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Microsoft rolls out Windows Live Messenger for Zune HD
The Zune HD may not have seen quite the explosion of apps that many had hoped for, but it's just gotten a pretty big one: Windows Live Messenger. That will naturally give you much of the same functionality of its desktop counterpart (also receiving an update today), including the ability to keep watch on updates from various social networking sites, and even use Facebook Chat. It'll also display the music you have playing right in the app and, just like the desktop version, it's free. Look for it in the Zune Marketplace right now.
Xbox Live Fall 2010 Dashboard Update preview: ESPN, Netflix search, Kinect, and more! (Update)
Shortly before Kinect hits store shelves on November 4th, Microsoft plans on rolling out the Fall Update to Xbox Live -- even sooner for those who signed up for the preview program. That shouldn't come as much of a surprise, really: even without the numerous leaks, the fall update is a longstanding tradition for the almost five-year-old console, and the company devoted a large chunk of its E3 2010 presentation to talk about the biggest additions. That includes Netflix search (finally!), Zune music, and an entertainment hub for a certain worldwide sports broadcaster... ESPN. We've had a chance to spend some time at home with the Fall Update, follow us after the break for our full impressions! Update: As both Joystiq and a number of tipsters have alerted us, Microsoft has pulled the large, wooden lever in its dark underground lair that allows for the Fall Update to trickle out and assimilate itself into the consoles of those smart enough to sign up for the preview program. If you receive a prompt upon signing in, rejoice! If not, well, have patience! P.S. - Looking for more? Our BFFs at Joystiq have compiled a series of exhaustive videos chronicling the Fall Update. Check it out! %Gallery-103613%
Xbox Live Update Preview Program sign-up sheet now accepting gamertags
Want an early glimpse of ESPN for Xbox Live? How about an upgraded Netflix, Zune music, or some shiny new visuals? Just like last year, Microsoft's resident Xbox 360 spokesman Major Nelson has made the call for sign-ups in the Update Preview Progam, which as the name suggests will get you on the list for potentially some early playtime with the upcoming Dashboard update. Just follow the instructions to get in the virtual queue, and sorry, this isn't gonna get you any closer to Kinect. Productivity notwithstanding, what do you have to lose?
Microsoft expanding Zune internationally, Zune Pass coming to UK, France, Italy, and Spain
It's been years of waiting, but Microsoft is finally expanding the Zune service internationally -- a move that precedes the big Windows Phone 7 launch. Version 4.7 of the Zune software will be the desktop sync client for WP7 devices, and as such it'll be available in more than 20 countries. Don't get too excited, though -- Zune Marketplace is a much more complicated situation, since Microsoft has to hammer our agreements in every country, and it's not coming everywhere with every feature. Here's the breakdown: The Zune Pass subscription service will hit the UK, France, Italy and Spain, offering unlimited streaming for £8.99 / €9.99 per month but no ability to keep 10 tracks a month as with the $14.99 US service. Music purchases will arrive in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany, and the format will be unencumbered MP3. Video purchases will come to the UK, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, with playback support across the PC, Xbox Live, and Windows Phone 7. Video rentals will hit the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and can be synced to the PC, Xbox Live, and Windows Phone 7. Yep, it's a little complicated unless you live in the UK or France, but we're sure Redmond's working furiously to wrap up all the deals it can. We're also a little bummed that international Zune Pass subscribers won't be able to keep 10 tracks a month, but hey -- there's a reason why America is awesome, and it's not just football. Full PR after the break.
Microsoft's Tivanka Ellawala: no plans to develop more phone hardware
Well, that settles that. Not that we really expected Microsoft to branch out and try the whole "let's make a phone!" thing again -- particularly after the Kin debacle ended the way it did -- but the company's own Tivanka Ellawala just said as much at an investor conference in San Francisco. For those unaware, Mr. Ellawala is the company's CFO for the Mobile Communications Business, and we have all ideas he's still reeling from lost investments related to Kin. Answering a question about rumors surrounding a future Microsoft-built phone, he stated: "We are in the software business and that is where our business will be focused." He went on to stress the importance and magnitude of Windows Phone 7, which he says will spearhead demand for data services and will be "strong on the gaming side." Honestly, we aren't too bummed out -- we'd rather the engineers in Redmond stick to making the best mobile OS they can, while the dudes and dudettes at HTC, Samsung and LG keep on cranking out the drool-worthy hardware. But mostly we're just terrified of the Kin 2.
Microsoft job posting hints at another Zune, or perhaps an internally-developed phone
We'd heard rumors that a new Zune was on the way, but here's a spot of evidence that something's actually up: Microsoft's adding a senior mechanical engineer to help build "the next generation of portable entertainment and communication devices." While the job listing in question is technically for Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business, which oversees Windows Phone, it's clear that some things have changed since the Entertainment & Devices shakeup: "We are the team that shipped the Zune HD," the post reads. It appears that there's a new group within Microsoft called the Portable Entertainment Group which isn't afraid to design its own hardware and includes the Zune team, though whether that hardware be Zune, phone or something more obscure still remains to be seen.
Zune HD taking to the skies with United Airlines in-flight entertainment trial
Microsoft and United hooked up back in June for a hardware-less Zune partnership, which seems to have turned out pretty sweetly for both parties. Dave McLauchlan, chief Zune HD evangelist, has dished the news that the two companies are stepping up their relationship with a set of 500 Zunes being provided for long-haul flights to Hong Kong and Australia. Before you cry foul and say you never get on a flying tin can without your own media, Microsoft's angle here will be to preload those OLED-sporting babies with exclusive content, including flicks that haven't yet made it to a DVD release. Dave himself has been running around movie studios and closing deals, while the Zune HDs in question have now been encased in rubber, had their screens protected, and batteries charged. See them in a group shot after the break.
Zune HD could have all-new model in the works
The Zune HD continues to rank among our all-time favorites in terms of industrial design, so it's good to hear that Microsoft isn't entirely abandoning the PMP sector for its new Windows Phone 7 hotness. Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet has consulted her tea leaves (and in-the-know tipsters) and emerged with the strong feeling that some new Zune hardware is brewing up in Redmond. Little specificity is available, beyond the obvious postulation that a new ZHD would probably be driven by an ARM CPU and take some software pointers from WP7, but we're told to look toward the early 2011 horizon and see if we can't spot any sexy new media players emerging. A mirage is as likely as the real deal right now, but it's always fun to look to that horizon, no?
Switched On: ZuneForSure
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. The moon has only four major phases, but as the Zune -- that satellite around Microsoft's gravitational pull -- enters a familiar fifth phase, what some consider a pale reflection of the iPod has made few waves despite inspiring its share of romantics. Zune began as a new salvo against the iPod as Microsoft grew frustrated in its attempts to make inroads versus Apple's soaring digital media device with its abysmally named and convoluted PlaysForSure rights management scheme. PlaysForSure had actually achieved some level of acceptance on digital music players and even handsets, but as Steve Ballmer has explained, devices that sell in the tens of millions of units per year -- as opposed to hundreds of millions like PCs and handsets (Kin notwithstanding) -- can be a good opportunity for vertical integration of hardware and software. And so was born Zune, welcoming us to the social with its chunky profile, brown color option, "double shot" facade and the quirky and later abandoned WiFi-based song-squirting sharing feature. Its next major iteration introduced the "squircle" -- a rounded square clickable trackpad that surpassed the click wheel just as Apple was gearing up for the game-changing iPod touch: strike two.
Microsoft reports $4.5b in profit, a record $16.04b in revenue
This time last year, almost to the day, Microsoft saw its first annual sales decline in history. Things are looking much better now, with the company reporting a record $16.04 billion in revenue, a 22 percent year-over-year increase for its Q4 revenue ending June 30th. In fact, revenue is up across all divisions, with Windows and Windows Live seeing the biggest uptick (43.5 percent to $4.55 billion) followed by Entertainment and Devices (27.3 percent to $1.6 billion). Operating income, on the other hand, paints a different picture of E&D, showing a $172 million loss for this quarter (compared to $141 loss in Q4 last year), but looking over the entire fiscal year, the home of Xbox and Zune this year did $679 million in operating income -- a sizable jump to the $108 million from 2009. The overall operating income for the company is $5.93 billion this quarter (net income $4.52 billion), a 49 percent increase over last Q4, and $20.36 billion for the year (18 percent compared with fiscal 2009). We know you're interested in comparisons, so we'll just go ahead and break it down for ya: the gang in Redmond is still beating Apple in both revenue ($16.04 billion vs. $15.7 billion) and profit ($4.52 billion vs. $3.25), but that margin feels smaller than it used to. Enough to keep the rumored pressure off Ballmer? Frankly, we don't even think biplanes could knock the man off the top of a tower, but Windows Phone 7 has a lot to prove, and fast. Microsoft is hosting a webcast of its report later today -- usually much ado about nothing, as far as we're concerned, but we'll listen in and let ya know if anything interesting pops up. Update: Some interesting Xbox 360 statistics. 1.5 million consoles were sold this last quarter. Xbox Live has 25 million members, and for the first time since its inception, the revenue from the Marketplace exceeded subscription revenue.
Zune Pass for UK gets briefly teased, priced?
If the above picture is to be believed, it looks like Microsoft's Zune Pass is gearing up to make its UK debut. An across-the-pond tipster via LiveSide apparently stumbled upon (and was able to successfully score the 14-day trial) a Subscription page with pricing tiers. In addition to the tryout period, there were also options for a £8.99 (about $13.74) one-month pass and £26.97 / $41.23 for three. Further details are just barely hinted at in the sidebar, but if it's anything like the US progenitor, we're looking at an all-you-can download music service and ten DRM-free MP3s each month, playable on Windows, Xbox 360 (soon), Zune devices (still not available outside US), and Windows Phone 7. We know Microsoft is planning to move its "challenging" music service into every country its phones will venture, but that little tidbit doesn't absolve this image of scrutiny. Try as we might, our UK editors are unable to find this screen anywhere. According to the original tipster, even though he has access to the trial, he still can't use it. We'll keep digging and will let you know what we find. [Thanks, Ian]
Entelligence: Time for Microsoft to once again embrace and extend
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide. A core part of Microsoft's strategy from days gone by was known as embrace and extend. With a reboot of their mobile platform due later this year, is it time for Microsoft to think about moving some of their services and applications to competitor's platforms? To some degree, it's already happening. Microsoft licenses the ActiveSync protocol which allows Android, iOS and other platforms to wirelessly sync with Exchange. It's developed Bing and Live Messenger apps for iOS and also done a deal to bring mobile Office apps to Nokia's platforms. One could argue that in some of these cases Microsoft has given competitors access to what could have been key differentiators for its own mobile efforts. I'm not sure I disagree with that analysis, but now that it's happening, I think Microsoft should think even more broadly about porting some applications and services. Here's what I'd like to see made available for other platforms. Office Mobile: Sure, there are other solutions for viewing and editing Office documents on almost every platform, but none of them carry the Microsoft Office brand. A version of Office for mobile (including a touch-enabled version of OneNote) would be an instant best seller on every platform and a become the de facto standard for mobile office applications. A combination of free document viewers and a suite of applications at a reasonable cost would put Microsoft at the top of mobile productivity and at the same time help continue to drive Office sales for PCs and Macs.
Bing Entertainment integrates Zune Marketplace purchases, improves Microsoft's media swagger
Bing, Microsoft's "decision engine," is wading into the entertainment realm today with the revelation that searches for music, lyrics, games, TV shows, and movies will get a new special sauce treatment from here on out. You'll now be able to play 100 basic games right in your search results, along with full-length streaming of songs (first time only, 30 seconds thereafter) from a 5 million-strong catalog. The latter is augmented with "one-click" purchases from the Zune Marketplace (directly through the web, no need to launch the app), Amazon, or iTunes music libraries. Movie tickets are promised to be similarly easy to buy, though the biggest new feature might well be the Bing.com/entertainment page, which acts as a portal into your media consumption with a selection of the most popular content in each category. It doesn't look terribly different from the iTunes storefront, but given its partnership with Apple's digital music shop, we doubt Bing's Entertainment section is perceived as much of a threat -- not yet, anyway. As to that other search giant, Google's been said to already be putting together a music store of its own. Man, all this integration and interconnectedness -- just where will it end?%Gallery-96092%
Kinect-optimized Xbox 360 Dashboard preview
We just got a look at the new Kinect Dashboard-lite for the Xbox 360. In some ways, it's pretty charming, with fun, jazzed up icons (when you hover over them they tilt and show off depth), a simplistic layout, and some great voice controls. The downside is this all comes at the cost of a brand new, fairly redundant interface for accessing functions that are already available with your Xbox 360 controller in the regular Dashboard. Still, there's no denying the joy of waving a hand to log in, hovering over icons to select channels (though the wait-to-click mechanism strikes us as eventually frustrating), and scrubbing through media with very intuitive gestures. The best part is the voice control, however, allowing you to speak "Xbox" and then a command like play, pause, back, forward, stop, Zune, etc. It's ripe for abuse (pausing your S.O.'s seventh Netflix screening of The Constant Gardner ad nauseam), but Microsoft says it's working on eliminating random commands that might seep into conversation. Our biggest worry is that we're going to see confusion and fragmentation of functionality with the divergent UI requirements that Kinect apps and regular Dashboard apps require -- we can't imagine the Facebook or Last.fm folks being super thrilled at creating an all-new app just to support Microsoft's whims, but we're told just such apps are in the works. Is the existing Dashboard really so complicated that Kinect couldn't control it? Check out a video of this puzzling Kinectasticness after the break. %Gallery-95214%
Kinect, the new Xbox 360, and ESPN: highlights from Microsoft at E3 2010
My, what big showing you have there, Microsoft. We're still recovering from today and yesterday's big Xbox 360 Kinect unveiling party, but let's take a brief trip down short-term memory lane. First, Project Natal became Kinect, unveiled a handful of interesting / guaranteed-to-embarrass uses, and solidified its November release date. Then ESPN3 made an impressive debut on Xbox Live. Finally, the piece de resistance, a slimmed down Xbox 360 250GB that came (almost) out of nowhere and hits retail as soon as physically possible. Everywhere Microsoft was this past 24 hours, so were we: Liveblog Live from Microsoft's E3 2010 keynote! The new, slim Xbox 360 Xbox 360 250GB first unboxing! Xbox 360 naming guide: the new Xbox 360 vs. the Xbox 360 Original New Xbox 360 gets official at $299, shipping today, looks angular and ominous (video hands-on!) New Xbox 360 250GB now available for preorder at GameStop, Newegg and Amazon Xbox 360 Arcade to eventually be replaced by $199 new Xbox 360; data transfer cable will be $20 Kinect The new Xbox 360 Kinect port, up close Kinect priced at GameStop: $149, $399 for Elite bundle Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 launches on November 4 Microsoft Kinect to go on sale in November, somewhere Microsoft Kinect gets official, Video Chat announced Video Kinect: video chat and stream sharing over Xbox Live and Live Messenger Kinect in the flesh! Microsoft demos new Kinect dashboard and voice contro Other news of import Zune music heads to Xbox 360 ESPN3 comes exclusively to Xbox 360 Netflix for Xbox 360 adds search in November Galleries Eyes-on More eyes-on Press shots Unboxing Kinect in the flesh! Kinect press shots Liveblog highlights
Zune music heads to Xbox 360
It's not all games and motion control for Microsoft at E3 this year-- the company has just announced that the complete library of Zune music is joining the video options already available on the Xbox 360. Details are still a bit light otherwise, but you can rest assured that it's both Kinect and Bieber compatible. Update: Microsoft has now at least revealed a few more details, confirming that Zune Pass subscribers will have on-demand, instant streaming access to a full seven million tracks, and that the service will "seamlessly" integrate with the 16,000 music videos already available on Xbox Live -- if you own a video, it'll automatically start playing during the corresponding song.
United Airlines offers up 'Zune inflight audio,' no actual Zunes
Microsoft's already shown with the Xbox 360 and Kin that it's looking to take its Zune platform beyond Zune-branded hardware, but we can't say we expected it to go quite this far -- Microsoft has now teamed up with United Airlines to offer "Zune inflight audio" to passengers. That apparently won't involve any new hardware in the planes -- Microsoft or otherwise -- but it will give passengers 21 new playlists "programmed by Zune" to choose from, including options like Classic Rock, Contemporary Pop, Opera and Piano Jazz. Not many more details than that, unfortunately, with United only saying that it looks forward to "working with Zune and Microsoft to create new onboard experiences." Sure, it might not sound like much, but it should at least go some ways towards improving the Zune's name recognition. Full press release is after the break.
Microsoft considers a Zune Pass price drop
Zune Pass already felt like a pretty sweet deal for music buffs -- $15 per month for unlimited streaming and 10 DRM-free MP3s -- and now Microsoft might be lowering the subscription price even further. Or so says Senior Product Manager Terry Farrell, who added, "it's a very definitely a challenging business." No indication what that new price might be, but just this past April, RealNetwork dropped Rhapsody's monthly fee from $15 to $10. If it does come to fruition, the new price would surely be a welcome boon to an already-promising Windows Phone 7 launch -- and maybe even Kin. Maybe.
LG's Windows Phone 7 phone caught in the wild, looking good
Been wondering how that LG proto unit debuted on The Engadget Show is doing? Pocket-lint got to see the QWERTY slider up close and personal in London yesterday, and their takeaway from the meetup was that the device and OS are well on their way to stardom. Calling it the LG Panther, they delve into its deep Facebook integration, which throws up status updates when you hit on a contact in your address book, ability to recognize addresses and provide relevant links to Bing maps, as well as its quick and clear Zune media player. The latter was accompanied by confirmation that the Zune Store will be hitting the UK in time for Windows Phone 7's release, which could happen as early as September -- it all depends on who you talk to. Hit the source for more imagery and impressions.
Visual Boy Zune brings Game Boy emulation to Zune HD (video)
Once hacked, the Zune HD's rabid fanbase wasted no time in ensuring the device could play Doom. Now, the ZuneBoards want to give it Zelda, too. User BackAtIt has taken the wrappings off the first working emulator for Zune, which is currently capable of playing Game Boy and Game Boy Color ROMs, but little else -- though this "Visual Boy Zune" app is ported from the same VisualBoyAdvance code that's enabled handheld emulation since 2004, it's in early alpha with quite a bit of work left to do. A recent update enabled state save emulation and a ROM selector, but there's no audio output, let alone Game Boy Advance support; BackAtIt says he'll need to rewrite much of the codebase to take advantage of the Zune HD's Tegra architecture. Still, it's never too early for a proof of concept video, and you'll find two blurry ones after the break -- unless you'd rather try it out for yourself at the source link. [Thanks, MK1000]
