This blog post shall serve as my semi-official request to receive a Windows Phone 7 development device from Microsoft. So, why should I receive one of these devices? The reasons are quite simple.
First of all, I have a passion for mobile development. I have developed applications for Windows Mobile 5/6/6.5.3 both as part of my day job, and as a hobby. In fact, one of the latter projects is on CodePlex. That particular project is not quite portable to WP7 for obvious reasons, but I do have various ideas for new projects, as well as a new project I'm currently working on (that I'm not prepared to discuss on a public blog just yet).
Second, I have already invested time (and money) into researching and developing for WP7. I attended MIX10 for the purpose of learning first-hand about the WP7 development story. I have also almost-successfully ported the Bouncy Castle C# cryptography library to WP7 - see this discussion for details and the download.
And finally, I believe that I can improve the Windows Phone 7 end-user experience by creating useful applications for said users to download and enjoy on their brand-new devices.
Please contact me on Twitter or via email at my first name (listed below) -at- IndyALT.NET -- by the way, I'm currently the VP of this user group.
EDIT: Here's a (p)review of my first WP7 app, ArkWords. It's not the "new project" mentioned above, but it's something I decided to make, well, just because.
Thanks a lot,
Sasha