14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is calling out to student developers that want to get a chance at winning the Windows Phone 7 "Rockstar" Award. The Redmond company has only recently shared the details related to Windows Phone 7 development with participants at MIX10, and made available for download the dev tools necessary to get new applications built for the upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series devices, which are scheduled to drop ahead of the 2010 holiday season. In addition, the software giant has now added the new Windows Phone 7 “Rockstar” Award to its Imagine Cup 2010 student competition.
“The contest will require students or student teams to build applications written in Silverlight or XNA for Windows Phone 7 Series, using the tools that have been made available. We’re encouraging our participants to think about the following criteria as they build their apps: appealing ‘look and feel’ (like the User Experience of the Windows Phone 7 shell itself), originality of the application (we’re looking for apps that people may not have seen before), the ‘consumer appeal’ that this app might possess, and/or leveraging phone specific functionality (like Accelerometer, Location etc.),” Anand Iyer, Microsoft evangelist, revealed.
The first step toward becoming a Windows Phone 7 “Rockstar” is, of course, to download the actual development tools and start building apps. According to Microsoft, there isn’t a great deal of time available to students. They will only have until May 24, 2010 to wrap up their application. Subsequently, the teams of students will need to register in the Imagine Cup 2010 competition and submit their apps.
“Of the applications submitted, there will be three winning teams. Winners will be announced on June 1, 2010 on the Imagine Cup 2010 website. First place winner – Each team member (up to 4 members) of the top overall winning team is invited to Poland. The winning team will be awarded USD8000. And each member of the winning team will be awarded a new Windows Phone. Second place winner – The runner up team will be awarded USD4000. Each member of the winning team will also be awarded a new Windows Phone. Third place winner– The second runner up team will be awarded USD3000. Each member of the winning team will also be awarded a new Windows Phone,” Iyer added.
Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP are available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Premium Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Professional Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.