Terry and Dave from the Zune team opened our day by giving a brief overview of the device’s history, interface, 2.5 update, software, and models. A detailed overview was given of the Zune “my social | my profile” page on the Zune site, exploring the networking aspect of the player and discussing ways that it will more deeply explore the whole “social” aspect. They have also added quite a bit of playlist functionality and user experience upgrades in the Zune software, and they are adding ways to connect with networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, etc..

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I’m a big fan of keeping my items in mint condition. Since youth, I’ve always have kept my LP collection in near perfect condition with slipcases and dust jackets. While I can’t stuff 11,000 albums on my iPod – they barely fit in my garage – I should keep the 11,000 songs on my iPod protected with a heavy-duty case.

Today, I’m going to take a look at two specialty iPod cases by Otterbox. They include the iPod Classic Defender™ Series and the iPod Classic Armor™ Series for the iPod and iPod touch.

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Not long ago, I brought you a review of Sansa’s latest and greatest portable media player, the Sansa View.  Today, I will be looking at the View’s younger brother, the Clip.  This is a small, 1, 2, or 4 GB media player, which clips onto your clothing for easy transportation.  Perfect for the user who does not require all of the sound and fury of the feature rich View, but still wants quick and easy access to their tunes.

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Good things do come in small packages.

I asked my LEGO friends Beetle and Maynard with their girlfriends Sunshine and Faith to check out the new Fingertip Mini Cube Speaker that Thomas at USB Fever sent from overseas.

Beetle: “As sound technicians for the Best Little LEGO Band from Nashville, we got frustrated with the round speakers that came with our Apple Shuffle.”

Sunshine: “Then Kerry and Judie from GearDiary told us about these speakers from USB Fever.”

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I do not think I have anticipate writing any review as much as I have anticipated the Sandisk Sansa View. I first encountered the View last year when I discovered it on Sansa’s website. At that time, it looked significantly different than the entire line of Sansa players, bearing a large, wide screen and what appeared to be no visible control. I immediately began seeking a review unit, with no response. Shortly thereafter, the Sansa View was pulled by Sandisk and significantly reconfigured. The final release of the Sansa View bore a much closer resemblance to its predecessor, the Sansa e200 series. We may never know what spurred this reconfiguration (although I really wanted to check out that big screen), and all I can tell you about is what I have in my hands. Jump past the break to find out and I’ll show you around.

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With all the smart-phones that we cover here on Gear Diary, it can be easy to overlook a huge segment of the mobile market…the dumb-phone. No, these phones don’t have low IQs and they certainly aren’t stupid, they just don’t offer the PC-like capabilities and advanced features which are generally associated with phones running the Palm, Symbian, or Windows Mobile operating systems.

Although the Alltel Motorola MOTOROKR Z6m fits into what I consider to be this “dumb-phone” category, it certainly does not fall short on features. It offers a 2 megapixel camera with video, has a built-in graphic equalized MP3 player, it is stereo Bluetooth capable, it has a microSD slot which can handle up to a 2GB card, and it offers access to Celltop - Alltel’s new graphically pleasing information manager.

photos were taken by Jerry

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Judie Says: If you agreed with me that the Toshiba gigabeat U202 was a product comparable to the Apple Shuffle, then I think you’ll also agree that it would be hard for the Toshiba gigabeat T400 to avoid comparisons with the the 4GB Apple Nano. Both of them have a relatively intuitive interface, both have vivid color screens for picture and video, and both cost under $150.

The gigabeat has drag and drop features and plays perfectly with Windows Media Player, while the Nano has the full support of the well established iTunes audio and video download store. Which is better? I guess it just depends on what type of music and video you have in your collection, and whether or not you are tied to a particular brand.

For this review I enlisted Jerry’s help; I’ll cover the hardware portion, and he will cover the software…

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[THIS is a monster post with lots of photos - so give your browser some spinning wheel time!]

GearDiary was invited to join traditional media and automobile journalists to experience the launch of the redesigned Ford Focus and Ford Sync™. Hosted in Seattle, Washington by Ford Motor Company and Microsoft, the program included significant drive time with the Focus vehicle, demonstration of the Sync technology and a visit to the Microsoft campus to view the House of the Future. Geekness and coolness personified .

Sync is the newest mobile technology to emerge from the Ford-Microsoft relationship. Debuting in the 2008 Ford Focus automobile, Ford Sync is a fully integrated, flash memory-based system that allows the driver to use their Bluetooth phones hands-free. Additionally, music players such as the Zune or iPod can be controlled via voice commands and buttons mounted on the steering wheel.

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[Ed note: This review is a collaborative effort between Jenneth, Judie and Mitchell. Jenneth's remarks will be in black, Judie's will be in italicized blue, and Mitchell's in italicized green.]

Designing a music player to topple the almighty iPod isn’t a task we would wish on anyone, but if ever there was a company with deep enough pockets and enough stubborn determination to do it, it would be Microsoft.

Released just in time for the 2006 Christmas holiday season was the Zune, Microsoft’s first stab at a portable media player. In the past, the big M has partnered with various hardware companies to provide the software and/or Plays for Sure certification (more on that later), but with none of these enterprises seeming to make a dent in Apple’s iPod empire, it appears that Microsoft has decided to bite the bullet and design its own portable player.

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Joe has posted what has to be one of the funniest pictures I’ve seen today. Evidently a picture of a man perusing an iPod display was run in the New York Times yesterday to illustrate an article on Apple’s 88% profit growth.

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