Free resources and SDK-mania!

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What do Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional Edition and Windows Phone 7 Marketplace registration have in common? They both cost money. Money that you, as a student, don’t have to pay!

As a reminder, DreamSpark (https://www.dreamspark.com) is your number one stop when it comes to getting great stuff at no cost. Simply verify your student identity through your school email and you’re all set to get free stuff including Windows Phone 7 Marketplace registration fee waiver. And guess what? After your fee is waived, you are free to monetize on the apps that you publish with no restrictions!

Aside from free stuff that you can get as a student, keep in mind that SDKs for pretty much anything that you want to build are always free!

The Windows Phone SDK gives the complete toolset required to begin developing for Windows Phone 7. In fact, right now you can also get the BETA SDK to test your Mango apps before the official release of Mango. And the best part, the two SDKs can be installed side by side so that you can continue your development with both streams. For those of you who develop games with XNA, keep in mind that XNA Game Studio is included with the SDK package.

The Windows Azure SDK will get your development up in the cloud fast! The SDK includes the tools for Visual Studio, Visual Web Developer 2010 if you choose not to use Visual Studio, ASP.NET MVC, and more. Also included in the package is an emulator that can be used to test your cloud app without actually having to deploy it to the cloud.

WebMatrix

WebMatrix is a neat little tool that is designed to get your web project going minutes after installation. WebMatrix offers complete support for web development from project creation to deployment. You have quick access to the latest version of your favourite web applications including WordPress, Joomla! and DotNetNuke, Once you are ready to deploy your web project, you can do it directly from WebMatrix. To make the publishing process even easier, a hosting gallery is provided to help you find a hosting provider that is guaranteed to run your site smoothly.

And there you have it. Great resources and tools designed to accelerate your development. Oh and, don’t bother pulling out your credit card as they are all free!