Looks like you won't be able to purchase iPods, plasma TVs and other such fancy electronics in North Korea anymore. The U.S. government wants to ban the shipment of so-called luxury items to North Korea mainly to piss off Kim Jong Il, the country's leader. It's thought to be the first time in history where economic sanctions were drawn up simply to upset a foreign leader. USA all the way, baby.
While it's true that the average North Korean pretty much has no chance in hell of buying the things we take for granted, Kim is known to enjoy things like our iPods and our Hollywood movies. (And here I thought he had good taste.) Wonder if he uses prefers a Zune to an iPod or is an Apple fanboy? – Nicholas Deleon
U.S. Bans Sale of IPods to North Korea [AP]

Duh. Who knows if this'll see the light of day, but the DirecTV SAT+GO!, or Satellite To Go, has both an annoying name, and a brown color reminiscent of the swampy Zune. The briefcase sized box folds out to reveal a dish in the back, and an LCD on its face, with controls below it. I'm doubtful it's HDTV, but if so, that's a double leap in tech innovation. Sources also say this setup will have a data component to it, at least for the channel guides, if not for other data hookups. Of course, this photo is a pretty rendering a 2nd year design student could have pulled off. Don't get me wrong: It's a real honest to god DirecTV product in the making. But taking something like this to market, well...I'll believe it when I see it at Best Buy. Portable satellite TV is the TV Shoe of this decade. –Brian Lam
DirecTV Sat+Go! [Thanks Ryan!]

If you're looking for a pair of 2.1 USB speakers without the .1, the Logitech Z10 Interactive Speakers should do fine. Thanks to the woofers mounted on the back of the satellites, the pair replicate bass well enough for people who don't want to get cardiac arrhythmia every time they listen to a Snoop track.
The sound was a bit flat, but the reviewers preferred it that way. The main draw, however, is the 160x43 LCD display on the right speaker.

The same LCD that's on the Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard gives you "current track information, your latest POP3 emails, the time and date, your current CPU and RAM utilization, a countdown timer, and a stopwatch." There are also a bunch of mods for the G15 LCD, where you can find on the mod websites below.
There's also support for all the major media players—probably not the Zune—and you can even set radio favorites on the thing. You'll most likely be using the touch-sensitive buttons that control standard...

I happened upon this article this morning. It comes from no one other than the (in)famous Jon Lech Johansen. I have to admit that when I first scanned it on bloglines I thought he was criticizing MS for putting out FUD on the Zune. Then I realized he was pointing out how others are (unfairly) criticizing us. Way to go Jon!

So, it looks like our lifestyle marketing team pulled a fast one on us. Apparently they shipped 100 pink Zunes and hid them in plain boxes Willie Wonka style. It's rare that they are able to pull off a coup like that without anyone knowing internally. Good job! I knew I should have sold my pink unit on Ebay a couple of weeks ago (just kidding honey!)

Jason over at ExtremeTech (a favorite site of mine, BTW) wrote a very detailed review of Zune. Overall he was very positive on the device and a little less so on the service. What I like about the review is that he clearly lived with the device for a while before writing his review. It is clear that not everyone does that before writing their critiques. It's nice to see someone spending the time. Also, it makes the criticisms much more valid. So thanks Jason for taking the time.

Microsoft's music player isn't the lame duck some critics have called it, says Jon Johansen, the guy who cracked DVD encryption. In Listening Post.

The Zune hacking continues, and now an enterprising coder almost has it running on his Mac. The XNJB software he used is not quite able to transfer files to or from the Zune yet, but so far it's able to recognize Microsoft's player and display its file structure. It's a start, and it even works with Zune's updated firmware, now at version 1.1. Here you can see it running on his toilet seat-like orange iMac.
Take a look at his screenshots and gauge the degree of his success.



Here you can see the software is able to determine the battery level, disk size, and amount of data on the disk and remaining space.

The iMac connects to the Zune smoothly and even downloads its track list, but balks when trying to upload a track. – Charlie White
Zune on Mac [Zune Scene]

Anybody want a Creative Zen Vision:M for $180? By using Google Checkout, you can grab the Zen Vision:M for $20 less than the already low (but pretty common) price of $200 from Buy.com.
The Creative Zen Vision:M is pretty well-regarded, right up there with the iPod (and Zune I guess). Its 30GB hard drive is plenty of space to hold a shocking amount of digital music, video and photos. It's even got an FM radio and voice recorder built-in, something many of you wish were standard features of the iPod. No indication on how long this deal will last, so if you're still shopping for your gadget geek brother-in-law, here's a chance to at least save a few dollars, even though you hate him very much. – Nicholas Deleon
Product Page [Buy.com via DAPreview.net]

I did an interview with Zunemax a bit ago and I just saw that it was published. What's nice about looking at an interview I gave a few weeks before launch and now is that things have not changed. I feel the same way today as I did back then.