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Literally moments after I penned a missive concerning the future of Microsoft’scontent, music, and gaming platforms, news has broken that indeed Microsoft will be ending the production of all Zune hardware. This, while a surprise, is not the ‘end of Zune,’ or any such nonsense, instead it is an admission by Microsoft that now that they have a solid, selling mobile line of phones running Zune software, there is little need for other devices that mimic only a part of their functionality....

Today we had to endure yet another round of ‘Zune death’ reports after Microsoft, so they claim, goofed andstopped mentioning the Zune HDon its website. Oh dear. Let’s go over what we know, and have known, and why it matters. To begin: There is no new Zune device coming. Bloomberg found that out in May, so we can drop the topic entirely. It’s just not going to happen. So then, where does that leave the current Zune HD?...

And people say that nothing interesting happens on Friday. We’ll prove them wrong. Thelovely Zunited blognoticed something recently that might have unveiled the future of Zune, and demonstrated that it in fact has a future. Late at night, just a hair off midnight, while using the dev/beta version of Zune (that can interface with a Mangoed WP7 handset, we use the same edition here at TNWmicrosoft), Josh Martin was served, for a short period of time, the full Zune Marketplace in Canada....

Late last week webrought you the newsthat it was likely that Zune Marketplace, the commercial side of Zune, would be coming to Canada. Zunited, aZune-enthusiast blog, discovered that while running a developer version of the Zune client, they could access features that hinted towards Marketplace availability in the country. Later, the author managed to actually purchase a song. This is his take on the matter: It seems as if Microsoft has finally gone through the proper channels, cut through the red tape and decided to start competing in a country other than the United States....

ZURBhas been putting together a pretty impressive suite of web apps lately. With apps such as Verify andStrikealready in the fold, the team decided to give one of its flagship web apps,Notable, a makeover. More of an overhaul, really. Notable allows you to take a screenshot of any live webpage, sketch, or wireframe and exchange notes on specific details of the screenshot with your team. You can quickly reply, vote, or suggest a better idea....