Gabriel Pollard

Microsoft has said, when it first released the music player, Zune, that a mobile phone based on it could be in the future.

Earlier this year, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said at a CEO forum that the Zune phone is not a concept that Microsoft would ever pursue. But he then said it could easily add music or gaming functionality to its Windows Mobile platform.

“It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think at some point there might some integrated thing,” Mindy Mount, chief financial officer of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, told investors at Citigroup’s global technology conference.

“It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think at some point there might some integrated thing,” Mindy Mount, chief financial officer of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, told investors at Citigroup’s global technology conference.

Full article available on the New Zealand Herald, written by Reuters, is here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10461785.

Blu-ray. Well, so far anyway.

The first half of sales in 2007 in America for Sony backed Blu-ray were twice as large as the sales for Microsoft’s backed HD-DVD. The ratio between Blu-ray and HD-DVD is about 2-1.

This is exactly what I predicted, but not what I supported. I believed Blu-ray would be the winner of this war (I even stated this today).

The yet to be released new Xbox 360 Elite has been reported to cost an approximate £329.99 and $479 in the US according to on10.net.

However, Microsoft have not yet released the pricing details officially. The pricing details are expected closer to the launch date of August 24.

The Xbox 360 Elite will boast a 120 gigabyte hard drive, a HDMI video-out port, black casing, and black peripherals. All other specs of the Xbox 360 are the same of the normal Xbox 360. The 120 gigabyte hard drive is “the largest available for any gaming console”.

and it’s not beer. It is the first of its kind in terms of a commercially read product; a new surface computer product, called the highly unimaginative, Microsoft Surface. The first sets of computers will be shipped in November to corporate customers.

Basically a surface computer is a huge touch screen monitor, but a thousand times better. Surface technology works “By using your hands or placing other unique everyday objects on the surface – such as an item you’re going to purchase at a retail store or a paint brush – you can interact with, share and collaborate like you’ve never done before.”

The surface computer will run on a 30″ tabletop and will open many more computing possibilities, but does it cost too much? Reuters says that it will cost up to US$10,000, but Microsoft does hope that the price will drop in the next three to five years after launch as they start to also launch it in different forms apart from a coffee table shape.

A good example of what Microsoft Surface could mean in everyday situations. They say to imagine sitting at a restaurant, when you place your drink on it, the computer then brings up information, “such as wine pairings with a restaurant’s menu.”

Their website they have launched to accompany the new product unveiling has been done quite well, imo.

Read the full question and answer article with Tom Gibbons online.