Aw, Cesar, rumors are fun!  I had figured that the image on the net was a photoshop (btw, you worded that sentence with perfect humor wording), but what about the speculation growing around ilounge.com?  It's a shame you can't comment on it :(.  Oh well, guess your just doing your job (and you do what you can the very best!).

As for the J. Allard thing, I think it is the funiest thing I have ever seen!  I was wondering if this was going to come up here on Zuneinsider or not.  But lol, he is your boss' boss' boss?  That's crazzy man!

So are you saying the J didn't actually make good on his bet?

This has got to be some of the best photoshop work I've ever scene.

nah, Stefan - J *absolutely* made good on the bet - did you see http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/jallard/default.mspx

Well even if it is photoshopped, I certainly hope there's a little truth to it. You'd have to be 5 kinds of crazy to not be considering that kind of Wi-Fi functionality.

@Stefan; In short:

J. Allard lost a bet with a Newsweek writer, N'Gai Croal.  Allard bet Croal that the PSP would not pass 10 million sales faster then the PS2 had.  This bet was made back in 2005 and surprisingly, the PSP did pass 10 million units faster then the PS2 did.

The terms of the bet were that if Allard won, Croal would have to loose his dreadlocks, and if Croal won, Allard would have to wear a dreadlocks wig while speaking on stage.  However, Allard has since transitioned to the Zune platform.  Because of this, he didn't present alongside the rest of Microsoft's executive repertoire during their E3 2006 presentation.  So, Allard never ended up on stage with dreadlocks.  Now, 360 days after (on May 7)  the bet was made, Allard has finally owned up to it by posting this image of himself with a wig on onto his profile at Microsoft.com.

“All I have in this world is Xbox and my Zune and my word and I don’t break them for no one.” - J Allard

@Stefen-

Hey, your the blogger for IWantAPinkZune right?  I just noticed that your name is the same as IWAPZ blogger.  I realized you were the same person when I clicked your name and it brought me to IWAPZ.

I thought it was kinda weird that you would ask a question about this, when you had already blogged about it 2 days ago on your site.  So I think I just realized the meaning of your post lol.  I think Cesar was a little misleading in his transition off Allard to the Zune rumor news circulating around the net.  So you must have missread it as Cesar saying that the Allard pic with dreads was a photoshop.

Hahah, this is hilarious.

Good ol' Ngai.

I'm glad you cleared that little mess up.  "Leaving out" the Wi-Fi symbol in this beta U.I. was a lame excuse, besides, that interface didn't look like it was designed by the U.I. guys there.  Keep up the good work.

thats not photoshop...J-Allard lost the bet on PSP.

IS IT TRUE, IS IT TRUE, IS IT TRUE!!????....are wireless downloads coming zoon on the Zune????

Hooray!!!....??

Lol, gotta love those dreadlocks.

Anyway I think I'll pass on more photoshopped rumors about zune:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/leak%3F/rumor-more-leaked-zune-photos-track-purchases-over-wi+fi-259568.php

It's pretty impressive that these days way more rumors are circulating about the zune than about the ipod! I lost count of the amount of articles about zune in the last week or so. There was also one about the xbox music marketpace will use the same account as the zune marketplace so you don't pay twice for songs. That sounds pretty believable to me.

That's actually extremely cool that he followed through with it. If only more execs had such a sense of humor...

Oh, and the nice thing about rumors: They show what people want and that they are very interested in your product... even the folks that spend their precious time bashing it, yah?!

hehee....what New MP..music...3 thingy's do you have for us today Mr.Caesar? (salivating...)

Category: MP3

Rank Brand                   Unit Share

 1   Apple                     68.9%

 2   Sandisk                   11.2%

 3   Creative Labs              3.6%

 4   Microsoft                  2.5%

 5   Samsung                    2.2%

Total Dollar Volume:         $224,300,300

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=HPQ:US&sid=aZ10DCwhy1Xo

ey J...cut your hair and get back to work..:D

Hey this means we can expect a new announcement soon :) The marketing wheels have started spinning. 360 days after? ;)

I always wondered why J disappeared after the 360 launch.

I don't know if this was linked to months ago but I found this thread that has a very good review of the zune and really really praises the zunes sound quality- "best of any DAP available now" and it goes on for 12 pages with very good feedback. I thought it might be refreshing to have a balanced and different (it goes into detail about sound quality) review for a change:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=211548

BTW Ricardo I noticed you appeared on that forums too! Lol you really do get around the net.

Also the new zune ad video I uploaded on youtube has surpassed 3,000 views- it is getting linked to on some sites and practically all love the ad.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MvrMB66Xy1I

Sorry to fill the AskZune mailbox just now, but it's time for a new Wallpaper.

Admin,

Thanks for confirming in your own way that the rumors are just rumors.  I guess no one has seen your note at the bottom of this post.

Cesar, thanks for not commenting (and in so doing, commenting) on those latest rumors. As usual, I'll wait for your official word before believing anything I read anywhere else. Besides, I'd like to think that beta Microsoft UI stuff for Zune would be a little cuter than what's shown in those photos. As for J Allard, it's nice to know that he's a man of his word. I wish he were the boss of the boss of my boss! That would be boss :-)

Looking forward to today's New Music Friday!

@RAY...ahhh. the mercuttio review...one of the BEST review from the Zune...it was done when every other review around the web were calling the Zune a FLOP!

I am surprised more people are not having the reboot problems. Cesar please get this issue escalated with the development team.

http://www.zunescene.com/forums/index.php?topic=3836.0

I've had this problem with 2 different Zunes now. My new one reboots atleast thrice in 2 hours.

Halo Zune...what are you (Zune team) thinking...another special edition zune w/o new features...are you kidding already, right ?

sorry for double posting.-....but I will ask first. when you gonna bring the special edition Strawberry shortcake baby pink zune for the ladies ?

This time the zune news is actually official but once again Cesar makes us rely on Gizmodo to learn of it:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/property-of-unsc/first-pics-of-the-zune-halo-3-special-edition-259877.php

It's not very exciting stuff but I still think a halo 3 themed zune rocks.

well, *of course* I knew about the halo zune, but I don't want to scoop anybody :)

Ok I understand- sorry:)

no worries ray. at the risk of a troll calling me "zune outsider" (I still love you guys ;) I do want to 'play nice' with the other blogs out there and not scoop them :)

Where can we find that Master Chief picture?

h3 zune is okay, could have atleast made the double shot green instead.  hello?  black and green, people.  not black and blue like the zune perception in peoples minds.

Even if that just a rumor if this functionality was added to the Zune the Zune would dominate!

I think J Allard is one cool guy for owning up to the bet.  He's the reason, I'd have to say, why I bought into the XBOX experience from the beginning.  He's a great salesman.  Now all he needs to do is to get the Zune marketplace and the LIVE video marketplace to combine and then let me transfer videos back and forth between the Zune and 360.  Yes..that would be sweet.

quote from admin:

well, *of course* I knew about the halo zune, but I don't want to scoop anybody :)

Music, culture, and the inside scoop from Cesar Menendez, a Microsoft employee working on Zune - Microsoft's new music project.

So basically this site is just to post little stuff that doesn't matter to us or are you going to give us the inside "scoop" on the Zune?