Apple’s media event yesterday saw the arrival of a music orientated social network, Ping. However, the event also disappointed some as the rumours, as is often the case, were more exciting than what Apple actually announced. Some rumours were along the lines of music streaming of the vast collection of music Apple has. Do you know what service has had a music focused social network and music streaming functionality for some time? Zune.

Apple also announced a rehashed Apple TV which allows streaming of films on your TV but to do this you have to have iTunes running on a PC or Mac in your network before you do anything with the set top box. Guess what service allows you watch whatever program or film (so long as its in the marketplace) you like on your TV if you have purchased it. That’s right Zune.

Then there are increasing rumours about Google planning to announce and launch a music service over the coming months which may or may not allow users to stream music on any device and does not currently have any record labels signed up to it. I expect you know where I am going with this… which service currently provides music streaming for mobile devices (Zune HDs and KINs), PCs and TVs? Zune.

There are other positives in Zune’s favour too such as its integration on the highly anticipated Windows Phone 7 devices, its Zune Pass feature allowing users to listen to as much music they like a month and the fact that users can buy (or rent) a song, TV show or film on any platform and play it on any other one when they like.

There are, however, a few complaints with Zune; its really only available in the US and doesn’t have such a vast catalogue of music as Apple does. But you would think that with only a small number of cons to the service that actually it would be a popular brand of consumers and commentators alike as it provides many features people want to see in other entertainment services. But its not.

Reading most tech blogs today I see no mention of Zune at all, despite offers some of the features that iTunes and Ping offer, allowing better streaming than Apple announced with its Air Play feature for iOS devices and providing users with some of the most hotly discussed rumours for Apple to announce. There is in fact more talk of Google unannounced music service and how that will compete with iTunes and Apple than there is about Zune and how well that currently competes.

I have now got fed up of the media’s lack of coverage of Zune, it doesn’t have to be gushing affection for the entertainment services but at least compare what it does with its current and future competitors. Therefore I have come to the conclusion that we the Microsoft follows (not necessarily lovers of the service) should rally behind Zune and publish a shed load of articles this coming Monday (6th). These articles can be news, reviews, hopes, rumours, speculation, wish lists etc etc, pretty much anything that can help raise Zune’s profile even if just for a day.

I hope that some of the Zune focused sites and communities can help out with this and even independent bloggers who may or may not work for Microsoft. You know you want to help out.

One of the few services of Windows Live that has received no attention from Microsoft in the Windows Live Wave 4 update is Windows Live FrameIt. In fact this service has actually been down graded as the CSS for the site seems to have gone AWOL.

Windows Live FrameIt, for those that don’t know, is a website and service built to allow online photo albums to be shown on digital photo frames. Photos could be pulled from social networks and photo sites like Flickr and Windows Live Photos. This service doesn’t work with all digital photo frames as some have no internet connectivity. I don’t know if the service has been popular or not but one thing I do know is that Microsoft have given it very little attention over the few years it has been around.

I find it odd that Microsoft haven’t done anything with FrameIt, I think its a good idea for a service. I am seeing more and more digital photo frames in homes and I even think that Windows Live is in a great position to really make this service popular. Now that Windows Live integrates with so many web services and so extensively with the likes of Facebook and MySpace that FrameIt could be unrivalled as a digital photo frame service.

Just looking at Windows Live it could obviously pull photos from photo.live.com allowing users to just choose individual albums or the entire photo collection. But the service could also use the people tags when photos are uploaded with Photo Gallery to have only people or specific people shown on the photo frame. The same could be done for people’s photo collections on Facebook and MySpace now that Windows Live offers more integration to the social networks. Some people probably wont want only people on their digital photo frame so I think FrameIt could also use the geo tags on photos to only show photos from a specific location. This could be photos from several holidays at the same place or photos that fiends have taken on social networks. I think that the high level of integration Windows Live has with social networks could allow for some excellent photos to be shown on photo frames that aren’t possible with any other service.

Then there is obviously Flickr which will offer the same breath of choice for photos but perhaps lack some of the more social elements for a photo stream.

I know I’d love to use FrameIt on a digital photo frame if it would easily pull the photos I wanted it too from my social networks through such filters as people tags and geo tags. Just looking at photo.live.com’s Messenger Social stream suggests such a great source of photos for a digital photo frame.

Thinking on this idea some more I also thought about other areas of Microsoft that could add to FrameIt. Some of Bing’s Visual Search galleries are stunning and obviously it has it home page photo everyday. It would be great to get all of Bing’s home page photos on a photo gallery, I really don’t think I have seen a bad photo on that website.

Then I thought a little more and thought about the vast collection of music images that Microsoft have with Zune. Its unlikely that all people will want a collection of pictures of a single artist (or a collection of artists for that matter) shown in their living room but the way meta data is delivered over the top might be interesting to some people. Data such as the album and photo name could be overlaid along with the location and the names of any people in the photo. The way the photo moves or zooms on the screen is also excellent as it attracts the eye with movement but its only a still photo.

One final point I think should be made is that FrameIt shouldn’t be such a separate service but actually part of Windows Live Photos/Photo Gallery. Windows Live Video Messages has been rolled into Messenger and I believe this service should be merged too, it should make a much more discoverable function.

Now that people are using social networks more and more and because Windows Live does such a great job of unifying all the updates from various web sites and services into a single place it makes a lot of sense to me that they should serve these streams to the places that can best show them. Therefore with photos digital photo frames would obviously be that place. I also think digital photo fames should be more, well, digital. Having still photos is great but I could just as easily print photos off to do that with but instead they should move and be interactive with information on them.

I hope Microsoft don’t abandon FrameIt even if I have never used the service as I really think it could be an excellent way for people to browse photos without having to actually browse through photos.

In all the excitement, buzz and coverage that Windows Phone 7 has been receiving over the past few months one thing has struck me, the lack of an icon for Windows Phone. Yes, the below image is the official image used by Microsoft for Windows Phone and I like the idea that even mobiles running 6.5 are branded as a Windows Phone just like ones running Windows Phone OS 7. However the problem lies in that the icon used, not the text, looks too much like the Windows logo. In fact I am sure more people up on seeing the logo will think it Windows for the PC and that it has nothing to do with mobile devices.

People may argue that the icon also needs to feature the text “Windows Phone” which clearly shows that its referring to a mobile device. The problem still exists that people will see “Windows” and think of the PC and not a mobile device. Microsoft have been very keen to point out that Windows Phone 7 is not just a small PC so they should steer away from this. I think the name is too long to be quickly identified as a unique product.

Then there are some people who would like Microsoft to change the name completely, after all this does have nothing to do with the version of Windows we all use on our PCs. Its not like the Xbox is called Windows TV.

Yet, I actually like the name Windows Phone, it should integrate so well with Windows Live that I see the need for Windows to remain in the name but I don’t see it meaning Windows on the desktop. That’s possibly something that will be missed by most consumers but it makes sense to me.

I think all Windows Phone really needs is a more identifiable logo, yes it can still feature the text “Windows Phone” but I think it needs a single icon that people can immediately associate with the mobile devices. If we look at Android, it has the green robot that many people know what it means. Some have even come to love, or hate, that green robot, but the fact it conveys a message so easily is good for Google and its mobile strategy. Apple don’t really have an icon for the iPhone but in fact iPhone is the logo. I fear Windows Phone is too long to be used in a similar way.

I started thinking about how the Windows Phone icon could look. Should is feature the Windows logo? Should it feature a phone? Should it be inspired by the Metro user interface? There were many questions I thought about for the icon. Here are some of the designs I quickly came up with.

I tried to keep as few colours in the icon as possible to allow for any colours to be used, in a similar way to how the Windows Phone icon is used at the moment. The last two designs are my attempt at a Metro-like icon, possibly not great for Windows Mobile, but then how long will that OS be on the market after the launch of Windows Phone 7? My other designs tried to combine a phone with the Windows logo, I’m not sure they work all that well.

What do you think about these designs? Do you think Windows Phone should have a more identifiable, obvious icon/logo?

Today Mary Jo Foley has spied an interesting image on a Russian Microsoft site which is thought to have posted an image of the eagerly awaited new version of Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer 9. There was some text with it too that explained some interesting new features such as a combined address and search bar, I am very pleased to hear about this, and the ability to pin websites to the Windows Taskbar (its unclear if this is Windows 7 only or not).

However, whilst the features all sound well and good its the image of IE9 that I have an issue with. I like the interface in the screenshot as much as I like the new Internet Explorer icon; not very much.

Yes, the new design appears smaller but there seem to be some very odd and, from just looking at the image, annoying design decisions. The new forward and back arrows now appear pastel-ly rather than glossy like in IE7 and IE8 and even in Windows Media Player, I much prefer the glossy look (the same goes for the new logo which just looks cartoony). Another issue here is that the back arrow appears to be too large and is missing the bottom of it, it just looks silly.

I don’t have any complaints with the address/search bar, its looks to be simple yet functional. However the tabs look a little odd as it would appear they have a transparency gradient, why? The tabs, in my view, should be completely opaque and should have a definite border, the Aero UI around the tabs provides all the see-through-ness that is needed with the application. The tab is also too white, for a design that is suppose to all more room on a screen for websites the tab’s colour sure does a good job of drawing one’s eyes away from the page.

The three buttons on the far right look fine, but I just hope that all the options have been added efficiently within those buttons and Microsoft haven’t merged options and controls just for the sake of removing buttons.

Having said all that above though I think its good to see Microsoft being more adventurous with its designs and moving away from toolbars.

And yet, perhaps this isn’t anything like the design we will actually see for IE9 for a start the image could easily be photo shopped as I don’t believe that is a real Bing page. There are several discrepancies with it, I don’t think Kinect and Internet Explorer have even both been popular at the same time and one seemingly well informed reader on Engadget believes the photo on Bing is about a year old. Maybe this is only a place holder image for the article that was published early or a picture of a non final interface design.

I hope we something slightly different from the above image, don’t get me wrong I really like the smaller, simpler interface I just wish the design of some elements was better. I don’t want a cartoony web browser, I want a polished one.

I was just watching the below video on wmpoweruser.com and noticed something I hadn’t seen before; now that I have seen it though I have a feeling it will bug me every time I do see it.

At the start of the video the pictures and Zune (0:20) hub are shown off before the gaming hub and Xbox Live features are demoed. What I noticed is that in the Pictures hub (and indeed all hubs and apps on Windows Phone 7) the screen is populated by elements moving in from the right on a horizontal plane and then when clicking on elements with the hub and drilling further into the Pictures app everything rotates about left screen; this is actually explained in great detail on one of the Design Day videos. However, on the Zune app when an element is clicked the item actually moves down the screen and the elements fill the screen up from the bottom along the vertical axis.

This might seem a trivial issue to many but to me Metro UI, specifically those parts that Microsoft are in charge of, are meant to be uniform which this animation within the Zune hub is not. Despite being a very subtle difference it is immediately irritating, well from watching the videos anyway.

I tried thinking of why Microsoft may have decided to implement the animations with the Zune hub this way, all I can think of is that perhaps when browsing in the Zune software its more likely users will need to scroll up and down the page more so than swiping left or right; by bringing elements in from the bottom it does suggest that there is more content off the bottom of the screen. I suppose this could be beneficial but when all other hubs and apps have horizontal animations the vertical ones in Zune just feel wrong, very wrong.

I know the build in the video is not yet final so there is still a chance that this might be tweaked to make it more consistent but I fear that this is how the hub will ship.

If anyone knows or finds out why the Zune hub is different I would be very interested to know.

Today Microsoft have announced quite a few pieces of information regarding games on several platforms and the release date for Kinect outside the US.

First up Microsoft has announced that it is creating a new Age of Empires game, Age of Empires Online. This game will feature Game for Windows Live integration to allow social game play and will have persistent game play, meaning one’s empire is always alive, awake and working even if the user isn’t logged in.

You can sign up for access to the closed beta on Microsoft Connect. There is also a short video of the game on the new Age of Empires Online website.

Age of Empires II is still one of my most favourite games, although I haven’t played it for many year. I am really looking forward to what this game might have in store, if it has the game play appeal of AoEII and the social interactions like Farmville then I have high hopes for it.

Some other Games for Windows Live news from Microsoft is that it is bring two new franchises to Games for Windows Live; Microsoft Flight and Fable. Microsoft Flight looks like a new version of Flight Simulator which has quite a few people excited but there is currently precious little known about Flight.

Another major announcement from Microsoft this morning was with regards to Xbox Live on Windows Phone 7 in which Microsoft announced the entire list of titles. The width and breath of the types of games and some of the franchises coming to Windows Phone 7 has surprised and pleased many people. As long as Microsoft and its partners can get the gameplay to be stunning and the controls to be implemented correctly for games such as Halo Waypoint, Star Wars and Guitar Hero then Microsoft should have a very competitive mobile game platform that could not only rival the iPhone and Pre but also the PSP and DS.

Here’s the entire list of Xbox Live titles for Windows Phone 7:

* 3D Brick Breaker Revolution (Digital Chocolate)
* Age of Zombies (Halfbrick)
* Armor Valley (Protégé Games)
* Asphalt 5 (Gameloft)
* Assassins Creed (Gameloft)
* Bejeweled™ LIVE (PopCap)
* Bloons TD (Digital Goldfish)
* Brain Challenge (Gameloft)
* Bubble Town 2 (i-Play)
* Butterfly ( Press Start Studio)
* CarneyVale Showtime (MGS)
* Castlevania(Konami)
* Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst (MGS)
* De Blob Revolution (THQ)
* Deal or No Deal 2010 (i-Play)
* Earthworm Jim (Gameloft)
* Fast & Furious 7 (i-Play)
* Fight Game Rivals (Rough Cookie)
* Finger Physics (Mobliss Inc.)
* Flight Control (Namco Bandai)
* Flowerz (Carbonated Games)
* Frogger (Konami Digital Entertainment)
* Fruit Ninja (Halfbrick)
* Game Chest-Board (MGS)
* Game Chest-Card (MGS)
* Game Chest-Logic (MGS)
* Game Chest-Solitaire (MGS)
* GeoDefense (Critical Thought)
* Ghostscape (Psionic)
* Glow Artisan (Powerhead Games)
* Glyder 2 (Glu Mobile)
* Guitar Hero 5 (Glu Mobile)
* Halo Waypoint (MGS)
* Hexic Rush (Carbonated Games)
* I Dig It (InMotion)
* iBlast Moki (Godzilab)
* ilomilo (MGS)
* Implode XL (IUGO)
* Iquarium (Infinite Dreams)
* Jet Car Stunts (True Axis)
* Let’s Golf 2 (Gameloft)
* Little Wheel (One click dog)
* Loondon (Flip N Tale)
* Max and the Magic Marker (PressPlay)
* Mini Squadron (Supermono Limited)
* More Brain Exercise (Namco Bandai)
* O.M.G. (Arkedo)
* Puzzle Quest 2 (Namco Bandai)
* Real Soccer 2 (Gameloft)
* The Revenants (Chaotic Moon)
* Rise of Glory (Revo Solutions)
* Rocket Riot (Codeglue)
* Splinter Cell Conviction (Gameloft)
* Star Wars: Battle for Hoth (THQ)
* Star Wars: Cantina (THQ)
* The Harvest (MGS)
* The Oregon Trail (Gameloft)
* Tower Bloxx NY (Digital Chocolate)
* Twin Blades (Press Start Studio)
* UNO (Gameloft)
* Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet (i-Play)
* Zombie Attack! (IUGO)
* Zombies!!!! (Babaroga)

Microsoft have said that between now and the launch of Windows Phone 7 there will be more titles announced and after launch new games will be added to the Xbox Live Marketplace on a weekly basis.

I just want to point out that the above list is only Xbox Live titles, developers will still be able to publish games to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace but the games will not feature any Xbox Live integration.

Engadget have quite a few videos showing off some game play and the Xbox Live app on the mobile OS, below is the promotional video for Xbox Live on Windows Phone 7.

I have only seen positive reaction for the list of Xbox Live, Windows Phone 7 titles, even from those who weren’t expecting Xbox Live on the mobile OS to be any good. I am really looking forward to getting a Windows Phone 7 device.

Finally Microsoft have also announced the release date for Kinect for Xbox 360 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; people in those territories will be able to buy the accessory on November 10th, so mark your calendars.

Today I saw a tweet from @UKBing inviting people to check out its Travel Destinations Visual Search which I have to say is absolutely stunning both thanks to the pictures and the subtle animations. I had a look around the various destinations and found myself quickly flitting from place to place reading various pieces of information, news and tweets about the places. I happily spent quite a bit of time in the Visual Search gallery without realising how long I had been browsing it.

Despite the immersive experience I couldn’t help querying one element of the filtering system used in the Visual Search galleries. On the left hand side there are various options for refining the selection of Travel Destinations; or whatever gallery is being browsed. The odd thing about these options, or filters, is that all options within a field work with OR logic. This is not a problem when wanting to look at only destinations in a few specific countries (if I want to see destinations in the UK and the US then I will want to a list of destinations from both countries) however for some filter fields it is a very odd logic choice to have.

The problem lies with searching for attributes of a destination. I wondered what places in the world that are renowned for their cuisine and their beaches so I selected both of these “best known” filters. The list reduced dramatically when selecting “culinary” and then to my surprise the list increased when selecting “beach”. The list didn’t help narrow the selection of destinations down but actually increased the list.

The issue I have with this is that I would want to use this Visual Search gallery to help make a choice of a destination from a few criteria and so by selecting the “best known” filters that matter to me I would hope to end up with a very small list of places to choose from. However, the reverse happens in Visual Search. It is possible to select both “beach” and “glaciers” and have a list of 104 destinations when in actually fact I can’t imagine any destination has both great beaches and glaciers. This is because the filter field uses OR logic when I think it should be AND logic.

What I think Bing should add is an AND/OR toggle to the filter fields to allow people to choose how the filtering system works. I would much prefer “known for” to operate with AND logic and to keep “countries/regions” with OR logic.

You can see many more Visual Search galleries from Bing at bing.com/visualsearch.

Paul Thurrott has just published a review of the next update to the Zune PC Software. The main changes and new features are understandably focused around Windows Phone 7 with the devices only able to sync to a PC via the Zune software; without this software or later versions it is not possible to sync a device with a PC.

Within the update Windows Phone 7 devices will be treated just like Zune devices within the software. There is a new section within the Marketplace for Windows Phone 7 apps. The Movies section of the software now differentiates between DRM-free movies/videos and purchased ones, as part of this the Zune service will now track all purchased movie content, allowing them to be streamed or downloaded at any time on any Zune device. Another addition to the software is lots of helpful pieces of text throughout the program that explains what features do and how to use them, they disappear over time. It doesn’t sound like there is much else new with the software.

Paul Thurrott does find complaint with the software though because it is the only way sync Windows Phone 7 devices with a PC, it would indeed be useful if Windows or indeed other pieces of software could access files stored on the devices.

There is little else known about this software at the moment but it is thought that it will be released sometime over the summer, possibly accompanied by the international roll out of the full Zune service, including the Zune Pass.

You can read the article here.

Yesterday you probably heard that Microsoft has a new motto, “Be What’s Next”, and some people wrongly thought that the ribbon-like icons used in the accompanying video at the Microsoft Global Experience (MGX) for the new motto indicated that Microsoft was about to rebrand itself. Microsoft told Engadget this is not true.

Interestingly, Long Zheng found a different set of icons/logos of Microsoft products for a possible rebranding. It was assumed that Microsoft had contacted several companies to create a video to go with the new motto. The second video provided a very different and a more comprehensive set of logos for a company wide rebranding of Microsoft products to that of the few icons shown in the official video. I have to say I prefer the overall look of the logos in the second video; they all have square impressions which fit very well with the Metro UI. I wont be posting the image on here.

However, that second video has subsequently been removed and Microsoft have requested Long Zheng remove the image from his article (they haven’t asked for the same image to be removed from my Neowin article). I’m in two minds as to why Microsoft would ask for this image and video to disappear from the net. On the one hand it might just be that Microsoft doesn’t want other people to see the alternative versions of the video shown at MGX so that people don’t get any ideas. On the other hand perhaps what was seen on the video is actually what Microsoft plans to announce as a massive rebranding.

I am not very confident that Microsoft is about to rebrand all of its products, there is a lot of love for some of the logos used on products and with the recent launch of Office 2010 and small brand tweaks to things like the Xbox it would seem a waste of money for some products. However, its not like Microsoft is short of cash with the announce $4.5b profit the company announced yesterday in the past year.

Today is the last day of MGX so I am guessing if there is to be a rebrand for Microsoft’s products then today would be it; I’m not holding my breath despite wanting to see a unified look for the company.

It would appear that some people get all the luck, this time it will be Microsoft employees who will be receiving free Windows Phone 7 handsets from their very generous employer.

The rumour has started from a few tweets from people attending Microsoft Global Experience. The first tweet was from @simchabe, a senior marketing manager at Microsoft, who said “Woot. Every single Microsoft employee will get a windows phone 7”. This was shortly followed by other tweets, some people stating that the news has been “confirmed by multiple sources”. You can follow the latest tweets from the event with the #MGX hashtag.

Microsoft employs about 90,000 people across the globe meaning a roll out before the devices are launched will allow Microsoft some very useful statistical and testing information. This action could encourage some of the company’s own employees to develop on the platform or even use it exclusively whereas before they might not have chosen too. It’s is also thought that this move will stop people from using iPhone and Android devices from two of Microsoft’s main rivals.

Microsoft Global Experience is a showcase, in Atlanta, for about 10,000 selected employees of the company and several people from outside of the company. The showcase is often of unreleased and unannounced products and new features creating a lot of interest for those outside of Microsoft. Employees at Microsoft are very careful not to spill the beans on demos of unknown items which is often reflected in a quiet spell of tweets tagged with #MGX. Mary Jo Foley, of Microsoft following fame, expects Microsoft to focus Windows 7 Slates at the event to show those inside that the company can compete with the iPad.

This kind of stunt is not new as Google recently provided a free Nexus One, Android device to all of its employees.