Microsoft is introducing a new online music service that uses the company’s Xbox brand, replacing the previous Zune branding. It’ll appear as part of an update to Xbox games consoles from Tuesday and will also be available on Windows 8 devices when the new OS launches.

Xbox Music will include a free music streaming service, a subscription service and an online music shop.

In April we reported that US-based bookseller Barnes & Noble was forming a partnership with Microsoft to combine Barnes & Noble’s digital eBook and College education businesses. The as-then unnamed company would be a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble but with Microsoft owning a 17.6% share.

Barnes & Noble and Microsoft have now completed the partnership deal, naming the new company NOOK Media LLC.

Microsoft has put an official date for the Windows Phone 8 mobile OS in the diary.

It’ll be talking about - and presumably demonstrating - Windows Phone 8 to the press in San Francisco on 29th October, just a few days after the launch of its tablet and desktop Windows 8 operating system.

Mark Bridge writes:

If you want to understand mobile gaming, from the commercial side of game development to the current trends in game design, Sandy Duncan is a great person to talk to.

He spent over 16 years at Microsoft, initially working with PC manufacturers and latterly setting up the company’s Xbox game console business in Europe. He’s an enthusiastic gamer. And, for the last six years, he’s been CEO of YoYo Games.

I started my conversation with Sandy by asking him why there was so much interest in mobile gaming when PCs and dedicated consoles were always going to be more powerful than smartphones.

Microsoft has won a significant patent case in Germany against Google-owned Motorola Mobility.

Judge Dr Peter Guntz said Google’s Android operating system infringes Microsoft’s patent, which refers to a ‘soft input panel system and method’. The patent covers the ability for applications to receive an input from different sources.