For all of you Zune 30 owners who woke up this morning to find your PMP frozen in despair at the thought of spending another year alone, Microsoft has finally acknowledged their boo-boo and explains it thusly: There is a bug in the internal clock driver causing the device to choke on the last day of a leap year. Rest assured, however — although they may not be releasing an update for the device any time soon, the issue should resolve itself whenever January 1, 2009 rolls around. So have a safe and happy New Year, and let’s hope they do something about this by 2012.
The lip conceals the Mac mini’s optical drive slot, which is useful now since TUAW says that the new drive will be SATA, meaning it can be swapped out for a second hard drive, probably as a custom build option. The second drive is boon to the business crowd that uses Mac minis in server farms (like this one), since it not only adds more storage, but makes RAID1 mirroring easy.
No other details on specs—we’re pretty interested in what processor these things will be packing—though it’s looking fairly certain (as certain as these things ever look, anyway) that they’ll have Nvidia’s GeForce 9400m chipset from the new MacBooks in tow.
We’ll know in about a week, along with whatever other surprises Macworld has in store. What would you like to see in the new Mac mini, besides a Blu-ray drive? (Cause that’s what everyone wants.) [TUAW]
“Coming soon,” huh? Soon, indeed. Optoma’s DLP-based pico projector, which is formally known as the EP-PK-101 (or PK101 in some circles), is now up for pre-order at Amazon. So, just how much will you pay for a 4-ounce beamer that you can carry in your left front pocket? If your answer is anything less than $399.99, you’re out of luck here.
Which is good news because I hardly use Office and find myself in Google Docs when I need to use a word processor or spreadsheet. If true, there’s no doubt in my mind it’ll require use of the paid MobileMe service, which is right now a bit over priced. Adding more functionality to the service is a great way to add value, but Google Docs is free. [9to5mac]
Casio’s 25 years of G-Shock celebration continues with a new set of characters designed by Shiro Nakano. Normally we don’t pander to marketing gimmicks, but these toys might be cooler than the watches themselves.
Apparently, the Japanese think so too because they have caused quite a stir amongst local connoisseurs of rugged watches. Unfortunately, the robot characters themselves are not available for sale, which I think is a major oversight on Casio’s part. These things would make for excellent bedside clocks. [IT Media via DVICE]
Microsoft’s responded to the Zune 30GB failure, blaming a leap-year handling bug. And they’ve provided a fix. Which is to wait til New Years, when the bug will go away by itself. Huh.
Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used). The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year. That being the case, the issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009. We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device.
Customers can continue to stay informed via the support page on zune.net (zune.net/support).
We know this has been a big inconvenience to our customers and we are sorry for that, and want to thank them for their patience.
Q: Why is this issue isolated to the Zune 30 device? It is a bug in a driver for a part that is only used in the Zune 30 device.
Q: What fixes or patches are you putting in place to resolve this situation? This situation should remedy itself over the next 24 hours as the time flips to January 1st.
Q: What’s the timeline on a fix? The issue Zune 30GB customers are experiencing today will self resolve as time changes to January 1.
Q: Why did this occur at precisely 12:01 a.m. on December 31, 2008? There is a bug in the internal clock driver causing the 30GB device to improperly handle the last day of a leap year.
Q: What is Zune doing to fix this issue? The issue should resolve itself.
Q: Are you sure that this won’t happen to all 80, 120 or other flash devices? This issue is related to a part that is only used in Zune 30 devices.
Q: How many 30GB Zune devices are affected? How many Zune 30GB devices were sold? All 30GB devices are potentially affected.
Riding the new Peak2Peak Gondola that connects Whistler’s Blackcomb and Whistler Mountain summits, over 2.7 miles, must be exhilarating. But jumping off it is just insane.
Shortly after opening, these Two Red Bull sponsored lunatics rode a car to the mid point of the ride and jumped. That makes for a good preview of the fall, should one of these boxes full of 28 people ever fall out of the sky. (I couldn’t help thinking of this, I have a decent fear of heights.)
The Gondola itself holds records for its unsupported span of 1.88 miles between the two furthest towers, and for its rise, measuring over a quarter mile above the ground at its highest point.
At 16 miles per hour, it makes the traverse between the mountain tops, in 11 minutes. Contrast that with the usual ski down one peak, plus a drive to the base of the other, plus a number of gondola, chair and tow rides upward, which easily could take over an hour or three.
I’ve been to Whistler once before, and remember two things: a 45 minute run down blackcomb’s glacier to the village, and a Nintendo sponsored park. I guess I have yet another reason to go back.
Our friends at Consumerist have a new owner, and it seems like a great match: they’ve become the first addition to a new non-profit division of the company that publishes Consumer Reports.
Consumerist will remain the same great source of no-bullshit survival tips for navigating our capitalist universe, and will remain totally independent from its older corporate sibling. Seems like a great move for Consumer Reports, who surely hopes that Consumerist’s well-earned cred will go a long way toward knocking off a few years from their geriatric reader base. As a non-profit, the new Consumerist will carry ads only for other Consumers Union related endeavors. Hopefully the deal also give them keys to CR’s bad ass testing facility in Yonkers, and all the toys therein.
More details can be found at Consumerist. Congrats guys. [Consumerist, NYT]
The new book The Race For a New Game Machine, by two IBM engineers, details how ridiculous the design process was when IBM was making Sony’s PS3 cell chip. Microsoft basically got a free ride.
The WSJ pulls out facts like IBM employees trying to hide their work from people from companies in cubicles next to them, helping one team out (the Microsoft team) with their design process based on knowledge they had already gained from the Sony side, and most importantly, that Microsoft received the chip from manufacturing BEFORE Sony did because they ordered “backup manufacturing capacity from a third party.” [WSJ via PS3 Fanboy]
Today we learned that Viacom is threatening to pull their channels (Comedy Central, MTV) off TWC on January 1st if they do not agree to pay up. Would you leave TWC if this happened?
Casio’s 
Microsoft’s responded to the Zune 30GB failure, blaming a leap-year handling bug. And they’ve provided a fix. Which is to wait til New Years, when the bug will go away by itself. Huh.
Our friends at 
The new book The Race For a New Game Machine, by two IBM engineers, details how ridiculous the design process was when IBM was making Sony’s PS3 cell chip. Microsoft basically got a free ride.
Today we learned that Viacom is 