I’m kinda tired of this but once again Gizmodo has the scoop on the Zune Phone. Every once in awhile it would be cool if a Zune site was the one with a scoop like that but apparently Zune team only reads the big boys and they therefore they get all the good tips.

Rumor Smash: No Zune Phone at CES

Sorry dudes. Just it first hand from Brian Seitz, Group Manager of Zune: “No Zune phone at CES.”

Anyway as I suspected there will be no Zune Phone at CES in January. Steve Ballmer will use the keynote address to talk about how much he misses Bill and they have a video retrospective planned that will take us all back to the days when he and Bill single handedly invented the technology industry with DOS. This year its more about what Microsoft has done and not so much about what they are doing to remain relevant. Right? Wrong!

I agree with MG Seigler from Venture Beat. It’s a matter of semantics.

Not a ZunePhone: The big stink over “Pink” » VentureBeat

the question for some people is whether they’re playing a semantic game. While there may be no “Zune Phone” at CES, there is still very much a chance that we’ll see something that Microsoft has codenamed “Pink” or “Project Pink.”

There will be no Zune Phone which by definition is a hardware device designed in house and manufactured by Microsoft. I agree with Brian Lam at Gizmodo that Google can get away with a GPhone and no hardware because they have never manufactured hardware but Microsoft has a track record producing their own and we expect them to on a Zune Phone and especially considering they paid 500 million for Sidekick maker Danger a few months back.

Running the Zune software on someone else’s phone would not be the same thing for many and may not be considered a Zune Phone by some but maybe they’re thinking about the existing Zune software and not about something else, something much larger. What is it? I don’t know but the Pink and Purple projects are supposed to integrate a set of premium mobile services including Zune into the Windows Mobile OS. That seems rather simple really if you think they are just installing Zune software on some phones but when you consider that the Pink project team has been at work for a whole year you to have to wonder what they have been doing right?

What takes that long to integrate into Windows Mobile? It can’t just be software that took a year to integrate. There has to be much more than some extended software services involved in a year long project. Project Pink is more than Zune software on Windows Mobile and it’s more than just a Zune Phone. Think about what they have done with the New Xbox Experience and then add Zune to that equation.

I think Project Pink and Purple, or Rouge as it may be, is the Zune Live Experience and mobile extensions of the combined Xbox and Zune Experience to Windows Mobile. “Connected Entertainment” is coming to a smartphone near you in 2009. We’ll be playing Zune tunes and Zune Games on Windows Mobile 7 devices. We’ll have community developed XNA games for Xbox with Zune ports of the same games that we can play at home and on the go. We’ll carry our social network with us and have access to our online friends from MSN, Xbox and Zune on our Windows Mobile Smartphones by 2010.

Now the real question is will that be enough to even bother Apple and the iPhone behemoth?

Discuss this in the Zune Message Boards.

Here is a first look at Games for Zune on video. The Zune makes a great game playuer and moving around even on my old school Zune 30 is pretty smooth. I understand games are much better on the squircle for the Zune 80 and with that much space you can really stuff some musioc and new games on Zune.

Video: XNA Game Running on a Zune

I’m considering the XNA pacakge so I can install games on my Xbox. I looked into how hard it is and then I realized it’s a pay only feature. It’s $100 for homebrew games on my Xbox and thats a bit much this week. I gotta find out how many games there are and how easy it is to install them. Wheres the best Xbox XNA games place?

Connecting to Your Xbox 360 Console with XNA Game Studio 2.0

This guide assumes you have already installed a supported version of Visual Studio tools and XNA Game Studio. These products must be installed before connecting to an Xbox 360 console. For information about installing these products, see Setup and System Requirements.

* Step 1: Sign In to Xbox LIVE
* Step 2: Download XNA Game Studio Connect
* Step 3: Connect Your Xbox 360 Console and Windows-Based Computer
* Step 4: Create and Deploy an Xbox 360 Project
* What’s Next?

Step 1: Sign In to Xbox LIVE

Turn on your Xbox 360 console and sign in to Xbox LIVE. You will need at least a Silver Xbox LIVE membership, an XNA Creators Club membership, and a hard drive for your Xbox 360 console to be able to develop games for Xbox 360 using XNA Game Studio. While you are in XNA Game Studio Connect or playing an XNA Game Studio game, you must remain connected to Xbox LIVE.
Step 2: Download XNA Game Studio Connect

XNA Game Studio Connect must be downloaded from Xbox LIVE Marketplace and installed on the Xbox 360 console. XNA Game Studio Connect is listed on Xbox LIVE Marketplace next to the XNA Creators Club Subscription, which may be found by selecting Game Store, More…, Genres, and then Other.
Step 3: Connect Your Xbox 360 Console and Windows-Based Computer

When you develop games for Xbox 360, you develop them on your Windows-based computer, then transfer them over your local network to your Xbox 360 console. This requires that your Windows-based computer and Xbox 360 console share the same subnet. Most home networking layouts support this configuration. If your console and computer share a router or hub, it is likely that they share the same subnet.

With your computer and console on the same subnet, follow these steps to set up a connection between your computer and your console.

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