Windows Phone 7 Unleashed Hackathon
Via Chris G. Williams comes the word of an upcoming Windows Phone 7 hackathon in Atlanta, Georgia. Quotes the Chris:
This is a "hands on" hackathon where you will learn from Windows Phone 7, XNA and Azure experts how to build, scale and publish your Windows Phone 7 app or game. If you are just a beginner, or already have apps in the Marketplace this event will should not be missed. BYO Laptop!
RSVP early, space is limited to 300 attendees: http://bit.ly/RegWP7Hackathon [Ed.: The unshortened URL for the event details is here]
(YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A TECHED ATTENDEE TO COME TO THIS!)
Posting a Clingerman to Stay Relevant
Due to the lack of updates recently we’re going to do an XNA Notes inspired round up on this very Monday, and we also like to post a photo of the original author of the XNA Notes to shout yet another Vote for George!
With that out of the way here are the nominations for next Friday’s XNA Notes (in no particular order):
Jim “Still Not Evil” Perry shares an updated XNA 4.0 for Windows version of the Game State Manager sample.
Nick “MVP” Gravelyn breaks the word about a “solid way to handle trial [Ed.: not trail, as initially stated] mode on the Windows Phone 7” written by Dean Johnson.
There’s a new Ad SDK for XNA on Windows Phone 7 in town, seeking help for a very closed beta.
And last but not least, Jason Swearingen still participates in the #AltDevBlogADay, this time covering Spatial Partitioning. Part 1: Survey of spatial partitioning solutions.
A closing paragraph with the sole reason to have the text flow below the photo and bear no real content. The same can be said about this link to The ZBuffer. However, this The cake is a lie does have a meaning…
Screen-space deformations in XNA for Windows Phone 7
Captain ZSquare shares his technique to do screen-space deformations on Windows Phone 7. Introduces Catalin:
Working on our games, we came across the need to do some screen-space deformations for all sorts of special effects like explosions, ‘drunk filter’, warp effects and other similar stuff. But since we’re targeting Windows Phone 7, we don’t have access to any custom shaders (which is a bummer), so we had to be creative. In the end, the solution turned out to be rather simple, and the performance is good enough (if you don’t go overboard with the effects, of course).
See the post for screen shoots and code!
Lets see if Captain ZSquare reposts this one with a screen shoot, too 
A Petition And a Port
There is a petition open for signature to convince Microsoft to open the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace to all countries (or in which phones are available at least).
The other thing is a fund raiser to release ExEn: XNA for iPhone [Ed.: iOS?], Android and Silverlight under the Ms-PL and add Android support.
Welcome to the App Hub
In a surprising turn of events, the XNA creators website goes down. Never to be the same again.
Microsoft have launched the App Hub, which is for both XNA Indie Games on the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7.
An interesting twist in the tail is that if you already have a XNA Subscription, you are now a Windows Phone developer also.
You can submit to both areas with the same single account. How amazing is that?
Enough rambling, go check it out http://create.msdn.com/en-US/
Bob Taco Ind back to WP7 loving
After having a rough day in his relationship with Windows Phone 7, Bob Taco Ind (Michael B. McLaughlin) is back in business, with two short tutorials related to programming for the upcoming device. First, he shows you how to pin your game to the start screen, followed by one option of properly exiting a Silverlight-based game on WP7.
Post Scriptum thoughts for my colleague Cpt. Boki after realizing I'm kinda stalking Michael's blog... Where did the MVP Watch thingy go?
How to get your Windows Phone 7 Dev Device
Windows Phone 7 Device Requests: Well, not exactly how but how to increase your chances on being considered at all.
It’s Official, XNA & WP7 are set to get it on!!
Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for.
Over the past few weeks I'm sure you've all heard about the "leak" of documentation that was supposedly showing the use of XNA and Silverlight for Windows Phone 7.
Well now, it's official!!
Windows Phone 7 WILL support XNA and not only that it will also support the use of Silverlight for Apps & Games.
Our favourite Mr Klucher posts his snippet http://klucher.com/blog/gaming-development-for-the-go/
And the The Special One finally prevents himself from imploding by spilling some beans here http://twitter.com/shawnhargreaves/status/10014398597
There's still very little details on what exactly will be available to us.
Will we have avatars? will he even have 3D or will it be the same mediocre support that we have for the Zune HD. Will it even matter? Will there be a marketplace for you to develop for ? All that should be revealed at MIX and beyond but for now, get writing some Windows Phone 7 games. You can bet a $ anything that works on Zune HD will require very little changes to work on WP7.
Silverlight is also very interesting, knocking up high quality applications will be a breeze.
Stay tuned for more details as they come in... Exciting times ahead.
[EDIT : Added link source] : http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/04/microsoft-talks-windows-phone-7-series-development-ahead-of-gdc/