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Caulton: Zune internet connectivity |
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Written by Kostas Tzounopoulos
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Friday, 09 March 2007 |
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David Caulton of the Zune team was interviewed by Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte. In an interesting part of the interview David Caulton says Zune will get direct internet connectivity for some purposes. He also described a possible "open up" of the Zune platform. Its a very interesting 1 hour interview covering many topics. You really shouldn't miss this...
The interview starts with a reference to the early days of the Zune team, back in October 2005. Talking about PlaysForSure he says Zune is an end-to-end approach and its difference with the iPod is the social features it has. At one point he says Zune will connect to the internet. When asked for more details he says Zune Software right know connects to the internet servers of Microsoft but this will change in the future when Zune will connect directly to the internet for some services. In other parts of the interview David talks about podcasts, audiobooks, Universal (the music company) and Zune Markethare. David also shares an interesting use of the FM tunner on Zune. When in a place with many TVs each one could be broadcasting the channel on FM. For example when in a gym the user could watch a TV program and tune to that TV's broadcasting frequency on Zune. Talking about PlaysForSure he says Microsoft decided to make Zune incompatible with it so tere are no problems with the step forward social features it has. The like-iPod closed system makes the negotiations with content providers easier. Zune plans to "open up" and not be be the closed iPod ecosystem, e.g. by planning negotiations with content services when Zune released internationally. Microsoft may not be negotiating directly with international content providers leaving other experienced local companies do that. Listen to the interview on TWiT.tv
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Last Updated ( Friday, 09 March 2007 )
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