Microsoft to release an iPod touch-like Zune HD2 later this year?
Zune HD developers unable to use XNA 4.0
Paul, Pocket Gamer's Mac-loving, iron-pumping art guy is fond of quipping that there should be a version of the recent Windows 7 ads in which Steve Jobs appears on screen and says, “I'm Steve Jobs, and Windows 7 was my idea.”
Slammed.
However fair you think that is, it seems Microsoft may be set to imitate Apple with its next iteration of the Zune HD portable music player. According to ZDNet, the new XNA 4.0 game development platform for Windows Phone 7 Series mobiles, which has already produced promising results, will not be compatible with the original Zune HD.
Developers using XNA 3.1 will still be able to make games for the Zune HD, but Microsoft is encouraging them to port their titles to Windows 7.
On top of this, ZDNet has heard on the grapevine that Microsoft is currently working on a Zune HD2, which will basically be what an iPod touch is to an iPhone - a non-telecommunications device that has more or less the same guts as its phone counterpart. It may be available later this year.
