The next Beta of Entity Framework, which integrates with Visual Studio 2008 RTM, has been released along with a new rev of the Tools CTP (Community Technical Preview).

What's exciting about this release is that we are finally seeing a host of improvements and additional functionality that we've been asking for for a while. Additionally, while there will still be some bugs and little things to work out, we can now finally see what V1 of Entity Frameowkr will look like as they have now "locked down" the features.

There are three pieces to install (assuming VS2008 RTM is already installed).

In this order:
1. Entity Framework Beta 3
2. XML Editor QFE
3. Entity Framework Tools CTP2

You can find explicit installation instructions on each of these download pages.

The Entity Framework team has also written numerous blog posts on

what's new in EF Beta 3 (see Danny Simmon's post for more details)

breaking changes from EF Beta2

what's new in the CTP tools

Keep an eye on these blogs for more information:

blogs.msdn.com/adonet
blogs.msdn.com/dsimmons
blogs.msdn.com/esql