Tag Archive

Talkin’ Windows Phone 7 Series gaming with Microsoft at GDC

By Joseph L. Flatley

We already got a look at Microsoft’s little XNA show-and-tell as relates to Windows Phone 7 Series, but our colleague Andrew Yoon over at Joystiq had a chance for longer sit-down with Xbox Live general manager Ron Pessner and XNA Game Studio manager Michael Klucher at GDC today, and he’s been kind enough to share the interview with us. The main topic of conversation was the company’s plans regarding Xbox LIve and, specifically, how it would be integrating it into Windows Phone 7 Series. And believe us, there was plenty to discuss — including the sweet science of porting games from Zune HD to 7 Series phones (“it’s 90, 95 percent code reuse… in an hour or couple of hours, we’re taking games that were written for Zune HD and putting them on the phone”), the importance of maintaining a consistent gameplay experience amongst different hardware, and the reasoning behind limiting devices to asynchronous multiplayer. What are you waiting for? Hit the source link to embark on this miraculous journey of discovery.

Talkin’ Windows Phone 7 Series gaming with Microsoft at GDC originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Joystiq  | Email this | Comments

XNA 4.0 games on Windows Phone 7 Series look awesome (but won’t be for Zune HD)

By Devin Coldewey

A bundle of screenshots just hit the net showing off the latest Direct3D-based mobile games running on a WinPho7 device, adn they look pretty hot. We knew that the Tegra chipset in the Zune HD and likely in several upcoming WinPho handsets (Tegra 2, to be precise) is capable of some nice 3D, but these are better than anything I’ve seen yet. The game shown is The Harvest, a dungeon crawler which, if indicative of the general quality of WinPho7 games, portends good times to be had.

Facebook app now available for Zune HD (update: it’s also broken)

By Paul Miller

You’ve been up nights, we know, and now Microsoft has finally ended your torment: the long-promised Facebook application is now available for download to the Zune HD. Go wild, but not too wild, alright everybody?

Update: So we just got a chance to download and play with the app a little — and just like the Twitter app, things don’t seem to be quite fully baked at launch. We couldn’t get anything of the tabs to load apart from our personal photos, and there wasn’t any confirmation when we sent in a Zune music status update — although it did show up on Facebook, so it obviously worked. The photo viewer lets you leave comments, but you can’t pinch-to-zoom — or zoom at all, actually. We’re sure Zune HD owners will be happy — it’s free, after all — but we’re going to assume Microsoft and Facebook have something far better planned for Windows Phone 7 Series.

Update 2: It’s not just us — the official Zune Twitter account confirms that the Facebook app is “experiencing some issues accessing data.” We’ll let you kow if we hear anything else.

Gallery: Facebook app now available for Zune HD

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Facebook app now available for Zune HD (update: it’s also broken) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Zune  | Email this | Comments

Facebook app for Zune HD is live – get thee to the Zune-appery

By Devin Coldewey

The Facebook app all of us Zune HD lovers have been waiting for has arrived! It looks pretty solid, but due to a hilarious sequence of errors, I can’t update my Zune software to allow the app to be installed. Seriously, Microsoft, I want to recommend Zune stuff to everyone, but you make it so [...]

Microsoft Zune music / video services going wherever Windows Phone 7 Series goes

By Darren Murph

Hear that, globetrotters? Just months after your hopes and dreams were obliterated, we’re now hearing that the Zune HD and its associated music / video services are going international, and it could happen by the end of the year. At least that’s the word given to Mary Jo Foley from Casey McGee, Microsoft Senior Marketing Manager. In a recent sit-down, Casey noted that the company’s Zune music / video service “would be available in all countries where Windows 7 Phones will ship,” and while it has yet to make that full list of nations publicly available, we already learned that the new mobile OS has gained support from mobile operators all over Europe. Putting two and two together can be difficult at times, but hopefully we aren’t reading too much into this (painfully simple) equation.

Microsoft Zune music / video services going wherever Windows Phone 7 Series goes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink My Microsoft Life  |  ZDNet  | Email this | Comments

Newegg and Amazon cuts the Zune HD price by $30-$40

By Matt Burns

The Zune HD is a tempting piece of PMP goodness and it just got a whole lot more tasty with a modest price drop. Both Amazon and Newegg have at least temporarily dropped the price of our favorite media player. So far we haven’t heard anything from Redmond about official cuts, but something is definitely up when these two retailers both cut prices.

Zune HD drops $30-$40 at Amazon, Newegg

By Donald Melanson
This looks like it may be more of a price war than an official price drop, but anyone in the market for a Zune HD may one to pay a visit to Amazon or Newegg fairly soon, as they’re now both selling the device for what appears to be the lowest price yet. While there’s no telling how long it’ll last, you can now snag a black 16GB Zune HD for $189.99 ($30 off the MSRP), or a 32GB Platinum Zune HD for $249.99 (a discount of $40). As of this writing, most other retailers seem to be offering nothing more than $20 discounts, though we have a suspicion that may change in the near future.

[Thanks, Keith]

Zune HD drops $30-$40 at Amazon, Newegg originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Amazon, Newegg  | Email this | Comments

Zune HD Facebook app will be ready when it’s ready

By Tim Stevens
Zune HD Facebook app will be ready when it's ready

Sit down, child, we’ve got some bad news. This is going to come as a real blow, but the Zune HD Facebook app, the one promised to be here by the end of January, isn’t going to make it in time. Microsoft has said it’s “still coming soon” but that it just isn’t going to be done until at least February. We realize how hard this will be for you, since there are just so few ways to log into your FB account (or someone else’s) right now, but you’re just going to have to be strong. It’ll be here eventually, and when it does that den of sin will finally turn into the profanity-free social network we’ve always talked about.

Zune HD Facebook app will be ready when it’s ready originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Facebook  | Email this | Comments

Zune 4.2 update released, what’s new?

By Tim Stevens
Zune 4.2 update released, what's new?

We’re receiving word from multiple early-bird readers indicating that they’ve received the 4.2 update on their Zunes and that, now that they’re out of that nasty maintenance window, all is right with the world. That said, our tipsters are not spotting any major differences, and neither are we, certainly nothing as exciting as 4.3 brought to the Zune HD. What about you? Have you been granted access to 4.2 yet? If so, let us know in comments if you’ve found anything fresh and exciting. And, if you haven’t, feel free to discuss the weather — it sure has been a little crazy ’round these parts lately.

[Thanks, Brent R. and Bryan]

Zune 4.2 update released, what’s new? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Scheduled Zune maintenance could last for up to 24 hours

By Donald Melanson
Regular Zune users may have already noticed the alert warning of some impending downtime, but those that haven’t should know that Microsoft is advising folks that some maintenance scheduled for tomorrow could last for as long as 24 hours. That will begin at 10PM PST on January 25th, and will affect all Zune services, including Zune Pass, Zune Marketplace, Zune.net streaming and Zune video on Xbox Live. Once the service is back up, users will also have to update their PC software, and users of Zunes other than the Zune HD will also have to update their device’s firmware. This scheduled maintenance is also apparently just that, maintenance — although Microsoft is promising that things like Smart DJ and other features announced at CES, as well some as “unannounced features,” will be rolling out in another update sometime this Spring.

Scheduled Zune maintenance could last for up to 24 hours originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Zune  | Email this | Comments

Zune HD getting Xvid, Smart DJ, ever more appealing

By Tim Stevens
Zune HD getting Xvid, Smart DJ, ever more appealing

We know you were put off by the whole Twitter censorship debacle last month, but Microsoft and the Zune HD have moved past that (honest) and they want you to come along as well. They’re enticing everyone to forget about that bone-headed move by, well, throwing everyone a bone and adding in Xvid support, part of full compatablity with MPEG-4 part 2 Advanced Simple Profile. DivX will not be coming out to play, but Smart DJ will be, a feature that isn’t so much new but is newly portable, providing a counterpoint to the iPod’s Genius and, since you can use it to stream content from the Zune Marketplace (when connected via WiFi) it begins to approach the functionality of apps like Pandora or Slacker Radio. Tasty, indeed, though at this point we’re not sure when Microsoft will be throwing us this juicy firmware update.

Zune HD getting Xvid, Smart DJ, ever more appealing originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink SlashGear  |  CNET  | Email this | Comments

Zune HD Twitter app updated, dirty words no longer censored

By Nilay Patel

Microsoft promised us it would remove the silly content censorship from the Zune HD Twitter app ASAP, and here we are a day later with version 1.1, which lets you see all the schoolyard swears you could ever want. High five, assholes. Unfortunately, we’re not seeing a huge performance improvement: it’s a tiny bit snappier, but we’re still seeing unresponsive buttons, laggy scrolling, and random WiFi disconnects. On to version 1.2!

P.S.- Screenshot of the new non-censoring app in action after the break. Be careful, it could damage more delicate constitutions.

Continue reading Zune HD Twitter app updated, dirty words no longer censored

Zune HD Twitter app updated, dirty words no longer censored originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments