backtop

Print E-mail del.icio.us 36 comment(s) - last by kyp275.. on Aug 30 at 1:53 AM

The Halo 3 Zune for military service members  (Source: Microsoft)
Microsoft is adding yet another piece of Halo 3-related merchandise to its product lineup

On the heels of the Halo 3 Edition black Zune, Microsoft is introducing a new brown version of the Halo-themed player for military service members. After receiving feedback on the popularity of the Zune players from U.S. soldiers, teams from Microsoft Zune and Microsoft's U.S. Federal business joined together to develop a special Zune - Halo 3 Military Edition, which will be available exclusively at military retail stores in August.

The new version of the Zune player will be packaged in a collectible Halo 3 box, and will come pre-loaded with artwork, trailers, and music from all three Halo games – presumably with similar content found on the Halo Zune found at GameStop.

A group of soldiers leaving for active duty yesterday from the Baltimore Washington International airport were the first to receive the new Halo Zune devices. Working closely with the USO, a non-profit organization focused on improving the quality of life of service members, Microsoft contributed 300 of the new Zune players to the USO of Metropolitan Washington to be part of a special USO care package the soldiers received.

"Microsoft has been a great partner to the USO of Metropolitan Washington for several years, supporting both our U.S. soldiers and the USO's mission," says Elaine Rogers, president of the USO of Metropolitan Washington. "From Zune devices and Xbox 360 gaming consoles to new computers with the latest Windows Vista and Office software, Microsoft's technology has helped service members stay connected and entertained."

Microsoft is offering the Zune - Halo 3 Military Edition to military personnel and their families at discounted rates through military retailers, including AAFES, and Navy and Marine Corps commissaries, beginning in early August.

Special Zunes are not the only Halo promo item on Microsoft’s list. Last month at the E3 conference, Microsoft revealed a special Halo 3 edition Xbox 360 dressed in Spartan Green with HDMI and other extra features. In June, retailer GameStop revealed special Halo 3-themed Xbox 360 controllers featuring Todd McFarlane artwork and Spartan green wireless headset.

Comments     Threshold


This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
Really cool
By FITCamaro on 8/7/2007 10:12:08 AM , Rating: 5
Props to Microsoft for doing that for our troops. I think its really cool they'd go through that effort to deliver a discounted product especially for them.

I'm sure we'll still get the Microsoft haters who will say things along the lines of "Well they make billions selling shitty software so they can afford to do it."




RE: Really cool
By EarthsDM on 8/7/2007 11:05:19 AM , Rating: 3
It is nice of Microsoft to offer discounts, but wouldn't water-proofing or increased durability be more appropriate?

Also, it kind of disturbs me that Microsoft is being used so much by US forces overseas. Shouldn't the DOD be using its legions of computer experts* to make its own systems? I'm not a hater, I just think that if they used home-brewed software that things would work better for them.

*They should have them, yes?


RE: Really cool
By Moishe on 8/7/2007 11:22:20 AM , Rating: 2
no offense... but we're talking about troops... and media players. Not military systems. The Zune is probably every bit as solid as an ipod or any of the other media players out there.

This is a good thing. I have a friend who is going wait to AIT and our group pitched in and gave him an ipod because we know he's going to be needing something to hold him over when no computers or other systems are available. Stuff like this is big for folks in the military.

Your statement is correct, a ruggedized media player would be sweet, but that would literally be an extra expensive special order for MS. And I think the government has no business getting into making it's own non-war tech for the troops.


RE: Really cool
By EarthsDM on 8/7/2007 11:35:39 AM , Rating: 2
Moishe,
I didn't mean that the DOD should build MP3 players, I meant that the DOD should build it's own OS instead of using exchange and word templates to keep track of its troops.


RE: Really cool
By tdawg on 8/7/2007 12:03:31 PM , Rating: 2
The cost of maintaining a DOD OS project and retaining the experts on staff that can fix it if it breaks would likely be cost inefficient. It's much easier to setup and maintain a system that has numerous experts available as contractors that could fix something if it breaks.

The reason government systems are so bloated is that each department uses what it wants, so no systems talk to each other efficiently and no one department can maintain the systems easily because there's no unified system setup. I heard a while back that the US government has something like 140+ accounting systems setup, making it almost impossible to keep track of costs. Maybe they should just move to Quickbooks, or something. :)


RE: Really cool
By housecat on 8/7/2007 1:17:09 PM , Rating: 2
The US government needs to utilize Oracle to keep everything standardized... and hopefully keep a of the vital information offline and have that stuff searched out on a need-to-know basis!


RE: Really cool
By Samus on 8/7/2007 7:41:30 PM , Rating: 2
Actually I haven't heard of many Zune's failing. For the most part, Toshiba did a pretty good job with the internals.


RE: Really cool
By therealnickdanger on 8/7/2007 11:34:02 AM , Rating: 5
Well, MS is an American company, it's only fitting since apparently Apple doesn't give two squirts...

Honestly, I don't really care what brand of products are given to/discounted for our troops, we can never give to them as much as they give us.


RE: Really cool
By Crusader on 8/7/2007 1:05:33 PM , Rating: 2
Maybe this will encourage Apple to do something patriotic?


RE: Really cool
By MonkeyPaw on 8/7/2007 2:03:18 PM , Rating: 2
Maybe Jobs will wear "desert camo" instead of black during his next keynote?


RE: Really cool
By Misty Dingos on 8/7/2007 2:10:53 PM , Rating: 2
Not if any buttons are involved. Still wierds me out, a guy that is afraid of buttons. Maybe he has some form of Aspbergers?


RE: Really cool
By Dactyl on 8/8/2007 2:15:37 AM , Rating: 2
Sure, Apple is very patriotic.

They LOOOOVE Canada.


RE: Really cool
By afkrotch on 8/8/2007 12:29:04 PM , Rating: 1
Ummm...I'm in the military and we do use legions of computer experts to create specialized software for military purposes. It's just, for something like an OS, why not just use what's already available, as opposed to spending millions of dollars on R&D.

Oh...look up something called Defense Message System (DMS). Worst software that the DoD ever put money into.


Zuned
By Misty Dingos on 8/7/2007 11:37:19 AM , Rating: 2
While I am not going to run out and buy Vista for my PC I will seriously consider dropping by the BX (Base Exchange) for one of these bad boys. I think that MS and the USO should be given big props for doing this. I don't think this move will make MS any money. The numbers of these players they will sell through the exchanges is just not large enough. Not unless they become the only MP3 player to buy.




America
By Rampage on 8/7/2007 1:04:04 PM , Rating: 2
This is why I support American based companies whenever possible. My cousin is in the army (in Iraq) and the zune is indeed popular over there.

Kudos to MS for taking the effort for something special for our troops, even though its not going to net them any extra cash.




Well.....
By donttrustme on 8/7/07, Rating: -1
RE: Well.....
By kelmon on 8/7/2007 11:22:35 AM , Rating: 5
You know, I think it's English but then again I might be wrong.


RE: Well.....
By MonkeyPaw on 8/7/2007 2:07:11 PM , Rating: 2
Perhaps he submitted his comment via text message.


RE: Well.....
By Moishe on 8/7/2007 11:24:20 AM , Rating: 2
I think that's where a smaller zune (like a nano) would fit in. MS isn't stupid, they publicly admit that they won't win the first battle, but they will produce ever better media players and MS usually does well for itself in the 2nd and 3rd generations.


RE: Well.....
By afkrotch on 8/8/2007 12:31:25 PM , Rating: 1
The next Zunes will be Microsoft designed. It'll be kind of cool to see a RROD or BSOD on a DAP.


RE: Well.....
By MrDiSante on 8/7/2007 11:43:34 AM , Rating: 2
And you type like a 12-year-old AOLer. I'm fine with people making typos or spelling mistakes, to a certain degree. I'm perfectly fine with people for whom English happens to be a second language making grammatical mistakes. But your bastardization of the language knows no end.

Would it really hurt you so much to type "what" instead of "wat", "marketing" instead of "marketin'" (where's the sense in that? It's the same number of characters AND the apostrophe is actually harder to reach than the g), "that" instead of "tht" and "you" instead of "u"?