Either Microsoft is really intelligent or really desperate to make sure Zune is a decent hit. Personally, I would go with the latter. Microsoft is apparently sending a Zune in either pink or orange to a slew of Microsofties who made Zune a reality. I’m thinking we shall soon see pink and orange hit streets as special editions.

Here’s what I would recommend to Microsoft: don’t go crazy with 100 different colors that will only alienate buyers and won’t associate a particular theme to the product. You know how Apple iPod is branded as a simple, white, user friendly device - go with that. Keep things simple and don’t go overboard. It’s not like Zune is going to be successful anyway, so why waste all those resources on marketing? You know what I mean.

Zune is available immediately for $249.99 for the 30GB flavor.

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Patricia Dunn, the former chairperson of HP, pled not guilty to the charges brought against her for the infamous HP investigation scandal that made headlines for a while. California’s attorney general charged Dunn and four other conspirators with four felonies, which includes identity theft and conspiracy. If convicted, all of them could’ve faced a prison sentence of up to 12 years.

Now this is what I call hitting the dirt face flat. One day you are the chairperson of one of the world’s most recognized technology companies, and the next day, you’ve resigned, are on the verge of being convicted of some serious charges and downright ruining your life, and everything you’ve worked hard for throughout your life. What’s the moral of this story? All it takes is one stupid move on your part, and you are done, especially if you are in such a powerful role.

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Cingular is in talks with a number of banks to join the company in its effort to provide phone banking to its customers via a downloadable application. The application is currently under testing, and according to Cingular, talks with banks are encouraging thus far. If everything goes according to plan, we should see phone banking pop up on Cingular phones. In addition, the no. 1 U.S. cellular operator is also working on releasing audio and video downloadable applications with similar features.

With phone banking, you would be able to check your account balances, transfer funds and pay bills.

Honestly, I like the idea. I could definitely get used to quickly paying my bills on the go, view my account balance and whatnot. But there’s one tiny thing that concerns me: security. A lot of us lose our cell phones on occasion, and if such sensitive data is on my cell phone, could someone retrieve it? Moreover, I can imagine how a lot of crackers would try to come up with new cracks to break into security or capture data to steal my information. Call me paranoid, but I have no intention of sharing my personal financial information.

Needless to say, Cingular better be sure about the security of their phone banking software. All it will take is a single disaster for this program to lose its credibility. The application will be free, however. Cingular hopes to attract new subscribers and attain current ones with this crazy new idea.

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Peter Aloisson is adding some bling to Motorola’s newly released KRZR cell phone with diamonds and giving it a shiny upgrade. He has designed three versions, the KRZR White, Leopard and Roma. Needless to say, all three of them look crazily amazing. Why wouldn’t they? After all, if you are willing to invest thousands of dollars into a diamond crusted cell phone, you better hope it looks good.

One of his earlier designed cell phones went for $1.3 million, so chances are good these phones will be around the same price range, give or take a few hundred grand. All I can say is, I hope you aren’t going to use this cell phone if (or when) you buy it. I’m cringing at the thought of someone yapping away on a diamond crusted cell phone. Ouch! Talk about injustice.

There’s no word on availability or pricing obviously.

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