There were some expeiremental Zune Card embedding info online at the Zune.net forums this week, but this is the 1st application I have seen. One problem I don't like is the fact that the user has to click the profile to activate it, but anyhow, it's a good step.

You can see it on my Facebook Page... You can also access the application yourself at http://apps.facebook.com/my_zune_card/.

I know Ryan Block personally and I know that he is normally quite fair with his opinions. His initial take on Zune 2 upset me and I thought he had not given it a fair shake. I wasn't the only one, lots of folks flogged him for his assessment. He promised to give it another whirl and he did.

So as we said before: same place, same time in late 2008? Bring your A-game, Zune, and we'll be ready.

I am not surprised. This time Ryan goes through all the features with a better description of why or why not he liked the features.

Read his review here...

This is a continuation of the info I shared the other day, this time I brought my camera into the car to show my setup.

Very Nice. I purchased one of these today and I am very impressed. Kind of expensive at $80, but worth it if you can afford it.

The above photo shows my Zune 80 in an after market adjustable cradle. This is a great cradle from Akron. I have had it for years through many phones and such.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a wrap up of Zune Videos I have put online. There are more to come, trust me, but for now.

• Zune 80 Wireless Sync Demo
• Zune 2 Video Comparison
• Zune 2 8GB Flash Zune 1st Look
• Zune Dock Cradle Remote Works with New Zunes

What do you want to see next? We have accessories on the way too!

Thanks to Sh0tD3aD42 for contributing some of his time to create some nice looking Car Backgrounds for your Zune!

In addition Rikostan added a couple today as well...

Here are a couple videos on the new Zune Originals from YouTube. The first video shows some of the personalization that can be done, and the second video is of a flash original unboxing.....

Unboxing of a Zune Original

Source: Zune Online

I have started a battery test tonight on the Zune 30 with 2.2 firmware, the Zune 80, the 8gb flash Zune, the iPod Nano Fatty, and the iPod Classic 80gb.

Update 1 - 10:45am CST, 8 1/2 hours in and none of them are even 1/2 life yet.

Update 2 - 2pm CST, 12 hours in. Zune 30 almost dead. All the others 1/2 life or slightly under

Update 3 - 2:45pm CST, Zune 30 dies. 12 hours 45 minutes.

Update 4 - Sad news at 8pm CST, Zune 8gb Flash dies. 18 hours. Zune 80 ~20%, iPod Classic ~33%, and iPod Nano ~25%. Not looking good for the Zune crowd.

Update 5 - Bad new Zune Fans... Zune 80 died at 10:20pm CST. That is less than 24 hours. 20 hours and 20 minutes. The iPods, both of them are still going. I will let them finish out before I post final numbers. Of course, this is just one test, but I am not happy.

Update 6 - iPod Nano dies at 2:25 am, 24 hours and 20 minutes. iPod Classic dies at 7:15 am, 31 hours and 15 minutes.

I am going to retest the Zunes with the same test later today. I realized that I had WiFi enabled on all of them.

All within a 2 minute period, I powered them all on after fresh full charges. I have the earbuds that go with the player (except I have ultimate ears on the Zune 30) plugged in to them. I am going to run them all until they quit. All the players are on shuffle all songs repeat mode.

This should be a fun real life test. Not very technical, but fun and true.

Company Announced Battery Times are Zune 30 - up to 14 hours, Zune 4/8 - up to 24 hours, Zune 80 up to 30 hours, iPod Classic 80gb - Up to 30 hours, and iPod Nano Up to 24 hours.

If you are in the market for inexpensive earbuds, why not throw some color at your Zune. You could match the color of your flash zune with one of these!

Griffin Technology: TuneBuds (Color)

Update: Price is only $19.99

I thought I would introduce myself to the gotZune community in my first gotZune post by posting a question.

What podcasts do you subscribe to?

I've never really explored the world of podcasting, so when I heard people were ecstatic that the new Zune software and firmware supported podcasting, I thought I would have to give it a try, and surprisingly, I found myself liking some of the podcasts that I found.

Currently you can use the Zune cards to find people with similar music tastes and find more songs that you might like. Unfortunately, the Zune cards don't yet support doing the same thing with podcasts, (although, I imagine eventually they will), so I thought it might be interesting to find out what the readers here are subscribed to and see if any of us can find some new cool podcasts.

These are a few podcasts that I subscribe to which I really enjoy:

TWIT - "This Week In Tech" - Did you ever watch TechTV? Many of the people from that channel sit down and discuss the latest tech news of the week. It's great to hear Leo Laporte again. It would be great if I could find a video podcast that had Leo.

Best of YouTube - Like podcasting, I never really explored YouTube very much. I've never really had the time. Wouldn't it be great if someone picked the best and funniest things on YouTube and made a video podcast of it? Guess what, they do.  It's only a weekly podcast, but it's great.

National Geographic Video Shorts - I really love the video podcasts and what's better than national geographic video?! National Geographic has some of the best educational and entertaining video and photography so it's great to watch a few short clips so you can feel yourself getting smarter.

Battlestar Gallactica - I bet a high percentage of Zune owners watch the new Battlestar Gallactica show. The producer of the show, Ronald D Moore, has a podcast after each episode discussing the behind the scenes of a week's episode.  This past week, I had the great fortune of going to a Zune sponsored advanced screening of some pre-season episodes of Battlestar Galactica, so I can't wait until the producer creates a podcast about these episodes so I can find out what the creative team were thinking when they made these episodes.

So what are some of your subscribed podcasts?

Vaja has some gorgeous leather cases for the Zune 30. I have the Balance case (second from the left) and I love it!

I received this email today regarding a case for the Zune 80 GB

"At present that model is not in our immediate manufacturing plans. Anyway, thank you very much for your interest in our cases,"

 Here is a picture of my Zune 30 GB in its Vaja case. It's a nice tight fit. (Note: picture taken before firmware upgrade)

The 80 GB fits in it, and would work...but it's not a perfect fit.... (and of course, my new Zune 80 deserves a new case!)

For more information on the Zune Vaja cases visit Vaja