 Tsera has sued 23 electronics companies in federal court in eastern Texas for violating a patent on touchscreens.
The suit, filed on July 15, cites Apple’s iPod Classic and Nano products, Microsoft’s Zune digital media player, and 21 other popular devices as violating a patent, “Methods and Apparatus for Controlling a Portable Electronic Device Using a Touchpad,” granted in 2003.
The patent proposes a general description of how a user would input commands on a touchscreen “by tracing patterns with his finger on a surface of the touchpad. No immediate visual feedback is provided as a command pattern is traced, and the user does not need to view the device to enter commands.”
“A microcontroller within the device matches the pattern traced by the user against a plurality of preset patterns, each of which corresponds to a predefined function or command of the device. If the pattern traced by the user is a reasonably close match to any of the preset patterns, the device performs the predefined function corresponding to the matched pattern. The touchpad replaces the numerous buttons that are typically used to control portable electronic devices, thereby enhancing usability and reducing manufacturing costs.”
Source:
http://windows7full.com/w7/2009/07/22/microsoft-apple-and-21-more-companies-sued-for-touch-screen-patent-violation/
 The Zune HD is on the way, we know that much. But other than that there isn’t a whole lot known about the new Zune, other than Microsoft has big plans for it. A Microsoft insider has spilled some beans to the blogs about what we can expect with the new Zune HD. The insider claims that the new Zune HD will sell for about $249 to $280 for the base 16GB model, they didn’t give any specific price points for the larger Zune HD models however. They did indicate that Microsoft is considering a 64GB model and a 32GB model as well down the line after the product is released. Also rumored is that the new Zune HD will fully support for 720p movies and will even feature HDMI out. There is no official word as to when the Zune HD will be released by Microsoft, but rumors are that it will launch sometime in early September.
http://www.zuneagent.com/zune-hd/zune-hd-to-sell-for-249/
 A headphone y splitter is the most common of audio splitters. The goal of the device is simply to plugin to your audio device’s headphone jack(MP3 player, Ipod, Zune, ect) and split the audio so that two pairs of headphones are now able to listen on one device. They call it a headphone y splitter because it looks very much like the letter “Y”. These wires are very affordable, i recommend that you order the Apple Ipod speaker headphone splitter, it’s cheap, it works on all mp3 players and it’s from Amazon.
 Whilst attention has shifted towards Windows 7 and Office 2010 for the time being, Microsoft’s other major product launch up for this holiday season, the Zune HD, is always at the back of our heads. On one hand, the unceremonious announcement of the Zune HD late May helped confirm many of the rumored technical specifications of the device, but at the same time there is still a lining of mystery over how its browser works and what other capabilities the device may have.
A trademark application by Microsoft early last week could be an indication of what more the Zune HD might do, applications.
Trademark application 77775625 for the trademark “ONEAPP”, or alternatively pseudo-marked “One Application”, is classified as a trademark for “online retail store services facilitating the download of computer software for use on mobile phones, media players and other portable electronic devices”.
Source:
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090714/microsoft-oneapp-possible-app-store-zune-hd/
 Microsoft plans to launch a music streaming service with a "similar principle to Spotify," according to a report by the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph.
"Music is an important area for Microsoft. We are looking at launching a music streaming service imminently. It will be a similar principle to Spotify but we are still examining how the business model will work," Peter Bale, executive producer of the company's news and entertainment arm, MSN, told the Telegraph.
The service could arrive as soon as the end of July, and is likely to offer free streaming, subscription-based streaming and paid downloads.
Bale added that he is looking at other business models to help figure out "what will work best for both consumer and Microsoft." The company's entrance into the music streaming market would bring, he says, "scale and a quality of product."
The service would be owned and operated by Microsoft, and be promoted through MSN and other Microsoft network portals. There is also the possibility such a service could link in with the company's Xbox gaming console, though Bale would not reveal exact details.
The service is apparently designed to boost appeal of Microsoft's music player Zune, which has so far struggled to gain a foothold in the iPod-dominated field. A high definition version of the player has recently been announced for the U.S.
Read more:
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ia62deb261008854a6747c36e7e6478e7
It’s no secret, we are big fans of Microsoft’s Zune - both the service, and the device. I’ve had a Zune Pass since the service launched, and use it daily (my Zune Pass profile.) If you aren’t sure what that is, it’s an unlimited music streaming and download service. You can listen to as much as you want for just $15 a month. In addition, you get to keep any 10 tracks of your choosing each month as well. Yours to keep, forever. Did you know, though, that you can stream any of your downloaded Zune tracks to your iPhone? Yeah, that’s one of the best parts. When you start connecting the dots, you soon realize that you have the potential of having an entire catalogue of music available to you, on your iPhone, regardless of the amount of storage you’ve got.
But, wait…how do you stream Windows Media Audio files to the iPhone, which doesn’t support that format? Furthermore, Zune tracks that aren’t downloaded as part of your 10 free keepers per month are riddled with DRM. Yeah, we hear you. There is no Zune app available for the iPhone itself. What you need is to install a piece of software on your PC, along with downloading an app on your iPhone. Join us, as we open up the musical floodgates.
Full article:
http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q309-stream-zune-tracks-to-iphone/
 The iPod Touch owners may no long feel the superior feeling because here comes a new more vibrant music gadget called the Zune HD! This is the latest gadget from Microsoft who had demonstrated the features of the music device live and already generated buzz that it is going to be a better gadget than the iPod Touch.
The private demo of Microsoft's first touch screen player at the D7 technology has indeed created a kind of buzz around that its distinctiveness are very much imposing and they have the quality to pose threat to the sophistication level of iPod Touch in lots of features. Some of the features of the Zune HD seem enhanced than TOUCH. Dissimilar to Windows Mobile phones, which are usually come with inaccurate and sluggish resistive touch-screen, the Zune HD has a capacitive touchscreen like the iPod touch and responds both swiftly and precisely to finger input. These and the construction distinction were enough to immediately surprise spectators.
Full article here:
http://www.gadgetsmantra.com/2009/06/zune-hd-is-it-next-competitor-of-ipod.html
 Throughout the "prize-less" portion of the beta there has been a long running sweepstakes in place, allowing gamers with the random possibility of winning a Samsung 52” plasma HDTV, Acer Aspire laptop, Microsoft Zune 120GB, or Xbox Live Arcade Game for every question they answer in both “1 vs. 100 Live” and “1 vs. 100 Extended Play”. It's interesting to note that these sweepstake prizes appear to be set as a regular feature for 1 vs. 100, and may continue upon the full release of the game with perhaps various new prizes being offered at different times. Think of it as a "thanks for playing" chance of winning something even if the questions were a bit too hard.
Now, however, the stakes have been raised and the full prize scheme of 1 vs. 100 is slowly coming into play, and that means that Microsoft Points are now on the line. The "skill-based" prize system is tiered, meaning that a set of questions must be answered correctly in order to win the corresponding prize. Three prize structures exist, the first for "The One" who is placed in the hot seat, and another for "The Mob" who is trying to eliminate him, and the third for "The Crowd" who didn't get selected as either of the other two. Full article: http://www.examiner.com/x-15094-Sacramento-Xbox-Examiner~y2009m7d7-Xbox-LIVE-1-vs-100-finally-offering-real-prizes-for-Beta-players
Although, not Zune related, the much-rumoured Microsoft Pink smartphone will be branded as Microsoft devices
Microsoft is rumoured to be releasing the new Pink smartphone under its own in-house branding.
Until now Microsoft has maintained that it is “committed to the licensing model”, but according to comments on CNET.com the device will actually be branded as a Microsoft handset.
We would expect the handset to be running the newest version of Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system, which depending on release will probably be Windows 7.
If the rumours are to be believed then the handset will be reserving a custom UI to sit atop the OS, one which will presumably remain unique to Microsoft's own-branded handsets, rather than those running the re-sold Windows 7 OS.
Last we heard of the Pink project, the handset was being designed by Microsoft, with manufacture going to a third-party; this latest rumour flies in the face of official comments regarding an own-branded Microsoft handset and no doubt places Microsoft as a direct competitor of other handsets that will be running the Windows 7 system.
There's no specs to report just yet, but we'd expect some serious touchscreen real-estate on board as well as the other usual suspects amongst the high-end feature set.
Source:
http://www.knowyourmobile.com/blog/279502/microsoft_pink_smartphone_rumours.html
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