Not much earth-shattering to report from the pre-CES ‘Unveiling’ today. Here though are a few items that captured my eye:

Let’s start with a simple item: This earbud yoyo is a handy and inventive way to avoid cord tangling. I hope to get some free samples tomorrow that I can photograph better, and have as giveaways for Zunerama members. The lady who invented it was there and we had a nice chat about her start-up venture. Good for her.

Wireless charging seems to be a big thing at this year’s CES. The technology to enable you to recharge your device without plugging it in is improving. The product above, PowerMat, is a good example of where this technology is today. It uses inductive charging to recharge your device’s batteries.

It’s a two-part system - the power mat itself, and then your device has to be connected to a receiver. It can be connected through a cradle, through a dongle, or - the best option in my opinion - through a special case. Here’s a look at a receiver case, for a BlackBerry Bold:

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The press-only CES unveiling begins in a couple of hours. Obviously I am here a little early, as the signs are just starting to go up.

While we’re waiting, here are some fun facts about CES:

• 2,700 exhibitors are here, in 1.7 million square feet of exhibit space. (That’s about 20 world cup soccer fields.)
• I am one of about 130,000 attendees.
• It’s - duh - the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow.

Here’s another factoid: the average U.S. household has 24 consumer electronics products in it. Hmmm. Between me, my wife, and our two younger daughters, we are way above average. How about you?

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This afternoon I fly to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. The show is filled with acres of vendor booths, displaying gadgets and gadget accessories. It’s Disneyland for Geeks!

I managed to get a media pass which will get me into some exclusive events, like an early unveiling event (not Zune-related).

I’ll also be at a Zune meet-up on Friday, with Cesar, and ‘Fos’, my Zune MVP contact, and cohorts.

I’m looking forward to reporting back on new player accessories, of interest to Zune owners. Have you been to CES? Got any tips for me?

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One of the joys of Zune Pass ownership is that, once a month, you get to download ten ‘own-it-forever’ tracks of your choice.

I am gradually accumulating my all-time favorite tracks this way. I think I want to get more organized about how I go about that. I’m a believer in subscription music, but it’s great to select those free Download-To-Own (DTO) tracks each month.

Zune Pass holders: how do you decide which DTO tracks to download each month? Got any tips for me?

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It’s a new year, and a new month… so, Zune Pass holders, don’t forget to claim your ten free download-to-own tracks.

In case you missed this, anyone with a Zune Pass subscription can select ten tracks each month, to download and own forever. This is in addition to the unlimited Zune Pass access to a multitude of tracks in Zune Marketplace.

If Zune has a killer feature, it’s Zune Pass..!

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You wouldn’t know it from our forums, but apparently a few people on Zune.net have reported that their Zune 30s are still not bootable.

(Most Zune 30s, including mine, became frozen on December 31st, but re-booted back to life on January 1. The problem was a ‘leap year’ bug in a date driver associated with the Zune 30’s freescale processor.)

From the various reports I’ve seen, the problem seems to be occurring for owners who broke the seal on their Zune 30 and unseated the battery. The fix apparently is to reseat the battery, attempt a reboot of the 30 until the battery drains, and then let the Zune 30 sit, unplugged, for 24 hours. Then connect it to a power source (AC adapter or USB connection to a PC). Your Zune 30 should boot up normally.

I don’t think there are many instances of this problem. Almost everyone is our forums had their Zune 30s come back to life automatically on the morning of the 1st. But if yours didn’t, give the above advice a shot and see if that helps!

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Awright, the magic hour has approached, and I’m up to revive my Zune 30 - which has been comatose since about midnight last night.

As its internal clock rolls past December 31, 2008, the ‘frozen Zune 30′ glitch is supposed to be rectified. (A bad date driver was not handling the 2008 leap year properly, and over a million Zune 30s were locked up yesterday as a result.)

So, I plug in my Zune 30… it’s re-booting.. and… it’s back to normal.

Note: If you left your Zune plugged in yesterday, it will still be powered up and stuck in yesterday’s boot screen. You’ll have to let the battery drain and have it restart the boot sequence now that the 2009 date is here.

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I’ve had my white Zune 30 since November 14, 2006 - the first day that Zune players became available.

In those two years, I’ve taken my 30 on numerous car trips, family vacations, camping, hiking, jogging, and snowboarding. I’ve used it less since the Zune 80 and 120 models were released, but it continues to be a tough, reliable old workhorse.

So when it hung up this morning, I was concerned but confident we’d get a fix for it from Microsoft. Even though the Zune 30 has been discontinued, Microsoft continues to show support for Zune 30 owners - and notably made the new advances and features of Zune software 3.0 available to Zune 30 players through firmware updates.

According to Microsoft’s Zune team, my 30GB should arise from the dead at midnight Greenwich time - which is 4am Pacific. So tonight I’m on vigil - and have my alarm set for 3:55am so I can see the recovery for myself.

I’ll report the results then. Any of you that have a life - and are perhaps still celebrating the New Year at that time - can then rest easy. At that time, you’ll either know that all is well again with your trusty old Zune 30s, or… better keep drinking.

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That’s midnight Greenwich time, or 7am Eastern. ZuneInsider just twittered the following updates:

ZuneInsider: ok all. the issue is a bug in the driver that controls the internal clock. turns out it does not like leap years.

ZuneInsider: as the date flips to 09 the device should be back to normal. let the battery die the plug in and restart once we flip the date.

A date driver problem! Sheesh!

I think this means, we have to wait until midnight tonight (Greenwich time) for your Zune 30GB to wake up.

Hope you weren’t planning on playing your Zune 30 at tonight’s New Year’s parties. I’m glad I have my Zune 80GB and 120GB. But, at least, your 30 should rise from the dead in the next few hours, to greet the New Year.

More details on the problem and the fix here. And, Microsoft assures us that it’ll be fixed through a firmware update before the *next* leap year, in 2012.

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I’m getting quasi-regular updates from the Zune team at Microsoft, and they are applying a full-court press on resolving this issue.

Meanwhile, our forums are humming with reports from owners of Zune 30GBs about their players being frozen at the start-up screen.

For you all, here is some reassurance based on my read of the situation:

The problem is almost certainly a firmware issue - not a hardware issue. That’s good news, and it’s not likely that the fix will necessitate you boxing up your player for a hardware fix.

I say that because at least one Zunerama member has reported that a long-neglected 30GB with 2.* firmware is functioning fine.  It seems likely that the source of our freezing is something in the 3.* firmware update.

Also, it seems likely that Microsoft can push out a fix to your player, even if it is not able to start up. There’s a button sequence that will wipe your firmware clean, back to factory-install specifications. When that is done, connecting your player to Zune software will trigger a firmware update. So, from what I know now, I’m expecting that this can be fixed through an automatic firmware update.

Now, can the Zune firmware servers can handle over a million owners of 30GB Zunes trying to get new firmware all at the same time? That is another story, and no doubt a point of concern for the Zune team.