Over at Zune Thoughts, Jason Dunn shares an issue he encountered recently with his Zune 80.

I was recently in Amsterdam, at a Microsoft conference called Mobius, and there were a few Zune users in the room. Two of them were Microsoft employees, and we decided to share a few songs wirelessly - or, more accurately, we tried to. No matter how many times I tried, my Zune 80 simply would not connect to either the Zune 8 or the other Zune 80 in the room. At first I thought it was because I was about 20 feet away, but that seemed kind of feeble - I was sure my Zune could reach the other Zunes. And it was certainly seeing the other Zunes ok, so why couldn't it send?

Wonder what was up with that...

Anyhow, this past weekend I had issues of my own. I lost my 500gb external drive that houses all my movies and music. With the Zune Software not able to see this drive, I had some issues. I am fairly sure it's related... All my songs went to and error message and would not play. Tonight, I got that drive back to work and resync'ed the Zune 80... No luck. I rebooted the Zune... No luck.

What I ended up having to do is erase 40gb of info from the Zune and start over. It's still resync'ing now. The good news is that my songs *do* work again!

Ok, so I shared a bit about the 3 play limit having a workaround this past weeked right? Sure I did. Well, the more and more I think about it, the more I wonder, "is it worth the damn effort?".

Let's think about this. Do I really care enough to share a song with a friend that I am going to take the time to place my Zune on a cradle, reclassify the track as podcast, find my friend and squirt it to him. So I wasted 15 minutes - 1 hour of my life to share a song with a friend. Whooopteeedooo... What do I get out of it? If I am going to go through all that effort, why not just rip the song to a CD for him.

Another thing about this that is silly is the fact that reclassifying my song/s as a podcast theoreticly moves the track/s to my podcast directory right? Well, I haven't tried this, so I don't really know, but it makes sense that it would go in with the podcasts after the change. If that is the case, now my song is now isolated from the rest of my collection.

Sure, it's cool to be "able" to do, but really... how freaking useful can this be?

Wired did a comparison of the iPod Classic and Zune 80GB

The initial knee jerk reaction is to buy the 80GB iPod Classic. Not so fast, there hotshot. There's also the brand new 80GB Zune 2, which is actually your better bet. The kids are getting a Zune for Christmas, even if they asked Santa for an iPod.

Wired compared the hardware, content, networking, and pricing of the two devices. Wired also created a poll for their blog readers "What do you think, dear reader? Have we lost our mind?"

Visit Wired  to check out their comparison of the two devices and vote in their poll!

Source: via Zune Insider and Wired

This is refreshing to see... This year, this time around, the Zune is getting lots of mentions from writers in their Gift Guides and Christmas Lists. Last year, there wasn't nearly the buzz that the second coming of ZUNE is getting. Yeah!

The most recent I read was actually not "pimping" the Zune single handedly, but it was mentioned right behind the ever so popular "iPod".

Podfitness lets you mix an extensive database of workouts with playlists from your iPod, Microsoft Zune or other MP3 player, customizing the soundtrack to a variety of exercise routines.

Sounds gimmicky, I know, but I have been playing with this for a few weeks, and it's fun. The routines are diverse -- yoga, shake-your-booty aerobics, weight lifting, whole-body workouts, outdoor and treadmill running sequences, sessions devoted to the elliptical -- and they get sequentially harder each time you download a new session.

This comes from an article about using Podfitness.com over at Redding.com titled, Gift ideas for movers and shakers. I need to be more fit too.

The Zune gets more talk time on The Enquire...

MICROSOFT ZUNE

Microsoft recently revamped its Zune player, adding new 4GB ($150), 8GB ($200) and 80GB ($250) models.

The 80GB Zune's 3.2-inch screen is slightly smaller than the Touch's. Also, it is not touch-sensitive. But the clear, bright screen trumps the display on many players. There's also an FM radio.

In addition, the Zune has built-in Wi-Fi. You can use it to synchronize with your computer wirelessly, but you can't use Wi-Fi to surf the Internet.

Like the Touch, the Zune handles videos, photos and music. It is compatible with Microsoft's Zune subscription service.

The Enquirer - Personal Technology

The Seattle Times talks about the Zune in this article... (Complete Article)

 

80GB Zune

The challenge for Microsoft's upgraded Zune is pretty simple: Will consumers take it seriously?

They absolutely should, because my tests with the new 80GB model were simply delightful, with one exception.

Loading the software was fast, importing songs and albums from the other music programs on the HP was a snap (iTunes MP3 files will transfer over), and the upgraded software used to manage one's music was easy to learn.

From a physical standpoint, the 80GB Zune ($250) is slightly smaller and thinner than last year's 30GB model ($200). The navigation pad has been changed, too, allowing you to move around the device with a touch or a firm tap. The pad also is used on the flash-drive-based 4GB ($150) and 8GB ($200) models.

Microsoft included a nice surprise in the 80GB model: higher-quality headphones. They are in-ear models and sound much better than what ships with the iPod. The headphones on the other Zune models are standard, however.

Here's how setup works:

Buyers go to Zune.net to download the software. Like the iPod, the music player does not ship with software. Over my standard DSL broadband connection, the download took 6 minutes. After 15 minutes, it was installed on my computer, and it began collecting all the music, videos and photos I had on that computer. (I did this while holding a baby, so that's a clue as to how simple this setup was.)

Then I plugged the Zune in via USB, and all that content moved into the device in roughly 15 minutes. It was iPod-like in its simplicity and about as trouble-free a setup as I've had with a device capable of playing music and videos.

Then it got better: To test how the device would import music after initial setup, I loaded (ripped, if you prefer) 10 more CDs onto the laptop. Most of these CDs had whiskers, too, some were at least 10 years old. So it was a nice surprise when the Zune software recognized the discs quickly, faster than on iTunes, and imported track names and artwork.

The software sorts your music by date, so the last disc ripped is the first one you see. This is nice because one assumes people want to play their most recent additions.

Then I hit a snag. One new feature is wireless syncing, meaning you don't need to connect the device to your PC via USB cable to transfer over new tunes, such as the 10 CDs I just ripped. I set up the Zune to work wirelessly, and it recognized my home network and the computer with the Zune software. Everything seemed to set up just fine, but the music would not transfer over.

I fiddled with the settings a bit more, but I never could get it to work.

Despite that disappointment, Microsoft is getting it right with the Zune. This device was a pleasure that I want to spend more time with to discover other features, including the Zune Marketplace, where you buy music and sign up for a subscription service.

I had some time to talk with Cesar Menendez from Zune Insider today. Here is what he had to say to some the hot questions a lot of us want to know about. Unfortunately, he had to throw the famous, “we don’t comment on rumors and speculation� answer out there some, but hey... We all understand.

Q. Hello Cesar, Most of us in the Zune Community are already fully aware of who you are and all the great things you’ve done for Zune, for those that don’t know, tell us a bit about yourself. ( You don’t have to mention you just turned 29, I just did…)

Well my zune tag is cesarisok, and I manage zuneinsider.com. Before that I worked on the xbox community team J

Q. I realize that you aren’t at liberty to discuss the future, but I have to ask right off the bat, Have you seen the GotZune Color Poll?  Will we see a blue Zune 80 any time zune(soon)?

Ya you nailed it when you said “aren’t at liberty to discuss the future� (aka my favorite line – “we don’t comment on rumors and speculation� ).

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Here's a take fromt he Baltimore Sun... I love this quote. Click on the link below and read this one, it's a good read for sure.

Despite my gripes, its form and function should make the second-generation Zune a strong contender in the portable media player market.

Source: baltimoresun.com

You gotta head over to Media Buyer Planner to read more, but Zune faired pretty nice during the biggest shopping week this year...

The Microsoft Zune made its debut among the top 10 searches this past week, coming as the fifth most-searched for product.

I don't know why, but a 2 week old article on Yahoo got slashedotted today.

"Yahoo Tech is reporting that the Microsoft Zune, having been heavily discounted for the holiday season, 'is currently Amazon's top-selling music player, beating out the new iPod Nano and the 80GB iPod on the 'Bestsellers in Electronics' list.' An Associated Press report even indicates that the Zune's newfound popularity has left it in short supply, sold out in many locations. Is this a sign that a true competitor, from Microsoft no less, has finally broken into the Apple-dominated MP3 player market? And will this spell more success for Windows-media based music subscription services like Napster?"

The comments to follow are filled of Zune peltings and folks wondering why someone would say Zune was #1 at Amazon when it's not anymore. In fact it only was for a couple days.

Anyhow, I replied with my take... I had to.

1st off read the date of the article. The fact is that there was a point recently where the "heavily discounted" Zune 30 players were #1 on that Amazon list.

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