Microsoft announced that it will open its Zune video service to the Xbox LIVE this Fall. Microsoft also unvieled its newest portable media player, the Zune HD. Designed to compete with the popular iPod Touch, the Zune HD combines built-in an mp3 and video players, an HD radio receiver, HD video output, an OLED touch screen, Wi-Fi and an internet browser.More details:

More money spent on gas and groceries means less for luxuries. In the past that meant more people going to the movies and picking up used musical instruments. Now, Microsoft wants to be an entertainment outlet, serving games, videos, and oh yes, advertising.

Onlookers have to wonder whether Microsoft will succeed in its attempted takeover of Yahoo.  There are also the market shares of Vista and Internet Explorer to consider.  Still, the latest news involves game consoles, and on that front, Electronic Arts predicts that the Playstation 3, and not Microsoft’s Xbox 360, will win in 2008.

Market research firm NPD is reporting that U.S. sales of video game hardware and software increased 73 percent in October.

Total sales reached $1.1 billion, compared with $643 million a year earlier. The Nintendo Wii console moved back into the top spot as the best selling console. Nintendo sold 519,000 Wiis, Microsoft sold 366,000 Xbox 360 consoles and Sony sold 121,000 of its PlayStation 3 consoles.

The Xbox 360 video game Mass Effect has been banned in Singapore because it features a lesbian scene between an alien and a human.

Microsoft has partnered with ESPN to bring college basketball and other programming available for download to its Xbox 360 video game console.

Queries for Microsoft’s gaming console have exceeded those for Nintendo’s hard to find competitor, the Wii.

The Walt Disney Company will make its popular Toontown MMORPG ad-supported later this year, and will offer movie downloads in conjunction with Microsoft.

There are a lot of fingers in this pie – or, more accurately, this gas tank – but Primedia Automotive, which “consists of more than 58 Web sites for its automotive enthusiast titles,” has launched a new “Ride of the Month” contest that should draw in hundreds (or thousands) of car buffs, a number of advertisers, and Microsoft itself.