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?

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If you’re in the market for a Zune, why would you buy it from anywhere else? Nick’s Zune warehouse sells Zunes by the pound. They are totally dedicated to this, the most awesome portable media player ever. Remember this guy? Forget him. He missed out.

Come December 31st, you’ll be sorry you didn’t take advantage of Nick’s amazing deals. Nick’s an amazing …

One day, hopefully when the planet is not ruled by apes that evolved from men, fossils like the one above will be commonplace. And while you might not dig up as many Zune fossils as say, the iPod, they will give those in the future some idea of what we have been up to.

These fossils are hand-made in Austin by artist Christopher Locke. Each one represents a different piece of “modern” technology that has already become extinct. He has also collaborated with the local Goodwill computer and electronics recycling program, insuring that there is zero e-waste from this project.

It’s been long overdue and at long last Microsoft has redesigned the Windows Mobile interface. No doubt users will like the honeycomb layout and the Zune-like feel. There’s more to like with no-waiting voice mail, cloud-syncing MyPhone online service, and a new app store. Hey, where have I heard this before?

Things are not only meant to be finger friendly, but are designed to be used with one hand. The design on some of the screens has clearly been inspired by Windows Media Center and much of the information can be accessed by simply swiping up/down, left/right.

This latest Arduino project turns it into a twitter home security system of sorts. The Arduino is used to monitor a home burglar alarm and send out status messages should the status change: Like when the alarm was activated or shut off, error messages, or just when the alarm actually sounds because you are being robbed.

The Arduino’s digital IO pins are wired up to the alarm’s output signals. An XBee wireless module was added, because the alarm control panel is some distance away from the ethernet hook-up, and a simple Linux server (with the USB XBee receiver) monitors any changes and sends the Twitter messages. @alarmdude By the time help gets here I’m gone. Left the zune on your desk.

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You can’t make this stuff up. It doesn’t speak very highly of Microsoft’s Zune, when this thief takes everything on the desk, spots the Zune, unplugs the earphones and takes them, then throws the Zune back onto the desk before leaving. Yeah, that’s not a ringing endorsement for the device.

If your iPod is out of room and you don’t want to do the necessary surgery on it yourself to upgrade the hard drive, some pros are now ready to do it for you. Rapid Repair just announced the first 240GB iPod upgrade, which is available for all original iPod Video models.

They can replace your hard drive with a Toshiba MK2431GAH 240GB 8-mm hard drive, which gives your old iPod double the current iPod classic’s space. Apparently, they’ll do it for the iPod Classic and Zune 2G too. There’s no price listed yet, but since they’ll charge you $189.99 for a 120GB Samsung SpinPoint N2 hard drive, you can do the math.

Check out this pair of iPods that have been turned into iPod speakers. The original iPod scroll wheels were removed and replaced with a pair of speakers. This particular DIY project is a bit expensive at around $100 (he needed to replace both the front and back panels since the old ones had too many scratches to count), although I don’t see why a smart shopper couldn’t do it for a bit less.

IPod speakers for an iPod. Makes sense. Let’s not go crazy though. We don’t need to see Zune speakers for Zunes and iPhone speakers for your iPhone. I’m just kidding. We love any and all clever mods, even when they get a bit redundant.

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.”

We covered the Zune Pink project rumor regarding a Zune phone by Microsoft; however, the latest rumors indicate is that the mobile arena isn’t looking at a single Microsoft branded mobile handset, but an instead an entire software and services platform.

The news is that Project Pink may include Zune Mobile support, which may render into a Zune Mobile software package for Windows Mobile that could well be more robust media support than any previous Microsoft powered mobile phone, and could also predict a mobile downloads store.

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.

It’s a rumor that refuses to die. The Zune phone. We last speculated about it back in July. Now the Zune Phone is looking very likely. A legitimate news organization, CNBC had something to say about it. Jim Goldman says that according a “good source,” Microsoft is “ready to give a major facelift to the company’s Zune music player that could mean its evolution into a new smart phone from the company.” It’s codenamed “Pink” and “will combine the company’s Zune and technology from Microsoft’s purchase of Danger Inc.”

Are you excited? Microsoft has dropped some hints that it wanted to combine Danger’s consumer-friendly OS expertise with the Zune. It makes sense. A ZunePhone made by Danger might be a Microsoft smartphone that is actually worth the wait.