Remember the early days of the cell phone biz? You got a cool, free phone for signing up for a year. Well the cell carriers do less of the totally free phones these days, but Microsoft is looking at that business model.

Source: Zune Online via Gizmodo

?It looks like the same discussion with Chris Stephenson that yielded that 2007 European Zune launch figure also gave up a few more details about the Zune line: apparently we can expect a flash-based Zune for the holiday season later this year (damn they?re taking their dear sweet time on that) and apparently Stephenson also hinted at ?a truly WiFi-enabled device? at some point in the future, according to Digital Music News.?

I am liking the ?a truly WiFi-enabled device? idea! I love my Zune, but the crippled WiFi ability is kind of like when your dad adjusts the governer on your go-cart. You know damn well you can zune zune (err zoom zoom), but you are throttled down for your safety. I would love the ability to stream my external hard drives mp3 content over my wireless router to my Zune while I am on the lawn tractor!!!

It may come as a surprise to our American cousins, but the Zune isn?t available in Europe yet. Originally scheduled for a 2008(!) release, rumours are now floating around that it could be launched for Christmas 2007.

Reindorp said Microsoft was not yet ready to officially announce when it would launch the service in Europe but it could possibly be out before the end of the year.

"The industry moves in this sort of Christmas to Christmas cycle. So you can expect that there will be more devices, more features in the market at that point," he said.

"Our next round of introductions will probably be in time for the holiday of this year."

As you can imagine news of this has been met by waves of indifference by the entire continent, who can?t see what all the fuss was about? Probably because there isn?t an MP3 player shortage over here, and apart from a Microsoft logo, the Zune really doesn?t do anything new.

Still, at least we get to get it.

Source: Reuters

Can you imagine? That is a heck of a lot of storage and it?s probably not too far away. Oh yeah, it could be on an iPod too! The reason why is because Toshiba has just announced a 100GB Threshold for 1.8-Inch Hard Disk Drives.

WOW!! A 1.8 inch 100GB hard drive ? wait and see who is first to grab this one! Here is part of the Toshiba press release:

Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD), the industry pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), continues to lead innovation in the mobile HDD category with the introduction of the world?s highest-capacity 1.8-inch HDD. The 100GB(a) two-platter HDD is based on perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) and propels the functionality and storage capacity of mobile PCs.

Designed in the "short" 1.8-inch form factor, Toshiba?s new MK1011GAH offers a footprint that is 10 percent smaller than first-generation 1.8-inch drives. With an areal density of 155.3 Gbit/in2, the drive is specially designed for thin and light mobile computers with an 8MB cache. In addition, Toshiba?s new 1.8-inch capacity leader features the same tunnel magneto-resistive (TMR) head technology combined with perpendicular recording that delivered the company?s world-leading 200GB capacity in the 2.5-inch HDD class with an areal density of 178.8 Gbit/in2.

"We are enhancing the capabilities of PMR with the incorporation of TMR head technology to deliver another industry-leading mobile HDD," said Scott Maccabe, vice president and general manager, Toshiba Storage Device Division. "Toshiba?s technology innovation is setting the bar for mobile HDDs, and our first-to-market position in PMR is clearly helping us define the possibilities for pushing capacity limits in the mobile sector with more than two million mobile PMR HDDs shipped and over a year in commercialization."

Toshiba?s 100GB 1.8-inch HDD integrates a low insertion force (LIF) connector, providing a format that enables mobile PC manufacturers to easily transition to higher capacities in smaller footprint HDDs.

Marking its technology leadership in mobile HDDs, Toshiba was again the world market-share leader in HDD shipments into consumer electronics applications and tied for the lead in overall mobile HDD shipments, for the third quarter of 2006 according to leading research firm IDC(b). Toshiba commands a resounding 80 percent share in the 1.8-inch category, according to IDC, and has shipped more than 40 million 1.8-inch drives since introduction in 2000.

Toshiba?s MK1011GAH 1.8-inch HDD is RoHS compliant and will ship to OEMs for integration into mobile PCs in January 2007. For more information about Toshiba?s full line of small form factor HDDs, visit http://www.sdd.toshiba.com.