Live Zune BlSpace

I decided to move my Zune blog to a new location.  It is still on Live.com; just a different url.  You can now find my blog at http://zuneblog.spaces.live.com/.  I re-posted my blog posts about the Zune there.

I hope to see you there soon!

>> LINK <<

The iPod shows of a sleek skinny design and is the number one mp3 player in the market today.  A favorite to teens, the iPod is harmless, right?  Wrong!  A recent study found that the iPod can cause cardiac implacable pacemakers to malfunction by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart.  Strange huh?  The iPod isn't alone though.  There is a long list that consisted of everything from microwaves to radio transmitters waiting for the iPod. 

When the iPod is held up to a test patients chest from 2 inches away, electronic interference happened within 5 - 10 seconds.  Even when held 18 inches away from the chest, the iPod caused interferences in some cases.  the iPod is the only portable media player that has been tested so far.  More research is expected to be done in the future.

Several days ago, ilounge released an article stating that the Microsoft was going to announce some new Zunes in a developer meeting.  Cesar from Zuneinsider dismissed this rumor on a popular website ZuneScene.com's forums.  After Monday ended, with no news of this meeting, people forgot about it.  However, now iLounge.com has released an update to their rumor claiming that the meeting did happen, but it was a secret meeting.  So who knows... maybe iLounge editors are just digging rumors out of their ass for fun, or maybe this is actually legit.  I'll keep you posted...

Quote from iLounge.com:

As noted in our Monday update to the Zune story here on Backstage, Microsoft did in fact hold a day-long event to preview new Zune technology to developers. During that event, the company put an image of the iLounge web site up on a big screen and, we’re told, hassled the developers there for leaking Zune information to us (and presumably others). When our mid-day update appeared, noting that the preview event was underway, that apparently caused another fuss.

That aside, here’s what we’ve heard: Microsoft apparently previewed more than one upcoming Zune at the event. The one that people expected - a flash memory-based Zune - is definitely coming. But it’s physically larger than the iPod nano, and apparently not anything amazing: ‘not bad’ is how we’ve heard it described. If you liked the last Zune but wanted something smaller and with less storage capacity, that’s the flash Zune.

The surprise was the preview of an updated hard drive-based Zune. We’ve heard that it will have a bigger display (yes, this surprised us, too) and most likely additional storage capacity, matching higher-end full-sized iPods as the prior Zune matched the lower-end ones. Our guess is that this is Microsoft’s response to the oft-mentioned iPhone dilemma: “great video screen, but how do I store more than 4 movies on it?”

Release dates or prices? We don’t know them yet. If history’s any guide, they’ll be priced at roughly the same prices as peer iPods, and show up a few months from now. Whether or not they make a splash is anyone’s guess at this point.

 I think this is hilarious.  Apparently J. Allard lost a bet with a Newsweek writer, N'Gai Croal.  Allard bet Croal that the PSP would not pass 10 million sales faster then the PS2 had.  This bet was made back in 2005 and surprisingly, the PSP did pass 10 million units faster then the PS2 had.

The terms of the bet were that if Allard won, Croal would have to loose his dreadlocks, and if Croal won, Allard would have to wear a dreadlocks wig while speaking on stage.  However, Allard has since transitioned to the Zune platform.  Because of this, he didn't present alongside the rest of Microsoft's executive repertoire during their E3 2006 presentation.  So, Allard never ended up on stage with dreadlocks.  Now, 360 (heh, get it, Xbox 360?) days after (on May 7)  the bet was made, Allard has finally owned up to it.

The picture on the left comes directly off his biography page on the official Microsoft website.  It will probably be there for a few days at best.  He is holding a PSP in his hands as well.

“All I have in this world is Xbox and my Zune and my word and I don’t break them for no one.” - J Allard

Link to J. Allard's bio

Link to the picture off the Microsoft website

Quote from J. Allard's Bio page:

Updated: May 7, 2007

“Would he really ditch the dreads?”

That’s what I was wondering after an E3 dinner with Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal in 2005, knowing that it would be about a year before I knew the answer. And what do you know, N’Gai called it.

Six weeks prior to our dinner together, Sony had launched their new PSP product in North America. It was a lightning rod for discussion at the annual game convention in Los Angeles. Not a lot of data, but no shortage of opinions and questions surrounded Sony’s new product:

Would the UMD disc prove to become “universal”? Would they be able to manage production costs and get the price down? Would people really use it for movies and music as it had been promised? What would Nintendo’s response be? How would the industrial design and screen appearance age with use? Was there a chance that it would become the self-proclaimed “Walkman of the 21-st century?” What would the “killer app” be for the system?

Before I had ever met N’Gai, I knew exactly who he was. He had co-penned the cover article for Newsweek magazine in 2000 called "The Amazing PlayStation 2" which I have kept in my office ever since. It had hit newsstands only two weeks after we had approved a project codenamed “Xbox.” The article gushed about the possibilities of Sony’s new system that we had decided to compete with (Xbox would launch about 19 months later). In the end, while a number of promises in the article went unmet, the PS2’s market success would become incredible – it was and continues to be a huge success, selling over 100 million systems worldwide.

As the dinner discussion turned to the new Sony system, it was clear that N’Gai was still a PSP enthusiast. I was far less bullish on the PSP’s market acceptance... I didn’t understand their UMD movie push or why the studios would follow. I questioned their decision to use optical media because of the impact on battery and production costs. I was skeptical of the size of the product as a music player. As always, it was a fun debate as we pushed back and forth on the issues.

At one point N’Gai declared, “the PSP is so good, it will sell faster than PS2” and with that, the gauntlet had been thrown down.

Admittedly, the PSP was a beautiful device with incredible specs… it had a fantastic screen and I knew that they’d sell millions of them, but I just didn’t think that demand could be higher than for the PS2. A challenge was established. If he was right, I’d appear onstage during my E3 keynote sporting dreadlocks (his hairstyle). If he was wrong, he’d clone my hairstyle by letting me shave his dreads at the same conference. We set the 10-million-unit mark as the deciding point.

Well, N’Gai called it. In October 2005, Sony announced that they had surpassed 10 million units sold after only 10 months of commercial availability. He had me beat.

The thing is, he never got to cash in on the wager. In 2006, I had shifted my focus to a new project called Zune, didn’t present at E3 the annual games conference and I had forgotten about the challenge. He reminded me a couple weeks back that I never made good on the bet so here are the promised dreads – 360 days after the last E3 Xbox press conference.

Hats off to Sony for outpacing the PS2 velocity with their PSP. Dreads on for N’Gai for calling it back in 2005. Figured it was only right to include both the dreads and PSP in the photo.

P.S.: For the record, I’d never have been able to cut off your dreads, my friend. I might’ve clipped one off for show, but could never have butchered your style like that.

- J. Allard

I found this cool Zune walkthrough on MSN Soapbox.  It covers everything and it was made by Engadget which is a big respected tech blog.  So check out the video below to see everything the Zune can do!

Quote

Zune Preview

 
Video: Zune Preview

Last night, on channels such as MTV, VH1, BET, and Adult Swim, the first commercial of the new marketing campaign aired. Sadly, I was unable to see this commercial.  I searched the Internet for a video recording of it, to no avail.  Cesar from ZuneInsider.com says he will post it today though.  I will edit this post with the video when I get it.

wonder how it was...

Edit:  Ok, here it is!  This is the first Zune commercial that Microsoft has released for their new ad campaign for the Zune.  Check it out, I got it off the new MSN soapbox (I posted about the new soapbox, remember ?).

Quote

Zune TV Spot

 
Video: Zune TV Spot

Well I have been busy with school work and such (and I still am).  Hopefully, I will be able to post a little more often.  I will be posting about electronics, and more specifically, the Zune.  However, I will still do some posts on interesting cool software.

One thing you might notice is that I kind of re-designed my space here.  I think this clean white look will be easier on the eyes and and more enjoyable to look at while reading.  The Live Team seems to have also added a few things that are interesting.  One interesting thing in particular is ability to put ads on my blog here and earn cash from it.  I might try this :) (don't worry, I'd put the ads at the bottom of the page if I did).

I am writing this blog post in Windows Live Writer.  It is a pretty cool software actually.  Very easy to use.  It has a spell check and such.  Like MS Word, it is much easier to put, say, a picture or a link in my post with this software.  I can also post my blog post right out of the writer without having to go to my blog.  Pretty sweet.  It is also compatible with many blogging sites, not just Windows Live Spaces.  Check it out.

  Link