Finally, A Zune Phone…Kinda.

If you read into job postings and I certainly do, then you’ll be surprised to learn that Microsoft might be making a sequel to the Zune HD or possibly a Microsoft-labeled Windows Phone. This comes on the heels of the posting by ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley in regards to Microsoft potentially preparing a Zune HD2 device running the Windows Phone 7 OS.
In a job posting by Microsoft, they are apparently looking for an engineer to help with some new entertainment or mobile device:

With the sales of Windows 7 continuing to be strong and the upcoming release of the restarted Windows Mobile platform: Windows Phone 7, the consumer product which has inspired the mobile OS reboot continues to take a back seat in the headlines even as it continues to progress. Zune may not be the most popular Microsoft brand out there, but it’s loyal following and niche success helps the platform to stay afloat in an iPod-dominated world. Even if the user base is small, the Zune name continues to make some unnoticed headlines.
Zune PC Software 4.7

You might not normally think of the sport of golf for showing the way forward, but the USGA have now showcased and app for the forthcoming Windows Phone 7 operating system that shows us how well written apps for that smartphone platform might look.
They describe the app as “focus[ing] on a shared experience around scorekeeping.” and say that it “allows the social aspect of the game of golf to flourish.”

Yesterday was a huge day for both Microsoft and the mobile tech world. The Redmond company finally released their much-anticipated revamped mobile OS. We’ve been teased by device leaks and beta videos of the OS for months now and we finally get a peek at the final release of the software on actual devices.
Both Steve Ballmer and Joe Belifore took the stage to discuss and display the next generation of mobile software and hardware and I like what I’ve seen so far, although I wish some of the European WP7 models would be made available in the US as well.

While one of the whole points of Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 operating system is that it will be connected at all times to every aspect of your life, some people might prefer to keep certain aspects separate, and so Microsoft have released a Twitter concept app.There’s plenty of screenshots (below) and it’s a good way to see the way the OS interface is developing and how we might interact with it.

The number of Mac users who will use the new Windows Phone 7 is probably a small number. The number of users who will like the platform, but won’t admit it, is probably even greater. However, the need for a piece of software which will allow Apple users to connect their WP7 to their Macintosh is still necessary, but Microsoft has been silent if not almost elusive on the subject of Mac compatibility.
Then yesterday, a Microsoft employee tweeted that there would be software for the Mac to allow syncing to the phone:

Okay, so this is not technically Windows 7 news, but Engadget has reported a shot of a 64GB Zune HD option that was posted on the Zune’s website and subsequently removed immediately. I figured some of our readers might be interested in this bit of news if they currently own or might be considering a new Zune.Courtesy of Engadget

Yesterday I wrote about how Microsoft now have an opportunity to bring all of their platforms and services together to form a seamless interconnectedness that would not only make life considerably simpler for millions of people, but that could also turn around the company’s fortunes.The Zune software, on the PC and the Zune HD has been praised for some time now and, to the surprise of a great many people including myself, the new Zune inspired software on Windows Phone 7 Series has caused quite a stir.