As IE 8 offers improved security and support of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) web standards, webmasters and web developers should test their applications extensively in the coming months.   

Article: Microsoft confirms IE 8 will ship this year
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1500&tag=nl.e539

QUOTE: Microsoft Senior Vice President of Online Services and Windows, Bill Veghte, just told attendees that Microsoft will release the final version of Internet Explorer (IE) 8 to the Web “later this year.”

Microsoft has tried its best not to provide a ship target for IE 8 — like most of its Windows client family of products. Company officials did acknowledge last month that a second public beta of IE 8 is due out in August.

Microsoft has been warning Web developers to prep for IE 8, which will be more standards-compliant, to prepare now for IE 8 by adding a new tag to their sites to keep them from breaking when viewed with IE 8.

IE Beta v2 will be available in August
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/06/03/ie8-beta-2-coming-in-august.aspx