Silverlight 4 support coming into the Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 Support

Another factor that is important to Microsoft is to let Silverlight 4 support coming into the Windows Phone 7 platform with the Mango update coming this fall.  (Mangois the upgrade which has been slow in coming is critical to both Microsoft and Nokia who are looking to launch new WP7 phones by Christmas.) Silverlight and XNA melded together, allowing developers in the Mango timeframe to use a combination of the two tools when writing a single app. (The XNA Framework provides game developers with run-time libraries they can include with their product for redistribution on Windows XP and Windows Vista and Windows 7.)

New Beta and Private applications distribution options coming to Windows Phone 7 Mango Marketplace

Microsoft has just announced during the “Making Money with your Application on Windows Phone” MIX11 session (which is currently still underway) that 2 new methods of distributions are going to see the light of the day alongside Mango later this year. As you can see in the slide above developers will be able to submit applications as part of a Beta program (this was announced last year…), privately or publicly which is the only option right now.

Free HTC application allows connection to hidden Wifi networks on its Windows Phone 7 devices

One of the most talked about issue with Windows Phone 7 is its inability to connect to hidden Wifi networks and this has yet to be addressed by Microsoft. Thankfully HTC users should be happy to learn that the company has released a free application called Hidden Wi-Fi that allows the device to connect to 3 different hidden networks manually pre-selected by the user. After manually adding those 3 hidden access point you will be able to connect to them like any other WiFi network. Grab the application here (only for HTC Windows Phone 7 devices).