CNet Gets Inside Access To MS For WP7 Dev: New Apps Revealed, Twitter App Hurting

CNet was given access to more war rooms and interviews regarding Windows Phone 7 and have some interesting new details that are here. Here are some quotes to highlight the highs and lows of WP7 from a developer perspective:

• For the top handful of "must-have" apps, Microsoft has been pulling out all the stops, offering technical and marketing help, guaranteeing prime real estate in Microsoft’s online store, and dangling other financial incentives including–according to sources–significant cash payments for the most coveted applications and sales guarantees for a number of others.
• A wider group of apps–several hundred–have been slated to be part of an initiative known as "showcase," which will guarantee them a good spot in the phone’s built-in app store, known as the Marketplace.
• Beyond the must-have and showcase apps there’s Microsoft’s long-term push, dubbed Selah. The effort aims to tap Microsoft’s massive, globally dispersed team of developer evangelists to woo thousands of top apps to Microsoft’s mobile platform by the end of next year.
• But, some developers say Microsoft’s hubs–its most exclusive neighborhoods–are still too difficult to get into. Twitter is a case in point. In order to build the proverbial power-user experience, it needs deep access to areas like the contact list, the people hub, and pictures galleries. But for this first version, Twitter won’t have that. The result, combined with the lack of copy or paste, is that the Twitter app for Windows Phone 7, while unique and pretty, won’t allow for important basics like being able to tweet a photo from one’s library or even send a link from the Web browser.
• In all, Kindel says Microsoft now has 300 to 400 people working on the tools and resources developers need to write programs for Windows Phone.
• Microsoft has also taken steps to get its workforce to stop carrying iPhones and get behind the company’s Windows Phone push. It stopped reimbursing for non-Windows mobile devices some time ago and has pledged to give every full-time employee his or her own Windows Phone 7 device. Further, the company worked with its lawyers to come up with a tweak to Microsoft’s employment terms to allow employees to profit from any Windows Phone applications they develop–a move the company hopes will help spur some programs from unexpected corners of the company.
• By contrast, Microsoft has tried to help shepherd developers through the process of getting their programs cleared for sale in the Marketplace–the on-phone app store which serves as the only means of distributing Windows Phone programs.
• "The iPhone experience is a bunch of cul-de-sacs," Kindel said. "We’re a neighborhood…Because we have this panorama and it’s a large landscape. You can actually move around the neighborhood and eventually get to the house you want to."

OK so there are the new app details:

1. Seymour is a personal concierge or personal assistant app

2. Motolingo gets the data from your car into your phone so you can record car data. It also reminds you of the dangers of using the app while driving.

3. Soundtrckr- Stream & share 7 million+ songs, play stations with friends in real time, chat for free, and find music in your city

And let’s cap it off with a preview of the Twitter client even though we now know it will be neutered: