Here it is, direct from a trusted source close to the situation — a Zune 1 running firmware 2.1, which will bring all the Zune 2 software goodies and UI tweaks with it when those bad boys are announced on Wednesday. That’s right, we also have confirmation that Microsoft will be making the Zune 2 announcement on Wednesday, which should give the Zune tattoo guy plenty of time to get some new ink before the holidays.

Update: We’re now being told that while Microsoft will announce and discuss the Zune 1 firmware update on Wednesday, it won’t be available until sometime later — presumably when the Zune 2s hit the market.

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Today is StevePavlina.com’s three-year anniversary.  What an amazing journey this has been — and a heck of a lot of typing!

One thing that’s been happening more frequently over the past year is that my friends and family members are bumping into my work via other sources.  For example, a friend will tell me that a co-worker handed them a printout of an article from StevePavlina.com to read, and they said, “Hey, wait, I know that guy!”  At least this convinced some of them to stop sending me job applications. 

I have to keep this post short since I’m on my way out, but I want to say thank you for helping make my dreams come true and for ensuring that I never have to get a real job.

If I had to repeat the past three years all over again, I’d consider myself blessed… until I got to October 21, 2005 that is. 

Discuss this post in the Steve Pavlina forum.

© 2007 by Steve Pavlina. If you find these ideas helpful, please leave a donation for Steve so you can enjoy the spirit of giving too.

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Well, we’d heard new Zunes were coming tomorrow (or maybe October 16th) and it looks like retailers are starting to receive display units — everyone, say hello to the new Zunes. Barring some Photoshop trickeration, it looks like we’re getting two flash models and a slimmed-down hard drive edition, but we’ll leave it to you to figure what this all means in the comments.

Update: We’re also hearing that a Zune 1 firmware update rolled out today — interesting. We’ll dig out our Zunes and let you know what (if anything) got updated ASAP.

Update 2: False alarm on the firmware update — but we do know that we’ll be hearing about one when the new Zunes are announced Wednesday.

[Thanks, Nate]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Pentax sure does seem to like trotting its digital cameras out in pairs, and it’s done just that again today, with the company now introducing its new Optio A40 and Optio V10 models. On the higher-end of the lot, the Optio A40 (pictured above) boasts a mighty 12 megapixels, along with a 3x optical zoom, a 2.5-inch LCD, a range of shake-reducing measures, and face-recognition, among other features. The V10, on the other hand, scales things back to just 8 megapixels, with a slightly larger 3-inch LCD, and that same 3x optical zoom in an even slimmer 19 mm thick body (check it out after the break). Look for the A40 to roll out first sometime this month for $300, with the V10 set to follow in November for $250. If that’s all a little too low end for you, you can also look forward to Pentax’s just-announced DA 18-250mm F3.5-6.3ED AL [IF] high-performance zoom lens, which is designed specifically for its DSLR cameras, and boasts an approximate zoom ratio of 14x, among other top end specs. Look for it to land later this month for just under $500.

Continue reading Pentax intros Optio A40, V10 digital cameras

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Digital Cameras

You’ve had a moment to ponder over that SD870 purchase, so how’s about yet another option, cool? On the docket today is Canon’s SD950 IS (IXUS 960 IS elsewhere in the world), which packs an awful lot of megapixels into a pocket-friendly shell. As expected from Canon’s SD lineup, this one fared pretty well throughout, garnering praise for its sleek design, superb image quality, effective optical image stabilization / face detection and sturdy feel. The only real knocks came from the less-than-perfect noise performance, slower than expected startup / image capture and the admittedly lofty pricetag. Granted, this one should be close to ideal for poster printers needing a camera minuscule enough to reside in a rear pocket, but for the rest of us, one of Canon’s “lower” models should fit the bill (and our budgets) a bit better.

Read – CNET (7.8 out of 10)
Read – PhotographyBLOG (4 out of 5; Recommended)
Read – Good Gear Guide (4.25 out of 5)

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!