At the moment, it looks like a lot of older Windows Phone 7.5 smartphones will be able to download an update to Windows Phone 7.8 by the end of the month. Today, Microsoft gave Windows Phone app developers a way to prepare for the launch of the update.
The official Windows Phone developer blog has announced that the SDK for Windows Phone 7.8 is now available for download. The SDK includes two new emulators; one of them allows app makers to simulate how their apps work on a normal Windows Phone 7.8 smartphone, while the other emulator simulates apps running on a smartphone with just 256 MB of RAM.
Apps that run on Windows Phone 7.8 can now be made to support different Live Tile sizes, including wide and small tiles. Microsoft adds:
Most importantly, any Windows Phone apps that you build using the Windows Phone SDK (with this update installed) still target and run on Windows Phone 7.5. This update simply makes it easier to test how your apps appear on devices running Windows Phone 7.8.
The release of the SDK likely means that Microsoft is about to pull the trigger on the 7.8 update and release it to the general public.
Source: Windows Phone blog | Image via Microsoft
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