Microsoft held a Zune event today and announced several interesting bits of information regarding the company’s portable media player. It turns out Danger is working on the Zune, and the XNA mobile gaming platform for the device is coming this month.

Microsoft recently bought Danger, the company responsible for developing T-Mobile’s Sidekick phone, and at today’s Zune media event, the GM of Marketing for Zune mentioned that they are trying to integrate and work with Danger’s staff, says Gizmodo. Does this mean a Zune phone is in the works?

It’s too early to tell. Danger makes the Sidekick, but it doesn’t have to restrict itself to phones. Microsoft may simply want to better the Zune OS, and Danger is definitely the right company to help with that. Microsoft is also primarily a software maker, so putting microphones and speakers on things isn’t really what the company does. Then again, finding a company (Samsung, Pantech, etc.) to do that for them is also a likely possibility.

On another note, the XNA (Microsoft’s mobile Xbox 360 gaming platform) is coming to the Zune this month. This means Live games bought through the 360 that are Zune compatible can be transferred to the device, allowing gamers to play them on-the-go. There’s only four working games available as of today, but more are coming.

More complex games will allow gamers to participate in 8-player ad-hoc wireless games, and developers can also tie the Xbox 360 controller to mobile games. This means the 360 controller should connect to the Zune, allowing users to use a controller instead of the Zune navigation pad and buttons.

Does this mean we will one day witness random groups of people holding controllers and Zunes everywhere we go? Probably not, but it is a funny thought.

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Entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 8:31 pm under Cell phones, Media players, Microsoft.

Read more entries by Danny Mendez.
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