It takes a lot to push the U.S. elections off the television screen, but Hurricane Sandy managed the trick. We would like to express our sympathies to those affected by the storm; too many lives were lost, homes and property destroyed, businesses closed.

Microsoft and Google had scheduled two tech events for the week of Oct. 29. Build took place as scheduled on the Microsoft campus in Redmond. Google cancelled its New York City launch event and offered its products rollouts via blog.

The big Microsoft news was the release of Windows Phone 8, with handsets from HTC, Nokia and Samsung set to go on sale starting in November. This follows, of course, the rollout of Windows 8 and the Surface with Windows RT ARM-based notebook/tablet device on Oct. 26.

Everyone that I talked to who has used a prelease Windows Phone 8 has been impressed. (I have a Windows Phone 7.5 device, and find the Live Tile apps to be very usable and exciting. I look forward to installing Windows Phone 7.8 on it.) Through a strong program of incentives for app developers, there are many flagship apps for the phone already.

There are three compelling messages Windows Phone developers:

• You can use Visual Studio and familiar tools to build apps for Windows Phone 8.

• Windows Phone 8 is almost identical to Windows 8, so there’s a minimal learning curve.

• Windows Phone 8 is a reboot of the platform, which means you’ll face few competitors in the app store (called Windows Phone Store).

Of course, the downside is:

• The installed base of Windows Phone 8 is nonexistent, compared to gazillions of iOS, Android and even BlackBerry OS.

If I were an entrepreneurial mobile app developer, I’d give Windows Phone 8 a try.

Google’s news is much more incremental: More hardware and a minor rev of Android.

The new hardware, announced in the Google Official Blog, is a new phone called the Nexus 4 and a 10-inch tablet called the Nexus 10. The big tablet has 2560×1600 display—that’s the same resolution as many 27-inch desktop monitors, and I’d love to see one.

Google’s seven-inch tablet (announced during the summer), the Nexus 7, came only with 16GB of RAM and WiFi. Now you can get it with 32GB RAM or GSM-based cellular connections using the HSPA+ mobile standard. These are good hardware upgrades, but aren’t “stop the presses” material in the weeks surrounding the launch of Windows Phone, Windows Phone 8, Surface and Apple’s iPad Mini. Heck, the tablet doesn’t even have 4G.

The operation system update is Android 4.2, which is still called Jelly Bean. There are plenty of consumer features, such as a spherical panoramic camera mode, and a smarter predictive keyboard. The ability to support many users is a good feature, and one frankly that is long overdue for these expensive tablets.

Expect to see more about Android 4.2 at AnDevCon IV, coming up Dec. 4-7, 2012. Maybe someone will bring one of those 10-inch tablets.

Alan Zeichick is editorial director of SD Times. Read his blog at ztrek.blogspot.com.