Last week, developer Chris Walsh discovered a way to run native code on Windows Phone 7. Now, developer Kevin Marshall has created the first jailbroken app for Windows Phone 7.
Similar to Google's Goggles app, Marshall has demonstrated a rudimentary augmented reality app. It uses methods in Microsoft.Phone.Media.Extended to access the phone's raw camera feed to process some augmented reality markers in order to overlay information onto real-world objects.
"Ideally this would be accessible to everyone somewhere between now and really soon," Marshall wrote on his Clarity Consulting blog. "Sometimes I think Microsoft doesn't want developers to have fun on this platform. Seriously, everyone needs to write a letter to their local Microsoft representative and demand some access to all [t]he cool APIs blocked for 3rd party apps. That or whine about it on Twitter."
Marshall believes that raw camera and compass access are very important to make "awesome phone apps like video chat, Facebook augmented reality view of places/friends, shiba inu mobile puppy cams, etc." He's rather annoyed that LG seems to have access to those APIs, and all it has managed to do is release an app called LG Scan Search (available on the LG Optimus 7). If all developers had access, consumers would benefit from much better apps on the platform.