This conference is one made by Microsoft for developers to gain knowledge and make connections – more connections than they’ve ever made before! Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and everything in-between are about to be up for chats, keynotes, and discussion all week long in the San Francisco corner of this grand tour. Today’s registration is also for that particular stop, with the SoCal event taking place at The Moscone Center from June 26th through June 28th – you’ll want to be there the whole time, without a doubt!

If you are amongst the first 500 ticket buyers, you’ll be tossing down $1,595 USD, while the rest of the developer world will be paying $2,095 USD. Either way it’s an investment – and if you’ve been to this event before, you know it’s well worth the cash.

This year’s BUILD events will also be visiting Oregon and Washington in Portland and Redmond – if you’re not at one, sign up for the other! If you’re all about Windows, Windows Phone, Windows Azure, Internet Explorer, Office, Office 365, Xbox, or Visual Studio, you’ll find yourself well at home!

Have a peek at our timeline of BUILD-specific titles from the past few years and make sure you hit up our Microsoft tag portal for more – we’ll be bringing you the heat even if you’re not in attendance. Prepare yourself!

All of the videos can be found at Microsoft’s Channel 9 page. There you can watch videos from the first three days of the event (Microsoft says video from day four is coming soon), including the keynotes from the first two days. If you’re at a loss for a place to start, we’d recommend beginning with one of those videos. Steve Ballmer’s keynote address on day one sets the stage for the whole event as he revels in Windows 8′s early success – the new operating system sold 4 million copies in the weekend after it launched.

In all, there are 8 different videos to watch over at Channel 9. If you’d like, you can also download them directly from the site and keep them forever. As we stated above, videos from day four aren’t yet available, but considering how quickly Microsoft put up videos from the first three days, they should be coming shortly.

Now that the festivities have ended, Microsoft has its work cut out for it. Not only does it need to sell as many people as possible on Windows 8, but it also needs to do the same for Windows Phone 8. Getting Windows Phone 8 to catch on will be especially difficult given the immense popularity of both Android and (to a lesser extent) iOS. We’ll see if Microsoft and its partners can turn Windows Phone 8 into a success soon enough, but for now, we’ll just sit back and watch some of the sessions from Build 2012.

Obviously a dedicated Twitter “App” for Windows 8 isn’t completely needed, but they offer dedicated apps for almost every other platform — so it only makes sense. Add in the fact that in just a few short days over 4 million people have already upgraded to Windows 8, now is the perfect time to develop a beautifully crafted new app that nicely sits on the side of Windows 8.

Aside from owning TweetDeck, the social network has never offered a dedicated Windows PC application, but that will finally be changing with Windows 8. Unfortunately we don’t know much at this point, with the social site bird lovers only stating that their new application for Windows 8 was being built and that we can expect them to share it with us in the “months ahead.”

It looks like we’ll still be waiting awhile. With Windows 8 being readily available today and updated to as we speak, I’m already wondering why they didn’t jump on a dedicated app sooner and have it ready at launch like many others. It’s worth noting that this official app is being built from the ground up, so you’ll be able to enjoy it on Windows 8 PC’s, as well as RT tablets and more. Stay tuned for more details from the Twittersphere!

A dedicated Netflix app for Windows 8 is already available, and earlier we shared details on the beautiful ESPN app too. While on stage Microsoft took a minute to shout out multiple brands we’ll be seeing apps from in the coming weeks and months. As shown above some of those include the popular Dropbox, PayPal, OWN, Sports Illustrated, Wikipedia, TBS and many others. These will be more than just apps, they’ll be useful apps built to work great with everything Windows 8 has to offer.

Paypal will not only have their own app, but they’ll offer an API to developers on Windows 8 to use PayPal payments in their own apps right in the Windows Store, as well as any Windows Store app. Dropbox has an app coming soon, but they didn’t give many details on that — obviously wanting users to choose SkyDrive instead.

The link above showing off the all new ESPN app is just one of many, and a fine example of what all the API’s and options Windows 8 brings to app developers. Being able to have an impressive and beautiful score-center and more all working seamlessly in Windows 8 as an app should be exciting. I’m sure we’ll be hearing plenty more all week at build, as well as from these specific app developers themselves.

“Deep Pinning” is a central piece of this puzzle, and from all sides you’ll be seeing awesome control for the app with text, images, and sound working at all times. Snap View allows you to work with ESPN in a section of your display while you work with other apps at the same time. It’s made to give you the ESPN experience at all times of the day.

This app is ready for action today and you can download it starting today from Microsoft’s own store on Windows 8. [Update: ESPN tells us that the app won't, in fact, be ready for download until the end of the year] If you’re ready for this action on the smartphone, you can expect a new iteration soon as well. This is just the beginning, with apps such as Sports Illustrated, Wikipedia, and more awesome news and sports entertainment apps coming soon. Dropbox is coming as well, Oprah’s own lovely app environment, and “many, many, many many many more” as Steve Ballmer noted in his follow-up talk on apps specifically.

Have a peek at our timeline below of recent announcements surrounding Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 from Build 2012 and surrounding the launch that’s happened over the past few days. We’re here at the dawn of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 all at once – big things are going down!

The enthusiasm was addictive at Build 2012 right at the dawn of Windows Phone 8, Ballmer making it clear that his journey from his arrival in the USA in 1988 spanned the gamut: Windows 95, 98, the PC going big, and more. The message was clear: Windows 8 is the next generation, and with Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT the wave is coming in strong. Ballmer makes it clear that it’s not just about one screen, not just about one version of the operating system – it’s about everything, all of the displays, all of the form factors.

This kind of experience is “alive with activity”, said Ballmer, and every screen is “alive and active with information” from the cloud, through Microsoft. With the launch of Windows Phone 8, said Ballmer, “the phone launches in full fruition into the Windows 8 family.” Ballmer’s talk was more than just a primer for the event, it was a sell-point for investors as well.

“If you want the best experience with your Windows Computer, you will own a Windows phone.” – Ballmer

It was time to build not just a single standard phone for everyone, Ballmer said of the original launch of Windows Phone, it was time to build something personal for each user. That’s one of the big points being driven home with Windows Phone 8 as well – as evidenced earlier this week with the big Windows Phone 8 launch event as well with Jessica Alba and friends.

Stick around our Microsoft hub as well as the Windows Phone 8 tag for more information on Windows Phone 8 than you’ll be able to handle all week!

Jordan Rudess, keyboardist for the musical group Dream Theater stood on stage at the beginning of the first keynote this week to show off some apps that his group developed. He’s not just a musician, he’s a developer as well. Using a Surface RT and a giant Lenovo touch-capable All-in-One PC to make it happen with Windows 8, he set the tone for the whole conference: multi-touch, multi-use, cross-platform action. His app Tachyon (which you may have heard of before) brings on a lovely musical bit of madness for the masses.

We’re expecting not just one whole heck of a lot of new information from Microsoft this week other than developer-specific details. If you’re interested in the guts of the system, [stay tuned to our Microsoft hub.] It’s time to see what Microsoft has in the insides of this next-generation release!

Also have a peek at the timeline below to see some more Windows Phone 8 action as it came on down over the past couple of weeks. This weekend is the big drop internationally, and Microsoft stores across the earth will be bringing you every phone in every color in the very near future – get pumped up to the max! And don’t forget to check out our full Windows Phone 8 review as well!

That’s despite attendance at the developer event being none too cheap. Early-bird tickets were priced at $1,595 apiece, and the 500 available sold out in minutes. Full-price tickets were $2,095 each, and took around 70 minutes to go. Microsoft also offered 100 $995 academic tickets, which required pre-approval.

The speedy sell-out is just the latest high-profile developer event to fill up in short order. Registration for Apple’s WWDC has grown more frantic with each passing year, forcing the company to block ticket resales in 2012, while Google I/O has shown similar demand among Android developers.

Part of the allure is undoubtedly the potential for freebies and swag for attendees. Last year, developers at Build 2011 left with a free Samsung tablet for them to get started coding Windows 8 applications with, and with Microsoft Surface flying the own-brand flag for the OS, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the Windows RT slate in the 2012 goody-bags.

SlashGear will be covering the Build 2012 keynote and bringing you all the news as it’s announced, so don’t fret too much if you missed out on tickets.

[Thanks @stroughtonsmith!]