Microsoft released official details earlier today on its upcoming Zune platform, the company’s attempt to create an iTunes/iPod killer.

The Zune portable media player is a 30GB, iPod-like device that features wireless technology, a built-in FM tuner and a 3-inch screen for pictures and video. Microsoft plans to have the Zune available for holiday shopping.

There were no real surprises in today’s announcement – the announcement makes the Zune appear to be a well-funded me-too attempt to create an iPod killer. Based on what they’ve delivered today, it looks like the success of the Zune platform is going to depend primarily on Microsoft’s abiity to buy its way into your pocket, through free music and videos and exclusive deals with record labels and online music stores eager to break Apple’s shold on the online music market.

Here are five reasons that Microsoft’s official announcement of the Zune is a disappointment.

iFixit, a site that sells replacement parts for iPods, has a great collection of guides to DIY iPod repair.

The step-by-step illustrated replacement guides include:

• Battery
• Headphone Jack & Hold Switch
• Hard Drive
• Hard Drive Cable
• Front Panel
• Click Wheel Button
• Display
• Rubber Bumpers
• Click Wheel
• Logic Board

Microsoft has just unveiled official details on the Zune player and other products to be released under its Zune brand. The Zune system is made up of a 30GB digital media player, the Zune Marketplace music service and a foundation for an online community that will enable music fans to discover new music. Microsoft plans to have the Zune available for the holiday shopping season.

The Zune device features wireless technology, a built-in FM tuner and a 3-inch screen for pictures and video. The Zune also lets users customize the Zune interface with personal pictures or themes.

Zune will come in three colors: black, brown and white.

No word from Microsoft on either podcast support of what the Zune’s wireless capabiities will be.

Melodeo and Cingular today announced a cooperative arrangement, making Melodeo Mobilcast available to Cingular customers for $4.99/month.

The two companies tout the service as the first “seamless Web to mobile podcasting service,” allowing customers to sync podcast playlists back and forth from the Melodeo Web site to the phone. It also lets people start listening to a podcast or radio program on either the PC or a mobile phone, stop anywhere and then pick up at the same point you left off on the other device.

Initially, the Mobilcast service will work on 15 compatible Cingular handsets; additional phones will be added.

People used to think of marijuana as the demon weed, and that smoking it could lead to promiscuity, harder drugs, and even madness.Research by University of Leicester psychologist Dr Adrian North may reveal an even harsher truth: that marijuana leads to Mahler.

Actually, North’s work reveals a correlation between marijuana use and classical music fans, rather than a cause and effect relationship.
The research shows that a person’s musical preference tells a great deal about their lifestyle and interests. When it comes to relationships, beliefs and even breaking the law, fans of different musical styles gave very different responses.

Dr. North is expanding his research and is looking for input from music fans. North looking for 10,000 people from all over the world to take part in an online survey at www.musicaltastetest.com, stating their preference from over 50 musical styles and completing a questionnaire.

Some users are reporting problems with bugs in iTunes 7.

Actor Wil Wheaton, Wesley Crusher from Star Trek, blogs his woes with the update:

“The new features in iTunes 7 are really cool . . . if only they fucking worked,” writes Wheaton. “I connected my iPod to my laptop just now with manual management turned on, so it doesnt automatically change my settings or music, and suddenly all of my iTunes Music Store purchases vanished.

“I can’t even synch it to the machine I used to buy those songs, because its in for service. It also tells me, when I try to authorize the damn machine, that Ive authorized five of five machines, even though I deauthoried my old laptops when they were sent back for upgrades.”

Apple’s iTunes forums are also jumping with stories like this one from cipher:

“I upgraded to ITunes 7 today and now ALL of the songs in my library are extremely distorted when I play them. There is crackeling, static, skipping, and they sound like garbage. When I play the same songs in a different media player they sound fine.”

Persian businesswoman Anousheh Ansari, co-founder and Chairman of Prodea Systems, is set to be the first female commercial space tourist, taking off on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft launching Monday, September 18th.

She plans to blog and podcast from space at a site hosted by Los Angeles-based X PRIZE Foundation.

“Over the next few days before my launch, I will share with you my feelings and sentiments as I approach the Launch day, some details about my flight and the ceremonies and training I‚Äôm receiving,” notes Anousheh. “I look forward to sharing the next few weeks of my life with each and every one of you‚Ķ”

Skype, makers of free telephony software popular with podcasters for recording phone calls, has released the beta version Skype for Mac 2.0. The new version gives any Mac user with an Internet connection the ability to make free video calls to anyone else on Skype, regardless of whether they use the Windows or Mac platform.

Skype’s new cross platform support means that the international community of more than 113 million users can make free video calls to people across the globe.

Mac users can use Skype 2.0 for one-on-one video calls, viewed within the Skype window or on the full computer screen. Skype video for Mac also includes a small window for users to view how they appear to the person they are calling.

Unfortunately, Skype still hasn’t added the feature that podcasters need the most, the ability to record calls.

It didn’t take long for the latest version of iTunes’ encry option to get hacked again.

QTFairUse 2.3, a tool for removing digital rights management encryption in order to allow traditional fair use of audio tracks, has been released. The new version can be used to strip the DRM from files downloaded with iTunes 7.

Details in the Hymn project forum.

According to the site, “The purpose of the Hymn Project is to allow you to exercise your fair-use rights under copyright law. The various software provided on this web site allows you to free your iTunes Music Store purchases (protected AAC / .m4p) from their DRM restrictions with no loss of sound quality. These songs can then be played outside of the iTunes environment, even on operating systems not supported by iTunes and on hardware not supported by Apple.”

BT today announced it has teamed up with PodShow, a US podcasting network, to launch BT PodShow, a branded version of the PodShow Network produced for the UK market.

BT PodShow will provide users with their own personal online media centres where they can post their own content and interact with others locally and across the globe. Users will also be able to enjoy their favourite shows on any connected device, from PC to mobile and even TV.

Speaking at the launch today, Gavin Patterson BT Consumer MD, said: “Podcasting really does illustrate the true power of broadband. What is great about it is that all you need is a way to record audio or video, a computer and an internet connection.

BT Podshow is also launching a nationwide call for aspiring film producers, musicians, presenters and DJ’s from across the UK to submit audio and video content, enabling them to ‘get in on the show’.