14 DAY TRIAL // Following the worldwide launch of Windows Phone 7 at the start of this month, Microsoft has also updated the set of tools offered to developers to build applications for the latest iteration of the Windows mobile platform. Windows Phone Developer Tools October 2010 Update went live on the Microsoft Download Center on October 21st, 2010, the same day that the first Windows Phone 7 devices hit select markets in Europe and Asia Pacific.
The Windows Phone Developer Tools refresh is designed to kick up a notch the initial release of the solution.
In this sense, devs will need to be running the RTM (released to manufacturing) version of the Windows Phone Developer Tools in order to deploy the October 2010 update.
According to the Redmond company there are two new utilities in the Windows Phone Developer Tools October 2010 Update.
“The Windows Phone Developer Tools October 2010 Update includes:
•Windows Phone Capability Detection Tool – Detects the phone capabilities used by your application. When you submit your application to Windows Phone Marketplace, Microsoft performs a code analysis to detect the phone capabilities required by your application and then replaces the list of capabilities in the application manifest with the result of this detection process.
This tool performs the same detection process and allows you to test your application using the same list of phone capabilities generated during the certification process.
•Windows Phone Connect Tool – Allows you to connect your phone to a PC when Zune software is not running and debug applications that use media APIs.”
At the same time, the refresh is designed to resolve some performance issues that survived past the RTM milestone.
The Bing Maps Silverlight Control included with the tools has been refreshed. The move was necessary as the company wanted to improve the gesture performance associated with the Bing Maps Silverlight Control.
The Windows Phone Developer Tools are available for download from Softpedia via this link.