Zune Music Pass now available in Australia
Posted Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 12:48 pm by Jason Cartwright
Originally scheduled for release tomorrow (16th November 2011), it seems Microsoft have pulled the trigger early. Users can now signup for a Zune Music Pass. The three options available are 14-day free trial, 12-month subscription for $119.90 and 1 month for $11.99.
The music can be played back on the web, desktop Zune client, WP7 and soon Xbox 360. With access to over 11 million tracks, $12 seems like a pretty good deal. The biggest issue facing Zune is the lack of iPhone and Android support. Naturally Microsoft want Zune Music to drive sales of Windows Phones, but there’s likely to be plenty of people happy with their smart phones that would love to use Zune Pass.
For Windows Phone 7 users, this is the music solution that has been missing from the platform in Australia. Until now, users were forced to obtain music from other services and sync to their device. Zune Pass now makes WP7 a viable solution for music and media lovers.
Update
Looks like you’ll only be able to stream Zune music on one device at a time. It also looks like the free trial turns into $12 per month subscription after 14 days unless you opt out.
Update 2
While Zune Pass is available through the web, Zune desktop software and Xbox, it is still yet to reach Windows Phone devices.
Update 3
Zune just added a special Australian tile in the Zune desktop software to welcome Australians to the social. This confirms what we told you 6 hours ago, Zune Music is now available in Australia.
Update 4
This morning things got official, with the update of the front page at Zune.net/en-au (by the way Microsoft, please register zune.net.au). It seems Microsoft found an extra couple of million tracks in their catalogue, now number 13 million.
More info @ Zune.net/en-au
Microsoft starts rolling Metro UI Dashboard Update to beta users
Posted Friday, November 11, 2011 at 7:03 am by Jason Cartwright
Image source: WinRumors
Microsoft has begun rolling out their new Xbox Dashboard Update, codenamed ‘Madrid’. The update introduced the Metro UI to the Xbox 360, bringing it in line with Windows Phone and the upcoming Windows 8 release. Along with a new interface, the update also brings:
- New design with integrated Kinect voice and gesture controls
- Facebook Sharing
- Cloud Storage for Game Saves and Xbox LIVE Profile
Last months we covered the upcoming Australian voice controls and Australian launch of Zune Music. The Aussie voice control via Kinect should arrive in this update, and remember the launch of Zune Music in Australia is scheduled for the 16th of November.
The update is restricted to a small set of beta testers who signed up at connect.microsoft.com last month. There is a Non-disclosure-agreement in place to all who were accepted into the program.
A source close to my console, says it has not yet reached all consoles. Expect this to take a while to roll out internationally. Do you know if it has landed in Australia? Leave an anonymous comment.
More @ WinRumors
Zune Pass Australia: $12pm, 11M tracks on WP7, Xbox or PC
Posted Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 10:21 am by Jason Cartwright
Microsoft Australia have just announced they have finally got the deal done with music labels to offer Zune Pass in Australia. For just $11.99 per month or $119.99 per year, Australians can enjoy access to over 11 Million tracks. This now becomes serious competition to the iTunes model which still lacks a subscription service.
Naturally the downside of subscription is the music goes away if you stop paying. Until recently, the US version of Zune Pass allowed users to download 10 songs per month to keep. This feature was discontinued and won’t be available in Australia.
Delivering a music purchasing system to Windows Phone 7, solves one of it’s biggest issues. As crazy as it sounds, users were forced to purchase music through another service like iTunes, then sync to their WP7 device. It’s great to see this finally being resolved and the Zune on WP7 becoming a full end-to-end ecosystem.
The Xbox 360 access to the Zune pass is likely to arrive with the new Dashboard to be released soon. If you chose, you will be able to stream your favourite tracks from the Zune collection while playing your favourite game.
Zune Pass Australia arrives November 16th.
Xbox event this Wednesday ! Voice Control finally coming to Australia
Posted Friday, October 21, 2011 at 4:03 pm by Jason Cartwright
This week invites went out to press for an upcoming Xbox event in Sydney on Wednesday. The event is NOT open to the general public, so don’t even try, but the good news is, Xbox Voice support in Australia will finally arrive soon. At Tech.Ed, Microsoft said voice support for the Australian accent would land before the end of the year, it looks like they will meet that deadline.
The event invitation arrived in the form of a image using the new Metro-style Xbox Dashboard UI. There’s a good chance this means Aussie voice control for Kinect will arrive when the Dashboard update does. Current indicators lead to a Novemeber release for that.
Microsoft Australia invites you to experience entertainment.
Join us as we share Microsoft’s vision for entertainment featuring natural user interfaces and the first eve Australian media preview of voice control on Kinect for xbox 360.
Guests can get hands on with Microsoft’s entertainment products, including soon to be released Xbox 360 games and applications across television, pc and phones.
At the event guests will receive a gift enabling them to experience the promise of voice control.
Thousands of light switches used to launch VS LightSwitch 2011
Posted Monday, October 17, 2011 at 12:14 pm by Jason CartwrightMicrosoft’s Visual Studio LightSwitch, is a development tool that enables you to build business applications quickly without needing to be a programmer. As part of the Australian launch, Microsoft used a computer controlled lighting grid to display animations on two skyscrapers in Sydney.
The effect is pretty impressive and while technically not done using light switches, you get the correlation.
Visual Studio lets IT Pro’s connect interfaces with data sources like SharePoint or web services quickly and easily. ‘Easy’ of course a relative term, if you’ve ever installed Visual Studio and all of its dependencies before, it’s not for the faint of heart. Still if your job requires you to present data in a meaningful way and you don’t have the budget for a developer, VS LightSwitch is worth a look.
Of course if you do have developer talent at your disposal they can take your basic app and extend its functionality with code. Applications can be deployed to the desktop, the web and the cloud.
More @ Visual Studio LightSwitch
Mango Marketplace matches Android web purchasing
Posted Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 7:27 pm by Jason Cartwright
The Windows Phone Mango update is about to start rolling, but before it does, Microsoft are getting their ducks in a row. Something that was lacking on Windows Phone, compared to its rival Android, was the ability to purchase applications via the web. With the launch of the Mango Marketplace, this has now been remedied.
Both applications and Games can be purchased online and sent to your phone using one of two methods. You can grab your app by message or email. Behind the scenes a unique zune:// link is sent, similar to sharing iOS apps through iTunes ‘send to a friend’ feature.
Applications are purchased by signing into the web marketplace using the Windows Live ID associated with your Windows Phone.
Unfortunately the arrival of the Mango Marketplace doesn’t bring with it the much anticipated launch of Music or Podcasts in Australia. You can check out the MarketPlace at http://mango.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-AU/
