I had a pair of both the regular XT Wings and gore-tex XT Wings. After wearing out the gore-tex pair, I went shopping for a new set. I mainly use them as winter walking shoes, like walking the dog in the morning, not for trail running.
The original XT Wings were awesome, easily 5 star. These new ones? Not so much. Definitely not as comfortable as the original
There is a stiffness at the top of the toe box by where the laces end. This stiffness does go away after breaking them in.
The sole for the outside of the heel is much more rigid, guess in some way a motion control. Might be more useful for trail runners putting a lot more force on this area, but not so good for walkers.
But the biggest problem is the top of the heel, the split area for your achilles tendon. This is oddly super stiff and will rub and rub and rub till you get a blister, damaging socks, etc. I've yet to see this go away with breaking in like the toe box/laces issue.

Damn shame too, as I've yet to find a gore-tex quick lace shoe as a replacement (the other Salomon shoes were even worse).

My regular board is a 09-10 Ride DH2 159 with 10-11 Ride Optimo's. Got the 10-11 Rome Notch 162 and transferred over the Optimos. Home mountain is Snowbird, did Prez weekend on the Ride with not quite 2 feet each day, and then the weekend after with the epic snow on the Rome. This is my first ever powder specific board.

As it is a powder specific board, it does have some short comings:
- Small bumps on groomers, especially late in the day, require extra focus to handle.
- Heavily traveled cat tracks can be hard to speed check on due to the narrow tail.
- Jumps, especially on flat areas landing in soft snow, require a tail first landing, otherwise the nose will dive and over you go.

The great:
- Boards turns very fast, even if you have 3+ feet of snow on top of it. Great in moguled up chutes, trees, deep powder, etc.
- Float is just insane. Makes carving powder so much more effortless.
- Rear leg burn is almost completely a thing of the past. On Prez weekend I got bad leg burn after 3 hours. Weekend afterward on this board, was able to do two 6 hour days, with the rear leg no worse off than the front leg.
- Nose dive is nearly non existent. I tried even leaning forward on flat areas with knee deep powder. You can feel the board fight to bring the nose up.

A word about setup. The default stance is very far back, almost like you are about to sit down. I had to move the front binding forward one notch from default to help out.

Bottom line, if you live near resorts that get big storms, get a powder board. Did great for me in Utah snow, would imagine even better for Sierra cement style snow.

Got the 09/10 Seam to replace a 04/05 Fuse w/ wired audio. Basically just as light as the Fuse, vent controls are similar, and some nice upgrades like the in fit system.
The wired drop ins are a piece of cake to install and sound very good. Just wish they had a cellphone compatible wired version (with voice and call buttons on it), rather than having to go blue tooth for that.
Matte pewter I got has no noticeable rattle.
Word of caution, as of this posting (12/22/09), the image used for Ultra Violet is wrong. Its more of a plum color. Giro's website is accurate.

On sale at 25% off, good value for the price. I'm not an audiophile (though I do appreciate music) and I use these primarily in the office hooked up to a Mac listening to MP3s. Totally sufficient for that purpose. Offers good isolation of outside noise, so coworkers on conf calls don't bother you. Doesn't bleed so you don't bother your coworkers. I find them to be fairly loud, I had to turn the volume down a notch or two compared to my previous in ear phones. The cord is a good length, but kind of stiff. Definitely flashy, I have mag-red, which combined with the silver metallic coating on the cord, is hard to miss.
Overall they compare well to in ear phones costing more. Hopefully they are durable and last a while.

My goal in getting this jacket was something to be between a rain shell and my heavy winter coat (pea coat) or technical snowboard shell. This fit the bill wonderfully. Great jacket for 30 to 55F.
It’s casual enough to use everywhere, technical enough to keep you warm and dry. The fit is loose enough to allow easy layering. Pit vents help keep you cool. It’s windproof and very water-resistant, so great in inclement weather.
Pricey but worth it. I use it nearly every day.