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"What is Zune HD? Zune HD is a couple things. Number one, Zune HD is a music player with a nice music service. By the way, the same software will be available on Windows Phones and Windows PCs. You have that today on the PC, you'll see that in our phone environment as well."

Straight from Ballmer's mouth to your eyes and ears. Ballmer dropped this tasty morsel during an interview with CNET. Now of course there is no mention of WHEN, but like pocketnow.com, I believe it won't happen until the Windows Mobile 7 OS launches. Even the most powerful of the current crop of Windows Mobile devices probably would choke on a full Zune HD experience.

This is, without a question, excellent news. Microsoft desperate needs to integrate its different platforms in an intelligent way and this is absolutely one of them. I no longer use Windows Mobile (I switched to Android almost a year ago) and I was just saying today I can't see a reason I'd come back. This could be a reason. This would be a major upgrade over WMP at least!

Microsoft's Mobile World Congress 2009 press conference is scheduled to take place in a little under four hours. Alas, not everyone and their pet dog has the luxury of attending, but that doesn't mean you can't live vicariously through the live webcast (local times featured below). We'll also be reporting the announcements as they happen - and Microsoft is promising plenty related to Windows Mobile, Windows Live for Mobile, and MSN Mobile - so simply watch the front-page for updates.

• Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle: Monday, 6:00 AM
• Chicago, Houston: Monday, 8:00 AM
• New York, Washington, D.C.: Monday, 9:00 AM
• London: Monday, 2:00 PM
• Paris, Berlin: Monday, 3:00 PM
• Moscow: Monday, 5:00 PM
• Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong: Monday, 10:00 PM
• Perth, Tokyo: Monday, 11:00 PM
• Brisbane: Monday-Tuesday, Midnight
• Sydney, Melbourne: Tuesday, 1:00 AM
• Auckland: Tuesday, 3:00 AM

After a few minutes of beatboxing and a seemingly enthusiastic Gary Shapiro introducing Steve Ballmer on to the stage, Microsoft's keynote was under way. This was Ballmer's first keynote at CES since taking over from Bill Gates, who delivered it for the first time almost 15 years ago and has traditionally done so up until last year. The question on everyone's mind was whether this keynote would be as memorable as the last. In a time when the very word, "recession", strikes fear into both consumers and businesses, would Microsoft have enough up its sleeve to turn 2009 into a year of ambition, innovation, and prosperity?

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In a little under nine hours, Steve Ballmer and Robbie Bach will deliver the Microsoft keynote at CES. What's in store for Windows, Windows Mobile, Windows Live, Office, the Xbox 360, and Zune? You'll have to tune in at 6:30 PM (PST) to find out, or simply wait for our post-keynote report. Whatever tickles your fancy.

• Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle: Wednesday, 6:30 PM
• Chicago, Houston: Wednesday, 8:30 PM
• New York, Washington, D.C.: Wednesday, 9:30 PM
• London: Thursday, 2:30 AM
• Paris, Berlin: Thursday, 3:30 AM
• Moscow: Thursday, 5:30 AM
• Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong: Thursday, 10:30 AM
• Perth, Tokyo: Thursday, 11:30 AM
• Brisbane: Thursday, 12:30 PM
• Sydney, Melbourne: Thursday, 1:30 PM
• Auckland: Thursday, 3:30 PM

Live Webcast: 100k, 300k, 750k

"Steve Ballmer, at the recently held developers conference at Sydney, Australia, said that Microsoft is working on a App-store like software distribution. Apple's iPhone and App-store have really stirred the Windows Mobile Market. Though there are many 'app-store like' distributions, for example - Handango, they are not something that is offered directly from Microsoft. But at the same time Ballmer also mentioned there are no plans to mimic iPhone's App-store."

Has anyone else noticed how talkative Steve Ballmer has been lately? For the longest time now we haven't heard anything from Microsoft and now it is as though they took the gag out of Steve's mouth! I know we reported on this a while back, but it is nice to see some of the higher-ups in Microsoft confirming what were before just rumors. No matter what Microsoft decides to do anything will be better than Handango. The last time I used Handango the site was so poorly laid out that I felt as though I was pulling out my own teeth. Though Microsoft will have to be careful shaking things up to much. We all know how much the Windows Mobile developers out there love Handango and might not want to use anything else! (That last sentance was pure sarcasm for anyone that didn't pick up on it!)