Microsoft has updated its Windows Phone software developers kit. The update doesn't add much functionally, but it does enable developers to write code on Windows 8 machines. It also incorporates a second emulator for entry level devices such as the Nokia Lumia 610 that only have 256MB of RAM and which run Windows 7.5 Refresh.
Previous versions of the WPSDK only provided support for devices with 512MB of RAM or larger. This meant that developers could not create apps for some of the less expensive phones, which need elements of live tiles and other features turned off to run properly.
The original WPSDK 7.1 also didn't support machines running on Windows 8 Consumer Preview. A new emulator makes that possible, Microsoft said.