I have to admit, this looks very nice…

Well, Microsoft’s job postings have led to numerous rumours in the past. Some of them turned out to be the truth, others were miss-interpreted. This time the Softies’ Entertainment and Devices Division needs a Hardware Engineer to build “the next generation of portable entertainment and communication devices”.
Now this could be anything, right? Of course that could, but now add that the team that’s recruiting is stating that they were behind the creation of the Zune HD.
The job posting is filed under the product ‘Windows Phone’, this makes things more complicated. It gives us three options:

1. Microsoft is building a next generation Zune based on Windows Phone 7
2. Microsoft is building a Microsoft-branded Windows Phone 7 device (unlikely)
3. We’re just hoping for the two above and all MS is doing is creating an internal Windows Phone prototype device

As a side-note, I’ll add that ZDNet’s Mary-Jo Foley — who’s mostly well informed — recently said she had gotten a tip about a Zune HD successor. According to her, Microsoft is considering to make one last Zune device before turning it into a service on multiple platforms. It could become a phone-less Windows Phone 7 device, much like the iPod touch is to the iPhone.

But as Engadget points out: “The Bluetooth SIG has a long history of promoting its members’ “special interests” by leaking valuable tidbits about their handsets before they’re announced.” Phone Arena even knows that this lines up with AT&T’s marketing material. It’s interesting that AT&T — as the iPhone carrier in the USA — includes Windows Phone 7 in its line-up.

The LG phone in question is a QWERTY slider and the Bluetooth SIG make notion of a C900N, C900k, and C900B version. The LG C900 would be sold in Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

If you however decide not to read the article, make sure you watch this video of the gorgeous Associated Press app UI:

At HelloFromEurope.com we want to give you the best stories about Zune, Windows Phone 7 and Microsoft in general. Whether it’s ours or not. We want to share with you the good articles we read about these topics and that’s why you’ll see more external posts in the future. If we believe that a certain article or opinion could be interesting for you, we’ll share it with you.

Windows Phone 7 is a new beginning for Microsoft, and at the same time, an ending. The epoch of the “slap our software on any old hardware” open platform is dead.

There’s a spectrum of hardware and software integration. At one end, you have the likes of Apple, RIM and Nintendo who create software and design the hardware that it runs on. It’s controlled and tightly integrated top-to-bottom. At the other end, you have the classic Microsoft model—they just create the software, and a hardware company like Dell or HTC or Joe’s Mom buys a license to install it on their machine, which they sell to you. (FWIW, Microsoft would argue they’re in the middle, with open source, that is, “unstructured openness,” down on the other, wild ‘n’ crazy end.) In the center, you have a mix—there’s still a split between software and hardware, but one side dictates more stringently what’s required of the other side, or they work more closely together, so it’s sorta integrated, but sorta not.

Read further on Gizmodo

Gizmodo:

Windows Phone 7 Series: Everything Is Different Now

Engadget:

Windows Phone 7 Series: everything you ever wanted to know

Bonus: Gizmodo: Windows Phone 7 Interface: Microsoft Has Out-Appled Apple