Canada is a hotbed for game and app development and our country is actually the gaming industry’s third largest employer in the world, which is just one reason the Windows Phone 7 team in Canada loves its app developers.

The Windows Marketplace now holds over 12,000 apps and Windows Phone 7 continues to be focused on supporting developers so they can continue to deliver the great new apps Canadians crave.  From March 11-13, Canadians across the country went head-to-head in the Great Canadian Appathon, a 48-hour competition to create a working Windows Phone 7 game with a $25,000 grand prize at stake.

According to a recent Bing consumer poll of 16-35 year olds, mobile phones are increasingly becoming a critical tool for Valentine’s Day. The Bing team captured some of the top findings.

People are always looking for a shortcut. That’s why we like technology. It allows us to do almost everything better, faster and easier. It’s why we’re so excited about our “To the Cloud!” campaign that highlights all the cool stuff you can do with Windows 7 + Windows Live (if you haven’t yet, check out Family Photo, Boxmas or Airport).

Don’t fear – While the holidays are over, at least CES 2011 offers us techies a first look at many of the gifts we’ll be asking for next Christmas. Over the years many great new products have debuted at CES (VCR in 1970, Camcorder in 1981, HDTV in 1998, Microsoft Xbox in 2001, and Blu-Ray DVD in 2003) and this year has been no exception.