As was announced last week - the Zune Team rolled out their Zune 3.0 release today consisting of updated Software and Firmware which is now available for all to enjoy at the updated Zune.net website. Click here to go directly to the Zune 3.0 software download page. Once you download and install the Zune 3.0 software, your Zune device once it's connected will be offered new firmware. You can now enjoy new features such as Channels, Personal Picks, Mix View, Buy from FM and more. Oh and the new Now Playing screen is pretty slick too! Also hitting store shelves as we speak are 2 new Zune devices: the Zune 16 and Zune 120. And the Zune 8 is now available in shiny blue-on-silver. As readers of the blog are aware, I've expressed keen interest in picking up a Blue Zune 8. And I did! To celebrate today's Zune 3.0 release I figured I'd post some unboxing shots of the new blue Zune 8.

The Box

Opening the Zune 8 Box

Unboxed

The BLUE Zune 8

I also did some shots comparing the Blue Zune 8 with a Black Zune 8 and a Zune 80. Take a look:

Zumerama does an unboxing of a Zune 16 and Paul Thurrott unboxes the Zune 120. Jason Dunn from Zune Thoughts also discusses his recent trip to Zune Headquarters in Redmond which is also worth a read.

The Zune 16 is available in stores in all black however today it was announced that people can order different colored Zune 16's exclusively via Zune Originals. Zune Originals will offer the Zune 16 in blue, red, pink and green as an online exclusive only. New artwork will also be hitting Zune Originals as well!

To help users utilize the new wireless functionality in their Zune devices - the Zune Team is also announcing today that it is working with high-speed Internet access provider Wayport Inc. to offer Zune users free wireless access to the Zune Marketplace from more than 9,800 participating McDonald's restaurants across the United States.

I'm always looking to discover new music. Add me as a friend on the Zune Social and let me know of some new music I should try out.

 

With the release of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 a few weeks ago, users were introduced to new features, such as Web Slices and Accelerators, as well as enhanced Search capabilities that make browsing the Web much easier. Users can now be exposed to specific bits of information they want quick access to - from the latest news to the latest weather to search for a new blue 8GB Zune. I'd like to take a moment to highlight just a few examples of partners who have taken advantage of IE8's capabilities in Beta 2.

Search:

New York Times Instant Search - By adding The New York Times as a Search Provider in IE8, users can search the latest headlines from The New York Times directly from IE8's inline search.

Web Slices:

Digg's Main Page Top 10 - Find the latest popular stories that have been "dug" on Digg with this Web Slice. 

freenetMail - Let's subscribers check their freenetMail, or view meetings, tasks and birthdays.

And Me.dium offers several Search Providers, Web Slices, Accelerators and Add-ons for IE8 that users can enjoy - mixing browsing the Web with social networking! Click here to see Me.dium's offerings.

More and more new Web Slices, Accelerators, Search Providers, and Add-ons are getting added to the Internet Explorer Gallery all the time.

Today we are also releasing IE8 Beta 2 in 21 more languages in addition to what we released last month (English, Germany, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese). The additional languages are: Arabic, Chinese (Hong Kong), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

You can click here to download Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 today.

For more about Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, be sure to check out my comprehensive overview or this series of very cool IE8 videos that showcase many of the features available in IE8 Beta 2 today.

Novell divides its SUSE Linux products into Enterprise and Personal. This is essentially the distinction between the versions that are sold with a paid-for software maintenance system and those that are not. The Personal category now consists of just one product, SUSE Linux Professional. (In the past there was a cut-down version of SUSE Linux Professional known as SUSE Linux Personal; with the release of 9.3 this product was dropped. Do not confuse Novell’s customer category Personal with SUSE’s former product SUSE Linux Personal.)

SUSE Linux Professional
SUSE Linux Professional now contains versions for both the x86 (Intel-compatible PC 32-bit) and x86-64 (Athlon 64, Opteron, and Intel EM64T) platforms. It consists of five CDs and two double-layer DVDs. The five CDs form is an installation set for x86 machines. One of the DVDs is an installation DVD for both x86 and x86-64; the other DVD provides the source packages. The Professional version contains a wide range of software, including desktop and server software and development tools. It actually contains considerably more packages than the Enterprise Server versions but should be regarded as essentially an unsupported version, but limited installation support is included in the price of the boxed set. A new version of SUSE Linux Professional appears twice a year.

A Live DVD version (it’s been a DVD since version 9.2; previously this was a Live CD) is released with each version. This is available by FTP and can be burned to disk. This version cannot be installed, but booting a PC from this DVD provides a live Linux system that can be used to evaluate SUSE Linux without installing it or, if you want, as a way of carrying a Linux system around with you (perhaps with a USB stick to hold your files).

Traditionally SUSE did not provide ISO images of the distribution for download. This changed in the summer of 2005 when the full ISO images for version 9.3 were provided in this way. The Professional version has always been made available in an FTP version that allows for network installation, either directly from the FTP site or using a local mirror.

Recently, SUSE has also begun to offer a DVD ISO image (by FTP) of a cut-down installable version of the Professional distribution. This should be thought of as an evaluation edition, or as a replacement for the old Personal edition. This version is made available rather later in the product cycle than the FTP version and is known as the FTP DVD version.

openSUSE
Although the software concerned was almost all open source and freely distributable, the development of SUSE Linux was traditionally a closed process. Beta testing was done internally by the company with the help of volunteers from partner companies and the members of the public who carried out the testing under non-disclosure agreements.

When the first beta version of 10.0 was ready in August 2005, the beta testing process and the development of SUSE was opened up with the start of the openSUSE project. This is intended to create a community around the development of SUSE Linux and make the cutting-edge version of SUSE an entirely free one. In some ways the concept is similar to the Fedora project, which plays a similar role in the development of Red Hat; however, openSUSE aims to draw in a wider genuine participation by outside users and developers and has an interest in desktop usability and the needs of end users.

Future versions of SUSE Linux (at least in the short term) will be available both from openSUSE and as boxed versions that will include the traditional manuals and additional non-free software (such as Sun Java, Adobe Acrobat Reader, proprietary drivers of certain kinds, and so on).

Source of Information : SUSE Linux 10 Bible

Found this on the new Zune website’s frontpage. It’s a promotional video showing off the new Zune experience in just under 90 seconds featuring pretty slick graphics, a groovy soundtrack and explains all the cool (new) features of the Zune pretty well. Plus some sort of trippy origami thing going on in the back too. If you ask me, perfect for an TV ad, with some obvious production changes of course. For example, I don’t think anyone has a 6:19 ratio television.

Side note, does anyone know what the song is called? Thanks to Rafael for pointing out the song is “Wanna be a Star” by Walter Meego as flashed in the video at about 12 seconds in.

Is it an iPod? Is it a cheap Chinese iPod knockoff? No, it’s an unannounced white Zune, in both flash (left) and hard drive (right) models. Whilst not apparent in the images above, the hard drive model also comes in both silver and black backings. Hiding in the latest Zune version 3.0 software release resource files, these could be either default placeholder images or a good indication of what’s coming down the road. However knowing how well the Zune team treats themselves, it could be just another exclusive Zune-team present.

These days, everyone is in a stale state. For one, no one knows how prices and the cost of living will be after the Wall Street debacle which saw a couple of big corporate giants, Lehman Brothers and Merril Lynch, file for bankruptcy and corporate restructuring. The technology sector is expected to be affected as well since as far as priority of finances would mean foregoing any plans of investing in the computer needs that a person may have. But will it?

Contrary to what many are saying, expect a wide array of budget-priced computer peripherals to be offered in the market. For sure, computer part manufacturers are likewise thinking of ways to survive this crisis plaguing the whole world at the moment. Just consider big companies faltering and you may wonder what the smaller companies would have to deal with?

Ask the professionals and they will tell you that the computer industry is a totally different venture. As far as financials are concerned, they are inter-linked. In doing business however, computers are expected to get a pinch in the arm but knowing how people are demanding for technology breakthrough today, it is highly unlikely we will see a drop in technology demands.

Computers offer more than just business aids. They can be seen as good tools to start a business even at home. So as far as advice on buying a computer is concerned, make sure you get the right stuff that can make you proactive and productive.