Microsoft and a Music Streaming Service

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

Hacking Zune - Guts exposed by xbox hacker bunnie

Zune Guts posted by xbox hacker bunnie

bunnie Says:
November 15th, 2006 at 3:36 am

Also, if they did it right, they will have enabled the built-in security features of the MX31 so you can’t/it is very difficult to hijack the boot–but it is still vulnerable to buffer overruns, etc. as far as I can tell. Haven’t bothered to test it either way, but the High Assurance Boot (HAB) feature is worthy of caution if you are thinking about trying something.

Additional info about the Zune chips was posted by Tom Parker in the same post:

K4M51323PC-DG75 64 Mbytes x32 Mobile SDR DRAM / 133 MHz / 90 mA
looks like 16M ram

PH28F160C3TD         1Mx16 Boot block NOR flash, 3.3V
FS456LF                 PC to TV video scan converter (Macrovision 7)
CN211/SN74CBTLV16211C 24-bit FET bus switch
WM8978G                 Stereo CODEC with speaker driver / 0.9W power out
P003 / 620A5         8-bit bus transciever/driver for ATA standard
                      (hypothesized, more info appreciated...)
MC13783                 Power manager
ISP1504                 USB2.0 PHY
CL245/SN74CBTLV3245A Low voltage octal FET bus switch
KS3021/KS7010         RF/BB/MAC 802.11g WiFi (KeyStream) module

Sounds like the hardware hackers are hard at work to see what they can get this little device to do. A recent post on Digg.com suggests that the hardware will be able to boot linux while not providing anything to back up the claim other than the fact that linux boots on a freescale processor.

Whats next? Pink & Orange Zunes!

Their are rumors circulating at Zune-quarters in Seattle that the Pink & Orange Zunes will be ready for this years holiday season. After that an expected 60 & 80 Gig version of the Zune are being prepared for release.

Source: Crunchgear