MS intros Zune music service, Wi-Fi song sharing
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Tight-lipped on prices, availability Microsoft yesterday revealed what World+Dog already knew: what it's upcoming Zune-branded digital music player will look like. Yes, the star of US Federal Communications Commission filings and blurry, amateur-look picture leaks is official.â¦
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The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store is a new service for iPod and iPhone users.
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Zune digital media player and online music and multimedia store coming soon, software giant says.
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Some readers gain new insight on Microsoft's music player from our resident Mac-o-philiac while others rant about Wi-Fi's potentially painful kiss. Plus: Links to our most popular blogs.
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Microsoft Corp.'s Zune music player looks a lot like an iPod, acts a lot like an iPod and will cost about the same as an iPod. The software giant said Thursday that it will charge $249.99 for the device, signaling that it isn't planning to spark a major price war to gain market share.
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Microsoft said Monday that it is sponsoring a series of free concerts over the next month to help promote its Zune music player.
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Mercury News is reporting that Microsoft is set to quietly launch its MSN online music store as part of Windows Media Player 10. According to analysts given a peek at the store, Microsoft's offering closely matches Apple's iTunes Music Store in design. 130 million Windows users will be prompted to update Media Player, and a button in the upper right corner of the software will lead them to MSN Music. Downloads from the store will be compatible with almost 60 portable music players, according to Microsoft.
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Microsoft today unveiled details of its highly anticipated Zune media player in the latest bid to rival Apple's iTunes/iPod combination.
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The MP3 player will let music fans give other Zune users a taste of their collections -- a cool feature that could turn the iPod generation green with envy. In Listening Post.
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Microsoft is launching a new program that will give new music artists an opportunity to get discovered by 30 million Zune, MSN, and Xbox users through a program it calls "Ignition."
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The software giant quietly raised the curtain for its MSN Music Web site, which offers song downloads for 99 cents. The store also has a home in Windows Media Player 10, which is slated to launch on Thursday.
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InfoWorld - On the day Apple revealed its first Wi-Fi-enabled, touchscreen iPod, Microsoft&#39;s rival to Apple&#39;s wildly popular multimedia player got a little less expensive.
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LOS ANGELES (CBS.MW) - Microsoft launched a preview version of its new service for downloading digital music late Wednesday, placing it squarely in competition with Apple&#39;s rival iTunes music service.
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newsmaker There's still a lot Microsoft wants to do with Windows, and it has its work cut out with Zune,  CEO says.
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The guys who brought you the Zune have come up with a cool new machine. Really.
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Blog: A Zune fan site is reporting on a Microsoft patent filing that describes a system for paying Zune users commissions for sharing a song that the recipient ends up buying.
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(InfoWorld) - On the day Apple revealed its first Wi-Fi-enabled, touchscreen iPod, Microsoft's rival to Apple's wildly popular multimedia player got a little less expensive. The Zune device from Microsoft now costs $199, $50 less than its original price tag. Microsoft announced the price cut on its Zune Insider blog on Tuesday, a day before Apple was rumored to beÂ introducing new iPod modelsÂ at an event in San Francisco, which the company did indeed do. Naturally, Microsoft did not mention Zune's archrival in its blog post, saying that the price cut had been in the works for some time. "Itâs part of the normal product lifecycle, something weâve had on the books for months," according to the blog post. "We just got some research back and customer satisfaction with the 30GB device is really high (around 94 percent), and we expect even more consumers will now want to discover the Zune experience at the new lower price." With the new iPods introduced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs in San Francisco on Wednesday, that prediction doesn't seem too likely. The new iPod Touch that Jobs unveiled is the first iPod with Wi-Fi capability, one of the differentiators between the current iPod lines and the Zune device, which was launched with Wi-Fi last November. iPod Touch also is similar in look and feel to theÂ recently launched Apple iPhone, and features touchscreen controls that are making Apple's phone/multimedia device combination a hit with customers. In other bad news for Zune, Apple on Wednesday also has cut the price on its 80GB iPod from $349 to $249, which makes it only a fraction less expensive than the 30GB Zune. It also has introduced a 160GB iPod for $349. According to Jobs, Apple has sold 110 million iPods to date. There are rumors that, to compete more aggressively with Apple, Microsoft will introduce new Zune devices by the holidays with new features and form factors, but so far the company has declined to divulge specific details. There have also been hints from executives that an iPhone rival is in the works. Microsoft has said from the beginning that Zune is a long-term investment, and expects it will take some time before the device will be a worthy competitor to iPod, which has a five-year head start and Apple's brand power behind it.