That's it, a Zune 80 Deal at Wal Mart.

I tell ya, the Zune team is just too good to us.  Not only did ALL hardware versions get the amazing 3.0 update today for free (suck it, iJerks!), but they let loose a whole big bunch of half-priced and free music, free videos, AND a trial audiobook from Audible.  This is even better than all the free music I found at Amazon not long ago.  Here's a rundown of everything that's available now (and you'd better get it now, who knows how long it will be around for free).

Click the button to be magically whisked away to the Zune Marketplace

Music:

"Dem Boyz Go" by Planet Asia & F.L.O.

"Fallin'" by Alicia Keys

"Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera

"Vanorapa" by Chiwoniso

"Heroes of Our Time" by Dragonforce

"Yesterday" by Leona Lewis

"So Fresh, So Clean" by OutKast

"Me Cai (Da Cruz Jazz Ragga Mix)" by Pacifika

"Pervert Pop Song" by Plastilina Mosh

"Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira

"Jazz (We've Got)" by A Tribe Called Quest

For the half-priced full albums, go to the main Music Page in the Marketplace and click on the "Back to School Sale"

Video (go to the most recent season to find free download):

30 Rock 

The Office

Battlestar Galactica

Psych

Monk

In Plain Sight

Heros

Eureka

Top Design

Audible Trial:

(thanks to Paul Davidson at Zune Insider, Jason Dunn and Darius Wey at Zune Thoughts for the info!)

If you haven't yet seen the most technologically inclined opening ceremony of this years Beijing Olympics.  It is available for download from the Zune Marketplace for 160 points, which is the equivalent of $2.00 US for all 52 minutes of awe-inspiring glory.  The opening ceremonies consisted of dramatic uses of technology and the over-population of China to its advantage which had no repeat performers on the floor.  With so many people performing in the shows I wondered if the streets of Beijing were empty outside the stadium.

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Just received an announcement from Zune.net regarding skins available for your Zune device saving 30% on purchases.  Adding some competition for skin makers such as Decal Girl who offer unlicensed skins for $6.99  while Skinit offers fully licensed art for $14.95 so dare to compare.

So here is something to cover your $88 pink Zune you just got from Newegg.com!

Visit SkinIt.com.

Thanks to Ace over at Zune Boards for this find, and oh boy what a find. A mere $88 for a PINK ZUNE!

You should head over to New Egg fast, before they are sold out.

I saw this on Crave yesterday. Office Max has the 8 GB Zune for $119.99 if you are in the market for one!

Head over to Office Max to order...

edit: oops, title said 199.99. Hehe

From now until June 30th, you can score any case from Speck for 50% off by using SPECK50 as promo code when checking out.

Head over to Speck Products.

Terry  Farrell, Senior Project Manager for Zune, will be speaking at the 5th Annual Digital Media Conference tomorrow in Virginia.  I hope we can get some video from the conference as Farrell will be speaking about his 6 years with the Windows Media Player team and possibly what else we can expect from the Zune software, Marketplace and Social.

If anyone gets a hold of a video or see any appear on any site, please leave a comment.  Thanks.

The 5th Annual Digital Media Conference is set for Thursday, June 26, 2008 at the Ritz-Carlton in Tyson’s Corner, VA. This is a "must-attend" event for media, entertainment and technology businesses, investors, and policy-makers involved in the digital distribution of media and entertainment. Participating companies are the leading global entertainment, media and technology companies, including Google, YouTube, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo!, Motorola, RealNetworks, Verizon, Sprint, Viacom, ABC, NBC, ESPN, Fox, CBS, EMI, Sony BMG and many more. The program includes two tracks focused on the latest developments in digital media from the perspective of leading content owners and distributors, advertisers, and Internet, mobile and technology companies. For more information, contact Ellen Gildersleeve at ellen@digitalmediawire.com or call 310-855-0033 or 202-546-8903.

Digital Media Conference 2008

Thanks to Ace on ZuneBoards for posting this one. I wonder if the numbers take into account the advertising practices that mislead so many people to think they were clicking on Zune ads but ended up on Apple sites.  I'm glad that Microsoft hasn't stepped as low to boost marketing through deception.  It's apparent that Zune is climbing quickly due to aggressive marketing that has taken place in the last year.  Getting over the hurdle of bad press in November 2007 as everyone seems to have taken a swing at the Zune.  Back at you Naysayers.

This time last year, not even a million hits were registered on Zune.net, but with increased attention on Zune due to increased advertising, more and more people are visiting the site these days!  Over 2 million visitors in May!  Also, of those visitors, Zune was rated 2nd in length of time each visitor stayed at the site (35:26 minutes average). 

The top winner of the study is Zune's antithesis Apple Inc. but that's expected since Apple deals with more than just media players.

Over all:  Zune placed 6th in overall visitors in May (May '08 in millions, May '07 in Millions, % growth)

Source: ACE, Zune Boards - Zune Activity Up 184% From Last Year!

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