I snapped some photos of the Gears of War Zune - check it. First the front: then the back, both on the device and the box:

Some cool news from the Zune community: our friends at ' Rama celebrated a second birthday . Please Join me in congratulating them! Speaking of second birthdays, this site just had a birthday, on July 21! That's when we first announced Zune: July 21, 2006. Here's the first post I wrote announcing it . Ah, the memories. Thanks to everybody out there in the community!

Not many people know that the Zune 2.1 software release was a complete re-write of the software. We wiped the slate clean and started over. So, it wasn’t as simple as porting features over, we literally had to re-write the application from the ground up. Features like autoplaylists are no simple task to implement, and while we wanted them in the first 2.1 release, it just wasn’t possible. Now we have them, so it’s moot point, but I wanted to enlighten you as to why they weren’t included until now...

For those of you who are 1. Snowboarders, 2. In/around Tahoe this Saturday, and 3. Awesome*, check out this Gizmodo reader meetup**: And if you're going, take some digital pictures! And bring your Zunes! * BTW: reading zuneinsider.com makes you awesome, so you're covered. ** Also, this isn't an April Fools Joke. But this is!