Microsoft prepares to take on the portable music player industry's heavyweight: Apple. Would you believe it?

Stacks of potential, but current hardware is underwhelming and the client software a mess.

Everything going 'according to plan'.

And closes MSN Music.

iPod 'killer' needs 'hundreds of millions of dollars' and many years, saystop exec.

A GeForce CPU in your music player? It seems that Nvidia's Tegra chip give Microsoft's Zune - and around 50 other devices - some interesting gaming potential.

Pretty much every new product gets hyped as a potentially disruptive technology these days, and usually nobody outside of the company's marketing department actually believes it.

Redmond takes second shot at iPod killer with pre-orders and pricing revealed for the new Zune HD media player..

Media playes gets support for Vista after all.

We take a look back at the tech products that were so overdone by marketing hype, that by the time they were released, most failed to meet expectations.

Last week, in honour of the Windows 7 launch, we covered Microsoft's biggest successes in the computing field. This week, in the interest of balance, we're looking to the company's dark side..

"Microsoft is not building a Zune-specific phone" – you can't get much clearer than that

Steve Jobs not worried by Redmond's media player.

Manufacturer unveils self-imposed copyright levy.

Microsoft confirms Xbox Live movies to be delivered to Australians over the Internet to your Xbox, only this time there's not a modchip in sight.

We are not Apple copy cats, says senior Microsoft executive, putting down suggestion of an MS version of the iPhone.

Redmond thought about launching a Zune phone.

Microsoft has extended its attack on Apple over pricing with a new advert that claims it would cost US$30,000 to fill the latest 120GB iPod using iTunes purchases..

Jobs announces name change, sets release date for set-top device.