So, tommorow you can try it all out, but just off reading all this info pouring in about tommorow's launch, what do you think? Come on, Gapless... Autoplaylists, cool features for the Social... you have to have some opinions, right?

I'll share more about my feelings tommorow after I get to see it on MY PC live.

In case you like reading all the goodies from a press release, I decided to throw you a bone here... Read on for the press release...

Zune Expands Beyond Music to Deliver Integrated All-in-One Entertainment Experience

New software updates bring popular television shows to online store, enhancements to online music community and subscription service.

REDMOND, Wash. — May 5, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Zune, the company’s all-in-one digital entertainment brand, is adding new software features and content to the Zune online store, music community and Zune Pass monthly subscription service. Zune is expanding its video store to include downloads of popular television shows from COMEDY CENTRAL, FUNimation^® Entertainment, MTV, NBC Universal, Nickelodeon, Starz Media (including Magna Entertainment), Turner Broadcasting, Ultimate Fighting Championship^® (UFC) and VH1 that consumers can sync to their device and enjoy on the go. In addition, by further integrating the Zune music community into the core experience, the new software makes it easier for people to find and listen to the music they want, share it with friends, and take it with them wherever they go — whether they choose a Zune Pass or a la carte MP3 downloads. Zune Pass subscribers can now set up automatic, real-time feeds of the music their friends are listening to and add those songs to their collection or Zune device.

Read the rest of this entry »

Got Zune is looking for a few good men… and women!

What are we looking for?
Basically Zune Fans that want to share news, views, and experiences about the Zune with others.

The ideal candidate would also get the priveledge to review accessories, cases, software, etc for Got Zune.

What are the Benefits?
Paid Medical, 2 weeks vacation… wait, nevermind. Benefits? What benefits? You would be part of a team of folks that enjoy the Zune and want to share the social with others. This should be compensation enough, right?

The only real requirements are the following:

Contact me for more info. Please let me know why you want to blog about Zune and tell me more about yourself! Thanks!

This is one of the nicer additions to the Zune Social with Spring (Zune 2.5)...

We’ve created a new page designed to give a comprehensive overview
of the music your entire circle of friends is playing. This “My Social� page
acts as your new home page, displaying an animated mosaic of artists
and album pictures automatically refreshed by the selections your friends
are playing. This dynamic view includes great artist images along with the
ability to sample tracks on your friend’s cards. Just mouse over images to
see who’s been listening to what.

Read the rest of this entry »

This release that should go live tommorow morning will include a ton of new features, Fixes, etc... Most of the in the Social, but some big ones that you all have been asking for. Video Store, Gapless Playback, and Auto Playlists.

Here are some feature highlights...

• Auto playlists.
• Browsing videos.
• Editing album and track information.
• Organizing collections.
• Gapless playback.
• Syncing groups.
• Zune reminders.

There are tons of new Social Features today too...

• Syncing Zune Cards to a device.
• Enhanced friends search.
• Instant friends.
• Artist and album reviews.
• Reputation badges.
• Windows Live connections.

Hang tight, I have more info coming soon. I had a chance to see this in action last month and it's nice so far.

Just some quick news about XNA. A bit of info was released today, with one of the highlights being the fact that zune gaming will support up to 8 zune wireless networking. 8 people playing a first person shooter together, that's something to brag about. Also, just to clear things up, the said to be 16 MB of game storage is in fact the amount of zune ram a game can use. Overall, looks like zune gaming is really coming along, and for anyone interested below is a video demonstrating a first person shooter being played between two people over Wifi. Thanks WetWorker from zunecards.net for getting it on youtube.

Remember, The Community Tech Preview of Zune gaming is said to occur Early-Mid May.

Source

Some interesting screens have been posted in the zuneboards.net forums, thanks to Ricardo Dawkins. These are screen-shots from a video that apparently briefly played over at www.zune.net. The video may have already been taken down, but in an effort to demonstrate the software features, it seems to have revealed some things to come in a hopefully soon to be software update. Possibly this is the reason it was removed so fast.

Marketplace section: "videos" is now there, but where did downloads go?

Artist pages now have an option for "listeners" alongside "artist, bio, videos, related,". The "now playing" status displays album art as well.

The new selection of "Artists Genres Songs" in the default music screen. The album art alongside "now playing" status can be seen here as well.

These few shots definitely do look promising, and I will keep you all updated on any new info found. I don't know about you all, but I believe we need an update, and we need one soon. Feel free to check out the original thread.

So, we've known for quite some time that the Canadians would get a Zune launch eventually. Now it seem that it's getting closer though. Engadget today posted a story about jobs that came up on craigslist Canada and a link to a promo page on Microsoft Canada. They are calling this launch potentially a "limited lineup". I don't really understand that considering that the Red Zune was just announced as going to retail and the Zune 30 is an old legacy gen 1 device. It's still a good Zune, but I don't think they are in production anymore.

 
Screen grab from Engadget of the Microsoft Canada Promo Page.

Just hold on a little while longer, Canadian Zune-lovers -- it seems that your wait is almost over. A job listing just popped up on the Vancouver Craigslist, looking for a "Microsoft Zune Program Coordinator" who will "represent our client Microsoft on their launch of Zune in the Canadian marketplace." The job calls for applicants to be available between May 12 and June 20, so if it's legit -- and we hope it is, just because we prefer to believe no one is sad enough to fake this -- it looks like the Zune will finally roll into Canada in just a few weeks.

Go Canada, at least you know they are coming!

It's not shipping until June, but it is available for preorder now at iHome. This is the dock that Cesar shared with us recently on Zune Insider.

You can order it from their site (well, preorder) for $99.00 with free shipping right now. Head over there now for more info.

Meet the new ZN9, the world’s first clock radio for Zune. The ZN9 features several innovative solutions, including wake and sleep to your Zune™ music or AM/FM radio presets, a 7-5-2 feature for separate weekday and weekend alarm times, and an extra large, backlit LCD display with dimmer.
With our Reson8 speaker chambers, you’ll be able to enjoy stereo sound around the clock. The new ZN9… treat yourself and your Zune right.

• Wake or sleep to Zune, AM/FM Radio or buzzer
• High-fidelity stereo drivers in specially designed Reson8® speaker chambers deliver astounding clarity, depth, and power
• Gradual Wake and Gradual Sleep increase/decrease Alarm/Sleep volume so as not to startle the user
• Clean contemporary design complements the look of the Zune
• Dual alarm with AM/FM presets
• 7-5-2 feature for separate weekday and weekend alarm times

Apparently someone got shafted on Ebay with a counterfeit Zune...

"Just received my 8GB Zune from Ebay. When I saw the box first I was kind of shocked. Text and Printing not aligned to the center of the packaging, no sticker with serial number and Barcode. As well there were no manuals and the earphones and synch cable were not in separate boxes. Then I thought "wonderful you've bought a fake Zune" but the Device looks fine (ok it looks like second quality, dented screw cover (or whatever the chrome cover covers Smiley and some errors in the laser engraving at the back) When I plugged it into my PC it started charging and a few minutes later it started up and shows correct firmware as well. So how can this be? Has someone embezzled second quality devices and made a new Packaging for them? Has anyone else the same experience?"

The post over at Zunerama details how he appears to have been juked. It's quite possible that this "is" a Zune, but one that didn't make it past QA to go to market and was snuck out of the plant under the shirt.

Source: Zune Thoughts