If you've been itching to check out all the new Zune 2.5 software improvements but haven't had time to go through everything yourself, fear not. Jason Dunn over at Zune Thoughts has done all the heavy lifting for you and created a few videos detailing what's new and exciting in the software upgrade. This first video gives an overview of most of the new features (minus The Social).

The second video goes specifically into the new features of The Social (which he wasn't able to access in the first video)

Source

Ok, here is a little demo showing how to get Youtube videos on your Zune or your Pocket PC or whatever...

Read on for more info...

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Source : YouTube

I take it for granted that most people know that you can only sync up to 3 Zunes to one Zune Pass. (which by the way is a blessing, I would think that limiting it to only one would be better business for Microsoft)

Anyhow, Technipages has a post about how to clear one of your Zunes off your account to allow a new Zune to be synced with your Zune Pass.

Read the rest at Technipages

Vasudev over at meraTechPort was having some issues with his Zune 4 not showing the proper battery level indication, so he found the answer and posted a little guide on how to recalibrate your Zune Battery icon. He found his answer here: KB article ID927710.

To properly cycle the battery, follow these steps:

- Update your Zune with the latest Zune device firmware available. At present the latest version is Version 2.3 (1145). For this, from the Zune software installed on your comp. click > Settings > Software > General > Check for updates. Connect your Zune with USB Sync cable, open the Zune software while the Zune device is still connected to your computer, the Zune software searches the Internet for the latest version of the firmware. If a newer version of the Zune firmware is available, a message to update your device appears. You can also manually check for new device updates by clicking Settings > device > Device Update.
NOTE: Do not move or disconnect the Zune device until the update is complete. The update may take several minutes. During this time, the Zune device may restart several times.

- Now we will come to the calibration part. With the battery at a half-full charge or less, connect the Zune device to a power source and fully charge it until you get the green battery icon. ( ) . Now disconnect it from power source.

- Go to the default screen > settings > display > backlight > and select 'always on'. Now from the display option only select brightness > and set it to 'high'.

- Come back to default screen by holding back button. Select music, shuffle all.

- Keep your Zune aside. Once the Zune device turns off; which will take some time, press the play\pause button to check whether your Zune turns again or not. If the Zune turns back on, wait until it turns off again, and then press the play/pause button. Repeat this step until the Zune device no longer turns on.

- When the Zune no longer turns on, connect it to a power source and Change the display settings back to your preferred choices, defaults are backlight >15sec. and brightness > medium

- Fully charge the device until the battery icon appears green ( ).

So in this way you can recalibrate your battery. After recalibrating, my Zune battery icon accurately represent the battery charge available.

Thanks

More of a Did You Know, but still good stuff either way. This one comes from  Mike over at ZuneInfo.com...

The Microsoft Zune allows users to upload thousands of photos. What many new Zune users don't know is that the Zune software automatically adjusts any photos added to the Zune. No matter how large the photo, the Zune software will automatically adjust the size of the image to 320 x 240 pixels and to 20-30k in size. For instance, lets say you take a very large photo that is 8 MB in size. When you add it to your Zune it will automatically be adjusted in size and resolution. There is no need for you to do anything before uploading a picture to your Zune!

I love having more than 6,000 photos on my Zune 80!!!

Thanks again to Antonio for this tip...

Looks like those of you that use auto-playlists are in luck, with an extra step or two though...

Just days after a clever Zune owner figured out a way around the "three-play rule," another has found a method for restoring auto-playlist functionality -- sort of, anyway. As you know, this feature vanished with the introduction of Zune software v2.0, but apparently, getting some semblance of it back doesn't take a whole lot of effort. All you have to do is create an auto-playlist in Windows Media Player, save said playlist as an M3U file and watch your Zune handle the rest. Head on over to the read link for all the details, but don't uncross your fingers for Microsoft to bring the official version back in the not-too-distant future.

Easier autoplaylists using WMP [it can save rating in the ID3 tags] ... check "maintain my star rating as global" in WMP!
- Create an autoplaylist in WMP
- Save playlist as m3u (use Save As option and choose m3u)
You don't need to do any conversions to .zpl because Zune Software can read .m3u lists directly!

Source : Zunerama via Engadget

Ok, so we should now make Antonio a blogger here right? He tipped me on another gem tonight. This has got to be the best post yet on Zune.net forums. User KHU in the forums made this list of 10 ways to reduce that "Zune related stress" you are harboring...

Here are a few tips and tricks for keeping your Zune experience stress free.

1.  Fix all tags.  An app like the Zune software uses a lot of metadata to present your files to you.  Even though you may update various tracks, those updates do not always find their way into the tags.  As a result, when your metadata gets out of sync or if you decide to move or rebuild your collection, you can find some organization problems.  I recommend using a 3rd party program for finding your music information and tagging.  When the underlying tags are changed, those changes are reflected in your library.

For general tagging, a free program like mp3Tag will work very nicely.  It allows for batch tagging and renaming and will build tags based on the filename or build filenames based on the tags.  It will also give you a good view of your library for comparing the tags on various files.

For general library management, I use a program called MediaMonkey.  This program has a feature much like the old Find Album Info and will even embed the album art in the tag if possible.  This will ensure that when you put the file in another Collection or rescan it, the art will follow it.  You can also browse through possible matches much more quickly than the old software and the quality of many of the covers is very good.

Both of these are free.

2.  Do not make your Podcast directory a subdirectory of your monitored music folders.  If you rescan, there is a chance you will see your Podcast on both the Podcast and music tabs.  Keeping your Podcast directory outside of your Music directory also makes it easier to find the casts if you want to make changes, delete, etc.

3. If you are going to make massive changes to your library, unplug the Zune.  While plugged in, changes that you make are synched immediately.  If you make a mistake, it will be much more difficult to recover if the Zune has been updated.  For example, an errant mouseclick deleted a double album for me.  However, I was able to copy it back to my computer from the Zune plugging it in, stopping the sync, and Copy to Collection.

When rebuilding my Collection, I dropped every monitored music folder.  I renamed directories, moved stuff around, and then finally added the new locations to monitoring.  The software made a note of what was already on my device and decided to sync only 45 tracks plus my Podcasts.  If I had done this with the Zune plugged in, it would have deleted 3300 tracks and then readded them.  Making massive changes while it was unplugged meant that it only had to sync the delta.

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It seems that some folks are having issues with their Zune 30s that have been updated to the new firmware.

A few people on the official forums have issues with battery life after updating their Zune 30s to v2 Firmware. Zune doesn't charge correctly and although it says its fully charged after a few hours the battery dies. I don't think its a very common issue but if you have it see how you can try to fix it...

Zune-Online.com has posted  found someone that has a fix for this. It seems too simple really and leaves me wondering if there really is a problem, but there have been other complaints of this in the Zune.net forums too.

I was pissed. mad Looking for a fix, I read the Zune forums and some mailing lists which lead me to this solution: Drain your Zune 30 completely of battery life until you get the exclamation point of death. Fully charge your Zune 30, overnight even. Reset it. You do this by simultaneously pressing UP on the directional pad and the BACK button.

Thanks DirtyDogStink for the tip!

In my search for the best info and news about the Zune, I ran across a post in google blog search with a couple tips that could really get you out of a jam with your Zune.

Four secret button tricks for your Zune player.
Yep, this is the title of the post, but they really aren't much of a secret, but they are good tips.

To reset your player - also known as a "reboot" - press and hold the Back button, while pressing "up" on the Zune Pad.

To reformat your player's drive, reset it as noted above. When it starts to reset, hold down the Back button, Center button, and Play button at the same time. Your player will inform you that it is deleting all media on device, and your Zune should revert to the "way it was" when you first pulled it out of the box. Careful! This will erase your player contents and you should rarely if ever need to do it.

Head over to Zunemediaplayer to get a couple more tips!