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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Starting today Zune users can pay ($1.99/ea show) to watch more than 800 episodes of popular TV series on their Zune (or computer). Shows include Comedy Central’s “South Park”, NBC’s “The Office”, “Heroes” and “30 Rock”. The Zune software has been updated as well to include auto playlists, browsing videos, editing album and track information and gapless playback. Keep reading for a full list of Zune service and player upgrades.

Link: Zune

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So you’ve got a Zune and it’s loaded with your favorite music and videos, and you want a way to play your digital music player’s content over your home theater system. Can it be done? Of course.

Digital Lifestyle Outfitters, or DLO as they are more commonly known, has a product for that very purpose: the HomeDock for Zune. With the HomeDock, you can “Play your Zune’s music, photos, videos and more on your home stereo and TV.” You can also “navigate and select your Zune’s music, videos, photos, radio and community on your TV screen with the included, full-function remote control.”

Sounds good, right? Let’s see if it’s easy to set up and if it works as it should…

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You know what I do whenever I have gadget envy? I give an existing gadget that’s close enough to the one I’m lusting over a nice little makeover, and then I try and convince myself that what I have is good enough - if not better - than what I was originally making eyes at. It works for the most part… until I drunkenly smash the thing. But that’s only happened to me a couple of times in my entire gadget history, so I’m not going to beat myself up about it

Right now my gadget envy is focussed on the iPod touch. All the journos I know that have one are thinking about buying one. I suspect that the courier tried to deliver my iPod touch review unit on Friday, but given that I wasn’t home, I was unable to take receipt of this wondrous new toy.

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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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One of my favourite gadget blogs is jkOnTheRun, and in James’ latest post, he discusses one of the quandaries of being a gadget reviewer: which one(s) do I take with me today?

Once I decided to bring a full-sized Tablet PC with me I had to decide between the Fujitsu P1610, the Lenovo x61 and the HP 2710p. The P1610 was my first choice being smaller and lighter than the other two but since my work was going to be writing I felt the smaller keyboard of the P1610 might not be the best choice. I can touch type fine on the Fuji but for extended touch typing sessions the small keyboard can get a little uncomfortable so I decided a bigger device would better serve me this time. I thought about bringing the Lenovo with me because it’s such a sweet, fast device but it’s also the biggest of all these devices and I’d have to bring a bigger gear bag than I wanted. That would entail having to transfer anything in my smaller gear bag to the larger one and that’s a hassle for a simple trip to the coffee shop. The HP 2710p is a fast and smaller Tablet so I decided to take that one for this trip.

My dilemma’s actually a different one - not so much which device I bring (as I tend to standardise on one particular device of each type for weeks - even months - at a time), but how many. If I could get away with it, I’d bring them all with me, in which case I’d need a small shopping trolley to carry them all! My iPod and/or Zune for listening to music, Artie for writing, surfing the Net and playing Scrabulous, my Nokia N95, my Canon EOS 40D for taking photos, my Panasonic HDC-SD1 for shooting video, my Canon M80 for backing up my camera’s memory card, my Nintendo DS Lite for playing games and - of course - my Battery Geek Portable Power Station to keep everything charged.

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Since getting my Zune a few months ago, it has been in the very precarious position of having no screen protector, and only the supplied fabric slipcase to protect it from keys, pens and other devices. But when I use it to watch video, it has to go caseless. I was very happy to receive the Zune metal case and screen protector from PDAir, so that I could quit my worrying.

I received Black aluminium case and ultra-clear screen protector to try out on my Zune. I asked for the black to go with my black Zune and I am glad I did. They go together very well.

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I’ll tell anyone who listens - I think the brown Zune is ugly. Looks great in photos - which is what prompted me to go with that colour - but as Alicia Silverstone once said in Clueless: “From far away it’s OK, but up close it’s a big old mess”.

Thank heavens Colorware is around to deal with my buyer’s remorse. For $74, they can customise the colour of the Zune’s body, wheel, buttons and back, with 29 different colours to choose from. Or, for $325, you can buy a customised Zune from them outright. It’s only available for US customers, but Auntie Judie has promised to act as my US surrogate.

Here’s my terribly girly rendering of how I want my Zune done.

(I know a pink Zune is available, but I’d rather not buy a completely new player just to get the colour!)

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The main reason I bought the Zune was so that I could watch TV and video on my train trip to university every day. I often have unwatched TV shows on my Media Center, so clearing them out during the trip to uni in the morning sounded like a good idea.

Until this application was released, I wasn’t interested in buying a Zune, or any other PMP device. When ZuneTVWatcher was released I ordered a Zune straight away (thanks Judie!). ZuneTVWatcher fills the baffling gap that Microsoft left in their Zune desktop software: the inability to convert and transfer DVR-MS files from Media Center to the Zune.

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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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