O Zune, where art thou?

Where the Zunes at?

I actually get ver clempted when I see one. Who would have thought Microsoft would be David to Apple's Goliath in the MP3 space. I almost spoke to a total stranger on the subway, so convinced I was of our kinship, because he carried a Zune! My IT guy owns a brown Zune. "I'm not a conformist!" he exclaimed when I asked him "why Zune?"

What sort of people buy the Zune? Bargain hunters? I've seen artsy rebellious types with a Zune; you know the type: black t-shirt, black rimmed glasses, khakis -looking all indie - BUT, sporting a Zune. I've seen obese civil servant types with Zunes; a few teenagers, but not too many Wall Streets types carrying a Zune, though.

I am not sure why, but the Zune 80 spoke to me. I stood at the Apple store and and was bored by the iPods. I like the large clear font of the Zune's UI, and the Zune's screen. I was underwhelmed by the iPod Classics's small screen. The Zune 80 has a bigger screen; first impressions count.

The Zune isn't a perfect product. I bought an alarm clock dock accessory for my Zune, which kind of...sucked. The iPod has the Zune beat in this area. I wish Zune had even a tiny fraction of iPod's accessory goodness.

The Zune Marketplace takes some getting used to. I had to call India to resolve an issue with the Zune Marketplace; I wasn't able to download songs, and had to do some minor XP surgery to fix the problem. The nice man from India walked me through it patiently. I briefly considered putting my Zune for sale on Craigs List.

It's strange, but the Zune found me, and 2 million other Zune owners. We're different, and as Rob Walker concluded in his NY Times article "Antipod", maybe it's Microsoft that's learning to think differently - at least in the MP3 space.

Olympic Blackberry User!

Michael Phelps: Olympic champion; Blackberry user!

Visit Crackberry.com for a picture of Michael Phelps carrying his Blackberry 8800. Gold medalist, and savvy smartphone user!

HSBC Won't Ditch Blackberry

HSBC came out and publicly dismissed rumors about a possible change to the iPhone. It will keep its relationship with RIM, so HSBC's 300,000 employees worldwide will continue to peck away on their Blackberry devices. If the rumors were true, it would have meant the largest corporate order of iPhones for Apple.

Free Wall Street Journal Reader for Blackberry

The Wall Street Journal launched a mobile reader for Blackberry users yesterday. I signed up yesterday, and had the new WSJ app on my Blackberry Curve in under five minutes.

This is a wonderful app for Blackberry users. It pushes WSJ headlines to your Blackberry device like Viigo.com. It also looks slick. I was surprised that I had the options to read full articles if a particular business headline caught my attention. To sign up visit: www.wsj.com/mobilereader.

HTC Diamond coming to Sprint USA?

When is HTC Diamond coming to Sprint? This has been one of the most heavily anticipated phones of 2008 for smartphone aficionados. The Diamond is already available in Asia and Europe, and rumors say that the HTC Diamond is coming to the United States via Sprint at the end of August. I visited a Sprint store recently, and their sales people gave me blank looks when I asked about the HTC Diamond. It is good news for Sprint if it is the US carrier for the HTC Diamond because it needs another homerun like the Samsung Instinct. The HTC Diamond will include Windows Mobile 6.1, a 3.2 mega pixel camera, 4 GB of internal storage, WiFi, GPS, EVDO-Rev A speeds, and a Qualcomm 528 Mhz processor chip. There is talk that Sprint may also offer a red HTC Diamond.

HSBC and the iPhone

The New York Times reported on August 14th that British Bank HSBC may ditch its relationship with Research in Motion (RIM) for the new Apple iPhone. This may mean a 200,000 purchase of new iPhones for HSBC employees. This move could signal to other companies that the Apple I-Phone is ready for the big leagues. Currently companies favor the Blackberry because of the security of its Blackberry Enterprise server (BES). Apple wants to show the corporate world that the iPhone is just as secure as the Blackberry. If Apple succeeds, then Blackberry should watch out as Apple clearly wants to challenge Blackberry’s dominance as the preferred mobile device of choice for business executives.

Is the new iPhone all that?

What is it about the iPhone? Anyone who takes out an iPhone in public is instantly cool. But, is the iPhone all that? Owners of the new iPhone 3G are writing in about cracks appearing, under ordinary use, in the plastic backs. These fissures seem prevalent in the 16G models which have the white backs versus the black backs of the 8G models. It remains to be seen if this is a manufacturing defect, but according to an Apple blog some stores are exchanging units with cracks for new ones after careful inspections. The new features of the iPhone 3G also appears to have a short battery life. Brian Tong from CNet.com gave tips on how to maximize battery life on the iPhone 3G: turn off GPS, WiFi, 3G, and push-email functionality when you aren’t using it; buy your apps from iTunes rather than the wireless apps store. But, I have to ask: Isn't keeping 3G switched on the whole point of the new iPhone 3G?