If your gadget isn’t up to your standards, just mod it and make it so. While searching for a replacement hard drive for his old school iRiver H300, Andrew decided to go with an SSD drive for more reliability. He couldn’t find the proper SSD drive to replace the H300s so instead he looked for a broken hard drive player to combine with an SSD drive.

So he found a broken Zune 120 and a refurbished SanDisk EIDE/PATA SSD drive and married them. Total cost was $130. If you want to do this yourself, Andrew has some instructions for you.

According to Microsoft “guru” Paul Thurott, the Zune HD launches on September 5. You should keep in mind that this info is coming from the Zune forums, so take it with a huge grain of salt. We think that the launch window sounds about right, but there’s nothing official. That is all.

Spring has sprung so why not celebrate the season with a new spring-themed Zune Original? Unless you are waiting on the Zune HD. Microsoft is offering a collection of custom engravings inspired by the spring season.

There will be six new pieces of art in total for this collection, all by artist duo APAK and individual artists Carolina Melis and Linn Olofsdotter. The patterns are free and apply to any of the flash or hard drive-based Zunes. The spring Originals don’t replace any existing artwork and sit alongside the Artist, Tattoo and Zodiac collections.

There’s no way to know for sure if this new image is the real deal. However, some sources of Zunited’s have chimed in to say that it is an authentic ZuneHD. The specs seem too good to be true.

Some of those specs are: multi-touch capacitive OLED screen in a 16:9 aspect ratio, 3D Xbox game support, playback of “HD media” available from Zune Marketplace, TV-out from what looks like a mini-HDMI port on the left-side, HD Radio, choice of 16GB or 32GB of storage, wireless sync, multi-touch “browser”.

Yesterday images of the Zune HD were leaked to engadget and since then we’ve learned that it’s the real deal. The images above are promotional shots from Microsoft’s forthcoming marketing campaign.

We don’t know much, but the name is a dead giveaway that the display will be “HD”. Can we expect it to have 1280×720? Or are they just using it as a fancy marketing word?

Here’s more news for all of you Zune 30 owners who feel betrayed by your now frozen PMP. Microsoft has finally acknowledged the snafu and here is their explanation:

There is a bug in the internal clock driver that causes the device to bite the dust on the last day of a leap year. But don’t worry, even though they won’t be releasing an update for the device any time soon, it should resolve itself when January 1, 2009 comes around. Do you feel better now?

If you own a Zune 30, hopefully it isn’t stuck at a loading bar and completely non-functional. If it is, you are not the only one. The net is a buzz with users whose 30GB players began locking up at midnight last night, bricking themselves all on their own.

The failures are happening 24-hours ahead of the 2009 changeover, so Zune-lovers have named the flaw “Z2K.” It took some time, but finally Microsoft must have checked their overflowing email box e-mail, because the official Zune site now has a message stating that Microsoft is aware of the problem and “are working to correct it.”

Price cuts aren’t the only thing Microsoft is using to reel in shoppers, they are also introducing some new colors in order to snag your holiday dollars. The big M has just made blue and red versions of the little PMP available on its Zune Originals site.

Prices start at $249, and the they suggest placing orders by the 19th so you can get it by Christmas Eve. It may not be the Gears Of War 2 edition, but hey, it’s in red and blue. Beats boring black.

Microsoft will announce price cuts across the board for its flash Zunes tomorrow. Good news if you are bargain shopping. hey aren’t Earth shattering deals, but every bit helps right? The 4GB model will drop to $100, the 8GB will go for $140 and 16GB for $180. The price drops make them all cheaper than the equivalent iPod nanos.

Apparently Microsoft wants Zune buyers to have another handful of choices. 46 to be exact. The new options include “exclusive artwork of Eastern and Western astrology from Catalina Estrada and Iosefatu Sua”. They can all be selected now from the online design studio. It might take a while to get through all of them, but what the hell. Maybe you can do some Christmas shopping early.

Good news for Gears of War fans. Microsoft is releasing the new Gears of War 2 Special-edition Zune on November 7th, 2008. The PMP comes pre-loaded with 244 pieces of “Gears of War” media including the soundtrack, concept art, behind-the-scenes videos, etc. It’s priced at $280, with pre-orders at Walmart.com and Amazon.com. This special edition Zune 120 also features a laser-etched “Crimson Omen” on a glossy black casing.

We love our devices, but at the same time, they all look the same. That’s why Zune Originals has announced a new series of artist editions for the MP3 player. Put a tattoo on your Zune. Some of the new artists include Aya Kato and Matt W. Moore. They join longstanding Zune affiliates Sam Flores and Kenzo Minami in providing “tattoos” for your Zune. Just pick out a new Zune from the online store and then choose your favorite design for engraving.

Here’s the first pic of a blue Zune flash player. This one is an 8GB version that was seen posted on Fry’s a little while ago. Despite the color, it doesn’t have a lot to be blue about. Apparently there’s a silver one as well, but no pics of that one. It sports some interesting new features.

Users can access wireless hotspots to update music collections, browse the Zune Marketplace, refresh Channels, exchange favorites, and even buy tagged FM songs. “Channels” are custom stations that will give you personalized playlists. It also has a “Games” feature for what else, games. The “Buy From FM” feature lets you listen to FM radio and tag any songs for purchase when you sync with a PC. Not too shabby.

Many of you are eagerly awaiting news on a Zune phone. Until that actually happens, take a look at this. Designed by Adam Huffman, the new Zune Contact concept comes loaded with a new user interface, a lickable super slim body, a 5MP digital camera and a full touch screen display. Unlike the 120GB Zune, this one is only a concept so don’t ask where you can buy it. You never know, we may see it’s like some day in the future.

Looks like one lucky user got their 120GB Zune a tad early, before it’s formal debut on the 9th. It was sold at a Fry’s in Atlanta for $250. Nice!