Companies trying to make a splash as CES typically do one of two things. They either release the biggest whatever in the world -- usually a television of some sort -- or, in this case, the smallest pocket media player Earthlings have ever seen. HSTi is set to unveil Moboplay, a 63mm x 60mm x 13mm media player that weighs just 50 grams and fits in the palm of your hand, at the convention in Las Vegas.
Go ahead and scrap your plans to attend the Zune HD's funeral, the device isn't dead after all. We think it isn't, anyway. Actually, we don't know what's going on with the Zune HD, and it seems neither does Microsoft. News spread of the Zune HD's demise when an official support page went live saying Microsoft planned to discontinue the hardware, though it would still offer support. The message? If you're interested in the Zune, go buy a Windows Phone 7 device instead. Not even a day later, Microsoft has pulled the website and is backtracking on its obituary.
Sometime yesterday Microsoft started yanking references to its Zune HD player from its Zune website. 
Boxee closed a $16.5 million round of financing led by new investors Pitango and Softbank, as well as prior investors General Catalyst, Spark Capital, and Union Square Ventures. That's $10.5 million more than Boxee's last round of funding, at which point the Boxee team consisted of 12 employees banging out code to bring the media center's software out of alpha. And now? Boxee's team is 34 members strong, the software is in version 1.0, and the Boxee Box is shipping around the world. Where does Boxee go from here?
The Zune brand has died a thousand times, it seems, or at least been close to death. As CNet points out, reasons why the Zune has supposedly been on life support in the past are many (like poor sales), but not always accurate (the platform is thriving). Is there any reason to think things have changed? Paul Thurrott, who runs the Supersite for Windows, says his sources tell him that the Zune brand is on its way out for real this time, and that all Zune products and services will be shoveled into other businesses, like Windows Live. Here's what Microsoft had to say about that.
A slightly imperfect mega music machine
It wasn’t long ago that we turned our critical eye on another recently released Grace Digital Internet radio, the diminutive Solo Wi-Fi Receiver. Although we liked it in a general sense, we found its connectivity somewhat limiting and its controls challenging. We also weren’t sure what it wanted to be: It looked like a bedside radio, but it but needed external amplification and speakers to produce sound.
