Odds are that most people shopping for a MP3 player are going to end up opting for an iPod of one model or another. Some folks out there will look for alternatives to Apple’s offerings though for one reason or another. Microsoft’s line of Zune players may be just the ticket for music fans looking for Apple alternatives.

Microsoft’s latest update for all Zune players is now available. The update adds some nice new features including free Wi-Fi access to the Zune Marketplace from Wayport hotspots in more than 9800 McDonald’s restaurants around the country.

I know that some of you were traumatized by the first installment of this geek comedy duo. The second chapter of the Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld saga is much better. The best part? Bill Gates doing the robot. Once again, like Seinfeld’s show, it’s pretty much about nothing. There’s no MS stuff being sold here. Just good clean fun between two middle aged nerds trying to discover themselves by traveling this great land.

Remember how the Seinfeld show was a “Show about nothing”? Then at one point they even made fun of that fact on the show, by making a fake show within the show about…nothing. This first Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ad is a lot like that. It makes no damn sense. It’s about nothing.

We can only hope that future ads make more sense. The only thing I really got out of this is that Microsoft may be up to something. And it may or may not be delicious. And that’s only because Bill Gates shook his ass. Kramer and George Costanza sure could have spiced things up on this one. Steve Ballmer could have been George. Not sure what they were going for here.

Whether you’re a Mac fan or not, I think we all get a chuckle out of the “Get a Mac” ads. And they must have converted many PC users. Now Microsoft is looking to give as good as they get, recruiting Jerry Seinfeld and of course Bill Gates to show you how magical Vista is. It’s a $300 million campaign that has $10 million set aside for “key celebrity pitchmen”.

The ads apparently focus on “Windows, Not Walls,” talking about the need to “break down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting.” It will no doubt involve the Mojave Experiment too, which is Microsofts version of candid camera, where Microsoft made unsuspecting users(Prejudiced against Vista) test a new product that was in fact Vista. They’ve got Seinfeld, why not get Kramer and George in on it too?

I can remember back when Microsoft was a big name in gaming peripherals. Years ago, Microsoft was big in the gaming peripherals and had a slew of joysticks aimed at flight simulation and other PC game genres that were popular in the market. As companies are apt to do, when the SideWinder joysticks popularity started to wane the whole line was axed.

Not so long ago Microsoft pulled the SideWinder name from the trash bin and stuck it on a gaming mouse that was actually quite good. Today, Microsoft announced a couple more gaming goodies that will carry the SideWinder moniker. Some photos of the SideWinder X6 keyboard were leaked a couple months back, and were believed by many to be fakes.

We’ve all heard about Microsoft’s Surface touchscreen table, but now the company seems to have been inspired by the Sensisphere. Check out Microsoft’s new Surface Sphere, a giant orb planetoid whose surface is a multitouch screen.

As the video shows, you can display movies and even play one freaky game of pong. Imagine all of the uses this thing could have. Like a 360 degree security cam viewer, teaching about planets by displaying every detail, displaying robot faces and so much more. All of these things we Sci-Fi geeks dreamed about as kids are coming true.

It was inevitable that more rumors of a possible Zune phone would begin circulating. It makes perfect sense. Microsoft has got to want a slice of Apple pie. Why wouldn’t they be planning a Zune phone to go up against the iPhone?

It’s expected to be a touchscreen based smartphone. One of the rumors has the Zune phone running on a special version of Windows Mobile 7, with key functionality built around Windows Live Services. We’ll find out one way or another. Hopefully a Zune phone would fare better then zune Vs. iPod.

I have never really been into graphic novels like “30 days of Night”, but I did like the flick based on the graphic novel. Zune Arts is normally associated with customized Zune players but its latest release is a graphic novel written by Steve Niles, the same guy who wrote “30 Days of Night”.

The graphic novel is called “The Lost Ones” and the story follows Duncan, Roxy, Rasheed, and Cynthia as a day of extreme planet jumping ends up in a race for their lives and to get back home as they are pursued by an alien race trying to kill them.

Microsoft has made no secret that it likes the idea of subscription based software. A subscription service has often been rumored to be a potential distribution method for all sorts of Microsoft software from productivity applications to operating systems.

The first product to come to market from Microsoft as a subscription service was announced today and is called Microsoft Equipt. The Equipt service will cost users $69.99 per year and includes a combination of Microsoft Windows Live OneCare and Microsoft Office Home and Student.

Microsoft has put on an announcement through one of its many channels that Office 2007 owners can expect Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 1 to show up in their Windows Automatic Updates sometime on or after June 16. The Office 2007 SP1 has been available since December of last year but Microsoft has been careful about forcing it into the general population of Office users.

As they had done with Office 2003, they are giving a 30 day warning/notice that the automatic update is coming. They also said that not everyone will see it at the same time since they will rolling it out a little at a time to be sure that their servers can handle the download requests.

In case you might have missed it, Microsoft has been in the action figure business for about two years. It was easy to miss. MSDN, the Microsoft Developer Network, recently announced the latest members of the Source Fource, limited edition, collectible mini-action figures based on Microsoft development and software products. They’re tiny and plastic, resembling LEGO figures. The characters include “Windows Vista Sensei,” “Office Master,” “ISV Server Gal,” “Virtual Labs Guy,” “SQL Server Gal,” “Visual Labs Guy,” and “MSDN Webcast Guy.”

You won’t be able to get these figures in stores however. The two latest figures, “Windows Vista Sensei” and “Office Master,” will only be available to the first 5,000 users attending at least two MSDN webcasts or those who complete at least two MSDN Virtual Lab courses between March 15 and April 15. The other figures were released in 2006 and can’t easily be found either. Pretty strange stuff. You figure they would want to market these things and put them on store shelves, since geeks have money and all.

Dell and Microsoft partnered on a program called (RED) in conjunction with (RED) co-founder Bono to help fight AIDS in Africa. The program offers special (RED) branded PCs and printer in which part of the proceeds will go to help people in places like Rwanda, Swaziland and Ghana.

For each purchased (PRODUCT) RED branded PC from Dell loaded with a RED branded Windows Vista Ultimate, Dell and Microsoft will contribute between $50 and $80 to the Global Fund of the program. $80 will bring as much as six months of life-saving antiretroviral treatment for a person living with AIDS in Africa. A RED branded printer will generate a $5 contribution.

Microsoft wants to deliver more ads to consumers, so they have found a unique way to do it more effectively. Working with a company called MediaCart, they are building computers that would be mounted on grocery carts. It would allow consumers to navigate the store and then automatically check them out when they’re finished. What would convenience be without revenue? That’s why Microsoft will have video ads mixed with the experience.

The cart-mounted computers will be tested at some ShopRite markets in the second half of 2008. Shoppers can pick up items, scan them with the system and leave them in their carts. The console will provide a running price tally and even check items off the shopping list. The system is also equipped with RFID, so it can track shoppers while they’re moving around in the store, deciding whether they want Captain Crunch or Cocoa Puffs. Shoppers will also be able to bring their list to the store with just a swipe of their loyalty card.(Everybody has a loyalty card, and yet it doesn’t seem to make any of us loyal.)

Welcome to January 2008. Amongst all the CES coverage we’ve been doing we failed to notice yesterday, being the second Tuesday of the month, revealed to us on our Windows desktops that monthly ritual all Microsoft customers must endure: security patches. We’ve decided here at SlipperyBrick to implement the Microsoft Security Bulletin Watch – a basic way of us providing you information about new patches Microsoft is releasing.

For January 2008 Microsoft has released one Critical, One Important and seven Non-Security, High-Priority updates on the Microsoft Update site. You may not of course need all of these – it depends upon your machine’s specific Windows OS flavor and what you already have installed on your PC. Check after the jump for a summary of the most important updates.

Opera Software has filed a legal complaint to the European Commission against Microsoft over the companies web browser and how it is packaged with the operating system. As you may or may not have noticed, the Internet Explorer browser that comes with the Windows operating system has become part of the OS, and can’t really be removed or uninstalled. Because of this Opera Software is complaining that the tie Microsoft has between the OS and its IE browser is illegal since it does not give competing browsers a chance on the highly dominate Windows OS. Opera is also saying that Microsoft is hindering interoperability by not following the commonly accepted web standards.

Opera is asking that Microsoft be forced to “unbundle” their web browser and operating system allowing other browsers, such as Opera’s, to be able to compete more fairly. They are also asking that Microsoft adhere to common Web standards so that developers creating hosted applications and web sites do not allow or need specific code written for viewing on Internet Explorer compared to other browsers.