Canada

The sales for Kinect for the Xbox 360 have been amazing with 18 million sold this last year. The end result has been countless hours of incredible fun with family and friends dancing and playing sports in the confines of their living rooms. Kinect has also opened the door for developers and businesses to create new and innovative experiences through natural user interface (NUI) on the PC. The explosion of imaginative ideas that can be done with Kinect is something we call the Kinect Effect.

With my busy job at Microsoft, it’s hard for me to stay in touch with friends and family year round. I lived in Maine ten years ago, then Canada, then Colorado, DC and finally NYC before moving to Seattle. That means a lot of friends in a lot of different places. So, when I do connect I want it to mean a lot and I want it to be in person. That’s why I love Windows Live Messenger’s video chat, Facebook chat sync and photo-sharing services. In fact, I love it so much I’m devoting this week’s chat to the topic.

Everyone I know in the United States is already starting to feel maxed out on holiday. There are tons of things to do: buy a turkey, buy presents, plan festive seasonal parties, get a New Year’s Eve plan in place, take family photos and the list goes on. So, we thought maybe there is one thing we can do this year to decrease all the things on your plate – we’ll take your family photos (if you live in the US, Canada or France) and we’ll do it while you are already on the move.

Over the past few years I have been very fortunate to meet so many of you face to face during my travels with the Springboard Series Tours. I have spent time in Finland and Rome talking MDT, ACT and MAP, London and Barcelona discussing AppCompat, and even sharing with you twenty Windows tools you did not know existed in Chicago, Boston and Toronto. Yet, I am constantly asked, when will I come to South America? I am very proud to announce that next month, I will do exactly that.

So where will I be and how can you attend?

Rock on, Canada! Starting Monday, the Zune Music Marketplace and Zune Music Pass is expanding north, giving Windows Phone owners in Canada access to more than 14 million tracks from all the major labels, as well as tens of thousands of indie tunes.

Today we’re releasing the next version of the Zune software. As one of the Zune program managers, I wanted to provide a brief look at what’s new in the 4.8 release, which you can download here. To update your current version, click Settings > Software > General, and then click Check For Updates.

Back in January, we released the first version of Microsoft OneNote app for iPhone. Today, the OneNote team has announced that there’s a new version available (1.2) which introduces search, shared notebooks, and more customization options.

The Halo Spartan last appeared on his high school graduation stage here. We asked you on Facebook where you thought he might pop up next and the answers were wild. People guessed all manner of locations. However, few guessed that he’d turn up in the most obvious next spot—college. Check out this video to see what happens when a Spartan goes on a college welcome tour.

While the current school year is coming to a close, it's never too early to start thinking ahead to next year. Are you about to head to college this fall for the first time? Planning another year on campus?  Worried what next year has in store?