#FF00AA

@windows@

Engadget, about Microsoft’s iPod (wannabe) killer that was finally confirmed:

The service and device will not be PlaysForSure compliant, meaning you will not be able to use your Zune player with Napster or Vongo, for example. This will be an entirely new system. Microsoft will continue to support and develop for their PlaysForSure initiative, but all things PlaysForSure are handled by two entirely separate division that will not have any crossover.

 

@windows@

GigaOM:

The real and perhaps the only story in the news is that Microsoft’s partners – from device makers to music services – just got double crossed by the company they choose to believe in. […]

Let me break this down: Zune will compete with […] anyone dumb enough to buy into Microsoft’s visions of Urge, Media Player, PlayForSure etc.

Not that it’s much different worse than what Steve Jobs did to Motorola — although Motorola knew beforehand that the iPod existed, and should have pulled back when Apple set a limit to the number of iTunes track, whereas Microsoft’s partners… eh, where did they think they were going, trusting Microsoft?

 

@apple@

Now the real question is, when is Apple going to release their wireless iPod / iPhone / iTablet? A few months before Microsoft releases the Zune, with the risk of its announcement being later eclipsed by Microsoft’s (and of rushing to market a product that might not be completely ready — not that they would mind), or a few months after, when they might be called followers? I guess the deciding factor, here, is how much better they think their product will be: if they can expect the iTablet to wipe out everything else, they can afford to give Microsoft a few months on the stage. We all know how modest Steve Jobs can be, and we know how Microsoft understands user expectations when it comes to hardware devices (just look at the Origami… or the Xbox, even — they needed all of Microsoft’s clout and selling at loss and Windows / DirectX compatibility to get the original box any kind of adoption, and the 360’s success can mostly be attributed to Sony going bonkers), so I wouldn’t expect Apple’s retaliation to come before spring of 2007. (Well, if it’s only about adding wifi to the iPod, they can very well do it by summer’s end, though.)

I guess the DS Lite + Opera combo is getting more interesting by the minute. Although I can’t say I found the video particularly enticing.

 

@windows@

Oh, and that one puzzles me. Gizmodo:

That scenario is to provide ubiquitous access to digital media from a wide range of Windows-powered devices in what ultimately aspires to be one part MySpace, one part iTunes and one part Xbox Live.

MySpace? Are they just throwing buzzwords around, or are they serious? Is Zune going to integrate with MSN Spaces (and only MSN Spaces) and let your update your crappy excuse for a blog from any wifi access point? You know, you don’t need a $400 device for that; you might as well use SMS/MMS.

By the way, why isn’t anyone mentioning an embedded web browser?

 

@windows@

[+3h] Rough Type:

Early last year, Bill Gates commented on Apple’s success with its “closed” iTunes/iPod system and laid out Microsoft’s very different, “open” strategy for the music-player market.

Heh.

It was already funny, in itself, hearing Microsoft tout “openness,” but it gets even better in retrospect.