When it comes to Valentine's Day gifts, chocolates, flowers, jewelry, and even consumer electronics were among the top ten gifts people would like to receive from their significant other, according to an online survey conducted by Yahoo! and Decipher Inc. Of the 1,750 adults that participated in the four day survey, 26% percent admitted to wanting a techie gift on Valentine's Day. And who can ...

I don't own that many Zune Marketplace tracks, perhaps a dozen in total, because I loathe DRM. I really, really dislike it and I'll do almost anything to avoid having to deal with the hassle of authorization because there's always something that goes wrong. As I was browsing through the Zune Marketplace the other way, looking up an artist so I could add her CD to my Amazon.ca wish list, it occurred to me that the Zune Marketplace could add a feature for people like me: an MP3 filter. Meaning, a software toggle that would filter out all the DRM'd music, showing me only the tracks in the Zune Marketplace that are in DRM-free MP3 format. Sure, the catalog would be incredibly small at first, but I'd really enjoy browsing the marketplace and only see music offered that I don't have to think twice about buying. Right now when I see a song I want, and it's not tagged with the little "MP3" icon shown above, I always have a little internal struggle as to how badly I really want the song - and it's never about the cost in points, it's always about the hassles of the DRM.

Another year, another whirlwind of innovations in consumer technology. It can be hard to keep up. For instance, do you know what distinguishes Microsoft Corp.'s latest music player and Amazon.com Inc.'s new electronic book reader from their competitors? Or what the new robot cleaner cleans? Take our quiz to see how well you've kept up with recent developments -- and try not to fall behind this ...

Don’t blink. Consumer technology is advancing rapidly. Take the quiz and find out how up on the latest trends you are.

Amazon.com announced it will take its DRM-free music downloading service international sometime this year...

Beginning later this year, Amazon plans to roll out international versions of its DRM-free music store.

I just reinstalled the Zune desktop software a couple of days ago (after my install of Windows Vista went belly-up forcing a complete re-format and re-install) and after it scanned my music, videos, and pictures, I was reminded of the truly useless way the Zune software organizes my videos. There are only two sorting options: by Name, or by Date Added. Over a period of months, Date Added starts to actually work (just a little bit), but when you first install the software every single video, regardless of how old it is, it stamped with the same date - which effectively gives you no sorting option at all. Why did the Zune team think this would be useful to the user?


Figure 1: The above videos were created more than three years ago, yet are at the top of my video list as the first videos shown.

What would make much more sense would be to list the files by the created date - because that's the real date of the video, similar to a photo. Sure, it's not entirely perfect because if you digitize a video today of your family holiday from ten years ago, it will be stamped with today's date, but at least the date is relevant to the file: the date you digitized it (and the Created Date can be manipulated via software if you want to really get accurate). The date that the Zune software scanned it has no practical use that I can think of - because even if we're talking about TV shows & movies recorded via Windows Media Center, the file creation date will be the date it was recorded, so those will show up as being newer than most of your other videos.

I'd also like to see a folder-based approach for organizing videos, rather than having a single flat-file approach. Thinking about how your organize and access your videos, how would you like to see the Zune desktop software improved?

Amazon.com is hoping consumers will turn to it for music instead of Apple's iTunes or Microsoft's Zune store in order to take advantage of a more open format.

Amazon.com is hoping consumers will turn to it for music instead of Apple's iTunes or Microsoft's Zune store in order to take advantage of a more open format.

One of the new features we got in the second go-around of the Zune was the ability to wirelessly sync your library with your Zune. I really like the addition of this feature even if its not something that I use much. Not at the moment at any rate. I really wouldn't mind setting up stereo dock elsewhere in my house and since I have several floors to my house it would be a pain to have to go get my Zune just to put new music on it. So I appreciate the utility of this feature.

The wireless sync, however, wasn't what some people wanted. No, some people wanted a wireless store. Now, at the time of release I was ok with not having it available. I didn't think WiFi networks were pervasive enough to make it really worth it. I still don't think they really are and I think the Zune team was smart to focus on more usable features for the moment. So why do I bring this up then? Here's a conversation I had at work last week:

Co-Worker: "So can you download music on it?"

Me: "Well, no, but I can wirelessly sync it down from my computer."

Co-Worker: "Ah, that's cool. Too bad you can't buy music on it."

Me: "Yeah..."

I honestly felt a bit stupid since when you say it out loud you realize how much better being able to actually buy music right there would be. I really hope that this is a feature the Zune team can work into Zune firmware 3.0.