Create clusters of same-colored tiles to clear them from the board. Sounds simple, right? But the real challenge of Hexic is in creating special patterns to earn special pieces.

Download Games for Zune and be a part of the social gamer players market. enjoy games on the go and take your Zune game player with you wherever you go.

Discuss this in the Zune Message Boards.

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The economy looks bad and as many as 2 million Americans will have lost their jobs by years end but things are looking up for at least one young job hunter if he or she has 3 years experience in user interface design with Visual Basic. The right person with those qualifications and others can be working for the Zune team on a number of things including the Zune Device User Interface and Zune Xbox.

So as tough as the economy is Microsoft is still building upon their commitment to Zune with an obvious long term plan on improving Zune Xbox integration.

Job Details - Microsoft Careers

The Zune Design team seeks a visual designer who is passionate about software design, software innovation and consumer entertainment experiences. We are looking for a strong, collaborative designer to work closely with the creative directors to propose innovative designs and content solutions for the Zune Device UI, Zune Xbox and Zune PC Application. You will be part of a small, but experienced, design team working with multiple feature teams to help ship exciting and emotionally engaging products for Zune. Additional responsibilities include creating interaction design solutions and creatively merging the interaction and the visual directions.

Discuss this in the Zune Message Boards.

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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.

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The Zune Phone has been a rumor for about two years and the Xboy or portable Xbox player has been a rumor for at least 5 years. Manythink there will never be a portable game player from Microsoft but lets be real. What choice does Microsoft have? Can they survive as a company without a strong prescience in the mobile market? I don’t think so. Mobile computing is the way of the future and the smartphone is going to become the portable computer of choice.

Microsoft is not known as an innovator and many of their products and services are a me too effort with many critics crying foul over plagiarism and copycat ideas coming from the worlds largest software company. the Zune was no exception. Since the Zune was announced we have seen lots of comments about the fact they are playing catch up to Apple and Sony in the portable media player market with the iPhone and PSP leading in areas where Microsoft has little to no representation.

When they released Zune many of us were hopeful for what the futire held for them and we were excited about the potential for Microsoft handheld devices. That’s when the rumors started and things have been building ever since. You can read a partial timeline of the Zune phone announcements here for more details on the rumors but little has been said about an actual device until now. We knew that when Microsoft bought Danger they would be releasing a phone but no specifics. When they brought games to Zune we got even more excited because we could see that they understood what we wanted but still no game player

Now we may be taking the first steps towards an actual device. The latest rumors have Microsoft working on an all in one smartphone and game player using the Nvidia Tegra chip. The current story is that the new device will be more of a game player with phone features which may be what they need to invigorate the existing Xbox fanbase. A Microsoft portable game player has been the dream of a million Xbox fans since they introduced the first console years ago and its been a recurring rumor and joke just as long. The rumored new player is said to be primarily a game player and the Nvidia Tegra chip is the perfect fit for what we hope to see in our new Zune.

The rumors have been picked up by other tech sites and they seem to make sense to others as well. Just about everyone expects Microsoft to enter the mobile phone market with some sort of device that will allow them to compete with their own OS and the existing line of Windows Mobile Devices. By building their smartphone under the Zune brand and by the new super chip they may stand a chance against the iPhone and the Apple Apps store which just hit the 300 million apps downloaded mark. Some suggest they take on another acquisition by purchasing an existing provider such as RIM and building upon what they have already done but that’s an expensive option and it won’t guarantee success anyway.

I think the rumors make some sense to me. The Inquirer sets the new Zune phone game player release date as February 2009 but that’s not very likely in my opinion. I think they will make an announcement at some point early next year but they phone will not be ready until Holidays 2009. We will be getting a Zune phone and it may have the new Nvidia Tegra chipset but its going to a full year before I am playing games on my portable Microsoft device.

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A professional videogamer, who plays Xbox under the name Tsquared, has hit the big time with a sponsorship from Dr. Pepper that will see the 21 year slacker and Halo fans face on millions of soda bottles. This is not the first gamer to be sponsored but has got to be the biggest sponsorship deal in professional gaming.

Obviously this is just the beginning of what should be bigger and better sponsorship deals as video gaming creeps into every facet of pop culture.

Does this make him the Michael Jordan of Pro Gaming?

Professional videogamer now sponsored by Dr. Pepper — South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Following Wheaties’ tradition of promoting sports figures on its boxes, Dr. Pepper announced Wednesday that it will be featuring a 21-year-old professional videogamer on its bottles.

The face of Jupiter native Tom Taylor, or Tsquared when he’s playing Halo 3 competitively, will be printed on 175 million bottles starting in January.

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Microsoft Xbox is set to unveil some super cool new features and improvements to Xbox Live in what is now being called the Xbox Live Experience. I’m not going to try to break it down for you when this review below has done such a great already.

I will say that when they get to the point they have full integration with Zune users it should be an awesome experience for music fans. There may be some problems with the system but it is the best thing going for an organized music community.

I guess this is what they meant by The Social.

Microsoft unveils new Xbox Live ‘experience’ | Gaming and Culture - CNET News

Dubbed the new “Xbox Live Experience,” this re-launched service–which is rumored to be launching in November, but which Microsoft will only say is due “before Christmas”–really does seem to have something for everyone: an easy-to-use graphical interface complete with deeply customizable avatars that casual players will enjoy, and all kinds of new functionality that will actually reward the dedication of the hard-core Xbox player.

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Robbie Bach is giving out more interviews and dropping some hints and jabs at the competition as well. It’s very interesting to see that they do not have big plans for games for the current Zune players until they have it figured out. he says he sees Zune as an entertainment device rather than just a game or music player.

I wonder if what they are trying to figure out is a Zune game device?

Video Game News, Video Game Coverage, Video Game Updates, PC Game News, PC Game Coverage - GameDaily

But you aren’t going to see a broad gaming effort from us until we sort that through and have it figured out. I don’t think of Zune like the PSP. The PSP is a game player that also does video and music. We think of Zune as a broad-based entertainment device.

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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.

Technorati Tags: zune, xna, zune xna, zune games

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Found another great article on Gamasutra about Xbox Live and XNA but the most interesting quote in the entire article was the one below:
Gamasutra - Connecting Communities, Redefining Xbox Live: Chris Satchell On XNA

It’s interesting. There’s always been the theory that Microsoft was going to do the “X Boy,” but there’s never been any real credibility to that theory, as far as I’m aware. Coupling XNA with Zune is an interesting way to still get into the handheld games space with an existing device and not have it be a potential problem or liability.CS: It is interesting, because Zune was never designed for gaming. I don’t know about you, but I love the way this control input feels, especially…

I’m excited about what can be done with XNA on Zune and I think game development is going to be awesome for Zune. I wrote about the XNA platform when it first came out and I knew then that XNA was a great fit not only for Xbox but for Zune as well and recent announcements have confirmed what I already knew. Microsoft mobile games development will be under the Zune platform more so than Xbox. There is no Xboy coming Zune!

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Microsoft has not been exactly forthcoming with specifications of future Zune devices but they have unveiled hints that intrigue the public and encourage tech enthusiasts to keep an eye on Redmond in the future. Although Microsoft has made some mistakes during the Zune launch no one has completely discounted their efforts and what Zune means to the portable device market.

Just as Microsoft released their Zune MP3 player, the company confirmed the rumors spreading over the tech industry that they are preparing a lineup of devices that would compete with almost every existing handheld player on the market. According to Microsoft, their future technological innovations would connect home, office and automobile audio-visual systems and enable users to experience multimedia entertainment at their fingertips. It’s their Live Anywhere Initiative and the Zune family of devices appear to be the "Anywhere" component.

The trademark of Zune, which filed documents describe as a “family of multimedia devices” rather than one product, draws quite a bit of attention from many handheld enthusiasts and critics. Many bigwigs from the industry opined that Microsoft is having a “risky game” with existing multimedia devices, threatening them all as the company develops new devices under Zune trademark that would integrate functionality that are offered by separate portable devices nowadays. Many are concerned with Microsoft’s abandonment of their previous market endeavors such as the Plays4Sure program. Microsoft defends their position by claiming they plan to support both Zune and Plays4Sure as two separate programs. The Zune devices will allow Microsoft more control over the device design and upgrade progression.

The Zune system’s trademark documents submitted to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expose that one of the future features of Zune family would be electronic games. This means that Microsoft intends to have their own product representation in handheld games industry that is currently dominated by companies such as Sony and Nintendo. The software giant’s confidence on their handheld game device venture is strengthened by the success previously realized by their own Xbox – as you may remember, it became the world’s number two game console when it was launched – surpassing the game entertainment veteran, Nintendo. A Microsoft portable game player has been discussed since the beginning of the Xbx was introduced and many have looked forward to the "Xboy" for quite some time. Many in the industry have high hopes for the Zune game player and there is no longer doubt that one is being planned, the only speculation left is what will a Zune gaming device do?.

Microsoft has partnered with several big companies to develop future Zune devices. With the information leaked in the filing of device prototype at FCC from a consortium involving Microsoft, it revealed that their current partners are Intel, Dell, Phillips and HP. Rumors were confirmed by Microsoft and its partners that they are currently working on a smart phone dubbed the “Zune phone.” Though the company did not confirm that their new Zune device is aimed to compete with Apple’s iPhone that will be launched on June 2007, they said that it would be available on the holiday season of the same year. The revelation of the Zune and iPhone would potentially stir telecom companies as these new products take advantage of wireless VOIP. Wireless VOIP would be attractive to public because calls are generally cheaper because they are routed through the Internet.

“Microsoft is getting involved with everything” would seem true statement when other Zune devices scheduled for release. The company’s greater cross-platform ambitions apparently would strike existing handheld manufacturers and encourage them to undergo massive re-strategy either to keep their dominance on their market or to protect their product’s existence. As these competitions push technological development and innovations more rapidly, it is clear that Microsoft is trying to steal the crown from companies as they join the handheld battle of the fittest.

The only question that remains is that if the software giant will be able to realize their plans. While future Zune devices will not immediately materialize, people involved in the industry have plenty of time to wait and see – and it begins with the Microsoft’s first Zune device. Microsoft’s attempt to topple down Apple’s market-leading iPod is merely the beginning of a long, exciting battle in the portable player market.

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