Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

We kind of wish Microsoft would stop putting their best foot forward with the marketing peeps on Zune, and instead let the product stand on its own. Having Chris Stephenson get on camera for CBS and say stuff like "brown is the new black is the new white," and "welcome to the social -- that's one of our key lines" smacks a mite bit disingenuous and wanton, but at very least they learned their lesson about package design from that internal video of theirs -- we're going to miss the "excessively human" marketing materials with "shelf presence" that "communicates the richness of the product." Ah well, one less surprise to look forward to when we finally get our hands on a unit.

[Thanks, lt.milo] 
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I sat down talked w/ my buddy Godfree from Gamertag Radio last week. You know, about Zune this and Zune that, and about music. He's a gamer first and a music/hip-hop guy second, so he spends the first part of...

We probably can't do this until after launch, but I thought I'd take an informal poll as to whether or not you guys would be interested in having a meet-up.  I'm thinking Seattle, Vegas or LA (mainly because that's where I do the majority of my domestic travel). If it is after launch, we could get together with our shiny new Zunes and share some content, ask questions, whatever.  Let me know how many people are interested and where the best place would be.  If we do it in Seattle, I'm pretty sure I could drag a few folks from the team along as well.

I've received a lot of very specific questions and requests for interviews.  I've decided I'll answer them all (in all that extra time I have these days).  For now, you'll have to settle for a few questions at a time.  So today's question comes from Stephen.  He wants to know the following:
How different is Zune from the PMC, it is obvious that it is a very closed system running a variant of the PMC 2.0 operating system?
That is a really good question (and one that is right up my alley).  At first blush, it would appear that they are very similar.  But, they are actually two separate and distinct projects. 
PMC evolved from a specific application (v1) to a platform (v2) from which partners could build their own devices.  In the beginning, there was a single processor (the Intel PXA255 if you care) and a specific set of components that the OS was optimized for.  By version 2, there were several ICs and componen...

Microsoft's new MP3 player has a lot going against it, even without the iPod around. It's not cool, the DRM will be a pain and wireless sharing is just another way for people to lie to strangers. Commentary by Leander Kahney.

 Literally not figuratively.  We moved into the new space today.  Not the best possible time, but no time is a good time.  Actually, it was pretty exciting.  It was kind of like the first day of school.  It is feeling a bit more "corporate" now, but I'm sure we can change that!  All joking aside, Michelle and team did a great job.  Kudos.  In the meantime, here are some pics of the new space.
Rebecca at the front desk

The Atrium

The entry 

Cafe

Moving notices
 
My new digs
 
MattJub (marketing guy)

Dave (aka Zunester.com)

This could be an add for my Zune, or for Espresso Vivace.

Another shot - this time in full sunlight - that shows off the green halo nicely on my device

I thought that a lot of the photos I've seen don't adequately show off the "double shot" effect on the Zunes. Here's a shot of mine. I really like the green halo effect it produces.

A few pictures of 1 halo fan and how you can personalize your Zune. We were told that these are picture of a Halo 3 theme for the Zune, but its a bit hard to tell that right now. So apparently you can customize your Zune beyond changing the wallpaper on it.