Hi folks, I'm back from vacation. I missed you, too ;). Ok, so in between catching up on the 1000+ unread emails, I thought I'd post quickly and clear up a few things. Ready? Here goes: I'm sure many of you have seen this article from our friends at the scene, with lots of Zune 2.0 speculation. The only thing I can tell you on that: "We don't comment on rumors and speculation." Actually, Brian Lam at Gizmodo puts it best: "And please remember, these are all rumors. Nothing's official until Microsoft...

Every once in a while, it’s nice to get a take on Zune from someone not in marketing. This just in from James, the release manager of Zune (the guy who told me/us about firmware update 1.3 ): Hi all, this is James, the release manager of Zune that Cesar mentions below. In the spirit of transparency, I wanted to let everyone know that Cesar is right, I have been reading the comments – nearly 200 of them, including reading daily posts on other topics. I want to assure you that your voice is heard....

<edit 11:59 AM>I talked to the retail team; this is a hoax. The actual ad that ran offered a $15 iTunes gift card with the purchase of an iPod, and free Zune Premium Earphones w/ the purchase of a Zune. In the immortal words of Strongbad: DELETED . Funny while it lasted, though! Around seven thousand people sent this to me today: (photo from Giz ) No idea if this is true; my guess it's an error on behalf of the Spokane* Compusa. I emailed the retail account team to find out. It reminds me of...

Remember our old friend, rumor and speculation? I saw this story , and thought, "It's baaa'aaack." No but seriously. Zune is all about connecting people to their music. It makes sense that Zune could be a part of a phone experience. But there has been no determination of how that will be executed or when it will happen. BTW, if you are the imaginary friend "source" cited in the story, can you email me? We should go pretend bowling. And we can invite the "friendly tipster's buddy" (from yesterday...