Microsoft is receving some unusual attention for a decoration in its corporate offices. A user of Flickr recently uploaded a photo of the company’s “iPod Amnesty Bin,” found in the Zune headquarters, apparently encouraging employees to abandon Apple’s media player in favor of Microsoft’s competitor.

The bin has drawn the ire of voices such as Macworld UK, which suggests that it is emblematic of “child-like and unrealistic behavior,” a view aided by the lack of iPods in the Flickr image. The Zune has not sold as well as expected; it has in fact sapped the profits of Microsoft’s entertainment division, which is in otherwise healthy shape thanks to the Xbox 360 console.

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We always discuss handy gadgets that fit in your pockets; cellphones, digital cameras, game systems. But, like many of you, we got our love of all things gadgety via a lovely line of toys from the early-to-mid ’80s: Transformers.

That’s why we find it exceedingly fitting that the script for the new Michael Bay Transformers film, opening July 4th, calls for a handful of gadgets that transform into small robots. What’s really fun is that action figures of these little guys are in the works, and herein we bring you photographs of the (supposed) prototypes of these action figures, mostly because there isn’t much happening until CES next week, and because we can.

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