I have a limited number of Windows Phone 7 Marketplace Tokens for free signup on to the Marketplace valued at $150, the perfect gift for Christmas ;)

You can also download the free of charge Windows Phone 7 Developer and Designer tools from http://create.msdn.com, be sure to apply the Windows Phone Developer Tools October 2010 Update and see the links below for a great set of resources and reference materials.

Oh and Believe it, Windows Phone 7 is Real

Windows Phone 7 App Challenge/Competition

Be sure to check out the competition running over at MSDN, some awesome prizes, so there are no excuses and you’ve got to in to win and you can enter as many applications as you like!!

Criteria for a Windows Phone 7 Marketplace Token

1. You must be an Australian based Developer and register under Australia on the Marketplace Portal
2. In good faith you'll sign up on Marketplace when you receive your token and publish an Windows Phone 7 an app (ideally a couple) within the next month or two, hey a fun project for the holiday period :)

Token Request Process

Click this link to email me with your nomination details.  Please include in your email a very brief description of your app, it will be treated in confidence.

If for whatever reason the link does not work for your email client then email as follows:-

• Email: dglover@microsoft.com
• Subject: Windows Phone 7 Marketplace Token Nomination
• Body: Brief summary of your app

Windows Phone 7 Marketplace Registration Process

Head to http://create.msdn.com to register; when you get to the payment section there is an option to use the token.

You can find information on how to sign up on Marketplace at

• Windows Marketplace for Mobile: Registration and Application Submission Walkthroughs
• Windows Phone Developer Account Setup Guide

Some great resources

• Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/dglover
• Twitter: tags #wp7, #wp7au, #wp7dev
• http://indyfromoz.wordpress.com/windows-phone-7-resources
• http://channel9.msdn.com/Tags/wp7
• Windows Phone 7 Development for Absolute Beginners
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/wp7trainingcourse_wp7silverlight_unit.aspx
• http://www.jeffblankenburg.com/post/31-Days-of-Windows-Phone-7.aspx
• Windows Phone Team Blog, Peter Torr, Tim Heuer, Nick Randolph
• Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit (Nov 2010 Update)
• Performance Progress Bar: 
• LowProfileImageLoader

Books

Cheers and Happy Christmas!!  Dave