One is Associated Press Mobile, a news reader for the AP Web site. The demonstration showed the application behaving like any other WP7 program. It shows top news stories, associated with photos, with options to share and comment. A "breaking news" popup at the bottom of the screen indicated the notifications capability of the redesigned operating system: depending on the application, users can configure a range of notifications, which are sent whether the phone is on or not.

Microsoft officials stressed the role Silverlight 4 will play on WP7 devices. Working with a group of handset makers, Microsoft created a hardware specification for WP7 phones. That includes the graphics horsepower, which Silverlight exploits, to create smooth, fluid UI features, without any compromise.

"This is full Silverlight," said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president, Microsoft's developer division. "It's the same code, the same tools, and the same programming model on the phone."

Coupled with Bing Maps, Silverlight can be used to embed interactive maps associated with a link in a tweet, for example: the interactive map pops up, you can pan, zoom and see where your contacts are nearby, and even get directions to them, as demonstrated onstage by , an application for managing Twitter accounts and streams. Seesmic had been available only for Android and BlackBerry phones but has now been ported to Windows Phone 7.

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