A Reuters report indicates that the Web TV wars may get even more heat in the future. Microsoft will reportedly look to take on competitors like Google TV and Apple TV 2 with its own subscription-based service. The service will be rolled into the company’s Xbox 360 consoles, giving it a large market straight out of the gate.

Microsoft may be gunning at more than Internet-content-on-your-TV-type hardware from the likes of Google, Apple and other hardware manufacturers; it may be going straight after the set-top boxes of cable and satellite providers. According to Reuters’ report, one direction Redmond is considering is a subscription service that would deliver content directly from major networks like ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, ESPN or CNN. Even more interestingly, the company is considering selling programming bundles (i.e. sports packages, children’s packages, etc.), as well as single channels (i.e. HBO) directly to consumers.

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Microsoft is preparing to launch the Microsoft Kinect motion-based add-on for the Xbox 360 tomorrow, and has upped the number of units it expects to sell over the next two months. According to CNET, a Microsoft spokesman revealed: “…we’re increasing our forecast from 3 million sensors sold this holiday to 5 million. That’s bigger than any launch in Xbox history.” So be good kids, it looks like there’s a good chance that a Kinect will be waiting under your tree next month.

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Microsoft dropped the details on its Phone 7 mobile OS way back in March and, today, it finally got around to detailing the first handsets on which Phone 7 will launch. The handsets will debut in Europe on October 21 and here in the States on November 8.

Microsoft differentiated the “glance and go” phones bearing its new OS: “The goal for Microsoft’s latest smartphone is an ambitious one: to deliver a phone that truly integrates the things people really want to do, puts those things right in front of them, and either lets them get finished quickly or immerses them in the experience they were seeking.”

The initial Phone 7s include five handsets from HTC, two from Samsung, two from LG and the Dell Venue Pro, originally known as the Lightning. The phones all feature Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, range from 3.5 inches to 4.3 inches and will be carried in the U.S. on T-Mobile and AT&T. Sprint and Verizon phones will follow the initial launch next year. Hit the jump for a list of North American models and carriers. [via Engadget and Microsoft]

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Remember all the way back in those infant days of 2010 when Steve Ballmer held an HP Windows 7 tablet up for the onlooking masses at CES? That was a helluva long time ago at this point, and still no Windows 7 devices on the market. We’ve had video; we’ve had some on again/off again tablets, but we haven’t had a single hard product to go out and buy.

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For those of you excited for the launch of Windows Phone 7 (are there people excited about it?), there’s now a solid date. Granted it’s only a rumor, but it’s looking like Windows Phone 7 will officially launch on October 11. According to Pocket-lint and its “multiple sources,” Microsoft will launch the new mobile OS at an event in New York. Handsets featuring Microsoft’s latest iteration of mobile operation will launch later in the month, as the report goes.

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There’s not too much information floating around on this big, bad boy, but it appears to be the first ASUS Windows Phone 7 phone (that new OS just makes things redundant doesn’t it). The leak hails from Pakistan, where the ASUS is presumably doing some time field testing.

Near as we can tell, judging from the picture, it appears to be a rather large phone, in the 4-inch range. It features stylish brushed metal casing and looks to include a front-facing video-call camera. Outside of that, all that’s left to look at is a central Windows button and a number of icons for Microsoft apps like Internet Explorer and XBOX Live.

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As has been the trend of the past decade or so, Microsoft is pulling up behind Apple with a product all its own. In this case, it’s rumored that Microsoft will be launching a multitouch mouse to succeed its Arc Mouse.

Microsoft’s Arc Touch Mouse will launch in September, according to Neowin. This new piece of hardware is said to be the same piece of gear that Microsoft teased earlier this week in two pictures.

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Microsoft’s been getting active in the Windows Phone 7 department, preparing for a launch later this year. Today the big M announced its lineup of Phone 7 partners, a robust  set of mobile players. Five specific manufacturers were announced as Phone 7 partners: Asus, Dell, HTC, LG and Samsung. Those names include some heavy-hitters that we expect to make a strong case for Microsoft’s new operating system.

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The Real Windows Vista of 2010?

Woah there, Microsoft. I know you’re probably teeming with giddiness watching Apple finally struggle with image and hardware problems. But to call the iPhone 4 Apple’s Vista might be taking it a little far. Plus, it just reminds a brave new Microsoft 7 world how bad you f-ed up with Vista. Bad move on your part.

Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s COO offered this unrefined nugget: “It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I’m okay with that.”

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