Here's a last-minute time-sensitive blog post about some Windows Phone 7 developer training happening this week. First things first, here's where you register for the training course.

So what is it all about? It's a virtual training event series happening this Tuesday and Thursday. It includes four instructor-led three-hour training sessions that will help you learn how to develop applications for the Windows Phone 7 platform using Silverlight and XNA.

The Schedule

• July 20 – 8am: Session One: Getting Started with Microsoft Windows Phone and Silverlight
• July 20 – 1pm: Session Two: Programming Game Applications with XNA
• July 22 – 8am: Session Three: Programming Applications with Silverlight
• July 22 – 1pm: Session Four: Review and Wrap Up

The Tools
Of course, you can't learn how to develop for Windows Phone 7 if you don't have the tools. And there's some recent news on the tools front. Most of you already know this, I am sure, but we released a beta of the Windows Phone 7 developer tools last week.

This is a web-based installer (i.e., the installer you download is small and it downloads more stuff based on what you have installed). What does it download? If you have Visual Studio and/or Expression Blend it will install just the components you need to add the Windows Phone 7 tools, such as the design and development templates and emulator. If you have nothing, it will download and install Visual Studio 2010 Express.