta version from http://developer.windowsphone.com/ .  For those who have not downloaded it yet, now’s the good time to install. It’s important to go through the breaking changes listed in the release notes, but you can also check Jaime Rodriguez’ “Migrating apps from Windows Phone April CTP Refresh to the beta build” for easier reading.
• Everyone’s been asking us where they could attend a WP7 training.  Well aside from the Training Kit, forums, and other resources to help you skill up on WP7 development, you can register for these free virtual WP7 Jump Start trainings scheduled from July 20 – July 22.  Click here to register!
• A lot of you also inquired if they can get their own device to test on.  That’s a bit of a challenge right now.  But through the WP7 Call for Proposal which we ran recently, we were able to identify companies who are serious in building WP7 apps, and pick out the ones who will be prioritized for these devices.  We are now engaging with most of them on a 1-to-1 basis.

Take note:

Though the CFP is over, this doesn’t mean that you won’t have access to the device prior to launch!  If you have a cool WP7 app and didn’t make it for the CFP, you can simple send me an email with a snapshot of your app running in the emulator (or better yet the XAP file which resides in your bin/debug or bin/release folder), and we can start loading your app on the real device.  If it’s really good there’s a good chance you can get your own device!

It’s also worth noting that we recently participated in IDA’s Smart Mobility @SG 2010 Forum for the launch of the AMPlify initiative – a manpower funding scheme for mobile developers.  You can check out the press release here and here.  If you want to learn more on how you can avail of this scheme, please contact Mun Yew Loh (IDA).

Last but not the least, stay tuned on this site, follow us in Twitter, and join our Facebook page (check out the right panel) to hear more updates on WP7 trainings, sessions, and an upcoming WP7 contest. 😉

Hope to see your WP7 apps soon!

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