Yeah, iTunes - not such a big deal. But the Exchange email situation is killing me!!!

Not sure why, but this update is US only right now - canadians are left out in the cold of the great white north.

And it is chilly up here...

Pick me. Please.

Canadians have black friday. I live in Canada and I am doing all my shopping tomorrow on the internet. Most purchases will be from the US but there will be some from Canada. Canadian e-tailers typically come out with black friday sales to match their American counterparts.

As for BestBuy - sounds typical. I bought my Wii from Sears. They may not be the best place to shop but they were selling them online.

If desperate is beautiful then the Zune will surely be the top seller this holiday season.

The Zune is pretty much the worst thing to ever happen to the MP3 player market. It is like a great big brown (or black or white) Christmas present from Microsoft. I predict it will actually increase Apple�s dominance in the long run and here is why:

(1) Zune completes directly against Microsoft�s partners. They are stealing business from MP3 player manufactures with one hand and stealing business from online music stores with the other. This should pretty much upset everyone involved with the exception of Toshiba who is making the Zune.

(2) Your existing music won�t �Play For Sure� � in fact it surely won�t play as Zune is not compatible with previous DRM efforts.

(3) The initial release was premature. (I know the holiday season is important but you only get one change to make a first impression.) Zune is not compatible with Vista and it is hard to get the software to install even on XP. I have heard nothing but complaints about this.

(4) The Zune is not a compelling replacement for the iPod. With the exception of the �Social� WiFi sharing (which again I have heard nothing but complaints about) it is really just a run of the mill MP3 player. This is a huge problem because Microsoft needs to steal Apple�s customers and just another MP3 player won�t do it. Instead Microsoft will likely lock down the �anything but iPod� market which should definitely mean bad news for their partners (as previously noted) but should have little to no effect on Apple�s market share.

(5) To get Universal they really had to sell their souls. This point deserves the most thought. Universal was willing to hold out � they were willing to risk not having their library on the Zune service at all � to the point where Microsoft had to offer them a share of Zune sales. Wow. Not to mention Microsoft has now opened Pandora�s box. Unless the Zune flops all record labels are going to demand this deal from all MP3 player manufacturers. This is simply going to raise prices. The only company that has a chance of avoiding this is Apple.

Simply put I don�t understand it. The Zune is not an iPod killer, it is just another MP3 player with an iTunes-like music service. It is Microsoft�s take on the iPod. It will sell but at the expense of Microsoft�s partners.

There are legal ways to get Vista. For example, "thrawn" could be the seven-year-old son of a Microsoft co-president.

So little Jimmy Jr, you are gonna have to wait a little while before your Zune will work with that Antivirus-free copy of Vista that daddy has been bragging about.

It's about d@mn time.

Alas, HSDPA is only available in the "Golden Horseshoe" area and only to those that want to use that really crappy Sierra Wireless PC Card.

They need start offering the Nokia N75 and that Novatel XU870. And the need to offer the service where I live.

Both will happen soon I hope...

Yeah, this is more of a Quantum Fax Machine and not so much of a teleporter.

My nano (rev 1) is not as happy as my 5G when it comes to gapless. This could be due to an unreleased firmware update, though. I was able to get the 5G 1.2 update today but I haven't been able to download any updates for my nano.

Gapless playback is definately an iTunes thing.

When 7 launches it scans the entire library to "Determine Gapless Playback Information."

I am under the impression that it either tags and/or modifies the files so that the gap is taken out.

It is definately not hardware based. It is working on my 5G. Holiday transitioned seemlessly into Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

The games are amazing!!!

I have downloaded Tetris, PacMan, Bejeweled and Mini Golf. I was completely blown away by the graphics and game play.

I have a BlackBerry 8700 and a V3i and the iPod game play was better than the V3i and as good as (if not better) that the BlackBerry.

I know everyone wanted the "widesreen video iPod" today but I am happy. I don't feel the urge to buy a new Video iPod (so I am saving some cash) and for free 5G owners get all the new features (except bright screens and longer life).