DISQUS

Ah.. the list of Windows Mobile devices I've used is rather extensive.. let's see.
* I started with the original HP iPAQ
* Played with a Dell PocketPC for some time
* Had the first Motorola clamshell mobile phone (which was incredibly slow)
* Some other Windows smartphone.. which I can't remember for the life of me now
* Finally the Palm Treo 700w (right before I switched to the iPhone)

Every so often I see a cool looking Windows Smartphone on Verizon or on AT&T; and I think.. hmm should I? But the truth is.. I still can't deal with the UI on Windows Mobile - no matter how much the vendors try and hide the UI. Maybe the new Sony Ericsson phone will change my mind on things. We'll see.

I still yet to see it at my local BestBuy unfortunately. Been thinking about getting another as xmas gifts - if only to get more people into the Social!

Fadel,
I wonder if all of your Zune services are running. Open up your services application and search down the service list to find Zune related ones. They should be running in the background on your Windows box. If that's not it - could it be you have Windows firewall up and running? Finally - drop by Zune.net's support forums. I'm sure you're probably not alone here. Luckily things worked on the first try for me.

Thanks Shawn. Needed the time off from the blogging world.. sometimes it's nice to walk away and not have to follow the news everyday!! Great site you're running there!!

haha! Nice.. I've actually never been to Pinkberrys in NYC. I must admit that I do like Pinkberrys.. but then I think about the 4-5 dollar price and that just utterly revolts me...

I actually wondered that myself that day so I walked around with my Zune looking for either Zunes in the open but unfortunately nada. Then again - why would you be listening to your Zune if you're there for a concert right?

Rodrigo:
They actually cancelled the special guest appearance since they were running behind schedule. It went from UGK straight to Common at 8pm. Not sure who they had originally planned for the slot in between though.

Hey Cesar - thanks for the info!

Hey Chelsea,
I'd visit the support page on the Zune website here:
http://www.zune.net/en-US/support/contactsupport/

Good luck!

Quick update here - I tried to install DCut on Windows Vista to no avail. Darn.. I'll have to look into other methods of getting DVR-MS content onto the Zune from Vista.

Dreamchaser,
Happy holiday to you too! Glad to hear you got the Zune! Hope you're enjoying it plenty right now!! Stay warm too.

Hey Jeremy,
My apologies on not getting back to you sooner. You're right - I've been utterly swamped with work so I've neglected my personal blog (which is normally full of spam comments anyhow!)

For your first question - I'm not sure I actually ever found a solution to that problem. Off the top of my head, I can't think of an ideal solution. Here are some ideas:
1. When in full screen mode - try hitting Ctrl-Esc to bring up the start menu - that might let you move the mouse out of the target window which happens to be MCE. You might then be able to go to your second monitor with your cursor.
2. Shrink MCE to a window just smaller than the full screen - that'll definitely work!

Hmm.. that's all I can think of right now.

Now for your second question. Performance gains are subjective when it comes to adding a second graphics card. It really depends on what your goals would be for the second card. If you simply want a larger desktop, then you'll be ok with a single graphics card with dual outputs.
Now if you were building a gaming system, the answer would be different of course. Purchase two SLI enabled NVIDIA cards would definitely give you a 3d performance boost in gaming.

Now another thing to consider when it comes to Windows Vista performance. Since it is graphics intensive, you'll be better off with a modern GPU with beefier amounts of memory than two low end graphics cards.

Hope this helps!

Those are some intense feelings of emotion for the Zune! Great to hear you applaud the player. So tell me.. you don't happen to work for a big software company up in say.. Redmond? :)

Welcome stonejones!! Glad to see more people with Zunes!

Thanks for the quick review Michael!

Good question - that's one of the things I'm going to try out with Vista. I'll keep you guys posted

jason - hahahaha you've got a point there. Sometimes.. I only report the news!

Actually, I can imagine a situation where someone wants to just keep hearing a song over and over again.. of course then you'd think they send him/her the mp3 file to listen to right? I dunno..

Hi Gene - thanks for dropping by! I do agree that a few sources of sales indicators does not make for a clear overall picture of the entire situation. With that said however, I do find it somewhat difficult to think that sales of the Zune would be higher in the American heartland as compared to cities like NYC, or SF or LA.

It's been clear from the get go that Microsoft has gone after the MySpace generation - the underground music goers, and the people who are out there on the cutting edge... but has that really succeeded in terms of sales? I'd like to think that sales in the heartland would be better than the big cities but we have no proof of that as of yet nor do we know if people in the heartland even know about the Zune.

It's be interesting to take a survey of all the MySpace users out there and see how many people come from which part of the country.. Truth is.. MySpace has a lot of LA people.. a lot of big city folks (of course it helps that MySpace started in Santa Monica). With that said.. going after the hip young people out there does translate to going after the youth of the big cities (hence the parties in cities like NYC, LA, Atlanta, and Chicago). Thus seeing sales performances in these cities in extremely important to see the overall picture. It won't tell us the final picture at the end of the day but it does give us some guidance.

Finally, I think it would be interesting to see which age group is purchasing the Zune. Is it the kids? the teeny poppers? The young adults? Who are they?

Thanks for dropping by Gene!

Well I don't think it's about rationalizing a view point. It's about looking at the data in different ways. You can never take a sales chart for face value - you need to look at the overall numbers.

Yes the iPod is leading the way in sales but I (and everyone else) would expect that. What's important is that people are purchasing the Zune. Is it a sell out hit? Of course not.. but it's not doing too shabby either.

Unfortunately I don't think the Zune is dead by any means. It will be here to stay for the foreseeable future. The question is where Microsoft will take this product.

hey this is pretty cool. How did they manage to hook into the Zune software ? I wasn't aware any Zune SDK's were made available at this time.

Awesome! Glad you enjoyed it!

Actually I have been through Kansas and undoubtedly there are plenty of tech saavy folks out there. My point was actually more to the population density issue. A Zune makes sense in a dense city like environment.. maybe in Kansas City perhaps?? But in rural areas it makes less sense. Who exactly are you going to share with? Perhaps your family but who else around you?
However if you're in a city environment or yes - a business then this makes sense.. I'll zap this song to my coworker or friend or stranger down the hall. It's all about population density.
Did not mean to offend the folks in Kansas. I could be talking about upstate NY for all I care (and yes.. I've been to upstate NY too.. spent four years up there).

Well if Microsoft did end up getting the site, then $1400 was a small price to pay if you ask me. The only thing with ZuneMarketplace.com is.. it's a bit too long of a "cool" domain name so maybe Microsoft could care less. We'll see!

Hi Ash,
Sure thing! Thanks for cross linking with us!

I hear ya about the Toshiba Gigabeat S. I've managed to stick it out with the 60 GB mostly because I don't use the device for prolonged periods of time but Toshiba really has to do something about the battery. My fear is that the Zune will suffer from the same fate as the Gigabeat S - but hopefully my fears will be meritless. We'll see once we get our hands on a Zune!