There’s a bit of good news coming from the ChevronWP7 team, it seems it’s been a while since we have heard much from them. That is besides them actively coding, running Aussie DDD WP7 Mango presentations, releasing fixes for the “Walshie” WP7 forced Nodo tool and twittering away… Well, now they have made a pretty big Windows Phone announcement, completely backed by Microsoft.

This announcement was based on the initial vision which brought the ChevronWP7 team together in the first place. This vision was for a lower-cost alternative method to Developer-unlock your Windows Phone handset, along with the side-loading of Apps, homebrews and other community based initiatives. Unlike the iPhone Dev Team, this service won’t be free. Customers will have to pay a minimal fee via PayPal and then they will have the ability to jailbreak and load homebrew apps on their handsets.

The ChevronWP7 team at their core, came about out of the shared vision of Home-brew and the enthusiast community creating, developing and pushing this new OS platform to its fullest potential, even if not supported by Microsoft. Well, Microsoft has taken the high road with all of this and has embraced their creativity and invited them to a meeting. That is when things got quiet until now.

The announcement on their Blog (pictured below), confirmed a forthcoming initiative from the newly created CHEVRONWP7 LABS team. It would appear that this is going to be the name under which any further WP7 software, tools or general releases from the ChveronWP7 team will be made under. The specific Blog post on their site confirmed a forthcoming low-cost alternative to Developer Unlocking your Windows Phone handset, in-line with their objectives to promote and support the home-brew, developer and enthusiast WP7 communities.

Important enough to mention again, is that this initiative will be fully endorsed up-front by Microsoft.
I have to give a huge amount of credit to the Chevron team (Chris, Long and Rafael), for standing strong behind their initial goal of supporting the WP7 enthusiast community and developers.

Will you pay a fee to jailbreak, knowing you have Microsoft’s permission to do so?
Is Microsoft starting to also see the value of the developer and enthusiast community?
What are your thoughts on all of this? Let us know in the comments below.

source: chevronwp7

HOLY COW! After ChevronWP7 Unlocker released, and the ability to homebrew apps for Windows Phone 7, it was pulled!!! Amazingly enough Microsoft is behind it.  ChevronWP7 is discontinuing the application immediately after engaging in discussions with Microsoft about offically facilitating homebrew development on the platform.  With this said – we might need to get ready for a huge battle. On one side is going to be Microsoft and the other – well thats us, Devs, Chefs, and Geek users all over the world. Who will win?!

Just after releasing the application to allow you to set custom ringtones on your newly unlocked WP7 devices, the team has establish communication with Brandon Watson, Director of Developer Experience for Windows Phone 7. In which he agreed to engage in further discussions. No more details have been given but what is clear as mud is that there is a battle raging between the biggest Titans ever;  Microsoft and Developers who are trying to unleash the fill potential of this new platform! With forces collaborating not only product, but the whole idea of it all we should see a great deal of gain for the entire community, developers, users, and even Microsoft!

What are your thoughts on this?!?  Is it OK for Microsoft to step in and shut down this amazing tool?  Or do you think that Microsoft has a right to tell us how to use the devices?  It seems to me that Microsoft is learning their tactics from Apple; and which seems to try to keep people from “breaking free of the hold of big brother”.  Stay tuned here to PPCGeeks to get the latest news on this, as for me I am very interested in seeing where this is all going to end up.  Remember Microsoft said they would develop for the users that are going to use their devices, so lets see how fast Microsoft is willing to change their game plans, and roll them updates out!

Source: pocketnow.com via chevronwp7.com