Microsoft updated its Windows Phone SDK to make it sing along Windows 8 and to support devices with 256MB of RAM such as the recently announced Nokia Lumia 610. In addition, the Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1 also comes with some other smaller fixes. Here’s what’s new:
- The Visual Studio IDE is patched to enable selection from a list of emulators (though the SDK can only support connecting to one at a time).
- The Windows Phone [512 MB device] emulator image is updated to use build 8773.
- A second, new emulator device image is included, allowing you to emulate running your app on a 256 MB device.
- The Microsoft Advertising SDK is updated to the latest version, fixing some issues developers were encountering at runtime.
- IntelliSense now supports specifying the 512 MB device requirement in your manifest file, should you choose to opt your app out from running on the new 256 MB devices.
- Language support is again consistent both in the IDE and in the emulator OS.
Because this update contains two virtual OS images (256 MB device image and 512 MB device image), it is pretty beefy, weighing in at just under 300 MB. However, Microsoft says it’s well worth it, saving you lots of time in the long-run as you don’t have to watch the OS boot-up screen every time you start up the emulator to deploy/debug your code… You can download the new SDK from here.