Any Developer can now unlock and register 1 Windows Phone to side-load up to 2 Apps for free.

This is amazing news! With the recent announcement of the beta of the new app development tool, the Windows Phone App Studio that can help you create your app without coding, we are now offering every developer the possibility to unlock and register 1 phone to side-load up to 2 apps. Registered developers with Dev Center accounts continue to have the option to unlock up to 3 phones and upload up to 10 apps on each.

This means that it is now possible to develop and deploy your own software for testing on real phone hardware without paying for a Windows Phone Dev Center account.

Want to develop your apps using the full development tools or edit the projects you have generated online with the Windows Phone App Studio? No problem! The full developer tools are free for download, just grab the “Windows Phone 8.0 SDK” from http://dev.windowsphone.com/en-us/downloadsdk

Only if you want to publish your app to the store however, you will need the full account. But thanks to the  $19 “Summer Break” limited-time Dev Center registration offer (through August 26, 2013). With this offer, the annual Dev Center registration is just $19 (or equivalent local currency). See official terms for more details.