New Zune HD Scores, but Lags on Content

Company aims to have service up before iTunes Match

(NEWSER) - Google is pushing further into the entertainment business with an online music store that it aims to have up and running within weeks, sources tell the New York Times . Music industry execs say the MP3 store will probably be linked to Google's Music Beta cloud service. Google wants to have the store open before Apples iTunes Match service is rolled out, the sources say, although it's not clear whether the company will be able to cut deals with record labels in time. More»

Company has given up on device, will focus on software: source

(NEWSER) - The music has died for Microsoft's Zune music and video player, a well-placed source tells Bloomberg . The company is going to stop producing new models of the player because of tepid demand and will instead focus on providing Zune software for smartphones, according to the source. When Zune was launched in 2006, Microsoft said it could beat the iPod. But the Zune failed to grab market share from Apple: the iPod took 77% of the digital music player market last year while Zune didn't make it into the top 5. Microsoft hasn't officially confirmed Zune's demise. More»

She. Is. Not. Kidding.

(NEWSER) - You might think the world's second-richest guy's kids would be spoiled, and they might be: But they sure as hell don't have iPods. Melinda Gates revealed a household ban on all things Apple in an interview with the New York Times Magazine (via HuffPo): Of the kids, she says, "I have gotten that argument—'You may have a Zune.' " Pressed as to rumors that Bill works on an Apple laptop, Gates says, "False. Nothing crosses the threshold of our doorstep." More»

Loyal Citibank customers get a 1-week jump on the rest of us

(NEWSER) - Citibank rewards customers will have first dibs on Bob Dylan’s first-ever Christmas album. The lucky cardholders will be able to download Christmas in the Heart online during the week before Oct. 13, when it goes on sale to the general public. An exec tells Reuters the offer will have “high appeal” to Citi’s customers. All profits from the album will go to Dylan’s favorite charities. More»

(NEWSER) - Microsoft releases a new Zune every year, mostly to collective shrugs, but this year’s model “might be the Zune that you’ve been waiting for,” writes Mark McClusky of Wired. “You were waiting, right?” The slim, white-and-black Zune HD is “a lovely industrial design,” with a beautiful screen that can display a true 16:9 aspect ratio. It’s also the first touch-controlled Zune, so the “infamous ‘squircle’” of past Zunes is gone. More»