So what’s Zune? It’s Microsoft’s new, holistic approach to music and entertainment.

Wow, Microsoft (finally) confirmed the existence of their ‘iPod killer’ today.

Few details about the device(s) beyond what’s already known, but there’s some vague info on the semi-official blogs of Cesar Menendez (source of the quote) and Richard Winn, two of Zune’s marketeers. Said blogs feature videos from YouTube, have a very Scoble-esque personal touch, and even link to various unofficial Zune blogs. This is definitely not the Microsoft of old.

The only other official announcements are a teaser ad and a slightly disturbing Flash animation.

It’s obviously far too early to pass any serious judgement on this thing, but the early signs are that Microsoft (or at least this product group) actually get it. They’re talking about moves straight out of the playbooks of MySpace, Last.fm, and perhaps also Pandora. If that’s the case, I’d be worried for the iPod — I dare say that even Apple’s mindshare monopoly over the word ‘cool’ is no match for the power of properly-executed social media services.

(via TechCrunch, et al.)

Some discoveries from a morning when I should have been reading about Asian regionalism …

• Having just concluded a summit meeting with the leaders of the European Union, I’m amazed at how George Bush has changed to a concillatory tone, even to the point of affirming that he wants to close Guantanamo Bay. The gung-ho, “with us or against us” President of not long ago has clearly learnt some lessons — or maybe he’s started listening to advisers when they point out that cooperating with Europe is his only real option.
• Over in Dili, even Xanana is asking Mari Alkatiri to resign. Although there’s clearly evidence that the PM bears some responsibility for the current crisis, I doubt sacking him will achieve as much as people are hoping. The UN’s special rep claims the situation there is still fragile, and leadership changes won’t help if the Timorese government just plods along with the same policies.
• To other matters: it’s intrigued me how the mainstream media are taking to the world of new Web services and software. This AP article in the SMH article talks about Web browsers as if tabbed browsing and Dashboard-style widgets had only just been invented, and apparently Internet Explorer 6 is only just starting to “show signs of ageing”. But uninformed reporting aside, at least browser innovation is getting some air time in the mainstream press.
• Also in the world of software, Microsoft have announced a partnership with — of all people — the Creative Commons folks! Admittedly, all they are doing is offering an Office add-in to give documents CC licensing metadata, but even that would have been unthinkable for the Microsoft of a few years ago.

Everyone seems to have it in for Microsoft, and it’s not right, it’s not fair. They’re just a tiny and tender company – that’s why they called themselves “micro” and “soft”.

Danny Katz, as usual, is hilarious.