Image Source: guybo on Flickr

As we start to see a little more (lame) reaction from Microsoft, today’s farcical, comical (if you don’t own one) Zune Swoon just looks worse and worse.  Here is their latest reaction, via the Zune Thoughts site:

Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used). The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year. The issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009. We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device.

So the good news is supposedly this issue will largely fix itself when the date changes tomorrow – but as one of the lucky, lucky (insert your own very low and humorous number here) Zune 30GB owners round the world, this latest response from MS really winds me up for a few reasons …

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I’ve never been big on sharing much of my personal life here on JAMM.  I hope you’ll all forgive me if I change that a little now on this final post for me here, though I’ll keep it pretty brief.

I have cancer.  Found out beginning of last year.  Things had been going well / better for me for several months in terms of this illness.  Now they are not anymore, they are going significantly worse. 

I have found over recent months that I was not able to put in the amounts of quality time on JAMM that I really wanted to, and now this situation would only get worse.  So, for a number of reasons, it is best for me to bow out of running and actively contributing to the site.

Since I started this site almost exactly two years ago, I’ve had an absolute blast being involved with it.  A blast working with and sharing ideas with superb people like Doug, Charlie, Brandon, Lauren, Peter, Thomas, and many others.  A blast talking with and trading comments with many of you.  Lots of fun keeping up with all the latest and greatest mobile gadgets and applications, and sharing our thoughts on them with all of you.   I feel very happy and proud about where JAMM has got to in a couple of years, and all the good friends that I have, that the site has, made during this time.

I’m also very happy to say that as I step out of the site, our good friend and former colleague, Doug Goldring, is returning – and will take over running JAMM.  Doug has been a huge contributor here since the very beginning (as many of you know) and it feels great to leave the site in the way more than capable hands of Doug, Brandon, Peter, Charlie, Lauren, Thomas, TJ, and all the rest of our excellent crew here.

I look forward to being a JAMM reader and commenter in future, and keeping in touch with as many of you as possible here as well ….

Many of you will recognize the name spmwinkel (or Stefan) – as he is one of our most frequent and favorite commenters here at JAMM – and a very frequent past contest winner as well.  He was also one of our first ‘Show & Tell’ participants – you can check out his entry HERE.

Stefan has recently entered the Resco Keyboard Pro Skin Competition, and voting in the competition is going on right now.  Up for grabs for the winner is an HTC Touch – and it would be just great to see Stefan win this, for his very sleek skin work!

So … if at all possible, take a moment away from thinking about silly political elections, and make your way over to HERE and vote for Stefan’s creation.  Just look for ‘Gesta Skin’ by spmwinkel and hit the Vote button (assuming of course that you agree it is deserving).  Your IP is tracked, so stick to just voting once

Good luck Stefan!

Here it is.  High Noon at the MTS Corral.  We’re standing at the crossroads in the center of town.  Ahead of us, the doors to the saloon swing open as our first competitor strides into the street…Fizz Weather.  The wind starts to blow gently, just enough for a tumbleweed to kick up some dust on the far side of town …

I’m betting that many of you very much enjoyed Doug Goldring’s flair for the dramatic (with a slice of humor thrown in) in his reviews, as so nicely displayed in the above excerpt, as well as some of those epic Head-to-Head reviews that he and Lauren have done here at JAMM. 

I know I always have – so it’s great to see that over at MyTodayScreen Doug and his colleagues have started a ‘Shootouts’ series, where they’ll regularly be matching up the leading contenders in specific application categories and giving their verdict on which one is the current champ.

The first in the series throws weather apps into the ring – three excellent and popular ones in this case, Spb Weather, Fizz Weather, and SBSH’s Pocket Weather.  It’s a great first entry in a series that I know I’ll be following and looking forward to.

Head over HERE to check out the weather apps shootout and find out who ended up winning it …

eWallet has long been a favorite, and essential, app for many of us here at JAMM – so it’s fun to see today’s news at The Ilium Software Blog, letting us know about a big TV appearance for eWallet and Marc Tassin, Ilium’s marketing guru.

The local NBC TV station did quite a good little story on eWallet, which their reporter seems to like calling ‘The eWallet’ – hey I’m sure Ilium won’t complain about that title. 

Check out the story HERE – and watch the video via the link under the photo along the right-hand side of the article.  I should also pass along that the emphasis on the iPhone in the video is down to the TV station’s editing – not Ilium’s choice:

The emphasis on the iPhone is theirs – Marc showed versions of several devices, and they picked which parts to use (in the car, going back to Detroit, apparently. I’m impressed).

Here’s hoping all this celebrity stuff doesn’t go straight to Marc’s head