From the Forums: WPCentral upgrades, Microsoft event and the awesome contest

As we covered in our round-up of today's Windows Phone event, Microsoft has been an extremely busy bee indeed. Our Windows Phone forums have also been fairly active lately, particularly when our main website went down for some surprise maintenance. So what's new in the community? Jump into this special edition of From the Forums to find out more.

If you've been absent from Windows Phone Central the past few days, not only have you managed to miss possibly the largest event in 2012 for Windows Phone, but you would have been greeted by a completely different website. We've had a face-lift!

As noted in the announcement:

"More updates are coming soon to our forums, store and already-awesome app, but if you're reading this on the full desktop site you're now witnessing the new look and feel of WPCentral.com. We've upgraded to the latest version of VISOR, our Mobile Nations content management system, and we've given the site a fresh look. We've even mixed in a little inspiration from the Metro UI."

Should you have any comments, bug reports or require assistance with our new look and feel, then be sure to head over to the "Window Phone Central Upgrades" thread and voice your concerns. There's a number of improvements well on the way for not only the website, but the community forum too. We'll be announcing when these will take place so stay tuned.

Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 Launch

Xbox Music

Microsoft held an event today, as mentioned a million times already in the last few hours, which provided us with an insight into what's next for Windows Phone. To cover the BUILD 2012 event tomorrow too, we set up a forum dedicated to the Microsoft events that span across these days, which can be located here.

A number of discussions have been created, including a live update thread (by squire777) for the presentation. A number of goodies can be found within, and one can also hop on in to add their opinion on how the day went.

WPCentral's Contest!

Our website relaunch with the new design wouldn't really mean anything if we didn't have an exciting event to go with it - and no we're not on about Microsoft's day with Windows Phone 8. So, we decided to kick off a Windows Phone Central contest! 

Do you fancy winning a Windows Phone 8 handset of your choice? Of course you do, but how does one enter? Simply register for an account (or log in should you already be a member - you're awesome!) and comment on the contest article with feedback on what you think of our new look and which device you'd like to win. Simple. We'll then choose a winner!

Be sure to check out our community forums for the latest Windows Phone discussions. You can register an account for free to take part in the vast number of threads available!

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.