A minor update to the Windows Phone 7 Development Tools is available for download.

A new release of the Windows Phone Development Tools is available: Microsoft Download Center

It contains two new tools.

The Windows Phone Capability Detection tool scans your app and discovers what APIs it uses. It then generates a capabilities list to replace the one you supplied. This means that you can't hide the use of restricted facilities within your app and the user is asked to ok their use when running your app. For example if your app uses the microphone then the user has to ok this before the app can function.

The WP Connect utility enables connection between the Phone and a PC without the need for Zune. This allows you to debug apps that make use of the media APIs - media launchers, XNA or Silverlight playback of video or audio.

The Bing Maps control has also been updated so that it works better during gesture interactions.

Further Reading

Windows Phone 7 - using the Pivot control

Visual Basic comes to Windows Phone

Windows Phone 7 - the Bing Maps Control

New Windows Phone Labs

Windows Phone 7 - using the Panorama control

Windows Phone 7 - Snakes on a Phone Part 1

Windows Phone 7 Go Faster resources

Getting started with Windows Phone 7

Free Windows Phone 7 video training from Microsoft

Mobile platforms of the world!

Windows 7 Phone - developer tools in beta