**Update: Microsoft’s pet unicorn works wonders as they announce that “most, if not all” customer data lost during the great Sidekick slaying of ’09 is restored or soon to be. Whew! So, conspiracy or simply mechanical failure mixed with a pinch of human error? **Update 2: A word from a TechCrunch via Microsoft: We have determined that the outage was caused by a system failure that created data loss in the core database and the back-up. We rebuilt...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZXaotGM_9Y&feature=youtube+gdata[/youtube] If you recently rushed out to be one of the first with the latest generation in Zune goodness you may want to sit up and pay attention. Reports of OLED funkiness have been cropping up on those shiny new Zune HD’s. While it isn’t a widespread problem…yet…as more people pick up Microsoft’s latest the issue could grow troublesome. The video clearly shows...

Ads are a bittersweet tool. For most end users they’re a pain, taking up valuable seconds and pixels in your life. For advertisers they are a bet that they can reach just one more person than they did yesterday. It’s all about getting your name and product out there right? However, for some of the Zune free Zune games that were just released, the ads are full screen videos that can last as long as 30 seconds when launching certain games. Should we be...

Love it or hate it, mock it or praise it, the Microsoft Zune is here for at least a little longer with the upcoming release of the Zune HD. While the older 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 80GB, and 120GB models will be getting a digital dirt nap, Microsoft is pushing onward with their little player that still hasn’t bringing to market a more formidable challenger to the PMP market. But, is it too little too late? While I am actually quite impressed with the Zune HD and...

The Microsoft Zune may be the ugly, finally getting prettier step child that many love to hate and few actually love. But I can say that it has finally started turning into a device I would actually want to own. With the latest updates to the physical design as well as internal features, Microsoft’s Zune is becoming quite the little media player/mobile web browser…even if it is a year or two late to the game. CNet whom gave the new Zune glowing initial...