We've seen portable battery packs before, but XPower's Xantrex Mobile Mini charges two things at once. Two. That's double the amount of things charged as one. Just FYI.
The Mobile Mini has a USB port so you can plug in just about any USB-friendly charger, like the iPod or the Zune, and has a miniUSB port so you can juice up your Windows Mobile phones as well. At $49, it's not too expensive, especially since it charges...what was it again...oh yes, two things at once. – Jason Chen
Product Page [Prepared With Power]

It's about time we made another induction into our Commenter Hall of Fame. The first was strider—who after receiving the award, decided he was at the pinnacle of posterdom and started getting a bit sloppy with his comments—and now we're adding hypereric to the lot.
If you look at his commenting record, his posts are usually pretty good, with none of the bullshit "What's a Zune?" or "What's an iPhone?" ones people get axed over.
Welcome, hypereric. Keep up the good work.
Don't know how to comment? Here's how:
1) Click on the "Register" link on the top right of the page. Fill out the form by choosing a username, password and email for your eventual comment account.
2) Choose a post, click on it, and scroll to the bottom.
3) Fill in the comment.
4) Refresh the page to see if your comment shows up. If it hasn't within a day or two, try again with a comment more like hypereric. – Jason Chen

Contrary to popular—belief thanks to other blogs dumping on the Zune whenever they post about it—there's actually interest in Microsoft's player. And thus, there's actually people getting hyped up in the red Zune. This time a lucky reader Steve got his hands on an actual red watermelon Zune. No, it's not the same one we saw last time, Steve actually got a boxed unit.
Check out the gallery to gaze at the Zune before you can pick one up yourself on June 10. – Jason Chen
galleryPost('redzunewild', 6, 'Red Zune in the Wild');
The Gallery [Gizmodo]
Red Zune [Kavik]
Thanks Steve!

Filed under: Podcasts, Portable Audio
Ok, so we finally heard back from Zune PR, and they were about as cagey as we always expect when it comes to statements about future moves in the market. Anyway, here's what they said about Sunday's meme that the player wouldn't be launching in Europe this year: in a nutshell, Ballmer was mistranslated, and did not say either way whether Zune is launching in Europe in 2007. "He emphasized -- as we've been saying all along -- that focus is important to us and the US has been our focus to date. He also reminded those readers that Zune is an investment for the company... a multi-year strategy... but we are currently not making any announcements about future launches." Ok, so it might have just been easier for Zune to come out and say it is (or isn't) in fact still launching in Europe this year, and you can still chalk up the above to a non-denial denial if you like. But it still seems plausible this year may yet hold good news for our cross-Atlant...

With its mind increasingly turned to advertising, Microsoft has decided to put its multi-platform positioning to use as a promotional powerhouse. Lamely dubbed Ignition (good Offspring album, bad mid-90s connotation), the program pimps artists (currently, but don't be surprised to see movies, TV shows, etc.) across Zune, Xbox Live and MSN.
The first artist to make use of Ignition is the UK's Maximo Park (who?) whose album Our Earthly Pleasures and single "Our Velocity" will be available as free downloads on the Zune Marketplace.
While essentially (for now) a hyped-up cross-promotional ad system, the fact that it will offer more (and free) content to users—like music and videos through the Zune and Live Marketplace—is nothing to sneeze at.
More broadly...
MIcrosoft finally leveraging its cross-platform capabilities generally bodes well for us. More content available across more platforms more seamlessly is rarely a bad thing, and hopefu...

Good news Europeans. Those reports last week with Ballmer stating that Microsoft had no plans to import the Zune to Europe were mistaken, thanks to a mistranslated German article.
That picture on the left? That's Ballmer telling people to hold the fuck up and pay attention to what he really said:
Our primary goal was to get into market, offer some innovation and do some learning. The US is always an easy place to practice, because it is our home market. Over time, we will have various versions of Zune. And, it is obvious that we need to have new services, not just an internet music store. So far, we have lost money in this business because of our investments. That is why we decided not to enter new markets so far. It will only pay off after we have reached some of the goals outlined. When this will be the case, I cannot tell you today. This, in response to a question about when the Zune was heading to Europe. Ballmer didn't say anything we already knew, but it did get mi...

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

If you've been holding out for a red version of the Zune to hit the market before you finally make the plunge, we're guessing the more reasonable metrics of "number of friends with a Zune" or "number of rational software features implemented by Microsoft" aren't really your cup of tea. That's cool, wholly rational actors are totally overrated. On June 10th you'll be able to nab a special edition Red Zune at Target or Amazon (who's laughing now, GameStop?), but just in case you need help holding out that long, Microsoft has unleashed some official press shots of the "watermelon red" player. Not a bad color choice in the slightest, but we were hoping for some aquamarine doubleshot to really make this guy pop. More pics after the break.

[Via Zune-Online]Continue reading Red Zune coming on June 10th, try and contain your excitement
 
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Zune Insider just shouted to the world that the red Zune—seen much prettier here in their official ad shots—will be available via Target and Amazon starting June 10.
If there's one thing we have to hand to Zune guys, it's that they really know how to pick good looking colors for their players. We're totally in the mood for some juicy, delicious fruit right now. – Jason Chen
galleryPost('watermelonzune', 4, 'Red Red Zune');
First Images of Red on BET.com [Zune Insider via Zune Online]

New promotional program presents artists to a combined audience of more than 30 million consumers, who will benefit from discovering new music.

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
We regret to inform the iPod-harshing residents of France, Norway, Germany, Sweden, etc., but it sounds like Steve Ballmer told German publication Wirtschafts Woche that the Zune's European fall / winter launch has been pushed back into 2008, citing the fact that Microsoft is still very much so in a money-losing cycle on the product and doesn't yet want to branch out into new markets. Since we don't read German (and our Zune PR peoples are out enjoying their weekend, unlike us) we can't yet confirm the statement, but we've got news for ya Microsoft -- you're probably gonna be losing money on your Zune business for a long time (same as you still are with Xbox), so you'd better be prepared to go big or go home against the 800-pound gorilla.

[Via I4U] 
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