Moving along to the issue of battery life, we have (supposedly) a Microsoft employee who likes to blab to a fellow named Ryan Rea (Volvoshine), and the result is a claim of 5x battery life over the current iPod Touch. The iPod Touch 2nd gen unit is rated for 36 hours of audio or six hours of video. If the 5x factor proves to be true, on paper at least we'd be looking at 180 hours of audio or 30 hours of video. That seems virtually impossible - I'm expecting to see some battery life gains by moving to the OLED screen and the Tegra chip, but 5x? I'm calling hoax on this one. I hope I'm wrong, because that kind of battery life is game-changing, but when something seems too good to be true, it usually is...

This is a bit off topic for some sites in our network, but a good deal is a good deal: our hardware affiliate partner Expansys is selling the Linux-based version of the Acer Aspire One for $199, which is an excellent deal. This version of the Aspire One has an 8.9 inch screen, 1 GB of RAM, a 120 GB hard drive, and uses the 1.6 Ghz Intel Atom CPU. Combine that netbook with a $49 copy of Windows 7, and you've got yourself a nice little piece of mobile computing technology (just be sure to also have an external USB-based optical drive). I haven't installed Windows 7 on an Acer Aspire One, but I suspect it would work just fine - Windows 7 identified all the important hardware on my MSI Wind and HP Mini 1000 netbooks without a problem. At the time of this writing, Expansys only has 58 left in stock, so don't delay.

• Title: Hold the Line
• Artist: Major Lazer, Mr. Lex & Santigold
• Genre: Reggae/Dancehall
• Length: 3:39
• DRM-free MP3: Yes

• Title: Heavy Cross
• Artist: The Gossip
• Genre: Rock
• Length: 4:02
• DRM-free MP3: No

You'll have to excuse the network-wide broadcast (well, except Apple Thoughts of course), but I thought this was something that everyone would want to know about: Microsoft is offering the forthcoming Windows 7 at a steep discount, but only for a limited time. Until July 11th, you can purchase Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade for $49.99 USD (that's an Amazon affiliate link, so your purchase helps support Thoughts Media). The normal price of Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade is $119.99 USD, so that's a very significant level of savings ($70 to be precise). You can also pick up Windows 7 Business Upgrade for $99 if you want that version. When Windows 7 is released on October 22nd, Amazon will ship you the software.

The Windows 7 upgrade will work on a computer with Windows Vista or Windows XP installed. If you have an older computer, you may want to run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to make sure your computer is ready for Windows 7, but in general any computer built in the past four years should be able to run it just fine. Windows 7 is lighter on resources and works well across a broad spectrum of hardware.

Got a netbook? Then you'll want to take advantage of this offer as well - I'm running the Windows 7 Release Candidate on an MSI Wind, and an HP Mini 1000, and it works really well on both of them. I think Windows Vista is a fine operating system, but Windows 7 is even better - it addresses many of the concerns that people had with Windows Vista and adds a degree of polish that means everything is easier to use.

Unfortunately, this offer is only valid in the USA and Canada (Canadians can order from Amazon.ca, Future Shop, and Best Buy). as far as I can tell. Europe is getting a different version of Windows 7 due to the lawsuits Microsoft is undergoing there.

Gizmodo got a tip about the release date of the new Zune HD, including this cool product shot below:

They're saying the device will launch on September 8 and come in 16 and 32 GB varieties, which jibes well with what we've heard so far.

Meanwhile, Engadget's got a video hands-on with the device and photo gallery including shots of the dock. There's no music loaded so we can't see all the cool improvements in that department (check out this older video to see some of them), but if you needed another look at the power of Tegra, it's still as awesome as ever. Also, the last frame in the video shows that Internet is indeed a top-level menu item, not hidden in "more" as previously thought. Personally, I'm interested in the promo pictures behind the album art while playing music (see the picture, above). I think it would be really cool if it had a smaller version of the Now Playing visualizations that the software has featured since v3; it really does feel more engaging with the music you're listening to.

I've been putting this off for at least two years now, but I finally had to bite the bullet and get it done: I had to tear-down my home office and move it in order to get my floor fixed. We moved into this house in 2001, and finished the basement later that year. We put down berber carpet, which at the time seemed like a good idea because basements tend to be cold. Then we got a little puppy named Keiko - and after a few months that berber carpet was covered in stains (house-training a puppy is a messy business). It was also problematic for me to not be able to roll my office chair from computer to computer - for a while I had a custom-cut piece of Plexiglas on the floor, but over time that cracked and broke.

Not wanting to pay another $500 to replace it, and realizing it was a bit demoralizing to be working surrounded by urine stains, it was time for a renovation to my home office. In 2006 I hired a carpenter, and he sub-contracted a flooring company (Underfoot Floors in Calgary), to re-do several key parts of my office. He built a custom set of shelves for me, and the flooring company ripped up the berber carpet and installed a hardwood laminate floor. For a while, everything was great - but then I started to notice that as I rolled my chair across the floor, it would seem to catch on the floor. Over the next year, I'd find little chips of broken hardwood laminate - bit by bit, I was destroying the floor. The entire point of going with the hardwood laminate was to get something tough enough to stand up to a rolling office chair. I brought in the carpenter and the flooring company, and there was a lot of shoulder shrugging and finger-pointing.

Figure 1: This is what the floor looked like after a couple of years worth of my chair rolling over it.

The problem was two-fold: the underlay that Underfoot Flooring used was quite thick. I had asked for a thick underlay in an attempt to plug up some of the awful insulation problems that Bay West Homes inflicted upon us when they built the house - on a cold day, my basement would be a good 15 degrees Celsius colder than the main floor. You could hold your hand along the baseboards and feel freezing cold air blowing in. Knowing nothing about flooring, I didn't realize that by having the thicker underlay would cause the floor to move up and down more. You'd think that the flooring professionals would have pointed this out to me, right? No such luck. The particular flooring that I selected - completely based on colour and design, because hey, what do I know about flooring - turned out to have a bevelled edge, meaning that the pieces didn't lock as tightly together as the indestructible Pergo flooring I had back in my condo. Again, I had no clue - Underfoot Flooring knew this was going in a home office, so I trusted their advice about the flooring options I had.

In early 2008 someone from Underfoot Flooring came in (after much griping on my part), examined the problem, and said the best thing to do was to replace the broken boards - which they'd send someone out to do at their cost - and find a surface to put under the chair so it wouldn't happen again. I was dreading ripping apart my office, so I put it off for months and months. I tried to get in touch with Underfoot Flooring again in late 2008, but struck out - no one was answering their phone, and eventually it was disconnected. I drove past their store front, and sure enough, it was abandoned. And not in the "we're going out of business slowly" kind of way - their store sign was still up, and inside there were still parts of their displays set up. This is a "we don't want to pay our lease and we took anything of value out of the store in the middle of the night" kind of scenario. Their Web site is still up, but the phone numbers no longer work.

So, with much grumbling and groaning, I tore down my office last night in order to make room for someone to come in and replace the broken floorboards. Here are a few photos of the process...

Figure 2: Just getting started with the tear-down...

Figure 3: All my technology...gone! OK, well, one computer remains, secure on a shelf.

Figure 4: And here I thought I kept my office fairly clean. Yuck!

Figure 5: So...much...technology.

Figure 6: Putting it all back is where the real nightmare begins!

Figure 7: Most of the problem was the very thick underlay the flooring company used - it had far too much “give” and the floor-boards would move as I rolled over them in my chair, catching and breaking.

Figure 8: All done! Everything is fixed.

And now I'm faced with the daunting task of re-assembling my whole office...it's hard to know where to start, there's so much work to be done. I still need to find something to go underneath my office chair - I've been looking at interlocking gym floor-type materials but I'm not sure how well they'll work, and they're expensive. I'm going to use this opportunity to simplify my office a bit - the Logitech 5.1 surround sound system will probably be replaced by a simple 2+1 speaker setup. And if Windows 7 were out now, I'd probably use this opportunity to tear down and re-build all my computer systems...but the timing isn't right for that. I have quite a lot of work ahead of me this weekend...

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. Maybe he should leave his office in pieces and go buy a 17" Macbook Pro and call it a day.

Do you enjoy using new hardware, software and accessories, then sharing your experience with others? Then join us on the Thoughts Media Review Team! We're looking for individuals who find it fun to test new gear and give their honest opinions about the experience. It's a volunteer role with some great perks. Interested? Then click here for more information.

"There is a lot of news circulating today about some rumors of the new Zune HD using the NVIDIA Tegra processor. Several websites have been following the rumor, that started at donanimhaber.com, but apparently no one can confirm whether or not Microsoft's latest portable media player does indeed use NVIDIA's system-on-a-chip design. Well PC Perspective can: the Zune HD does in fact use NVIDIA's Tegra processor. I actually learned this fact from some NVIDIA staffers over at Computex in early June but I guess I just didn't realize how "news worthy" the information was. No longer do you have to worry about "rumors" on the subject - Tegra has its first major design win."

After what seems like ages of speculation, we now have what appears to be a somewhat convincing report from PC Perspective that the new Zune HD will be powered by NVIDIA's awesome Tegra processor. Putting the pieces together, it really does make sense. The Tegra chip is supposed to serve as the base chasis in upcoming Windows Mobile 7 hardware and the demos of what is possible with Tegra are astounding. I don't know of another chip on the market which can support amazng transitions and HD video out all while keeping the power consumption to a minimum. Fudzilla notes:

"Nvidia's Tegra is a great platform and it needs only 150mW to decode a video stream and only 20mW to play audio which makes it a perfect candidate for such players like Zune HD. Nvidia already showed some netbook and tablet products based on Tegra at Computex. These were probably all based on Tegra 650, the high end Tegra part as Nvidia likes to call it, while Zune HD will probably based on the mid-range Tegra 600."

Now bear in mind this is all speculation until we get confirmation that doesn't come in the form of "some guy heard it from some anonymous guy at a press event." But until then I'll continue to ooh and ahh at the demos and dream about the prospects of mobile gaming on this thing. I can't wait to see how it'll turn out.

UPDATE: Matt Aikers, via the ZuneInsider Podcast has confirmed that the chip is in fact a Tegra. Guess we don't need those scare quotes anymore! (Thanks Alber1690).

OLEDs are a technology that we’ve been hearing about for quite some time now. It’s taken a while (far too long by my estimation!) but they are finally beginning to show up in more and more consumer devices. Of course, the one we care most about here is the forthcoming Zune HD. The one feature I’ve asked for time and again is a better display than what the current Zunes have had. The AMOLED will certainly deliver on that mark.

A side benefit that you may notice as you read about this technology is how it affects power consumption. Because the screen is not backlit, only the pixels that are active will draw power. While this could mean that if you decide to have an all black background you’ll use less power, the more practical consideration is that much of the time there are large parts of the display that are displaying nothing. Since the backlight is such a drain on the battery, this alone should significantly benefit the battery life.

I think it was 2007 when this "high pitched ring tone" craze kicked off - the idea being that older people couldn't hear high-pitched frequencies, so younger people would put these high-pitched tones on their cell phones and they'd hear when their phone was ringing - or when they got a text message - but their teachers couldn't. These same high-pitched tones would also be used by some businesses in an attempt to drive off younger people who were loitering in front of their establishments. I listened to one of these tones that I wasn't supposed to be able to hear at my age, and I heard it just fine. I knew there was a scientific basis for this, but I figured since I could hear the tone my hearing was "perfect" - I've always gotten perfect hearing scores when I've had my hearing tested. I found a Web site today that shows how wrong I was about being able to hear tones I thought I could!

I cranked up my speakers and clicked on the preview buttons for each tone: I can hear the 16khz tone, but I can't hear the 17khz tone or anything higher. I'm 34 years old, so the fact that I can hear the "30 and younger" tone means I have slightly better than normal hearing in terms of high-pitched frequencies (according to this scale at least). What about you? Where does your hearing drop off, and how does that relate to your age - are you better or worse than average? And if your hearing is worse than it should be, what band were you a roadie for in the '80s? ;-)

Funkmaster Flex and Zune are giving away this tricked-out Ford truck loaded with all sorts of goodies:

Win a 2008 Ford Sport Trac truck designed by Flex and loaded with all the latest tech toys from Microsoft! The custom SUV includes:

• 8" and 6.5" Kicker speakers in front doors, with custom fiberglass pod
• 6.5" Kicker components in rear doors
• Four 8" Kicker subs behind rear seats, installed in a custom sub box
• Two Kicker amps
• Car PC powered by Microsoft Windows XP mounted in center console
• Internet on the go with Sprint wireless AirCard
• TV on the go with Slingbox
• Wireless keyboard and mouse
• Two 7" headrest monitors featuring built-in DVD player
• One 10" flip-down monitor with VGA input
• One converted factory screen to display movies, computer, and Xbox 360 in-dash
• Custom Zune display mount connecting to trailer hitch to display Kicker Zune player
• Full Katzkin custom interior
• Suede headliner and interior parts
• Xbox 360
• Custom Zune paint job

Now before you get too excited, keep in mind that it's limited to US-only (and you've got to have a valid drivers license, so no kids either). That said, for those of us licensed, US-based drivers, you can enter daily to increase your odds. The drawing is September 8, which as GotZune points out, is the same day rumored for the launch of Zune HD... coool. Good luck to all!

The iZel is a small, portable digital device holder (stand) that allows you to easily watch video content in comfort while on a plane, train etc. All you need is a surface to put the iZel on. In the video I test it out with a variety of devices: Zunes, smartphones, an iPod Touch, etc. When I travel, I like to load up my Zune with a movie or two, but I end up holding it in my hand to watch it - not very ideal. The iZel offers a solution to that problem, although depending on the screen size of your device, and how good your eyesight is, watching a video at tray-table height might be difficult. The iZel is made of very durable materials, so it should last a very long time, making it worth the price tag in my opinion (though not everyone agrees). I'll likely be travelling by plane in September, so I'll get a chance to use it in a real-world situation. In the meantime, I'm going to use it as a holder for my cellphone-du-jour, the Samsung Jack. The iZel can be purchased for $24.95 from Amazon.com. [Affiliate]

"So last night, zune.net underwent some changes to make your discovery of music easier and they've added some features that get you more involved with the artists that you enjoy. Here's an inside (the circle) look at what those new features entails:"

Marques lays out the changes to Zune Social made in the last couple of days, including brief breakdowns of each of the new features introduced. If you've been wondering what "follow an artist" actually means, give it a read.

"This week we unveiled a new HD video podcast themed area or page in the Zune Marketplace software. Yes, Zune does have a growing selection of HD video content available. You don't have to wait for the new software or Zune HD device to start enjoying this great crystal clear video content on your big laptop screen. monitor or on a large HD television. The other plus is that it is FREE, yes FREE."

I wasn't aware that the Zune Marketplace even had HD podcasts - being someone that works from home, I have no commute and don't tend to have the "down time" most people use to consume podcasts. I downloaded a couple of the HD podcasts, and they look great! Nice to see the Zune team beefing up their HD podcasts....almost as if there's a device coming that would be perfect for sending them out to a HD TV screen... ;-)

Microsoft has taken a lot of heat over the years on the Zune but the one thing that they simply can’t be faulted on is their long term support of their hardware. The first three generations of Zune didn’t change much in terms of hardware. The firmware, however, has changed significantly.

Every major update has brought the Zune significant new features. And Microsoft has not left any device behind. This is the type of opportunity that Microsoft has to take advantage of. When you’re the underdog, which Microsoft is actually quite skilled at being, you jump on every stumble that your competition gives you and take market share inch by inch. With the economy in the state that it is, consumers shouldn’t be expected to buy a new device for updates that can come from software.

With the Zune, that hasn’t been an issue and hopefully Microsoft keeps this attitude going forward.

• Title: Quiet Dog
• Artist: Mos Def
• Genre: Hip-Hop
• Length: 2:57
• DRM-free MP3: Yes

• Title: Light Through the Veins
• Artist: Jon Hopkins
• Genre: Electronic/Dance
• Length: 9:18
• DRM-free MP3: Yes

"Chester French, the hotly tipped dynamic pop act who recently released their debut album, have just released an exclusive performance as part of Zune’s “Green Room” video series. The behind-the-scenes and performance footage gives an intimate and no holds barred look at the band on stage and in their tour bus."

If you haven't had a chance to check out the Zune Green Room podcast yet, you might be seriously missing out. The lineup so far has been awesome, with Adele, Mastadon, Janelle Monae, Duran Duran, Travis Barker and DJ AM, T.I., and Peter, Bjorn and John. Each series features some really cool answers and provides a bit more insight into the minds of your favorite artists (my personal favorites were the episode with Adele and Janelle Monae). Check out ZuneInsider for the lineup to the upcoming podcasts.

I was poking around the Hubble space telescope site, grabbed five images, and turned them into 240 x 320 backgrounds for the Zune. Want 'em? Grab the ZIP file.

• Users will be able to follow an artist, getting news and updates about that artist
• RSS feed aggregation will allow users to add links to an artist page
• Performance improvements from distributed caching
• Enhanced Social data is exposed on the home page - a listening now module and additional recommended content
• Music video previews and concert dates will be available on Zune.net

That's a pretty decent list of upgrades to the Zune.net experience - though I do pretty much everything via the Zune software client, so I'm not sure how much I'll be using those features. Still, nice to see - hopefully there will be a Zune software client update that brings some of these features into the software.

"The Zune HD also comes with Internet Explorer (with tap-to-zoom technology), which means you'll not only have access to you favorite websites, but you'll also have access to other Wi-Fi features like song sharing, channel streaming, and the Zune Marketplace). Beyond that, the Zune HD has everything you'd expect a PMP to have and the standard Zune stuff, such as podcasts, Zune Pass, games, and a photo viewer. Zune HD is available with either 16GB or 32GB."

We know that the Zune HD is going to be Flash-based, but Microsoft has remained tight-lipped on the exact storage capacities that the Zune HD will be offered with. An Canadian American publication named CRAVE has published an article in which, as you can see by the quote above, the storage capacities are listed in a matter-of-fact way at 16 GB and 32 GB. I emailed the editors at CRAVE last week to ask for a confirmation of this information, because it wasn't presented as a rumour or a "maybe this is what it will have", but the editors didn't reply to my email. So will the Zune come in 16 GB and 32 GB capacities? It seems like a reasonable guess - 8 GB would be too small to be of much use with HD content, and 64 GB would likely drive the price of the device through the roof. So what we're left with is either 16 GB, 32 GB, or both. Will those be the two storage capacities we'll see this fall? We'll see...

UPDATE: The Managing Editor at Crave got back to me, and the author got the 16/32 GB capacity information from this PC World article where they also are quite matter-of-fact about the storage capacities.

"Meeting with Microsoft's Scott Austin to talk about Xbox Live, there was little expectation of sexy reveals or big news, and what we saw during the briefing wasn't flashy in any way. But there was still some really good news for Xbox 360 owners: Microsoft is getting set to update Xbox Live in a number of ways to make it easier to find and buy content. The big news is that games will be priced in your local currency, and you'll be able to buy with a credit card, bypassing the point system altogether. That's not all."

One of the things that really irritates some people about the Xbox Live system is the reliance on points for purchasing content - and because the Zune ecosystem is so closely tied to that of the Xbox, over on the Zune Market place points were the only choice for buying content. That's changing, at least on the Xbox side of things - purchases will be listed in local currency costs (that's dollars and cents) and you'll have the option to pay via a direct charge onto your credit card, or you can use points if you have them. That will be great for renting movies - it always ticked me off that I had to bust out an Xbox Points calculator to figure out how much an HD movie was really costing me.

Here's my hope: the Zune Marketplace will be able to transition over to a cash-based system rather than being reliant upon Xbox Live points. There are some people that absolutely loathe the points system, and if the Zune Marketplace can reach parity with iTunes and Amazon's MP3 store by charging dollars instead of points, I'll all for it.