UPDATE: FALSE ALARM about batch updates.  Turns out the CRM 2011 OData service doesn’t support batch updates .  I just assumed it did because I’ve written .NET/Silverlight clients against the CRM 2011 OData service using a derived DataServiceContext.  DataServiceContext based contexts...

If you have a need to consume REST Services from .NET Framework based code, then you should really have look at the WCF Rest Starter Kit .  There is a handy class called HttpClient that is, in my opinion, provides the best / cleanest way to consume REST services at the http level.  Essentially...