This week's toolkit provides the means to simplify the development of Windows Phone 7 and Windows Azure projects.

Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7

The Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7 is designed to make it easier for you to build mobile applications that leverage cloud services running in Windows Azure. The toolkit includes Visual Studio project templates for Windows Phone 7 and Windows Azure, class libraries optimized for use on the phone, sample applications, and documentation. ...

Honestly I could not do the justice in writing this up that Mariano Converti did in his Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7 released! post or Wade Wegner did in his Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7 & Getting Started with the Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7 posts.

Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7

"... The toolkit contains the following pieces: Binaries – These are libraries we’ve written that you can use in your Windows Phone 7 applications to make it easier to work with Windows Azure (e.g. a full storage client library for blobs and tables). You can literally add these libraries to your existing Windows Phone 7 applications and immediate start leveraging services such as Windows Azure storage.

– These are libraries we’ve written that you can use in your Windows Phone 7 applications to make it easier to work with Windows Azure (e.g. a full storage client library for blobs and tables). You can literally add these libraries to your existing Windows Phone 7 applications and immediate start leveraging services such as Windows Azure storage. Docs – We’ve provided documentation that covers setup and configuration, a review of the toolkit content, getting started, and some troubleshooting tips.

– We’ve provided documentation that covers setup and configuration, a review of the toolkit content, getting started, and some troubleshooting tips. Dependency Checker – As you’ve come to expect and love, we provide a full dependency checker to ensure that you have all the bits required in order to successfully use the toolkit.

– As you’ve come to expect and love, we provide a full dependency checker to ensure that you have all the bits required in order to successfully use the toolkit. Project Templates – We have built VSIX (which is the unit of deployment for a Visual Studio 2010 Extension) files that create project templates that make it easy for you to build brand new applications.

– We have built VSIX (which is the unit of deployment for a Visual Studio 2010 Extension) files that create project templates that make it easy for you to build brand new applications. Samples – We have a sample application that fully leverages the toolkit, both available in C# and VB.NET. The sample application is also built into one of the two project templates created by the toolkit. ...

Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7 released!

Mariano and Wade both do a great job in walking you through using this toolkit, from download to using it in your projects.

This toolkit is not just a one-off either, as a couple weeks ago, v1.1 was released

Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7 v1.1.0

v1.1.0.0 - 4/12/2011 Push Notification support (i.e. raw, tile, and toast)

Push Notification message generation via web application

Store identity token in isolated storage (also including logout functionality)

New users automatically have access to blobs and tables

Bug fixes

...

Mixing Windows Phone 7 and Windows Azure seems like a pretty logical thing and this toolkit makes that much easier...

Here’s a few more links you might find interesting: