Earlier this week, Microsoft launched the new Windows Phone Dev Center, the new place for Windows Phone app developers to certify and upload their apps to the Windows Phone app download store. Since the launch, developers have been asking a number of questions to Microsoft about the changes via the Windows Phone forums and on Twitter.
Today, in a new post on the Windows Phone developer blog, Microsoft answered the top 10 questions asked by app developers over the past few days. One of the answers actually affects Windows Phone app users as well. Microsoft has now confirmed, "All existing apps in the Marketplace catalog, and all new app submissions and updates are automatically encrypted. You don’t need to do anything to make this change for existing apps."
This new feature will likely please Windows Phone app creators and make their software much harder to pirate as a result.
Microsoft also revealed that the Windows Phone app title icon requirements have changed; before this week, the icons had to be sized at 200x200 but now they are 50 percent bigger at 300x300. Microsoft states, "If you submitted a new or updated app prior to Aug 6, you aren’t required to supply the new size. New app submissions and updates, however, do require the 300x300 icon."
The blog added that its new Windows Phone app distribution infrastructure is still being worked on. As a result, the company states, "You can expect apps to take several more days to get processed and certified."
The blog also keeps the "Marketplace" reference to describe the Windows Phone app download store, even though it seemed earlier this week that Microsoft changed the name to simply "Windows Phone Store".
Source: Windows Phone developer blog