Windows Phone 8

Microsoft lifted the curtain on its next-gen handset operating system, Windows Phone 8, in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Microsoft corporate vice president Terry Myerson opens the Windows Phone 8 Summit at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco.

The live tiles on Window Phone 8’s Metro-style startup screen slide, flip, and pop to create what Microsoft execs called the OS’s "sexiest feature."

Windows Phone 8 will support multi-core processor platforms and a trio of screen resolutions on upcoming smartphones from Nokia, HTC, Huawei, and others.

Nokia’s Kevin Shields snaps photos of Microsoft’s Kevin Gallo and Joe Belfiore on a Windows Phone 8 demo device to demonstrate Nokia’s Smart Group Shot feature, which mixes and matches the best facial expressions of individuals in a series of group photos for a more satisfying final version.

Here’s the resulting mashed-up shot of Gallo and Belfiore that was cobbled together in a few seconds courtesy of Nokia’s Smart Group Shot technology.

Near-field communications (NFC) tech is a big part of Windows Phone 8, which lets users tap their WP 8 phones on other NFC-enabled devices, PCs, and other objects to share content seamlessly.

Microsoft partner Havok was on hand to showcase how graphics and media acceleration in Windows Phone 8 is going to drive some pretty rip-roaring game development on the platform.

The Windows Phone 8 Wallet holds credit card info, coupons, PayPal accounts, frequent flyer miles, and more, making it pretty simple to do things like make secure in-app purchases with just a couple of clicks.