Gizmodo: name change

Zune Tattoo Guy Asks Microsoft's Permission to Change Name to 'Microsoft Zune'

Jason Chen — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:35:00 EDT

As if this Zune Tattoo guy couldn't get any crazier, he's actually starting the process of legally changing his name to "Microsoft Zune." As you'd suspect, Microsoft might have a problem with that, so Mr. Zune Tat called up tech support to ask their permission on whether it was OK. And for all of our enjoyment, Steve decided to record his call and put it up on YouTube. The result? The tech support line he talked to doesn't have any real information for him and they advise that he write a letter to legal. If you're interested, hit the jump for a tech support call that has all of the holding and none of the resolution that you'd normally get from your own tech support calls.

[Zune Scene]

Matsushita Becoming Just Panasonic on Oct. 1

matt buchanan — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:00:59 EST

Most of us are more familiar with the name "Panasonic" than Matsushita—Panasonic being Japanese electronics giant Matsushita's international brand name. Well, as of Oct. 1, Matsushita is changing its name to Panasonic. [TG Daily]

TrekStor Renames iBeat Blaxx After a Bit of Self-Flagellation

AddyDugdale — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:28:46 EDT

Following yesterday's letter to TrekStor, purveyors of the dubiously-monikered iBeat Blaxx MP3 player, we received an email from Gil Szmigiel, Vice President of TrekStor, effecting an immediate name-change to something a little less offensive. See the email after the jump.

Dear Gizmodo, TrekStor is shocked by the way our new MP3 player's name "TrekStor i.Beat blaxx" is perceived. Of course the word "Beat" is not meant as a verb, but refers to the beats of the music you are listening to. More than 4 years ago, TrekStor introduced the i.Beat MP3 player series that today consists of more than 25 different players - all named individually. "blaxx" was chosen, because the player is designed with an elegant black piano finish. As a reaction to the bad connotation of the name, TrekStor decided to rename the product "TrekStor blaxx" - effective immediately. We sincerely apologize to everybody whom we offended by the initial name of this product and want to emphasize that TrekStor condemns violence and any form of racism.
Mit freundlichen Gr en,
Best regards,

Gil Szmigiel
Vice President / CTO

Dude Legally Renames Himself Megatron

AddyDugdale — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:20:52 EDT

This is Seattle man Jason Megatron Burrows. He used to be known as Jason Michael Burrows, but on July 2, Jason went to the courthouse and stood before the judge, who "ordered and decreed" he change his name to honor his childhood hero, Megatron, thus joining Gizmodo's other friend Optimus Prime in the pantheon of crazy-ass Transformer fans.

Then it was my turn... I walked to the front, where she had me raise my right hand to swear that I would tell the truth, whole truth & nothing but the truth. She asked if my name change was to defraud creditors, I said no. She asked if it would be detrimental to anyone else, I said no. She Then asked if I was indeed changing my middle name to that of my childhood hero, I smiled & said "Yes Ma'am." She said, "Then I do order & decree that your name be changed from Jason Michael Burrows to Jason Megatron Burrows" with a HUGE grin. There were quite a few chuckles from the courtroom... I was handed the paperwork & I split. =)

Microsoft Announces Mediaroom IPTV

Charlie White — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:18:06 EDT

Microsoft rolled out a new brand for its IPTV tools for service providers, and it's calling it Mediaroom. Formerly called Microsoft IPTV Edition, it's more of a branding exercise for IPTV companies to brag about than actual new technology. Using the Mediaroom name, Microsoft aims to make the whole concept of IPTV easier for home users to understand. Let's see if we can make some sense of it. What's in Microsoft's latest witches brew of TV goodness?

With Mediaroom, Microsoft's interface brings together lots of existing technologies into one set-top box offered to customers of IPTV services such as AT&T's U-Verse, letting users instantly access TV shows, Internet video, and practically any multimedia content that's now available on the Internet, on cable TV or broadcast. This will allow service providers to compete against the burgeoning Internet TV offerings such as Joost, as well as cable TV providers.

Of course, there's TiVo-like digital video recording. Also, you can get shows when you want them with video on demand, and now Microsoft folds in personal media sharing similar to what's already on the Xbox 360 and Windows Media Center, letting you grab music and photos from other PCs in your house and watch them on your TV.

The platform will also let you completely annoy everyone else watching TV with you by letting you punch up multiple screens, channels, programs and camera angles on one screen. Never mind that the show you're watching already has one director—you can be a second director, and you can completely ruin everyone's viewing experience but your own.

And oh yeah, also added to the mix is DTT support, meaning digital terrestrial television, where you can also receive regular old broadcast TV channels. So there it is, come full circle: This ought to put a fire under the asses of cable TV providers. There's Internet TV, multimedia access around the home and outside, too, and you can watch the Super Bowl, too.

It's going to be a brave new world. In fact, IPTV is seen by many analysts as the successor to cable TV; right now IPTV subscribers number just 3 million, but that number is expected to jump to 50 million by 2010. – Charlie White

Press Release [Microsoft via Daily Tech]