Photo Gallery: Windows Phone 7's Third-Party Apps

LAS VEGAS -- Microsoft on Monday showed off the first range of third-party apps for Windows Phone 7 and demonstrated how easy it is to write applications for its new phone platform, including writing two apps in 10 minutes each.
A range of big-name developers will be on board for the first apps, including game developers Electronic Arts and Glu Mobile, social networkers Seesmic and Foursquare, the AP, Pandora, Sling Media, and SPB Software.

The user interfaces of Windows Phone 7 apps tend to be similar, with a lot of big text to tap on, white writing on black backgrounds, and a touch "icon bar" along the bottom with small icons enclosed in circles.
Apps plug into various places on the new Windows Phone 7 platform. Photo editing apps can be accessed right from the photo viewer. Games connect to Xbox Live. Video apps such as Netflix are accessible right from the Music (aka Zune) menu.
During a presentation at the MIX conference here, Microsoft demonstrated many of these new apps. To check out the full array, see our in-depth photo gallery above.
Most third-party apps will be written with Microsoft's Silverlight platform, it seems.
Windows Phone 7's developer tools, including Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express, a Windows Phone 7 Series plug-in for Visual Studio 2010 RC, Microsoft Expression Blend 4.0 Preview, XNA Game Studio 4.0, and a Windows Phone 7 emulator, will be available for free today to everyone at live.visitmix.com.