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• No one saw Zune coming. And especially not in brown. If you were given the task to define the feature set and design of a device that can beat Apple's iPod, what would it be? I'm sure that many of you could name at least two or three shortcomings of the iPod right away. It's a great product, but it has weaknesses that can be exploited. When we first heard of the Zune and rumors of the feature set began to fly, it was easy to see that Microsoft is serious about tackling Apple's market leadership. First, Microsoft apparently spent some time on finding a real product name - "Zune" sounds much better than T10 or K5. And then there was Wi-Fi - a killer feature that could have knocked out the iPod all by itself. "Could" is the keyword here, because, obviously, it does not. Microsoft has crippled the Zune's wireless networking functionality to make it nearly useless. You can share a song via Wi-Fi with the same user only three times, after that, that user has to buy it. Yes, I understand that sharing a song more often would come dangerously close to the definition of copyright violation, but in its current form, Zune Wi-Fi is more of a sales promotion tool than a technology that enables social networking. There must be more in Wi-Fi than what Zune does with it, right? Microsoft's Zune For a first shot, I admit, Zune is a decent try. The display is impressive and the software and GUI represents what you would expect from a company that has virtually unlimited development resources. There are even those little features that make such a device attractive, for example the screen that shifts from portrait into landscape mode, if you hold the Zune horizontally. But we are talking about a device that is positioned as iPod killer and that has been developed by a multi-billion dollar company, not a cash-strapped startup. Could we have expected more from a company with such resources? Yes. The specs of Zune are average at best and the design is not a keeper. Looks are always a matter of taste, but the Zune does not look special and jeez, guys, who came up with the idea of a brown MP3 player? Sales of of Zune were decent initially, but quickly dropped from the best seller ranks. Microsoft said that it thinks it can sell about 1 million Zunes until June 2007 and considers that potential as "pretty awesome." For comparison, the iPod needed almost two years to reach that goal. I agree, a million is not bad. But come on, this is Microsoft and 30,000 stores are selling the player. It's easy to overlook that the market of 2006 is different from the market of 2001, when MP3 players were a niche product. Microsoft, you could have sold ten million units in half a year, if you had opted for more cutting edge hardware, more Wi-Fi functionality and a prettier design. Remember, Apple sells nearly ten million iPods in three months. No doubt, Zune was an early Christmas present for Apple. A million Zunes are a wake-up call for Apple, but they won't dent the iPod's market dominance in the immediate future.

• CES 2007: Microsoft and Ford promise to sync your life

  Las Vegas (NV) - Microsoft showed off a system, named "Sync", for synchronizing data you want to take on the road. It also do other tasks that make driving easier and safer. Ford Motor Company is making Sync real in twelve of its products this year. Ford Motor Company has been accused by some analysts of failing to incorporate changing tastes and needs into its automotive designs. This alleged failure has been blamed for the company's declining sales. Well, if Ford's latest announcement with Microsoft of a new product, Sync, is any indication, the company has gotten at least one thing straight, advanced consumer electronics need to find their way into all those traveling hunks of plastic and metal we drive. The Sync badge sits squarely on the front console of a Lincoln (Ford) SUV. Microsoft set up a small tent outside the Las Vegas Convention Center dedicated to products supported by its Auto platform. The tent included products related to the platform from the company's data synchronizing application, Sync, to impressive GPS-based navigation systems and hard disk drive based music players. Focusing on Sync, Microsoft says: "Based on the Microsoft Auto platform, Sync is an updatable, smart and safe solution for connecting your car with your life. It offers rich communications features, including hands-free dialing, synchronization to your address book, and even reading your text messages to you. It also has exciting personal entertainment features, including support for popular portable media devices like the new Microsoft Zune. The system is built on industry standards, so it supports a broad variety of devices, and it's easy for new devices to integrate with our platform. Sync will be available in twelve Ford, Lincoln and Mercury products beginning this calendar year." Zune, phone and radio screen where some Sync action takes place. We had a chance to sit in a comfy Ford SUV and play a bit with Sync. That's where the pictures came from. All worked as advertised. We look forward to testing Sync and other aspects of the Auto platform soon. It is unlikely Microsoft and Ford will send us a test product, but Microsoft has said it will make one of the vehicles available at its test site in Redmond, Washington. We're packed and ready to go. Many Sync functions are controlled by buttons on the steering wheel. Some of Sync's features include: Voice-activated, hands-free calling Phone button on steering wheel connects and disconnects cell phone from in-vehicle hands-free microphone and speaker during a call without dropping the connection Converts text messages from your phone to audio and reads them out loud The Sync phone includes the same calling features as other mobile phones: caller ID, call waiting, conference calling, a caller log, a list of contacts, a signal strength icon, and a phone battery charge icon - all located on the radio's display screen Lets you browse the music collection on your digital media player, mobile phone or USB drive by genre, album, artist and song title using simple voice commands, such as "Play genre Rock," "Play [artist] " or "Play Track [song title]>" Advanced, instant voice recognition technology for English, French and Spanish Ring tone support Automatic, wireless transfer of all the names and numbers in a mobile phonebook to the Sync system The radio is playing Sting's "A Thousand Years".

• TG Daily Top-10: Technology disappointments of 2006

  It is less than two weeks to Christmas and less than three weeks until we will be ringing in the new year. Time to wrap things up for 2006 and take another look on what was hot - and not. We are starting our mini series with what we felt did not live up to its hype and turned out to be a major disappointment. Here's our Top-10 for this category. Admitted, we have seen twelve months of great innovation; and if computers and electronics get you excited, it was one of the most entertaining and exciting years in a long time. But clearly, not everything was perfect and 2006 was also a year of huge blunders. There was no lack of products that remain well behind there pre-launch hype, technology trends that are heading into the wrong direction and companies that had bad luck glued to their backs. We have taken a close and rather subjective look at 2006 and selected ten contestants that, in our opinion, can only improve in the future. Join us in a discussion to set our head straight our let us know what we missed. The link to our discussion is on the last page of this article. #10: Apple iPod What? How dare we put the iPod (yup, it's really the iPod) on this list? Why would something be wrong with a product that has sold 100 million times? (Editor's Note: Before you take this personal and send me an angry email, give me a chance and hear me out. The iPod couldn't really escape what I remember as one of the most disappointing tech products of this year. And hey, it's only #10, so it's really not that bad, right?) Back in 2001, when Steve Jobs pulled a plain white box from his jeans pocket and sold it to journalists as the greatest thing since sliced bread, I was sure that Steve had lost his mind, finally. But playing with the iPod for a few minutes made it clear that Apple had a winner on its hands - a product that addressed virtually all what MP3 player buyers were asking for at the time. Plus, Apple was able to wrap a stylish package around its music playing hard drive. It took a while, but, today, we all know that the iPod has become a marketer's dream and synonymous for the term "MP3 player." But times change and it appears that Apple may have been playing its iPods too loud or perhaps spent too much time playing in the piles of cash the iPod keeps producing. There wasn't much news, let alone innovation, around the iPod this year. We have seen a video iPod with 80 GB of capacity, a restyled Shuffle and a face-lifted Nano with more memory capacity. But let's be honest, those 80 gigabytes were overdue anyway and the new design of the Nano corrected a design no-no (it scratched easily) that never should have been there to begin with. Yeah, it looks nice and it has more space for music (but only half of what would be great), but let's get real: The iPod is in real danger of losing its sex appeal. Needs more spice: Apple iPod We have seen several new MP3 players this year that are much better in certain disciplines than the iPod. They take the kind of risk in design and innovation the iPod has lost. Take Sandisk's Sansa, Samsung's K5 or Microsoft's Zune. All those players have some nice features that, combined, are superior to those of the iPod. Apple really lucked out that neither Microsoft nor Sandisk have figured out yet how to put those features into one package. Be careful Apple, you can afford to miss one or the other trend. But the writing is one the wall and you can't afford another year of slow iPod innovation. For next year, we hope that we finally see Wi-Fi, a touchscreen, Bluetooth and perhaps a new product line that takes more risk and brings back the iPod's wow! factor. And, could someone please kill that ugly iPod Hi-Fi?