Among all sorts of other fun, games, learning, work and play, Microsoft's 2010 Interns had the opportunity to partake in a number of competitions. Entertainment & Devices hosted a competition that pitted the best and the brightest against each other to design the best new Windows Phone 7 app.

The 1st place winning team created a new app for the Windows Phone called, "Headliner." Check out video highlights Headliner below and then read on to hear insights from the winning team of José Arriaga Maldonado, Roger Pincombe, Aaron Schultz and Chris Cortes - in their own words.

Can you tell us a little more about the Headliner app, beyond what we've seen in the video clip?
Headliner is an easy-to-use tool for finding and viewing streams of online data by way of RSS feeds. Through communication with a variety of web services, we allow users to search for a topic of interest, browse feeds related to the topic and save them into a subscription list, read individual articles in two different visual modes (the original article, right in a web browser or a clean image-and-text-only version), and even post their finds through email, SMS, or Twitter. The application supports integration with a Google Reader account, follows the WP7 Metro design, and provides intuitive navigation throughout.
-Aaron Schultz

Tell us about the Windows Phone intern competition.
The competition was a great opportunity to create a cool application for Windows Phone 7 and be recognized for it. It allowed me to be creative and explore ideas for mobile apps outside of my normal role as an intern. I am an adamant RSS feed reader, so I was thrilled to have the chance to create an RSS reader for this exciting platform and make some good friends in the process.
-Roger Pincombe

What was the process of creating the app and working with the group of other interns?
The most difficult part of creating such a complex and full-featured app was the delegation of the work. The application had many interconnected parts and it was necessary to structure the work in such a way that each developer had as little dependence on the others as possible. With only a two-week time period to complete the project, each member had to be able to work on the project during their own time, generally after working a full day in the office. It was amazing to see how capable the other interns were and how knowledgeable they were about the services and technologies we used. Each teammate had their own roadblocks to overcome and it was great to have a team that could support each other and provide expertise in the areas of Silverlight design, web services, Google API’s and RSS feed structures. We had to work at a breakneck pace, but it was a lot of fun to work with a team who was just as committed as I was to creating a useful application for the Windows Phone 7 platform.
-Chris Cortes

What did your internship teach you about Microsoft?
Working as an intern for Microsoft was one of the greatest experiences of my life. One of the main reasons for this is that there's something really special about Microsoft itself. That is: Microsoft totally redefines teamwork. It doesn't matter if you are just an undergraduate; everyone in there, no matter how important or smart they are, will look at you as one of their kind. After all, we all share one common goal: we want the project to be successful.
 
Working with other interns is especially encouraged. Microsoft offers different opportunities for interns to work on a project of their own as a team. The Windows Phone 7 contest was just one of many. This is a really enjoyable experience because not only do you have full control on how you want the project to be done, but you also get to learn a lot of things about engineering projects, about your fellow interns and, especially, about yourself. 
-José Arriaga Maldonado