I’ve been thinking about how we could turn the Zune Social idea into something a bit more concrete for all of us Zune users out there. Zune Social in itself is a wonderful idea in that, it allows users to see what their online friends are listening to on their Zune players. The biggest problem of course is… most of us don’t have enough friends with Zunes! It’s just darn hard to meet people with this wonderful media player.

So what can do to solve this?

I say.. let’s throw a party!! (A Zune User Party (ZUP)?) A real party that is.. not a virtual party of sorts.. but a real party in real cities around the country. We could start small.. start in one city and see what the interest is like. If it catches on, we can assign people in every major city to be responsible for administrating and holding their own party of sorts..

Think of this as.. a Zune owners party.. a way for people to get together and meet other fellow Zune owners. We could certainly add a spin to this by requiring Zune owners to bring their Zune along. In fact, if you bring a Zune to the party, you’d get into the party for free. If you don’t bring a Zune, you’d have to pay a cover charge.

Another reason to bring the Zune? Share songs with other folks at the party! Sharing songs was a pretty nifty idea to begin with but the truth is.. the next Zune owner is about 2-5 miles away from my office!!! What we need is a central location for people to mingle AND share. Heck, we could have people print out their respective Zune Cards too!

So.. what do you think folks? Since I live in Los Angeles, I’m thinking about starting up a Zune party here. If you living in Los Angeles AND you own a Zune, let me know if you’d be interested in attending. Just comment here. If we get enough interest, we could be the first to throw a Zune users party.. Heck, if we get a lot of interest maybe we can get Microsoft to help us out!!!

Technorati Tags: Zune Users, Zune Party, Los Angeles

We’re nearing the third anniversary of the Zune (ok.. we’re about two months) so if you’re Microsoft, what do you do? Keep them coming of course! Unlike the last two years, you won’t see any new hardware designs for the Zune this year. Instead, Microsoft decided to release new storage capacities for the Zune and also update the firmware and Zune software application.

Let’s first cover the hardware changes which really are not changes as much as additions. There’s a new hard drive based Zune out - the new Zune 120GB model or Zune 120 for short.  On the flash front, Microsoft upped the storage amounts to 16GB there - no real surprise there of course given that iPod touch devices are already available in 16GB models. I must say it’s slightly disappointing that Microsoft didn’t announce new hardware changes to the Zune to compete more effectively against the iPod touch.. but then again, the software changes are indeed nice.

Ah yes.. the software changes. This is certainly where things get exciting. First off, Microsoft has finally unleashed more capabilities to the built-in Wi-Fi support on the Zune. In the first iteration of the Zune, we saw the notion of being able to share music between Zune devices. Cute.. neat.. but somewhat useless considering I had to travel a tens of MILES to find the next Zune user! In the second iteration, Microsoft finally allowed for wireless syncing of the Zune. Another cool feature.. useful at times too.. but in practice, I never really used it.  Now, in the third iteration of the software, Microsoft finally allows for wireless downloads of music straight to the Zune via the Zune Marketplace. Finally - a truly useful feature of the Wi-Fi connectivity support on the Zune. What makes this even sweeter is the notion that with a Zune Pass subscription, you could easily listen to millions of songs on demand straight from the marketplace anytime you’re near a Wi-Fi hotspot. This is truly where an all-you-can-eat subscription makes a lot of sense. Sure it’s not free like Pandora.. but at least 1) you won’t have to worry about whether the service will stay alive or not and 2) you get access to WAY more titles!

Now to make this all possible, your Zune will now be able to connect to thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots (w00t!). Unfortunately, since the Zune does not have a built-in web browser, you won’t be able to connect to hotspots that required browser logins.

As for navigating the Zune marketplace on the Zune, users will be able to browse lists of featured new releases, top songs and albums sorted by genre, or use the on-screen keyboard to type a song title.

If you’re a big user of the built-in FM receiver on the Zune, then you’ll probably appreciate the new “Buy from FM” feature being introduced with the third iteration of the Zune software. Buy from FM lets customers tag and purchase songs they hear on the radio directly from their Zune device. If the user is near a Wi-Fi hotspot, they can purchase and directly download the track. If they’re not near a Wi-Fi hotspot, the track gets queued for download when the user either connects to their PC or connects to a Wi-Fi hotspot later on. I’m not a big user of the built-in FM radio myself.. but this might change things finally. There are certainly many many instances where I find myself saying “Gee.. who’s this person I’m listening to?”

Think that’s it? Nope.. there’s more folks. Microsoft also announced a new “Channels” feature on the Zune software. You can view and listen to expert-created channels or you can have the Zune software create custom channels for each user based on their favorite artists and genres. If you want to listen to the expert channels, you’ll need a Zune Pass subscription to get at everything - or you can purchase songs one at a time in an a la carte fashion if you don’t have the pass.

There’s also the “Personal Picks” feature which is basically a new recommendations system for users. When you log into the Zune Marketplace, you’ll find a new “Picks” area where suggested artists, albums, and tracks will appear. This is all done via a new Zune recommendation algorithm that uses information from the Zune Social.

Speaking of Zune Social, the online music community now gets a bit more powerful thanks to the Zune Card. Previously, you could see what your friends were listening to on the Zune Social - now you can take there tracks with you on the go via the Zune Card. A Zune Card is a real-time playlist of each user’s favorite and recently played tracks. The card can be accessed from the web or within the Zune software application or synced to the Zune device. Playlists will even automatically update when the Zune connects to a wireless hotspot - very cool. Overall - this is certainly a very neat feature on the Zune. You can finally listen to what your friends are listening to - assuming of course you can get your friends to use the Zune instead of some other competing music player! (more reasons to do so now!)

Two other new features on the Zune software are:

• Mixview. Customers can select an artist, album or Zune Card to activate a dynamic, visual mosaic of related music and listeners. With each click users can take the view in a new direction, creating a fun, graphical way to discover new music. Mixview works with users’ current collection of music, in addition to tracks and albums from across the Zune Marketplace.
• Now Playing. The improved Now Playing view is more interactive and cinematic. Users can sit back and enjoy the combination of great artist imagery, colorful effects, bio information and data from the Zune online music community, all combined in a full-screen view. They can also click to dive deeper into the music behind the picture, providing another great way to interact with their collection.

Finally, on the firmware front, other small but notable features on the Zune include:

• Two free games for the Zune - Hexic and Texas Hold ‘Em. Yes.. games on the Zune are indeed real
• Support for audiobooks finally!
• Support for audible!
• Support for OverDrive

So.. what’s the catch in all of this? Nothing folks. The great part about the Zune experience for existing Zune users is the fact that EVERYONE with a Zune will get these new features for free!! So if you have an original Zune 30 - not a problem - go ahead and update the firmware next week. If you have a Zune 80 - not a problem too! There are no fees to pay, no software to buy.. just upgrade (pray a little), and go! 

Finally, the current pricing plans are as follows:

• 120GB Zune - $249.99
• 80GB Zune - $229.99
• 16GB Zune - $199.00
• 8GB Zune - $149.99
• 4GB Zune - $129.99

It’s certainly nice to see the Zune team continuing to advance the Zune on the feature and software front. Though it would have been nice to see new hardware models aside from storage upgrades, the mere fact that these new software updates are made available to ALL Zune users is certainly something Microsoft can be proud of.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Zune 120, Zune 16, New Zune, Zune Software, Zune three

Here’s a little reminder that ZuneSphere does in fact have a forums section. We created it a few months ago so feel free to use it to communicate with other Zune owners out there. Post questions, thoughts, comments - whatever your heart desires at:

http://www.zunesphere.com/forums/

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Hey folks - I’m finally back from my trip to CES 2008 in Las Vegas. I was only there for a few days but man.. it was tiring. I wish I had more time there to be honest with you but I can only take so much of Vegas sometimes. Maybe next year I’ll spend even more time in Vegas.

In case you missed it, I covered Bill Gates’ pre-keynote speech at CES here at Krunker.com. Most of the speech was about the concept of the digital decade - what Microsoft has done with the first digital decade and what is to come for the second digital decade.

Some of the more notable Zune related announcements were as follows:

• The Zune is doing very well with it’s second release - though no official sales numbers were given
• The Zune will be sold outside of the US for the first time in the Spring with Canada being the target country. No word on Europe yet.
• The goal is to build a "Social Experience" and the new Zune Social is exactly that
• Zune Social now has 1.5 million users

As for the Zune Social, it’s all about "People powered music discovery". There was even a little plug for "The Shins" at CES 2008.

Microsoft also demo’d the Zune connected inside a car using Ford’s Sync system. Here’s a picture of that:

That was the gist of Zune related news at CES 2008. I’ll be posting more Zune pics shortly.

Technorati Tags: Zune, CES 2008, Bill Gates, Canada

Here’s the latest review roundup for the new Microsoft Zune players (yes - it’s easier than creating individual postings for each posting isn’t it?) So here goes nothing..

We’ll start with Digital Trends which reviewed the Microsoft Zune 8GB edition here. Here’s what they had to say about the flash player:

Overall, the new 8GB Zune Red is a really good media player. It’ll especially appeal to those who don’t want to line the Apple coffers with their hard earned money but still want a solid music experience. For $199 USD, the 8GB Zune is a decent iPod contender.

Of course, the Zune can only have so much bath water right? How about a little slap in the face from Walt Mossberg. Yes.. you can always count on Mossberg to provide a bit of .. “yes it’s better but it’s not quite that good”. The review is here and the verdict is as follows:

Microsoft has greatly improved the Zune hardware and software this time. But it seems to be competing with Apple’s last efforts, not its newest ones.

Sure.. if you compare the Zune against the iPod touch then yes - it’s no real comparison. But come on Mossie… compare the Zune 80 against the real rival here - the iPod classic 80.. and you’ll quickly see things stack up fairly closely (though my Apple friends often remind me of the little things that are still better on the iPod. To that.. I answer.. it’s not about the little things when it comes to MP3 players.. it’s about whether it works or not folks).

We talked about PC Magazine’s review a few days ago but they also reviewed the new Zune Marketplace here. Here’s their verdict on the marketplace.

Zune Marketplace is definitely showing signs of progress, but we’ll have to wait and see if it can really stand up to iTunes.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer has posted their look at the new Zunes here on their website. Here’s a blurb from the article:

Despite my gripes, its form and function should make the second-generation Zune a strong contender in the portable media player market. And while I’m not throwing out my iPod just yet, I will be keeping an eye on what the Zune does next.

Finally, Wired.com has an interesting article entitled “Microsoft Retools Zune to Target Apple’s Flaws”. Here’s a blurb from that article:

With an upgraded Zune player and a new strategy for tapping the strength of social networking sites, Microsoft is making serious moves to challenge the iPod.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Zune, Reviews, Zune 8, Zune 80, Zune 4,

Yes.. I’m still recovering from staying up a wee bit too late last night/this morning. Oh wait.. I guess it would be yesterday morning eh? In any event, for those of you who are wondering what my Zune Card is - you can find me on the Social here:

http://social.zune.net/member/krunkermedia

So drop on by - add me as a friend and let’s see what we’re all listening to! If any of you are in the Los Angeles area - let me know. I’d love to start up a party of Zune followers in the area!!!

One final note - I’m creating a Facebook group for folks who visit ZuneSphere. You can always find me on that group or in the "Krunker" group so drop on by!!!

Technorati Tags: Zune Social, Zune Card