Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools beta released by Microsoft

Microsoft has released Windows Phone 7 beta developer tools. The Beta release represents the near final version of the tools for building applications and games for Windows Phone 7.

What’s New in Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta? Here’s a link to the release notes for the beta. Microsoft talked about a few top level items:
+ Microsoft Expression Blend for Windows Phone – Blend is now integrated completely into the Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta.
+ Developer Registration Utility – Now you can unlock you Windows Phone 7 device for development purposes.
+ XAP Deployment Tool – if you want to deploy XAP files directly to an unlocked device, now you can.
+ The Windows Phone 7 API – we’re getting close to completion. Many namespaces that were previously distributed over several different DLLs have now been consolidated into one. In addition, there have been realignments and changes in several other namespaces as well. Push Notifications, Accelerometer and App Bar APIs have all been updated.
+ Additional Controls – There are some additional controls coming in the next few weeks (i.e. Panorama and Pivot) which didn’t make the beta release. They are coming soon.
+ Control Templates – Silverlight for Windows Phone control templates have been updated to match evolutions in the overall OS.