This morning, hours after the US launch of Windows 8 in New York City, Microsoft Australia held the official Australian Windows 8 launch event near Fox Studios of Sydney, Australia.

Besides the keynote, the event had an open space area which invited guests to try out an array of new Windows 8 all-in-one desktops, notebooks, hybrid convertibles and tablets including the rare Microsoft Surface in limited supply down under (there were only 5 or so at the event).

Here are my photos from the event.

If the above Flash slideshow does not work, please view the Flickr set here.

As one of the first countries around the world to herald in the new day, only beaten by New Zealand a couple hours earlier, Australians are among the first to buy retail boxed copies of Windows 8 and Windows 8 PCs.

Harvey Norman, a premium electronics retailer in Australia, hosted a midnight “launch party” at their new Sydney Domayne Alexandria store to celebrate the retail availability of Windows 8.

Attending was Gerry Harvey, the founder of the retail franchise across Asia Pacific, and Pip Marlow (pictured above), managing director of Microsoft Australia.

With the countdown timer running, nearly a hundred people of staff and buyers packed the store on a late Thursday evening, which came at a surprise to me considering the prominence of online retail and digital software delivery, specifically Microsoft’s own digital Windows 8 upgrade offer.

Amongst balloons, posters and TV-walls full of Windows 8 promotion, the first retail copy of Windows 8 Professional edition was sold to Ziming L. who also won a free Toshiba Ultrabook PC. A number of other people who were first in the queue also won a number of free Windows PCs and Windows Phones.

The store was also filled with at least two dozen different models and styles of Windows 8 PCs from desktop all-in-ones to convertible hybrid laptop slates from all OEMs, excluding Microsoft’s own Surface device which is available for pre-order online (currently sold out) and to be shipping soon.

Putting in some effort, Harvey Norman’s new brochures going out this week is Windows 8-packed. Of the 24 pages, around 20 of which is dedicated to Windows 8 PCs, accessories and software. Windows Phone 8 phones (Samsung ATIV S, Nokia Lumia 920) are also featured and available for pre-order.

Somewhat confusingly I almost missed this launch event as Harvey Norman has two stores, 300 meters apart. The other store, which for reasons beyond me was also open and operational at midnight, had zero customers. Why two stores of the same chain are located so close to each other is beyond logic.

Yesterday at the Australian International Motor Show media day, Ford announced the latest addition of its continuous roll-out of SYNC technologies for Australian drivers, SYNC Emergency Assist, coming next year in the new 2013 Ford Kuga SUV and other vehicles soon-after.

The smart feature is one of the quickest to make its way down under, in contrast to the years that took for the base platform to arrive, this lifesaving technology was only introduced to Europe 60 days ago.

The feature which has already saved real lives in the US, automatically places a call using the driver’s Bluetooth-connected phone to emergency services after a potentially threatening crash has been detected by the vehicle’s sensors.

Using the GPS, steering and distance sensors, the vehicle then communicates its location (even in tunnels) to the operator using text-to-speech. The call is then maintained for driver to talk to the operator.

The beauty of this technology, which has now been tested and certified by the Australian Government for use with the “000” emergency infrastructure, is that it requires no expensive equipment or subscription for either the driver or emergency operators. A call can also be cancelled at the driver’s will.

Alongside Ford, Holden (the Australian subsidiary of GM) also announced its first technology offering to Australian drivers yesterday with the introduction of MyLink for its 2013 Barina CDX. Although the MyLink is somewhat playing catch-up to SYNC, it will offer mobile app integration support at launch which Ford is still planning to introduce with SYNC AppLink at a later time.

In keeping with the technology theme, I was pleasantly surprised to also learn that a mobile app plays a crucial role to the hallmark Ford EVOS concept car which was also at the show.

The one-and-only functional version of this concept car with motorised gull-wing doors is actually remotely opened and closed with an Android phone controlled by a Ford staff (seen sitting in the background of the above photo). Apparently it uses a simple Bluetooth serial protocol to send the commands.

At a convenient time for Australians, Microsoft just announced the worldwide availability and pricing for the much anticipated Surface RT tablet. For geeks down under, the Surface RT tablet can be in your hands November 6 starting at AUD $559.

The pricing breakdown (including GST) is

• Surface RT 32GB: $559
• Surface RT 32GB + Touch Cover: $679 ($698.99 sold separately)
• Surface RT 64GB + Touch Cover: $789
• Touch Cover (Black, white, magenta, cyan, red): $139.99
• Type Cover (Black): $149.99

Preorders start from 3am (today) Wednesday, 17th of October online at the Microsoft Store (Australia).

From the press release:

Surface with Windows RT will initially be available in three SKUs: a 32GB version priced at AUD $559.00, a 32GB version bundled with a black Touch Cover priced at AUD $679.00, and a 64GB version bundled with a black Touch Cover priced at AUD $789.00. Prices are GST inclusive.

A variety of accessories will also be available, including Touch Covers in five vibrant colours — black, white, magenta, cyan and red — priced at AUD $139.99 so customers can express their personal style1. Customers will also have the option to purchase a Type Cover in black for AUD $149.99, which adds moving keys for a more traditional typing feel.

For those keeping score of the “Australian tax” for technology products currently under government inquiry, the Surface in Australia has a markup over our American buddies of roughly $60 (USD $499 vs. AUD $559). This is comparable to the $40 markup for the iPad (USD $499 vs. AUD $539).

So the first teaser Microsoft Surface ad came out today, with some interesting choreography.

Suspicious guy with Surface is suspicious.

The classy way to use a Surface.

I have a Surface and attitude.

My yoga instructor told me this was good for me.

All hail the Surface robot.

There’s a Surface down my pants.

GET OUT OF MY WAY! COMING THROUGH!

This is cross-posted from the MetroTwit development blog.

The anticipated major update to MetroTwit for Windows 8 has just been certified and is now rolling out to Windows 8 users around the world for customer download. You can see the details in the Windows Store here.

The significant new features added since our preview version are:

• Twitter Streaming support (and Twitter API 1.1 support)
• Added Twitter lists support
• Added multiple accounts support (requires MetroTwit Pro or Plus)
• Added inline media previews
• Added support for Twitter profile banners
• Fixed portrait and snap view support for many pages
• Fixed multiple crashes and instabilities
• Fixed emoji unicode support
• Added geolocation support
• Many new features

While it has taken us several months to prepare this update, we anticipate rolling out more features and bugfixes in the near future through the Windows Store.

Pricing: free upgrade for all current MetroTwit Plus users

MetroTwit Pro – the in-app upgrade removes the advertising inside MetroTwit for Windows 8 and also enables multiple-accounts support, and may include other professional features in the future. This is a $4.99 (AUD) in-app upgrade from the Windows Store.

Since we had very small beginnings with heartfelt support from many early adopters who paid for our Windows desktop application, we’d like to return the kindness with a special offer to all MetroTwit Plus users. Every MetroTwit Plus user gets free access to the Windows 8 app upgrade as well.

Simply copy and paste the MetroTwit Plus email code into the General Settings screen from the Settings charm to validate the upgrade.

Thank you all for your support

We would like to thank everyone for their patience and ongoing support of MetroTwit’s development. We are a very small team with big ambitions facing very harsh restrictions from Twitter, so seeing the overwhelmingly positive community response has been much appreciated. Please continue to rate and review our app.

We hope to also release a refreshing update to MetroTwit for Desktop soon.

— David Golden, Winston Pang, Long Zheng