As if the Zune weren’t embarrassing enough… Microsoft and Verizon are reportedly discussing a touchscreen multimedia cellphone that could launch on the carrier’s network in 2010. The project is codenamed “Pink” and will apparently involve some ungodly combination of Windows Mobile and Zune software.
Verizon Wireless is reportedly working with Microsoft to develop a new smart-phone. Plus, layoffs at Nokia and Microsoft’s “societal network.”
“Microsoft is not doing a phone.” That was Redmond’s terse denial of a report that it is preparing to launch a branded cellphone in the second half of this year. Put forth by analysts from Broadpoint.AmTech, the report speculates that the device would tightly integrate hardware and software, much like Apple’s iPhone, and that Microsoft may uncrate it at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month. The Broadpoint research note in its entirety after the jump.
Overlooked in the carnage of Microsoft’s second quarter was the performance of the company’s Zune platform. Which was, quite simply, atrocious. Seems that $10 to $20 holiday discount didn’t do much good at all.
With little in the way of exciting news to announce, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s CES keynote address tonight promised to be a lackluster, if not downright wearisome affair–even if you’re unnaturally excited by the idea of Windows 7. And so it was, by and large. With the beta version of the operating system widely leaked last week, there wasn’t all that much to reveal. Unless, of course, Windows 7 PCs–like Vista PCs before them–ship with XP downgrade rights…
Call it the Z2K9 bug. At approximately midnight EDT on Dec. 30, a number of first generation 30 GB Microsoft Zunes failed en masse. According to accounts posted to Zune forums around the Web, the players seized up during the initial boot process and became unresponsive to the standard reboot or reset commands.
Not true, the President-elect uses an iPod.”
– An Obama spokesman makes quick work of the Zunegate scandal
Microsoft’s Zune digital music player isn’t going to best Apple’s iPod any time soon, so you’ve really got to give the company credit for soldiering on in the face of adversity, widespread consumer uninterest and ever-deepening economic gloom.
Microsoft is adapting its Zune digital music player to the “realities of the market”–those created by recent turmoil in the economy, as well as the harsher ones created by Apple’s iPod juggernaut. It’s slashing prices across the Zune line in the hopes of protecting holiday sales.
A “regularly scheduled maintenance” outage will take Microsoft’s Zune platform offline for up to 48 hours beginning today. So if you’re among the five Zune owners who comprise the “Social” and you’ve actually noticed that it’s suddenly gone missing–along with Zune Marketplace and the Zune Net forums–and you’re bothered by their absence, this is why.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Includes “Pigs in a Polka,” “Rabbit of Seville” and, of course, “What’s Opera, Doc?”
Take the famous ballads and duets of West Side Story, insert a dozen mentions of famous social media sites like twitter and facebook, and this is what you get.
An iPod mini rebuilt with a wooden case
Star Wars meets Magnum, P.I.
Music videos recreated with new lyrics based on what’s actually happening in them. Daydream Believer and Total Eclipse of the Heart are particularly good.
In response to numerous e-mails, I have no idea what planet the giant alien creature is from. Judging from its enormous gills, I’d have to guess it’s from a watery planet. Reminder: please let me know if you plan to be in the office on Memorial Day so I can request HVAC for your floor.
For those of you who mock the wolf shirt beware. There is an old Navajo story about a young man who made fun of another man for wearing a wolf trio shirt. Legend has it that in his sleep, the wolves on the other man’s shirt came to life and tore his body to shreds. They never found any part of that man’s body. The Wolf is something to be respected and feared, not treated like a novelty.
Hands down the most inexplicably bizarre game for Wii I’ve ever seen
Yo mama is so attractive she could be on the cover of Prevention.
The inspiration for this project was to determine who could generate the worst flatulence measurable in a personally unbiased manner.
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