File ‘squirting’ likely making a comeback in Windows 8

Ah, Zune. The long maligned musical hardware and software push that Microsoft put forth after the rise of both the iPod and iTunes used to contain a feature that allowed users to ‘squirt’ songs to the devices of other nearby device owners. How there were no viewers of pornography amongst the entire Zune team at that time, thus allowing for the awkward naming, is a mystery.

That aside, the feature might be coming back in a larger way, and thankfully with a new name. It’s to be called ‘beaming,’ if the rumors are true, and will allow for the sending of files between Windows PCs, Windows Phones, and Xbox consoles. It’s actually a rather attractive proposition. According to the often accurate @MS_nerd Twitter account, beaming will employ a variety of techniques to send the information:

Here’s why this makes sense to us: We will see Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and a new Xbox console next year; this will allow Microsoft to bake new, unified technology into the three platforms in a cohesive fashion. In short, given that Microsoft will be releasing so many refreshes at around the same time, that they might have a feature that ties them together is hardly ridiculous.

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Add in the fact that the company has done something similar in the past, and that Microsoft has been working on unifying its product line for some time now, and this sort of file transfer is very much inside the realm of reason.

TNW has an inquiry into Microsoft on the matter and will update this post upon hearing back from the company.