Tonight’s Samsung Galaxy S4 event will be kicking off in a couple hours (start time: 7pm EST) and we’ll be live blogging the action once it’s underway. We’ve covered the Galaxy S4 news and rumors plenty in advance of tonight’s release event so if you’re waiting for the Galaxy S4 live blog to get started, check out the leaked photos below and our primer on what to watch for in tonight’s announcement.

If you’d rather watch live, you can live stream the event here.

Live Blog

7:59m: And that’s that. We’re out. We’ll sum all this up and give you a more complete specs roundup tomorrow AM. Thanks for joining us!

7:55pm: Ok, now they are talking about the sensors from the perspective of health. S-Health monitors sleep patterns, exercise, etc. and estimates how many calories you’ve burned. Very cool, but it’s not clear to me that the hardware maker is going to be the best player to create the application layer for this kind of thing.

7:54pm: Ok, this is pretty cool. Pick up a call with a swipe of your hand (not on the phone.) So if you have sunscreen on your hand, just swipe it above the screen. And if you are watching a video and then look away the video pauses. Use cases for the no-hands scrolling technology.

7:52pm: Talking about Chat-On – turn a voice call into a video call. And then draw on the screen to make notes.

7:48pm: Now talking about Knox, first introduced at Mobile World Congress. Security system built on to p of a government version of Android. Like the Blackberry 10 OS, basically splits the operating system into two sections – personal and professional.

7:43pm: S-Voice Drive is an application to help users interact with a phone – more voice inputs, bigger text – while driving.

7:39pm: These skits are painful. You’re lucky I’m blogging this for you.

7:32pm: Also talking up the sound and shot. A photo with audio attached.

7:31pm: There’s a dual camera mode where you can record yourself and something else together and thereby basically automatically photo shop yourself into it. Kinda weird.

7:29pm: Let me pause and say events like these are a ludicrous spectacle. Right now they’re doing skits of the use cases:

7:28pm: 8 sensors total – 2 new ones. Infrared guesture and temperature and humidity. All I can think is how more inputs can help with cool passive data applications in health and energy, but no doubt there are lots of awesome and more consumer facing use cases too.

7:26pm: Will include infrared LED so you can use your device as a remote. 13 megapixel camera on the back. 2 megapixel camera on the front.

7:25pm: Lots of specs coming fast – we’ll round up shortly. As previously reported, it’s a 5″ screen.

7:23pm: Ryan Biden of Samsung America takes the stage.

7:23pm: Will make your life “richer, simpler, and fuller.” And it looks like Shin is done his piece.

7:21pm: Will be available starting in the end of April.

7:18pm: Samsung Knox is the company’s answer to security for enterprise on a personal device.

7:17pm: “Wouldn’t it be convenient if the smartphone could understand when you want to scroll up and down.” Sounds like eye scrolling will be part of it. “Imagine touchless interfaces.”

7:13pm: The host on stage kicsk it off and then hands it off to JK Shin, Samsung president.

7:13pm: They’re really hanging on with this little kid plot line. Which is to say, we’re underway…

7:03pm: Thanks for tuning in. We’ll be getting started momentarily.

5:00pm: For those tuning in before things get started, supposedly leaked photos of the S4 are included below:

Background

Excerpted from our previous reporting…

Specs

There’s been no shortage of spec rumors, but the latest report comes from Engadget:

The new pictures show off what’s measured as a 1080p 4.99-inch display with an embossed home key and cross-hatch textured plastic back cover (already cracked on this unit). Engadget Chinese came through with a translation, and the specs listed on it168 claim its Exynos 5410 is a 1.8GHz 8-core CPU unit, with PowerVR SGX 544MP3 GPU. The i9502 weighs in at 138g and measures 7.7mm thick, packs 2GB of RAM and 16GB ROM storage with a microSD expansion slot and has a 2600mAh battery.

Bloomberg has reported that the U.S. version will include Qualcomm’s quad-core rather than an eight core processor.

Eye scrolling

Reports of eye scrolling have come from The New York Times and Engadget but been refuted by Bloomberg. On this one we’ll have to wait and see.

A faux stylus

Rather than an actual stylus pen, Engadget reports it’ll have similar functionality for your finger.

Matchup vs. Apple

Apple is already out trash talking Android in advance of tonight’s release. But as we’ve reported, analysts expect this to be a very real challenge to the iPhone.

Expect heavy marketing

That might sound obvious, but it’s noteworthy that Samsung outspent Apple on advertising in 2012.