Microsoft has released the Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit and Mango apps in the marketplace are coming on line.

It looks like all systems go for Mango. Microsoft has just reported that the infrastructure for publishing Mango apps is coming on line and everything should be working now. Also   a "near-final" release candidate (RC) test build of Windows Phone SDK 7.1 has been released.

If you are going to create a Mango app it is time to get coding and what could be more helpful than the announcement of the release of tools that add-on to the Windows Phone 7.1 SDK on the Windows Phone Developer’s Blog where Jeff Wilcox explains it adds a range of user interface controls and that the team has also localized the toolkit into all of the Windows Phone ‘Mango’ languages.

The components in the toolkit include toggle switches, page transitions, and picker controls and the release also includes a LongListSelector that has been redesigned to take advantage of the new smooth scrolling and off-thread touch input support in ‘Mango’. Wilcox describes this as:

‘a buttery-smooth control for showing lists, including grouping and jump list support’;

maybe he’s been spending too much time in the sun!

Other controls include a MultiselectList control that can let users make multiple selections when working with lists of data; and a LockablePivot that adds a special mode to the Pivot control where only the current item is shown (often used with multiple selection).

Yet more controls let you expand and collapse items like threaded views; a RecurringDaysPicker lets your users select a day of the week; and a HubTile control that lets you add animated tiles to your application.

You can download Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit from the CodePlex site or from the NuGet Gallery.
It requires the latest ‘Mango’ developer tools as well.