Microsoft has announced that the Windows Phone 7 Connector for the Mac is now available as a beta version.

Windows Phone 7 Connector is designed to let you synchronize your music, videos, photos and podcasts from iTunes and iPhoto to your Windows Phone 7, so you can take your media with you wherever you go.

Microsoft has apparently decided that it needs Mac users in order for the Windows Phone 7 to be a success. This makes some sense, since Macs tend to attract the higher income first adopters that buy smart phones. But, it also seems like competing with the iPhone for Mac users will be Microsoft’s toughest sell.

Did hell just freeze over? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

More discussion here.

The Zune has been the whipping boy of new media since the portable media player’s introduction, because Microsoft made the mistake of taking a iPod wannabee and throwing a bunch of marketing money at it.

The Zune has improved a lot, since then, but it still hasn’t made an impression with buyers. This is largely because Microsoft botched the brand introduction of the Zune, establishing the brand as the biggest tech failure of the last decade.

Now Microsoft has finally done something intelligent with their Zune marketing: they’re putting them on international United Airlines flights:

United Airlines has just given the media player a new lease on life thanks to a partnership that will place Zune HDs into the hands of patrons. Reportedly, United will host around 500 Zune players on extra-long flights between the U.S. and Australia and Hong Kong.

The deal will provide those Zune players with pre-loaded content that can’t be found anywhere else (think pre-release movies), but details beyond that have yet to be made public.

This isn’t a huge deal for Microsoft – but it’s a smart one.

Take a bored, captive audience and give them Zunes loaded with content and you’re going to get a lot of people giving the Zune an open mind.

The next thing Microsoft should do is send free Zunes to the top 100 podcasters in the Zune podcast directory, along with a cheat sheet on getting started with podcasts on the Zune.  If it gets 10 of them talking about the Zune, expand the program to the top 500 podcasters.

Then do the same thing with the top 100 new media blogs. Apple press ignores blogs, so it’s one place where it should be easy to one-up Apple.

Send another to the top 100 video bloggers on YouTube!

What do you think of the United Airlines Zune deal? And what do you think Microsoft needs to do to get people to give the current Zunes a chance?

Several readers were incensed last week when we highlighted InfoWorld’s early negative impressions of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.

InfoWorld’s take was scathing – suggesting that Microsoft should kill the project.

Now Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky has offered his in-depth preview of Windows Phone 7, and he’s also skeptical about the viability of the platform:

What we’ve been presented with here doesn’t exactly feel like a complete mobile operating system in many ways.

On one side, we’re still really excited by the prospect of Metro as a viable, clean-slate approach to the mobile user experience, and there are lots of smart moves being made that could lead to greatness. On the other side, Microsoft has to turn this into a viable retail product that can hang with the fiercest competition in the history of the cellphone in just a few months’ time, and there are some serious issues that need to be addressed. Frankly, it’s a little scary.

By any measure, Microsoft’s got its back against the wall in the mobile game, and becoming competitive quickly is vital to the company’s success — and in that regard, we understand why they’ve been so adamant about getting Windows Phone 7 on shelves in time for Holiday 2010. The thing is, putting out a product that’s half-baked risks alienating early adopters at the worst possible time, especially considering that we see a clear-cut (and pretty painless) path to fixing the most egregious shortcomings. Seriously, if the WP7 team put their heads down and added a clipboard and some rudimentary multitasking, Microsoft could have an exceptionally solid version-one product in Windows Phone 7 — especially when coupled with the company’s fierce outreach to developers.

While Topolsky’s preview uses a lot of negative language, he does see Windows Phone 7′s Zune media player capabilities as one of the platform’s key features:

The Zune integration is rather seamless on Windows Phone 7, allowing you to browse and play what you have in your library, sync music and video back and forth to your PC, and if you have a Zune Pass subscription, you can grab whatever you like (well, almost) right on the phone without hesitation.

In general, we like the combo here, but there were times when the Zune interface was a bit confusing. Sometimes it was hard to know what section of the player you’re in — the line between previewing and listening is very fine here.

That said, we love having almost limitless access to new music on a phone, and the Zune Pass subscription certainly adds that capability, though you’re adding another $14.95 on top of your existing phone bill if you decide to go that route. Ultimately it’s a question of how voracious of a music buyer you are — but something tells us we’re going to see a marked increase in Pass users when these phones hit the market.

For Zune fans, moving to Windows Phone 7 could be a no-brainer.

And, while Windows Phone 7 may seem “half-baked” compared to the standard set by the latest iPhone and Android phones, it will probably fare a lot better in comparisons to current Enterprise phones.

If Microsoft releases Windows Phone 7 before it’s ready for prime time, though, the company risks doing what it did with the Zune – create a brand with baggage.

What are your impressions of Windows Phone 7? Do you think it has what it takes to become an important new media platform?

Note: You can see Microsoft’s preview announcement here.

Will Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 smartphone be the next Zune?

Could be – based on the latest Windows Phone 7, InfoWorld says Microsoft should just kill the project now:

There’s no kind way to say it: Windows Phone 7 will be a failure.

Windows Phone 7 is a waste of time and money. It’s a platform that no carrier, device maker, developer, or user should bother with. Microsoft should kill it before it ships and admit that it’s out of the mobile game for good.

Windows Phone 7 is a pale imitation of the 2007-era iPhone. It’s as if Microsoft decided in summer 2007 to copy the iPhone and has shut its developers in a bunker ever since, so they don’t realize that several years have passed, that the iPhone has advanced, and that competitors such as Google Android and Palm WebOS have also pushed the needle forward. Microsoft is stuck in 2007, with a smartphone OS whose feature checklist might match that era’s iPhone but whose fit and finish would look like a Pinto next to a Maserati.

InfoWorld’s take on the Windows Phone 7 is scathing – but it mirrors the Zune’s failure to impress when it was introduced.

InfoWorld’s comments on Windows Phone 7 highlight how much Apple’s iPhone has transformed the wireless industry. The iPhone and Android platforms are now leading the way, after emerging from seemingly nowhere just a few years ago.

Microsoft apologists will suggest that this is because of Apple’s marketing. But Microsoft spends twice as much on advertising as Apple – and seems to get half the results.

Is there still hope for Windows Phone 7? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Matt Akers, host of the Zune Insider Podcast, talks with Nate Muller, a PM from the Zune team, about the awesomeness that is the Zune HD firmware update.

Highlights include Smart DJ and using the Zune HD on a TV through a Zune HD dock.

We haven’t tried this – because we’re still chafing from our experience with the original brown Zune – but the Zune HD 4.5 update actually looks pretty swank-a-dank.

If you’ve tried it, let us know what you think!

New in Zune HD 4.5:

• Smart DJ
• Native AVI and XVID support
• Marketplace on TV-Out
• Picks on-device
• Artist view and now playing feature multiple artist background pictures, rather than just one.
• Performance increases. Faster thumbnail loading and smoother animations.
• Improved browser.
• You can rename your browser favorites. Press and hold a favorite then click “rename”.
• You can save pictures of a webpage to your device. Press and hold on any non-link part of a webpage to do so. You can do the same for individual images!
• It now warns you that deleting your browser history takes forever
• In artist view, you can now play all albums or songs, or add them to now playing.
• In the marketplace, you can see more than 3 of an artist’s top songs.
• Playlists now have a transparent background in Quickplay.
• You can now connect to wireless networks that don’t broadcast an SSID. They show up as “hidden network” on the device.
• Games no longer have ads in front of them.

via Zunited

Apple has updated its official recommendations on for how to submit your podcast to iTunes.

Here’s what they recommend:

Test Your Podcast Feed In iTunes:

You should first verify that you can successfully subscribe to your feed using the Advanced menu in iTunes:

1. Select Advanced, Subscribe To Podcast in iTunes;
2. Paste in the URL of your podcast feed and select “OK”;
3. Select the Podcast icon in the left navigation of iTunes. Verify that your podcast shows up as you expect it.

Today at Mobile World Congress 2010, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveils the next generation of Windows Phones, Windows Phone 7 Series – a new multimedia mobile phone platform that promises to be the biggest introduction since the iPhone.

Windows Phone 7 will bring together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience on a mobile phone. According to Microsoft, their partners have already started building phones and customers will be able to purchase the first phones in stores by holiday 2010.

“In a crowded market filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Windows Phone 7 Series marks a turning point toward phones that truly reflect the speed of people’s lives and their need to connect to other people and all kinds of seamless experiences.”

Windows 7 Phone Features:

While the Windows 7 Phone platform will beg comparisons with Apple’s iPhone, Microsoft is doing what it can to try and differentiate its platform.

• Windows 7 Phones will be offered from many vendors.
• Microsoft is making a major feature out of XBox Live games.
• Zune media player and “social” support.
• Mobille Internet Explorer
• Microsoft Office mobile support
• The Star screen features dynamically updated “live tiles”, that show users real-time content directly. Create a tile of a friend, and the user gains a readable, up-to-date view of a friend’s latest pictures and posts, just by glancing at Start.
• Every Windows Phone 7 Series phone will come with a dedicated hardware button for Bing, providing one-click access to search from anywhere on the phone, while a special implementation of Bing search provides “intent-specific results”, delivering the most relevant Web or local results, depending on the type of query.

Microsoft is going beyond the idea of a Zune phone and trying to offer an interface and platform that can compete with Apples, but that builds on Microsoft’s strengths, including Microsoft Office and Bing.

Windows Phone 7 Series phones will also features Windows Phone “hubs”. Hubs bring together related content from the Web, applications and services into a single view to simplify common tasks.

Windows Phone 7 Series includes six hubs built on specific themes reflecting activities that matter most to people:

• People. This hub delivers an engaging social experience by bringing together relevant content based on the person, including his or her live feeds from social networks and photos. It also provides a central place from which to post updates to Facebook and Windows Live in one step.
• Pictures. This hub makes it easy to share pictures and video to a social network in one step. Windows Phone 7 Series also brings together a user’s photos by integrating with the Web and PC, making the phone the ideal place to view a person’s entire picture and video collection.
• Games. This hub delivers the first and only official Xbox LIVE experience on a phone, including Xbox LIVE games, Spotlight feed and the ability to see a gamer’s avatar, Achievements and gamer profile. With more than 23 million active members around the world, Xbox LIVE unlocks a world of friends, games and entertainment on Xbox 360, and now also on Windows Phone 7 Series.
• Music + Video. This hub creates an incredible media experience that brings the best of Zune, including content from a user’s PC, online music services and even a built-in FM radio into one simple place that is all about music and video. Users can turn their media experience into a social one with Zune Social on a PC and share their media recommendations with like-minded music lovers. The playback experience is rich and easy to navigate, and immerses the listener in the content.
• Marketplace. This hub allows the user to easily discover and load the phone with certified applications and games.
• Office. This hub brings the familiar experience of the world’s leading productivity software to the Windows Phone. With access to Office, OneNote and SharePoint Workspace all in one place, users can easily read, edit and share documents. With the additional power of Outlook Mobile, users stay productive and up to date while on the go.

Availability

Partners from around the world have committed to include Windows Phone 7 Series in their portfolio plans. They include mobile operators AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, and manufacturers Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC Corp., HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm Inc. The first phones will be available by holiday 2010.

Press coverage at Yahoo Tech here.

The rumormill is abuzz with talk about the Zune Phone, aka Windows Phone 7, which many expect to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress on Feb 15th.

Microsoft is expected to announce:

• Full Zune Integration
• The User Interface is based upon codename “METRO”, and will be similar to the Zune HD User Interface.
• Windows Mobile Device Center will no longer be used. Zune software to take over syncing via PC.
• Full support for social networking – unfortunately, no details on what this means.
• Windows Phone 7 will only support application installation through service based delivery. (i.e Marketplace). Application installation via storage card will not be possible.
• No Multi-Task support.
• No Flash support.
• Marketplace will now support “try before you buy” as well as an API
• No NETCF backwards compatibility. This means the original rumor of no backward compatibility for applications holds to be true. That being said, there are high hopes of porting the NetCF to the newer platform easily.
• Devices will be ready by September 2010
• OEM Interfaces will not be allowed to run on the device. Say goodbye to Sense UI / SPB Mobile Shell / Point UI / Infinity, etc.
• Full XBOX Gaming Integration (Gamer tag, achievements, friends, avatars, merchandising, etc)

If these rumors pan out, the Zune Phone will be Microsoft’s attempt to turn the iPhone into a commodity. It won’t matter who you get your Windows Phone 7 device from, it’s going to look sort of iPhone-like.

There’s still hope for the Microsoft Zune, based on a new teen survey on portable media players.

• 13% of the teens surveyed that plan to buy a portable media player plan to buy a Zune in the next 12 months, up from 0% a year ago.
• 73% plan to buy an iPod, down from 100% a year ago.

It’s clear that, a year ago, the Year Zunethousand fiasco had effectively killed the Zune’s buzz.

While we wrote earlier that Microsoft struck out with the Zune HD, many teens now have a different opinion.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s uphill battle got steeper in the last year:

• Apple’s share of the portable media player market grew to 87 percent, up from 84 percent one year ago.
• 22 percent of the teens surveyed intend to purchase an iPhone in the next six months;

What’s not clear is whether teen interest in the iPhone is cannibalizing their interest iPods.

What do you think? Do you think that Microsoft’s prospects for the Zune are substantially better this year?

via AppleInsider

Microsoft is considering bringing the Zune software to Apple’s Macintosh OS X, according to an article at via ZDNet:

Microsoft is considering whether it should port the Zune software and services to other platforms, including Apple’s. There’s no guarantee that the Redmondians will end up doing this — or timetable as to when this could happen — but it’s one of many strategies under active consideration.

“We are evaluating a lot of options in terms of platforms,” says Microsoft’s Jose Pinero, when asked about this scenario.He noted that with the addition of the ability to stream music from a browser that is part of the new Zune 4.0 experience, Mac and Linux users already can stream music to their systems if they have a ZunePass subscription. The streaming capability isn’t limited to Internet Explorer; it works with any browser, he said.

Microsoft’s decision not to support Mac OS X has always seemed like a strategic blunder.

While Macs are a tiny fraction of the computer market, a huge percentage of Windows machines are corporate boxes that users can’t attach portable media players to, anyway. On the home front, Apple’s captured captured most of the high-end market.

New media types are also disproportionately Mac users, which means that there are a lot fewer people blogging, podcasting and vlogging about the Zune.

Competing with against the iPod on Apple’s own turf would be a huge challenge for Microsoft, but it’s something that they’re going to have to do if they want to move beyond competing based on price.