You know, we've pretty much all been enamored with the Zune HD's industrial design, but one unintended consequence for Microsoft was that it made its console look even more childish and toylike. It was inevitable, then, that a group of industrious Swedes would take up arms against this injustice and right the world with their Elegant Edition mod. Featuring three 120mm cooling fans, an aesthetic borrowed straight from the 1980s, and absolutely no shame about its bulk, this mod is cooler than the original in both the literal and colloquial sense. We'll accept no arguments to the converse. Better still, if you're willing to part with some cold hard cash, these fellas will build one for you too. We've got a few less glamorous shots of the redressed box after the break.

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Google is powerful. We all know this, and live with it. But that brings up some interesting concerns when they break into new businesses — will they use that power to give them an unfair advantage? With great power comes great responsibility, and all that. Today brings a totally innocuous example, but it’s still interesting.

A new feature in Gmail Labs allows you to change your contacts’ circular chat status icons in Android logo status icons. But the key is that these icons only change for users who are currently online on their Android phones.

Google’s official stance on this is as follows:

These icons can help you decide whether to tailor your conversation to the type of device that your chat buddy is using. For example, when you know the guy on the other end is using his Android phone, you may decide to send shorter, more concise chat messages.

Of course, they don’t tailor these icons for any other type of phone, just Android. It seems if Google really wants to help with mobile chat experiences, they could also have BlackBerry icons, Pre icons, etc. I would bring up iPhone icons, but Apple would probably sue Google if they tried to use that — I wish I were kidding.

This is a fun little feature for Android users, and as I said, totally innocuous. But I do wonder what else Google has up its sleeve for cross promotion as they continue to move into new businesses. Remember, the Droid was already advertised on Google’s homepage, something they rarely do. And remember too what got Microsoft in trouble in the 90s: Bundling products with its dominant operating system.

Again, before everyone gets their panties in a bunch, this example clearly isn’t a bid deal. But think forward a bit as the web becomes more and more of the dominant platform rather than the operating system. And Google controls that domain. And product creep is happening.

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It was just 11 days ago that Microsoft’s “ambassador to startups” Don Dodge was laid off as part of a broader workforce reduction. Last week he showed up in Silicon Valley to “see friends” as he put it. But it was clear that he was also interviewing for jobs.

We sat down with him to do a proper exit interview while he was in town.

I got a few tips from Googler’s that he was seen roaming their Mountain View headquarters, and I confirmed tonight that he has been offered a job at the company. He has accepted, and will shortly begin working for the company that he only recently considered the enemy.

It’s unheard of for Google to go from first interview to offer in such a short period of time. For Dodge, the process from first interview to fist day on the job was less than a week.

He’ll be working for another ex-Microsofter, Vic Gundotra. Gundotra worked 15 years at Microsoft as General Manager of Microsoft’s developer outreach efforts. He joined Google in 2007 as VP Engineering, responsible for mobile applications and developer evangelism.

Dodge will have a similar job at Google as he did at Microsoft – developer evangelism. He’ll be focusing on Google Apps.

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Microsoft is shedding the beta tag for its custom Bing search engine that caters to users in the United Kingdom with a localized offering.

At the same time, the company is releasing Bing Maps UK and thus no longer redirecting users to Multimap.com.

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