ChevronWP7

ChevronWP7 Labs Availability

Hey folks, we want to brief you on an important milestone we’ve reached.

Early this morning, we officially signed off on the final deployment of ChevronWP7 Labs. This marks the point in the development process where we leave the keys in the ignition and bail. Just kidding. Seriously though, we are very happy to announce the immediate availability of ChevronWP7 Labs.

First, let’s recap: ChevronWP7 Labs was designed to allow hobbyist developers to install, run, and debug unsigned applications on their personal Windows Phone. You log into the site with your Windows Live ID, pay a small fee, and presto — you’re ready to write and share some homebrew code.

 We’re also happy to announce we have about 30  “I Heart Windows Phone Homebrew” shirts to give away, ranging in size from M to XL. In two weeks, we’ll draw and notify 30 registered ChevronWP7 Labs users at random.

For you shirt connaisseurs out there, these are Gildan pre-shrunk 100% cotton shirts sponsored by the awesome folks at ooShirts. If you need some shirts for a Windows Phone bowling league or just some friends at school — they have you covered. Even better, here’s a secret coupon code “ighokqq” to get free shipping regardless of how heavy the box is. (So take advantage.)

On the homebrew application front, we’ve already spotted a number of interesting apps:

• Screen Capture v3  - Take screenshots from your Windows Phone 7 to share a funny SMS or illustrate an app on a blog post
• Webserver (Mango) - Why wouldn’t you run a web server on your phone? (be sure to download the “no-interop” version)
• Folders for Windows Phone Mango - Organize apps and settings into folders on the Start screen
• Mango Battery Status - Check your phone’s battery stat in a Live Tile and graph your battery usage

So what are you waiting for? :D

- Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh, Long Zheng

Update: We’re tracking two issues with the unlock client and hope to have them resolved shortly. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Update 2 (5/11 4:16AM UTC): We’ve since had lots of reports of successful unlocks. The service is slowly recovering back to normal. We hope everyone is patient when trying again.

Update 3 (5/11 7:47AM UTC): We have taken the payment action offline until we resolve some service issues. We have also edited the homebrew application list, as we mistakenly posted applications that require interop access.