Microsoft has started sending out first of Windows Phone 7 devices built by Samsung and LG to developers to help them test their apps on actual handsets rather than emulators. However it is to be noted that these devices are for testing purposes only, running Technical Preview version of Windows Phone 7. While these devices maybe close to production units, but they aren’t the final thing yet. Check out the videos after the break.

Here is a simple how-to guide on running Windows Phone 7 Series emulator without having to run the entire Visual Studio 2010 IDE. If you have installed the development tools (including Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows phone), you’ll notice that the .exe file for emulator (xde.exe) is automatically installed in C:\Program Files\Microsoft XDE\1.0\ location. Simply double clicking on Xde.exe file wont start the emulator as it requires some command line parameters.