I'm brining XBOX back is a very cool video that you can find on on the Laura Foy's blog that is hosted on the On10 website.

The cool part is that she has a Zune version of the video.

If you explore Laura's blog you will also find two videos about new MS technology featuring Dr. Bill Crounce M.D. For those of you who dont know dr Bill he is our Healthcare Industry Director

I posted a comment on Simon's blog regarding the Zune. I disagreed with his statement that the Zune is DOA.

Simon points nicely to the sales facts and even was able to counter my argument nicely (I guess he DELL deal was a short/1-day only thing; sorry for that)

So lets go back to basics: how do you say if the Zune is a massive success, DOA or anything in between. Unfortunately only time will tell. In the first few weeks after a new product arrives in an already established market it is hard to impossible to know if something worked or not.

Here is why I think the Zune will be a success if you look back 5 years from now:

1. Integration: mspoints, market place, xbox360, MCE, PC
2. hardware improvements (these will be slowest to come along but I am sure there will be a few generations of improvements to come)
3. software improvements (device software, PC Software, internet software)

Lastly let me state that although being a MS employee I am not privy to real insight in plans for Zune. The one thing I know/have seen and that has been called out in the BW article is that MS is changing into a company with less arrogance that listens better to our customers and competitors. We are willing to try new business models, strategies and new product lines. We don't have a history of giving up quickly so I think we will stay at it and make it a massive success.

At bunnies blog they are more daring than me and they ripped one open and took some nice pics. Also there are some interresting comments:

http://www.bunniestudios.com/wordpress/?p=131

now podcasts are called zunecasts. There is already software that syncs zunecasts (ok for some of the legacy readers: podcasts) to your zune.

I tested it and it even works on Vista RTM

I went to the Best Buy at 5th in NYC and I checked them out. There was more interest in the Zunes than the other players. It wasn't really busy but people were checking out the Zune and nobody looked at the iPod.

I got the black one. The white one was too much "yesterdays music player", the brown one was too light brown so I guess I am not fashion conscience enough.

It is seriously cool. I still have to load the vista software for it but I have been playing with it for a few minutes. When you switch from portrait to landscape mode the controls adjust. I was happily surprised with that level of detail.

I have seen a pipeline with lots of cool stuff coming internally so I am super excited with my Zune. I will post back once I have loaded some of my own music and pictures on it etc and have some more details to share