Three developers have released a new tool named ChevronWP7, which allows you to unlock any retail Windows Phone 7 device for application side-loading without having to pay $99 per year for a WP7 marketplace account. Long Zheng, Rafael Rivera, and Chris Walsh created the tool in order to give both developers and users broader access to their WP7 devices.
The trio claims the tool is completely safe and the unlocking it performs can be reversed on all devices. To get started, download the executable (mirror one or mirror two) and run it when your phone is connected to your PC via a USB cable.
Unlocking allows the sideloading of experimental applications that Microsoft would never allow on the Marketplace, including those which access private or native APIs as well as anything that breaks the guidelines the software giant has set. Microsoft only allows registered developers to unlock their device in order to sideload their apps for testing purposes.
ChevronWP7's release comes soon after it was discovered earlier this month that Windows Phone 7 can run native code. Following that, the first jailbroken app was released, and now we have an app that will reportedly unlock any WP7 device.