Having established partnerships 
with both Netflix and Hulu on the Xbox 360, Microsoft might be gearing up to compete with them.
The company is reportedly planning to roll out a streaming video service of its own under the Zune brand later this year.
The competition is getting fiercer, but 
when it comes to online video sales, Apple is still king of the hill.
New data from IHS Screen Digest shows that iTunes was the leader in movie electronic sell through and internet video on demand last year, besting pushes from Amazon, Wal-Mart and others with a commanding 2/3 market share.
Microsoft’s anticipated update of 
the Xbox 360 dashboard has gone live, bringing new features to sports and music fans.
The system update, which is mandatory for all users who wish to connect to Xbox Live, brings over 3,500 live and on-demand sporting events per year to the system, courtesy of ESPN3. That partnership will also include scoreboards, voice chat and the ability to “predict the winner” of games via polls.
Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog
Microsoft’s Zune media player may not be 
making any noticeable impact on Apple’s dominance of the personal media player space, but it does have at least one corporate fan: United Airlines.
The Redmond-based tech giant and United are extending the Zune partnership they kicked off a couple months ago. On the Zune Insider podcast, product evangelist Dave McLauchlan noted that the airline will be providing Zune HDs to passengers on flights to Hong Kong and Australia as part of the expanded test.
Chris Morris: Journalist 