BostonPocketPC

Well, it’s a bit later than expected, but it’s well worth the wait. Microsoft announced at the Worldwide Partners Conference on Monday the availability of the Beta (that’s right – beta) of the Windows Phone 7 SDK and Tools for developers.

Among the highlights -

• In addition to the inclusion of Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone Developers, the beta is compatible with the RTM version of Visual Studio 2010 (no more VS 2010 RC for me).
• The tools also include a beta version of Microsoft Expression Blend for Windows Phone. This version will install side-by-side with Microsoft Expression Blend 4 (another long-awaited install for yours truly).
• Very important to note – this release of the SDK includes a number of potentially breaking changes for previous users of the CTP version of the SDK. Fortunately, both the release notes included with the beta SDK and this blog post from Jaime Rodriguez walk through the required changes to CTP-based applications.

Rather than walk through all the highlights, the best advice I can give is to visit the Windows Phone Developer blog for all the details. You can also download the tools beta from the Windows Phone Developer homepage.

In a related note, Microsoft has also released an updated version of the Windows Phone Training Kit. The kit has been updated to include labs covering newly exposed features, including the Launcher and Chooser APIs for performing common tasks, as well as handling “tombstoning”, the OS process involved with terminating (but maintaining state) in your application when a launcher or chooser is used. There are also lots of other little enhancements included, many of which are detailed in this post on the Windows Phone Developer blog. You can also download the training kit from this post or the Windows Phone Developer website.

Happy coding!