Windows Phone 8 launches, to hit Europe this weekend

In the space of just a couple of hours we saw the second major mobile OS announcement - Microsoft's Windows Phone 8. We've seen WP8 before, but today Joe Belfiore came on stage and showed us the whole thing in detail.

The new OS builds on the defining features of WP7 and adds a lot of new - sometimes unique - functionality. One of the first things that greets you is the new lockscreen, which shows photos and notifications from Facebook, but third-party devs can include info from their apps here too.

Speaking of apps, Belfiore made an important point - 46 of the 50 top apps on other platforms are on Windows Phone 8 and more are coming. That includes popular games and apps like Pandora, which will offer a year of ad-

free music streaming on WP8.

 

Kids' corner allows you to pick several apps (probably mostly games) and not worry about your kids accidentally doing something with your other apps. This point was illustrated by Jessica Alba who told about an unintended tweet posted by one of her kids.

Rooms is a feature similar to Google Plus circles - it allows you to invite people into "rooms" where you can share updates, photos, to-do lists and more. Even people who don't have a Windows Phone 8 handset can join.

You can read more about these new Windows Phone 8 features along with many others in our WP8 review.