Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 Event - Liveblog

02:19PM EDT - Thanks again for reading along!

02:18PM EDT - That's all for the liveblog everyone, go read our Windows Phone 8 and HTC 8X Preview!

02:18PM EDT - Well I snagged another HTC 8X, thankfully all my stuff didn't get stolen as I ran up to get in line.

02:11PM EDT - Looks like Microsoft just pulled a Samsung by drawing up the curtain and showing a huge demo area

02:11PM EDT - Everyone in the audience is getting a Windows Phone

02:11PM EDT - Joe, Ballmer, and Jessica are all now showing off how their WP8 devices are reflections of their differences with customizations to the lock screen and elsewhere

02:07PM EDT - Global launch for WP8 is just now starting with those phones being announced for November

02:07PM EDT - All of the WP8 devices will be on display in Microsoft Stores

02:07PM EDT - Finally AT&T gets the Lumia 820, 920, and HTC 8X in November

02:06PM EDT - T-Mobile gets both the 810 and 8X by November 14th.

02:06PM EDT - "We've opened a new chapter in our partnership with Verizon Wireless" Verizon will carry the 8X and the Lumia 822, by thanksgiving. Hence why we see those Verizon COWs outside (Cell On Wheel). Verizon will also carry the Samsung Odyssey.

02:04PM EDT - The HTC 8X is up next. I think HTC has really pulled all the stops out with their industrial design this time around with dramatic colors.

02:03PM EDT - Next up is the Samsung Ativ S which is Samsung's WP8 high end hardware entry - big battery, light, thin

02:03PM EDT - He's talking about Nokia's optical image stabilization (OIS) on the Lumia 920 now

02:02PM EDT - Ballmer is showing off the "killer hardware" that's being built for WP8. It's true that all the OEM partners have really brought the best they can with WP8 hardware this time.

02:00PM EDT - Ballmer is playing up how closely Windows 8 will play with WP8. This is really the differentiator between Android, since Google has no desktop OS yet.

01:58PM EDT - "Microsoft wanted to build a phone unique to each of us with Windows Phone"

01:57PM EDT - Steve Ballmer is on stage now talking about what a busy week this has been for Microsoft with Windows 8 and Surface

01:56PM EDT - Joe's heading off stage now, that's the look at the core of new WP8 features

01:55PM EDT - Windows 8, Windows 7, and OS X all get sync companions for WP8, no Windows XP support however

01:54PM EDT - The Xbox Music feature exists on Windows 8 and maps over to WP8 nicely

01:54PM EDT - Xbox music now supports streaming from tracks online and cloud synced playlists

01:53PM EDT - Joe is noting how SkyDrive doesn't have a 1,000 photo or 30 day storage limitation for cloud photo storage

01:52PM EDT - SkyDrive includes 7 GB of free storage

01:52PM EDT - Photos also get synced up to SkyDrive for viewing on any device

01:50PM EDT - OneNote also gets a major update in WP8 including higher fidelity support and better voice memos

01:50PM EDT - New word documents created on the phone and saved to SkyDrive are shared between Windows 8 and big Office

01:49PM EDT - SkyDrive now enables Office to move documents across Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 seamlessly

01:48PM EDT - These calendars again share between other smartphone platforms since it's just CalDAV

01:46PM EDT - Private messages uses MSN messenger in the background, calendar uses CalDAV, and photos are on SkyDrive, notes come through OneNote

01:46PM EDT - Private messages can be sent between members in the private room, including location. There are shared calendars and photos as well.

01:45PM EDT - The People Hub has a new feature called Rooms which allows invited users to share data

01:45PM EDT - The Kid's Corner Twitter anecdote is a bit interesting since I haven't seen the sandboxing apply to application data quite yet, but that could've been something specific to my build

01:44PM EDT - Ok back to Windows Phone 8 now

01:41PM EDT - Jessica is talking about how she had her daughter inadvertently text gibberish to her 4 million followers at one point.

01:38PM EDT - Jessica Alba is on stage talking about the utility of Kid's corner

01:34PM EDT - This is the first smartphone platform with a feature that roughly approximates multi-user support

01:33PM EDT - Kid's corner is basically like a guest account for WP8

01:32PM EDT - Kid's corner creates essentially a guest account with access to a whitelist of services and applications

01:31PM EDT - The next feature mitigates the worry associated with handing a child a smartphone and worrying about them deleting a text message, replying, or making expensive in-app purchases

01:29PM EDT - The first mobile operator to offer DataSense will be Verizon Wireless

01:28PM EDT - I haven't had a chance to play with DataSense pages, but this is interesting if Microsoft can do it without visibly altering images

01:27PM EDT - DataSense works with the internal data use counter and also changes depending on how close to your limit you are, this requires carrier involvement

01:27PM EDT - WP8 includes a feature called DataSense which compresses assets on webpages, think Opera Mini or how RIM used to do the same thing

01:23PM EDT - Pandora in WP8 will include a whole year of free music with no ads, interesting

01:23PM EDT - Pandora for WP8 will be coming early in 2013

01:22PM EDT - Temple Run, written using the Unity game engine will be coming to WP8. Urbanspoon as well will be coming, and uses the speech to text engine in WP8

01:21PM EDT - 46 of the top 50 most popular apps on other platforms will be on Windows Phone

01:20PM EDT - There are a bunch of apps already updated for WP8 on the current slide being shown, Joe is talking about Skype for WP8 an the way it is integrated into the OS without just being a straight background task

01:19PM EDT - There's a new version of Twitter just for Windows Phone 8 with notification support, faster app resume, and a new live tile.

01:18PM EDT - Facebook is being used as an example application that can customize the lock screen and push photos to it

01:17PM EDT - Apps can now customize the background image, a line of detailed text at the bottom, or the five smaller icons at the very bottom

01:17PM EDT - Windows Phone 8 now includes a new lock screen with at a glance icons at the bottom and the ability to display customized relevant information from third and first party apps

01:16PM EDT - Applications that integrate into the Wallet feature, into the Hubs, and new lock screen are Live Apps

01:15PM EDT - Back in June we saw the smaller new Live Tiles size and how tiles are resizable between those three sizes, talking about those now

01:14PM EDT - Joe is really driving home how WP8 is the most personal smartphone operating system out there yet.

01:13PM EDT - There's a video playing now showing windows phone being used in different contexts and by different people, so far nothing new beyond the revamped icon grid

01:11PM EDT - Windows Phone has a focus on people for its core experience

01:11PM EDT - Joe is calling the grid of icons a tired old metaphor that even Android emulated from the original iPhone. I would say this goes all the way back to the Palm days.

01:10PM EDT - Joe is talking about how the core of the smartphone experience across every platform hasn't really changed in 5 years since the original iPhone

01:09PM EDT - 191 countries can get access to the Windows Phone Store now

01:09PM EDT - There are now 50 supported languages in Windows Phone

01:09PM EDT - 120,000 apps in the Microsoft Windows Phone store

01:08PM EDT - Windows Phone 8 continues to be heavily optimized for Qualcomm S4 SoCs

01:08PM EDT - Joe is joking about the big week that Windows has had for both Windows 8 and RT

01:06PM EDT - Joe Belfiore is out on stage now, excited, the atmosphere is very positive right now.

01:04PM EDT - The event will be starting shortly, we've been told to turn our phones to silent. There's something always ironic about that line in the context of a smartphone launch event.

01:02PM EDT - We're seated and inside the venue right now, eagerly awaiting today's Windows Phone 8 event!