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The Interactive Design Association (IxDA) just announced the winners of its first annual Interaction Award—and we’re thrilled that Windows Phone 7.5 has picked one up. Here’s the official award citation.

As I wrote last week, our final tally from the CES 2012 #smokedbywindowsphone $100 challenge was 30 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw.  Not all of the  challenges made it into digital shorts (which you can check out on the $100 YouTube playlist) so my team put together a “best of” video to show more of our favorite moments.  Check it out:

#smokedbywindowsphone is a wrap at CES 2012, and it was a raging success!   Thousands of people (yes, we had crowds watching the challenges happen) saw first hand why Windows Phone connects them to the stuff and people they care about faster and easier than other smartphones.  We gave away a ton of new phones, lost a little bit of cash ($300, to be exact), and had a great time meeting our fans, haters, and everyone in between. 

The challenge is in full swing!  Today we’ve had challengers coming at us with iPhones, Blackberries, and a whole host of Android phones.  Almost all of the challenges (nearly 30 of them!) we won hands down, like this one where we showed how easy it is to find a great place to eat nearby with Local Scout:

But in a few cases – 3 to be exact – we lost by a hair:

Dave Benfer will have cycled 12,500 miles by the time he completes his US bicycle tour. He left Seattle, Washington on the 29th of July, 2010 with the singular goal of raising awareness about biking. To do so, he gave up his quiet life in Seattle and hit the streets. During this time, he’s had 35 flat tires, replaced 2 sets of bike tires, 2 sets of chains and 4 sets of bicycle brake pads. Not only that, but he has logged over 400 hours of video on Windows Live Movie Maker on his Windows 7 PC the HP Mini210 - a 2lb netbook that he uses to connect to the internet at public libraries.

Are you headed to the beach this summer, on vacation or just working flat out to pay for college? If so, staying in touch with your friends probably seems complicated. While you can use Facebook for sharing information, there are lot of things you might not want your mom, your grandma or the girl you babysat for in sixth grade to know all the details about. If that’s the case, consider these 4 ways to stay in touch on summer break.

Are you still running Windows Vista? Have you been lusting after the sleeker, sexier Windows 7 Professional? Luckily for you it’s no longer a fantasy. Windows 7 Pro is designed to make new technology, including advances in digital media, hardware and devices, really shine. For a limited time only, college students can upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 Pro for just $29.99 by going here. The only requirement is that you are a college student with a valid university ID.

We’re excited to announce today that Facebook chat is now available to over 75 million more Messenger customers worldwide, wherever Facebook is available.

We’ve talked a few times about how important it is for you to be able to connect your Windows Live experiences to the other great services you use.  You can connect connect Messenger to Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, Hotmail lets you bring in your email from Gma