Looks like Microsoft is ramping up the teasers for Mix08. Activewin just posted the text from a Internet Explorer 8 Microsoft Connect invitation email.
"Greetings from the Internet Explorer Team! We are nearing the launch of Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 and we will be making it available for the general public to download and test. IE8 Beta 1 is focused on the developer community, with the goal of gaining valuable feedback to improve Internet Explorer 8 during the development process..."
Not to be outdone, over on the IEBlog, they are talking about how websites can detect the new browser.
When released, the IE8 beta will introduce an updated User-Agent string. For IE8, we’ve simply replaced "MSIE 7.0" with "MSIE 8.0".
No surprises there then. Looks like this is just setting the stage for Mix08, which we'll talk about in more detail soon. We're hoping that IE8 will help the Windows & Windows Live Software+Services approach evolve, though the "roaming of favorites and browser settings" may still be some way off.
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any signup pages for the IE8 beta yet, but we'll keep our eyes open.