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Red Zune 80, no Valentine required

After appearing briefly as the Valentine edition of the Zune 80, today Microsoft has brought back the red version of the Zune 80 through their Zune Originals online store. Unlike the fumbled Valentine's edition, however, these red Zunes won't come cheap. In fact, Zune Originals is now charging an extra $15 for the artwork engraving service that they initially offered free of charge.

Still, for those of you who really want to fly your Zune freak flag high, the red Zune 80 definitely looks like it will get some attention.

Guy Kawasaki's new site proves the metagator is still alive, kicking

Between Netvibes, Pageflakes, and Google Reader most people are probably pretty squared away when it comes to picking their news snippets in an orderly fashion. Then there's those pesky metagator sites, such as Original Signal, and Popurls that pick out the sites for you. It's the editorial side of the game that still has some art to it. Not to be left out, Guy Kawaski (creator of Truemors) has entered the fray this morning with Alltop.

The site shares a lot in common with Popurls (from which it was inspired), forgoing a few sites in each category to … Read more

Unboxing my custom Zune 80

As a longtime iPod loyalist, I had a lot of mixed emotions ordering a Zune 80 for myself last Sunday. Part of me felt like a traitor, honestly. I thought about my poor 5G video iPod, which had been ignored for weeks at the bottom of my messenger bag while I played with Microsoft's loaner for my review. Now, I'd never abandon my iPod completely, especially considering that part of my job is reviewing the seemingly endless parade of iPod accessories. Still, I figure there's room in my life for another MP3 player, right? I mean, I would be negligent as a digital audio journalist if I didn't order one.

Well, my Zune 80 arrived today, and I can honestly say I have no regrets (so far). I went the custom route and ordered the Zune 80 directly from Microsoft on its ZuneOriginals site, complete with custom artwork. Say what you want about the Zune, but the designers have definitely outdone themselves on packaging details. From the foil-embossed box, to the golden envelope, the entire package from ZuneOriginals felt like it should be holding Lil' Jon's diamond-encrusted Pimp Cup.… Read more

Custom Zune 80 now available

Microsoft is finally allowing the 80GB Zune to be directly ordered and customized from its ZuneOriginals Web site. We reported about the ZuneOriginals launch earlier this month, when Microsoft was offering orders for only the smaller Zunes 4 and 8. The laser-etched designs being offered for the Zune 80 appear to be identical to the Zune 4 and 8 designs, only bigger, and thereby, way cooler. The service costs nothing, and the shipping is free.

MySpace in potential deal with 'Blood Diamond' creators

Yahoo, take notes.

MySpace has quietly licensed a new series of original programming called QuarterLife from Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, the Hollywood duo behind such films as "Blood Diamond," according to a source familiar with the deal. The social network, which recently launched MySpace TV for original Web video from The New York Times and others, is expected to broadcast the series online by early next year, according to the source who asked to remain anonymous.

The deal could still fall through and has yet to be confirmed by either party. But if it happens, it would … Read more

E3: 'Silent Hill: Origins' trailer

I've played every Silent Hill game since 1999's original on the PlayStation, and if there's one thing I had always wanted, it was a portable version. Well, thanks to Konami, Silent Hill: Origins, exclusive to the PSP, will be released November 13. Origins is a prequel to the Silent Hill series in which you come into contact with characters from the later games.

SportSnipe: A souped-up Original Signal for sports fans

SportSnipe is a new single-page aggregator the likes of Original Signal, PopUrls, and others, although it's focused specifically on sports feeds from all over the world. Users can browse through headlines and video thumbnails for various leagues, genres, and teams. Like Original Signal, SportSnipe has the option to hover over any headline to read the first few lines of the story, along with a comment button that lets registered users add their own commentary to the story--separate of the parent site.

The service claims to pull its headlines from over 1,300 different sports feeds. It also doubles as a regular old build-it-yourself feed aggregator similar to Netvibes and PageFlakes, albeit a little less flashy. Users can add RSS feeds as either text or video feeds. The video feed catcher is especially cool and gives you a little thumbnail for each clip. If you do this with a text feed, you won't get anything but a black box.

SportSnipe has a few ways to sort and share content. You can bookmark pages you'd like to share with others through a variety of social bookmarking sites. You can also turn off comments and hover over previews. With a quick toggle you can rearrange the feed boxes and extend the feeds to see more than just a few headlines. There are also embed codes for putting your feeds on a blog, Web site, or social networking profile (which I've done to the right.)

In many ways, SportSnipe isn't very original as a single-page aggregator. Pageflakes and Netvibes do a much better job with their presentation, and the resemblance to Popurls and Original Signal is unquestionable. However, SportSnipe has a really great directory of sports feeds that aggregate quickly and are far more comprehensive than what Original Signal offers. The video feed implementation is a nice touch as well.

More screens after the jump. … Read more

News Roundup: Original Signal, Google Mobile, eJamming

Original Signal rolls out meme tracker. The single-page aggregation service has added a new front page to their Web section. The page displays the top 10 most popular stories at any given time. The new service uses an algorithm that decides when a story is worthy of being on the front page without any additional user interaction required beyond browsing the site. Something similar was done with Spotplex, which we checked out last month.

eJamming launches. The virtual garage for musicians to 'jam' in different geographical locations launched their AUDiiO service this morning. The app has versions for both Windows … Read more

Roundup: single page aggregators

Single page aggregators, also known as personalized home pages, can be a helpful way to keep tabs on your favorite Web content without having to visit each site. With nearly all of them able to display content from popular Web sites, choosing one comes down personal taste. We've run down some of the most popular aggregators, citing what works and what doesn't.

My.Netscape relaunched today, providing users with an Ajax-driven drag-and-drop interface to add and customize newsfeeds. There are about a hundred premade feeds to choose from. If you want to add a site that's not … Read more