Vendor: Incipio
Price: $19.99

One of the 1st things that anyone needs to do when spending a decent amount of cash for a gadget is to protect it. Cases, cleaners, screen protectors, etc... When the Zune 80 hit the streets, there really were not many options other than the "Zune Branded" Black case. Now that some time has passed, there are more and more cases becoming available. One of them is the Incipio Flip Case I am presenting today.

This classic design offers great access and excellent protection. Your Zuneâ„¢ has to be ready for today's fast paced world. The Incipio Flip case is up to the task. The Flip case is made of premium supple leather on the outside and soft micro-suede lining.

Features

• Made of high-quality, premium Top-Grain Leather
• Easy access to all buttons and features
• Clear shield protecting the screen
• Backed by Incipio's lifetime warranty

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3 Months ago, I shot some video of a few cases from Incipio for the second generation of the Zunes. For some reason or another, I have a whole new batch of Incipio cases, so I decided why not do another video. This time I have 7 Zune 80 Cases and 5 Flash Zune cases to show you. These can all be purchased from Incipio at MyIncipio.com

Some of these cases have even been reviewed at GotZune already too...

• [Review] theDUKE Raw Leather Wallet Case - Incipio
• [Review] Butter cream ORION Sleeve Case

Read on for the videos and check back for reviews on several of these, I have one coming soon myself.

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Thanks to Ianko Dimitrov, a reader of Got Zune, we've added a some Zune backgrounds to the gallery in the Nature, Anime, and Cars section.

If you have Zune Backgrounds you want to submit, you can log in to the gallery and add them yourself or if you have a bunch, Zip them up by category and email them to me.

Update:
Soccerfreak sent some more in today as well. Check them out in Nature, Abstract, Zune, and Sports.

From now until June 30th, you can score any case from Speck for 50% off by using SPECK50 as promo code when checking out.

Head over to Speck Products.

... at least according to Jasmine France in her recent article, "Best MP3 players for podcasts"

This article highlighted the pro's and some con's, of different MP3 players and their podcasts. The Microsoft Zune was proudly positioned as #1, followed closely by the Ipod Touch in the #2 position. This is the blurb about zune podcast support taken from the article:

Microsoft Zune: A fantastic podcast option, the Zune even ekes past the iPod for the top spot. The software is excellent for podcasts: You can manage how many episodes you want to sync to your device on a subscription-by-subscription level, meaning you can update three episodes of Buzz Out Loud, but only one of MP3 Insider and so on. You can also unsubscribe from podcasts directly from the player, and there's an option to wirelessly sync new podcasts when you charge your player at night. The Zune also offers accelerated fast forwarding and passive bookmarking to automatically remember your spot in each podcast.

Zune clearly does excel with podcast support, but their is still room for improvement, and many other aspects Microsoft needs to put more emphasize on to get a stronger foothold in the MP3 industry. Always glad to see zune on top though(at least at Cnet).

Terry  Farrell, Senior Project Manager for Zune, will be speaking at the 5th Annual Digital Media Conference tomorrow in Virginia.  I hope we can get some video from the conference as Farrell will be speaking about his 6 years with the Windows Media Player team and possibly what else we can expect from the Zune software, Marketplace and Social.

If anyone gets a hold of a video or see any appear on any site, please leave a comment.  Thanks.

The 5th Annual Digital Media Conference is set for Thursday, June 26, 2008 at the Ritz-Carlton in Tyson’s Corner, VA. This is a "must-attend" event for media, entertainment and technology businesses, investors, and policy-makers involved in the digital distribution of media and entertainment. Participating companies are the leading global entertainment, media and technology companies, including Google, YouTube, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo!, Motorola, RealNetworks, Verizon, Sprint, Viacom, ABC, NBC, ESPN, Fox, CBS, EMI, Sony BMG and many more. The program includes two tracks focused on the latest developments in digital media from the perspective of leading content owners and distributors, advertisers, and Internet, mobile and technology companies. For more information, contact Ellen Gildersleeve at ellen@digitalmediawire.com or call 310-855-0033 or 202-546-8903.

Digital Media Conference 2008

Thanks to Ace on ZuneBoards for posting this one. I wonder if the numbers take into account the advertising practices that mislead so many people to think they were clicking on Zune ads but ended up on Apple sites.  I'm glad that Microsoft hasn't stepped as low to boost marketing through deception.  It's apparent that Zune is climbing quickly due to aggressive marketing that has taken place in the last year.  Getting over the hurdle of bad press in November 2007 as everyone seems to have taken a swing at the Zune.  Back at you Naysayers.

This time last year, not even a million hits were registered on Zune.net, but with increased attention on Zune due to increased advertising, more and more people are visiting the site these days!  Over 2 million visitors in May!  Also, of those visitors, Zune was rated 2nd in length of time each visitor stayed at the site (35:26 minutes average). 

The top winner of the study is Zune's antithesis Apple Inc. but that's expected since Apple deals with more than just media players.

Over all:  Zune placed 6th in overall visitors in May (May '08 in millions, May '07 in Millions, % growth)

Source: ACE, Zune Boards - Zune Activity Up 184% From Last Year!

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Well it seems as if the economic design of supply and demand are at work once again.  I originally bought the Zune 30 (brown) for $100 back when they were trying to boost the sales of the brownie.  Shortly after the prices were back to normal with the exception of the white still floating a little higher in price.  Recent searches on prices show that the price of the Zune 30G is around $200 for the brown. 

I have nothing against a refurb (refurbished/remanufactured) device and will gladly pay the lower price for an item I feel has returned to have it's problems fixed.   My advice to you is shop around.  There are many price comparison websites that will do the searching for you; pricegrabber.com, bizrate.com, mysimon.com, dealtime.com and many others.

Currently the white Zune 30G is #4 on the Amazon.com shopping list.

And if you are a trendsetter then go get yourself a brand new one!

I'm not a doctor and any medical advice given should not be considered expert, consult your physician.