Is Zune HD the future of portable media?

Just a few days ago, the Zune HD was nothing more than the subject of some wild speculation, but now that it has been made official, many people are wondering whether or not Microsoft's new player is actually going to be make as much noise as they hope when it comes to changing the way people consume media on the go.

The HD in the name might be a tad misleading. The screen itself runs at 480x272, but the fact that it's a multi-touch capable OLED definitely makes up for the average resolution. The HD part comes into play when you slap it into the optional cradle, at which point it can churn out 720p video to an external display through an HDMI. That means the player has native support for HD videos, presumably including the ones you buy from the Xbox Live marketplace.

Zune Leap-Year Bug Fixed

We all survived Y2K with minimal impact, right? Who would have guessed that a leap year would mess up some software? And, wouldn't you think that a company such as Microsoft would have forseen a problem?

On December 31st, many 30GB Zune players froze up, because the software didn't account for 2008 having an extra day. Ooops.

How can the glitch be fixed?

Givin' It Away: Free Zune's for All

Look out your window. See any frost? Apparently, hell hath frozen over. This is something that we would never have thought we'd see. Most MP3 manufacturers bundle in headphones, sometimes really good headphones with their portable players. In a complete 180-degree shift, now you can buy really great headphones, the Klipsch IMAGE in-ear buds, with a Microsoft Zune 4GB player thrown in. For free! Yup. Zip, nada, bupkes, zilch. If you ever wondered how Microsoft was doing against Apple in the portable digital music player arena, this is pretty telling. These Klipsch IMAGE headphones retail for the same $349 price elsewhere, but keep reading to see where you can get them with a free Zune.