The ChevronWP7 Windows Phone 7 unlocking team have announced a new, low cost way for developers to unlock devices in an attempt to remove one of the barriers to entry for independent devs.

Impressed with how Microsoft dealt with the Chevron WP7 (Windows Phone 7 jailbreak/unlock) team, Geohot updated his site today with a small message that read: “perhaps a more appropriate way to deal with jailbreakers I’m going out to buy a Windows 7 phone”.

Piracy is a major problem for smartphone apps. iPhone and Android applications are regularly cracked and distributed online. And now the first proof-of-concept hack for pirating Windows Phone 7 Marketplace apps has been created. The Windows Phone 7 hack seems particularly nefarious, as it enables the user to download and crack the applications directly from the Marketplace. It is frightening how easy it is for a pirate to crack applications on a Windows Phone 7 device.

The first user-friendly Windows Phone 7 jailbreak has been released. Its called ChevronWP7 and it has been developed by well known and respected Microsoft community enthusiasts Rafael Rivera, Long Zheng and Chris Walsh.

Just a couple of days ago, we posted the news that developer Chris Walshie from Australia was successful in getting root access to Windows Phone 7. Today, he tweeted to inform us all that he now has registry and file-system access as well!

It’s only been a few weeks since Microsoft’s completely overhauled Windows Phone 7 OS was launched around the world, and we are now hearing the first reports of WP7 being rooted and “jailbreaked”.