BURP!: Microsoft has officially established a beachhead in the homes of consumers – beating poor Stevie J to the punch; with the upcoming announcement of high definition downloads to your XBOX360 for both movies and television, Microsoft officially trounces Apple’s iTV attempt … which isn’t even launching until next year. Somehow, Microsoft has given Netflix AND Apple a metaphorical kick in the krotch — beating them both with both deals with major content providers AND the hardware hookup to your high def set.

BURP! Microsoft’s virtual earth has rolled out of the door — and right by me. It looks cool from all the reviews I’ve seen, but like some stubborn DRM’d music player refuses to play nicely with other browsers (such as Firefox, both the boon and bane of my surfing experience). Mat Ingram seems to like it – but from what I also see, it only supports a few major American cities off the bat. Not a deal maker enough for me to migrate to MSIE 7.0 to view pretty pictures.

BURP! The Zune was released last week — am I the only who thinks it looks hot? And has anyone seen videos of the interface? It teh rocks! Fanboyish drool aside, it does seem like Microsoft has screwed its currentl customers of MSN Music Store, as, remarkably, Zune does not support its Microsoft’s own PlayForSure. Sounds like they’re really betting the boat that a) the Zune is going to be a massive hit and b) the number of current subscribers / purchasers of music from MSN Music store are either i) blogospherically impotent and / or ii) will be happy purchasers of the Zune and/ or iii) will be content to not port over their music to the Zune