Windows Phone 8 SDK released

Newsbrief: Microsoft has made its software development kit for Windows Phone 8 available to all developers, ahead of the platform's North American launch next month (and European launch this weekend). A number of developers have previously criticized Microsoft for waiting so long to release the SDK -- the company initially said it would release the SDK this summer, but it has only allowed a select group of studios work with SDK until now. Windows Phone SDK 8.0 includes tools for creating games and apps for both WP8 and WP7.5. Microsoft has also updated its Dev Center site, which is now accepting WP8 app submissions.