Microsoft was kind enough to get us some hands-on time with the Zune, not batting an eye as we eagerly slided the player down our pants, enjoying the material it was made out of. Our thoughts first, then a gallery later.

The outside is made out of a rubberized plastic, which goes through an interesting process where they paint the inside a different color than the case—this gives the Zune a two-toned look which both looks and feels great. The corners (meticulously selected down from hundreds of minutely different corners) look like they glow, which is called the “doubleshot effect”. This comes from the inside radius being different from the outside radius.

So the big news: The Zune will be upgradeable. How? Let us explain…

Microsoft’s put in WiFi on the Zune, which even though it doesn’t seem to be a big draw to consumers now. The hardware paves the road for them to do various other “scenarios” with the Zune. In the future, via software update, the Zune should be able to possibly do stuff like share songs over the internet, wirelessly sync with the computer, stream music/video to other devices, and much more. The hardware is there, but it just needs to be activated by software. Microsoft’s decided to focus (wisely) on making the Zune simple to use and intuitive for people to pick up. Something that we think they’ve achieved.

  The UI is snappy and has lots of zooming, sliding and various cool effects when you’re navigating. Luckily, the eye candy doesn’t get in the way of usability. The click-pad isn’t too bad to use, but it’s not touch sensitive like the iPod wheels. The community menu options like sending files and pictures are all over the place. If you hit the middle button to get the context menu, you’ll most likely notice an entry called “send”, where you can send what you’re currently listening to to nearby Zunes. Overall the UI is pretty well designed, and iPod users shouldn’t be lost if they decide to migrate.

The Zune’s screen was bright even outside, and had pretty much zero glare. Movies and pictures played back smoothly, and the display transitioned automatically to landscape mode when you start a slideshow/movie. Pictures are auto-cropped to display large on the screen, and will be auto-resized down from the original whenever you send them to your friends over WiFi. The Zune was easy to hold in both landscape and regular modes—no problems at all.

There are also two new concepts: inbox and flagging. The Inbox is an area separate from your library where pictures and songs come in from other Zunes. You play your received songs from here, and once you sync, the songs will be uploaded to the Inbox on your PC. Flagging is similar—whenever you flag a song, the song will show up flagged on your PC after syncing for later reference. What was the 5th song I heard in that big random shuffle I listened to on the train? Oh right, I flagged it. It’s useful because you can’t go on your Zune Marketplace after you sync your songs and see your “recently played” list like you can on iTunes…..

Finish this review at the source:  GIZMODO

REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 6, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the completion of the 2007 Microsoft^® Office system code and confirmed its release to manufacturing (RTM). This gold code milestone concludes the largest Microsoft Office beta program to date, with more than 3.5 million people downloading Beta 2. The unprecedented quantity of feedback from beta testers and customers helped the Office development team effectively validate product quality and optimize performance. Microsoft Office RTM also marks a critical step toward worldwide business availability of the 2007 Office system, Windows Vista™ operating system and Exchange Server 2007 on Nov. 30, 2006. To underscore the significance of this new day for business, Microsoft executives will participate in events around the globe, including an event with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in New York. General availability of the products will follow in early 2007.

“We’ve crossed the development finish line, and the team deserves to celebrate,” said Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division. “The 2007 Microsoft Office system RTM completes the most significant improvements to the products in more than a decade. It’s rewarding to be able to send this release off to our customers and help them take the next big leap forward in productivity.”

Today’s RTM begins the delivery of new tools and resources that will allow customers to learn about, try and buy the next release of Microsoft Office:

• Learn. Microsoft Office Online has been redesigned to help people learn about what’s new in the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Through the new enhancements, information workers can easily determine which products are best for their needs and find related productivity resources — whether it is assistance from one of the nearly 50,000 new help articles, a how-to refresher through one of the 35 new demos, online training through any of the 24 new courses, downloading one of the more than 400 new templates, or accessing other product downloads and tools.

• Try. Starting Dec. 1 in the U.S. and Canada, and coming soon after to an additional 13 international markets,* Microsoft will make available free, downloadable product trials via Office Online. Expanding on the Online Test Drive already available today, the trials will allow people to try the new desktop programs before they decide to buy or upgrade to the 2007 release.

• Buy. To support purchase and adoption, the 2007 release of Microsoft Office includes the largest investment in deployment and management tools in the product’s history. IT professionals can significantly reduce the cost and complexity of desktop deployments and upgrades by utilizing resources such as the Office Migration Planning Manager, Open XML Formats Conversion Toolkit, the Business Desktop Deployment 2007 Solution Accelerator, the Office Resource Kit, and more.

Beyond overall code quality for RTM, other notable updates include the following:

• SMS Link for Office Outlook® 2007. This new service allows Outlook 2007 users to connect with friends’, families’ and colleagues’ mobile phones by using SMS text messaging. It allows people to send and receive e-mail, contacts, appointments and tasks as text messages to mobile phones.

• Localization. Most desktop application products in the 2007 Office system will be comprehensively localized in 38 languages.

• Multilanguage support. For the first time, 2007 Office system customers will be able to purchase individual, single-language add-on packs that enable applications and suites to instantly become bilingual. The packs add a secondary localized user interface, help files, dictionary and thesaurus.

More information about the 2007 Microsoft Office system and trying the new SMS Link service can be found by visiting the new Office Online at http://office.microsoft.com.

Source: Microsoft Press Release

The previously covered theme Royale Noir is officially available from Microsoft as the Zune Theme. It is now a finished theme without the rough edges. Get it at Zune.net   Download it directly HERE.

Source: Zune.net

Here’s what’s coming….

Here’s the Office box

SyncToy 1.4 for Windows Vista is available as a free download from the Microsoft Download Center. The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers.
There are files from all kinds of sources that we want to store and manage. Files are created by our digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store, manage, retrieve and view files. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual operation. In some cases it is necessary to regularly get copies of files from another location to add to primary location; in other cases there is a need to keep two storage locations exactly in sync. Some users manage files manually, dragging and dropping from one place to another and keeping track of whether the locations are synchronized in their heads. Other users may use two or more applications to provide this functionality.
Now there is an easier way. SyncToy, a free PowerToy for Microsoft Windows Vista, is an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories. Most common operations can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without additional complexity. SyncToy can manage multiple sets of folders at the same time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames and deletes in another case. Unlike other applications, SyncToy actually keeps track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder.
We listened to your feedback. SyncToy was released as a beta in early August 2005 for Windows XP. We collected feedback from the discussion forum on the Windows XP Professional Photography web site, from customer feedback surveys, from a large number of professional and hobbyist photographers at Microsoft, and from various world-wide forums, sites, reviews and blogs on the web. Most of you (55%) asked for the ability to type in a UNC path to select a folder. We added this feature between the beta release and the v1.0 release. Features we added in response to customer feedback include:

• The ability to type in a UNC path;
• Support for longer folder pair names and ability to widen the left pane to see those longer names;
• The ability to support the maximum length for folder paths, and documentation was added to the help file about how to set up a share to be able to sync deep folder pairs;
• Better handling of the difference in precision between NTFS and FAT timestamps;
• More discoverable link to the help file for information on how to schedule SyncToy using the Windows XP Task Scheduler;
• Support for 800×600 screen resolution;
• Added a warning for users if the selected action will take some time to complete;
• Added brief explanations of the actions in the user interface;
• Improved behavior when choosing folders to include or exclude when there are large numbers of folders involved;
• Improved support for accessibility modes. In March 2006 we again listened to feedback and release v1.2, which fixes a bug caused by Daylight Saving Time changes, and also added some documentation updates.
  In October 2006, in response to customer demand, we released SyncToy 1.4 for Windows Vista. This version has all the features and functionality of the previous version. It requires the .NET Framework 2.0 (and takes advantage of the improvements available in the 2.0 version of the Framework) and it has been improved to run on Windows Vista.
  Please continue to send us feedback about our tool, using the Professional Photography forum or the online feedback survey available from the SyncToy Help menu.
  Note: We’ve taken great care to ensure that this tool operates as it should, but it is not part of Windows and is not supported by Microsoft Technical Support. For this reason, Microsoft Technical Support is unable to answer questions about SyncToy. To speak to other users and contribute feedback about your experiences with SyncToy, please use the forums accessible from the Professional Photography web site at http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto.

  Download from Microsoft

No beginner-level stuff here, and I’ve clearly labeled which are tips and which are tweaks.

To see the entire collection of tips and tweaks in order, start here. Or, if you’d prefer to jump directly to whatever interests you, pick from the following quick list:

Tweak #1: Add an elevated Command Prompt By running a Command Prompt as an Administrator, you can start just about any program or Control Panel applet without being bothered by UAC prompts.

Tip #2: Get an expanded shortcut menu Holding down one extra key when you right-click a file or folder icon gives you some useful options.

Tweak #3: Make text easier to read You’re not getting any younger, and neither are your eyes. Use this tweak to keep your monitor running at its high native resolution but bump the size of text up.

Tip #4: Snip a screen shot This little utility was originally designed for use with Tablet PCs, but in Vista it’s available to anyone running a premium version. Use it to snip all or part of a screen and paste the screen shot into a document or e-mail message.

Tip #5: Get a quick system checkup A shortcut buried deep in the Performance and Reliability section of Control Panel allows you to generate a quick, information-packed report that spotlights any problems with your system. Here’s where you can find it.

Tweak #6: Pump up the volume If you’ve got the right sound hardware, you can tap into some excellent audio enhancements, including virtual surround sound and tools for cranking up the bass output.

Tip #7: Master the Quick Launch bar Did you know that each of the first 10 shortcuts on the Quick Launch bar has its own custom keyboard shortcut?

Tweak #8: Make the blinking cursor easier to see The cursor that marks the insertion point in a program or dialog box is thinner than Kate Moss. A well-hidden option lets you put a little weight on this skinny pointer.

Tweak #9: Make Security Center go away Security Center is a nag. The little icon sits in the taskbar, popping up annoying messages and generally making a nuisance of itself. Until you find the switch to make it go away for good, that is.

Tweak #10: Use the Mobility Center on a notebook This miniature control panel is only available on portable PCs. Use it to enable or disable a wireless adapter or an external monitor and to get a quick fix on battery life. It’s even easier if you know the easy keyboard shortcut.

This is from Ed Bott on ZDNet

During Royale’s development (the XP Media Center theme), the graphic artists also produced a black version of the skin, sans the overused “glass” effect. The result is an aesthetic black skin named “Royale Noir”, it even works with Office 2003.

Since the skin was never released (or reached final adjustments) there are a few issues with it: some of the colors don’t meet the overall “feel” (they’re too purple-ish compared to the greys of the bitmaps) and the inactive titlebars are a little too dark.

You’ll find it’s been signed by Microsoft and doesn’t require a custom UxTheme.dll in case there are any doubts as to its authenticity.

If you already have Royale installed, you’ll need to remove it as both of these skins share the same name.

This skin has not been released to anyone outside Microsoft, until now

Download it at the source

Source: I Started Something via Bink.nu

Big Screen Photos allows you to experience Yahoo!® flickr™ in your loungeroom - using your remote control.

This program is designed for both Windows® XP and Windows® Vista® Media Center (Beta 2) - and also runs via your Xbox® 360 Extender.
‘Big Screen Photos’ uses the latest Microsoft.NET® v3 (aka Microsoft® WinFX®) - to provide a powerful animated User Interface which is optimized for Televisions and the 10′ experience.

Features at a Glance Include..

• Browse and View your flickr™ Photo’s (and everyone elses) directly from flickr online.
• Browse and Search Groups, Photosets, Tags, People and more to find what you want.
• Access Detailed User and Photo Information and drill down on metadata.
• (NEW) Rotate, Zoom and convert your photos to B&W/Sepia tones quickly and easily.
• (NEW) Bookmark your favorite Photo Streams - and view them later via ‘Local Favorites’.
• UI Theme Support - change the appearance of Big Screen Portal with 7 inbuilt color themes.

Get the rest of the details at mobileware.net

Ok this is one of the best Media Center Markup Language application I have seen so far.

Its an RSS reader for Media Center written in MCML for Vista. You can browse the feed setup by Niall Ginsbourg (the developer) or add your own feeds using IE7. It plays enclosed videos and audio files.

Niaill has made good use of MCML, and I hear more is on the way from Niall too

Download from HERE, more screen shots from HERE

Source: Ian Dixon Blogg

Vista is not on track to be released to manufacturing on October 25, according to Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft’s platforms and services division.

“We won’t RTM (release to manufacturing) in a week,” Allchin told me on October 18. “We are in pretty good shape. And there are still months before (the January 2007) launch.”

Allchin said Microsoft is looking at Vista across five categories right now to determine whether it’s RTM-ready.

The five: Reliability, security, performance, driver coverage and application compatibility. While some of these categories — such as driver coverage and app compatibility — may not be as robust as many would expect in order for Vista to RTM, Microsoft looks at things a bit differently, Allchin said.

“We have to be done with Vista before the ecosystem can finish the rest,” Allchin said.

In other words, while many Vista drivers are still MIA and a number of applications are still not 100-percent Vista-compatible, vendors are giving Microsoft assurances that they will be by certain dates. And Allchin said he’s feeling good about those targets.

Source: ZDNet Blog

Allchin would not say when Vista will RTM. But my new guess is early November. And like CRN, I am now hearing that the business launch of Vista and Office 2007 is looking like the very end of November. So I am revising my November 9 business launch guesstimate to November 30.