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Then you MUST read the following post from Brandon Watson, in which he discusses just how many people are asking for them, and more importantly, lays out some guidelines for how YOU can get noticed by the Windows Phone 7 team (hint: DO EPIC SH*T), and perhaps get yourself a phone in the process: Ways...

The title of this post is a quote from a story in Wired, which was passed along to me by one of my peers. He sent the link in response to my sending an interesting story from the NY Times, which draws similar conclusions about the impact of technology on our brains. The upshot of both stories is that...

The Machine In preparation for some upcoming events, I recently got a new laptop, and had decided on a fairly heavy-duty machine, an HP 8530w, with a large screen, and plenty of RAM (8GB). It’s a very nice machine, but I was a bit disappointed that even with all that RAM it maxed out at a Windows Experience...

I’m a big fan of multi-monitor as a way of getting a broader view of all the applications I’m working with at any given time. I have 4 monitors on my primary desktop machine, so when I’m on the road it can be difficult to deal with the limitation of a single laptop monitor. Enter...

If you attended the DC Windows 7 Launch yesterday in Tyson’s Corner, VA, you may have gotten a chance to see a very cool gadget in action, the Freescale Flexis JM Badge Board. It’s a sensor board that contains an ambient light sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, 8-button touch sensor, buzzer, etc. It’s programmable...

One of the UX technologies I mentioned during my talk for the MSDN Roadshow today was the Sidebar (and in Windows 7, Desktop) gadgets, which are great for surfacing small amounts of information in a a compact space. One of the attendees asked whether Visual Studio has templates for Sidebar Gadgets, and...

The MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow rides again…our next series of roadshow events kicks off later this month in Reston, VA. Currently, we’ve got the Reston event, and also a roadshow stop scheduled for Richmond, VA in March. We’ll have more cities to announce soon, but I wanted to get word out about these...

This looks very cool: h/t NewScientist

Want to try Windows Live Mesh for mobile? Now you can… From the Live Mesh blog : The recent service update to Live Mesh addresses many of the issues users reported since we opened the Mobile CTP on Oct 30. With the release of the updated Live Mesh for Mobile version 0.9.3424.9, we are expanding the CTP...

No, not tips for better pictures, but rather tips on crafty uses for your digicam or camera phone . I think my fave is snapping a pic of the nearest location info when parking your car (i.e. – row/floor number). I usually end up writing these down somewhere, then worry that I won’t be able to find what...

I am definitely looking forward to this. Hope to see blue in the the larger sizes, too. I think it’s fair to say that the WiFi features are definitely coming into their own. More information here . Oh, and all of the new features will be available for ALL Zunes, including the original Zune 30. No device...

Just a quick reminder that the Geek Dinner with Shawn Wildermuth will be held tomorrow night at Damon's in Chantilly, VA. If you haven't already, please RSVP by email to hold your spot (and help us get an accurate number for the reservation). It's shaping up to be a fun event, and I hope to see you...

The XNA Creators Club website has a nice step-by-step walkthrough of creating a game for your Zune , including a cool sample game with very nice graphics and play style: Are you ready to start programming games for your Zune? All you need is the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP and any model of the Zune media...

For all that I've definitely been a skeptic of some of his other projects, particularly the hype-ridden (but nonetheless fun-to-ride) Segway, Dean Kamen's latest project is nothing short of inspirational: If Kamen and his team can pull this off, and bring it into production at anything like a reasonable...

I was privileged to join JD Lewin, Nic Fillingham, and Brian Johnson for the latest episode of their podcast. Among the topics, Maker Faire, sensitive robots, the EEE PC, Zune 2.5 (including Zune games), and more: JD, Nic, and Brian Podcast - Episode 7 You can find links to stuff mentioned in the podcast...

The Zune team has dropped the latest software and firmware, and you can download it from zune.net , or update from within the Zune client. Among the features of note: Gapless playback (yay for Pink Floyd fans everywhere!) Video Marketplace (get your Heroes fix on your Zune) Autoplaylist support Metadata...

OK, so now I'm torn...should I pine for the day when I can have my own Surface device in my living room, or instead transfer my geeky affections to this incredible 3D LED animated display: I wonder if someone's already hard at work on a Quake 3 port to the LED cube. Speaking of Surface, the first retail...

Gizmodo's got pictures and video of Zauri, the Zune game prototype that was shown at the Game Developer Conference. Click the link at the bottom to check out the video: I got a chance to see first hand what the newly announced Zune gaming platform could look like. It's important to keep in mind that...

Engadget has the first pics I've seen of an XNA game running on Zune, take a look here: http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/20/games-for-zune-details-hands-on/ Games for Zune details, hands-on - Engadget

OK, so perhaps "handheld" is a bit of an exaggeration, but this XBOX 360 laptop mod is nothing short of brilliant. Would be a hoot to crack that puppy open on a plane. Definitely the work of someone with far too much time on their hands. But way cool nonetheless. Includes high-def 720p display, the ring...

I'm deeply familiar with the dust experience described below, so it would be fantastic if I could add a couple of these to the desk in my home office: This grommet is just a design, but we wonder why it took someone this long to come up with such a genius (and obvious) idea. Like a regular desk grommet...

This looks pretty sweet: Now available at Zuneoriginals.net . I've already got an 8GB in green and a 4GB in red, but this is pretty tempting, since I gave away my 30GB old school Zune, and I do find that I miss the capacity to have everything on it all the time. Order by Feb. 4th to get it for your Valentine...

If you have been seeing issues with your song/album metadata after upgrading to the V2 Zune software, you may want to try the Zune Media Collection Reset Tool . I was able to resolve the few issues I had with my collection by wiping and re-syncing my Zune 30, so I haven't had need to try this tool. But...

So I've installed the new Zune desktop software, and updated my brown (yes, I have brown and I like it, thank you very much!) Zune 30GB to the new 2.2 firmware, and having had most of a day to use both, I'm pretty pleased, particularly given that the improved functionality and ease-of-use cost me nothing...

Boo from the .NET DEvHammer: (picture taken with the built-in webcam on my new ASUS R2HV UMPC ...more on that later)