Zune info

Greetings, music lovers, and welcome to another exciting edition of New Music Friday! Click on the links below to get to some free and legal MP3s to download for your Zune:

• First up this week, ‘Tracks has the new single from The Offspring (rock)
• Check out the new Sigur Ros single, over at Stereogum (rock)
• Pick up this song, over at Music-For-Robots, by singer/songwriter/guitarist Imaad Wasif
• Our buddies at MOKB post a few tracks from The Stills (rock)
• And if you’re a fan of hip hop/r n b, head over to ‘Different Kitchen for a John Legend track, feat Andre 3000 of OutKast
• And last but certainly not not-awesome, pick up a pair of tracks by 60s rocker Marianne Faithfull, over at Aquarium Drunkard!

Ok, enjoy the music and have a great weekend everybody!

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This is a guest post by Michael Pinto is the Creative Director of Very Memorable, Inc. a design firm that specializes in the youth market and interactive media.
With the iPhone taking away the mind space of the iPod, the Zune already seems to be in an orphan category with consumers.
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Microsoft has announced seven new designs courtesy of half a dozen Canadian artists that will see action to the Zune Originals artist series. Canadians now have the option to customize their Zune with laser-engraved artwork from inspiring Canadian artists including Vicki Wong & Michael Murphy, Derrick Hodgson and Mathieu Missiaen among others.
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As Bill Gates promised back in January, the Zune is landing in Canada! Officially landing on Friday the 13th (of June), the 80GB version will be CA$249, the 4GB CA$139, and 8GB CA$189. Microsoft hasn’t mentioned the original 30GB Zune, which still remains on sale in the US, so my guess is as they’re not rolling out the model in new territories, they’ll probably soon discontinue it in the States as well.
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Although Microsoft’s Zune recently doubled its marketshare, that still only represents about 4 percent pf the market, and the videogame retailer GameStop recently decided to stop stocking the device. What’s a global mega-corporation to do?
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Michael Pinto, the creative director of a youth marketing firm, has some ideas about how to save Microsoft’s Zune, including a lower-priced edition and limited-edition devices tied in with fashionable brands.
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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Just in case you didn’t really believe Microsoft was finally bringing the Zune to Canada, along comes a release to make it doubly official. Aside from reiterating the June 13th launch date — not to mention the $249.
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Analysis: GameStop has decided to stop selling the Zune, Microsoft’s portable media player. It’s a decision that seems to make sense with Microsoft taking the device in a new direction.
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Ads are coming to the Zune this summer, in the form of a pilot program. Here is what you need to know about the plans.Read More…
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Over the next few weeks, we’ll be expanding the video store by 50%, adding 400 episodes, and one new network: USA.

 
Here’s the list of what’s coming.
·         Wednesday, May 28: COMEDY CENTRAL
o    “The Colbert Report” *
o    “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”
 
·         Friday, May 30: NBC Universal
o    “Friday Night Lights”
o    “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”
o    “Law & Order”
o    “Life”
o    “Lipstick Jungle”
o    “Saturday Night Live”
 
·         Tuesday, June 3: SCI FI Channel
o    “Battlestar Galactica Classics”
o    “Destination Truth”
o    “Ghost Hunters International”
o    “Ghost Hunters”
o    “Who Wants to Be a Superhero?
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One of the cool new things the 2.5 software update features is a the ability to show info for the currently playing song on the Windows taskbar. When minimized (and playing a song) the title of Zune taskbar item will cycle through the current artist, album, and song, much in the same way the “now playing” field does within the software.

While not yet as functional as Windows Media Player’s “mini mode”, this is definitely a step in the right direction. Check it out for yourself; Minimize the Zune application and enjoy countless hours of fun and entertainment!

Thanks to Erik S. for the tip.

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In this thrilling sequel to last month’s blockbuster buddy comedy, Cesar and Max are at it again. This time they’ve got their sights planted firmly on the cool things you can do with the new 2.5 update, like syncing a friend’s Zune Card, working with the new Social, and apparently learning how to Salsa dance. If you were ever curious how Cesar uses his Social account (or how he breaks it down), stop by Channel8 and get informed.

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Have you see the above problem with your Zune music library? I’ve seen it on quite a few of my albums, and I was having a really hard time figuring out what was going on - why was it listing the tracks out of order? I dug deeper into the metadata and discovered something interesting: if the metadata lists the "Disc" field as zero (0) instead of one (1), it will show those tracks before Disc 1 Track 1. I’d never had this problem before, so it’s something that the Zune 2.5 software does differently than Windows Media Player 11.

The fix then is to select your track(s), right-click, select EDIT, and change the value for DISC from 0 to 1. What if you have this problem on more than a few tracks? That’s the situation I found myself in: only about 10% of my songs were correctly tagged as "Disc 1". Unfortunately the Zune multi-album editing interface doesn’t allow you to change the DISC metadata tag, so you need a better tool for the job: go download a free copy of MediaMonkey and use it to change the DISC metadata tag in batch mode. Point it at all your music, press CONTROL+A to select all your tunes, press SHIFT+ENTER to open the metadata editor, put a "1" inside the disc field, check off the box next to that field, and click OK. Give it some time - it’s pretty fast, but if you have 1000’s of tracks, it might take 10 minutes or more.

What’s that? You have songs that really are part of disc two? It’s probably easiest to change all your music to disc one in batch mode, then go back and manually change the disc two tracks to…disc two. Or, do what I do: create separate folders for multi-disc collections so that the folder and album title says "Disc Two" but the tracks are really from the same disc.

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog.

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Belkin has been a provider of Zune accessories since the Zune 30s were released about 18 months ago, the majority of which have been cases. I’ve wanted a case for my Zune since I got it since I managed to scratch the screen on my Zune 30 pretty good and I didn’t want the same thing to happen to my Zune 80. The only catch was I didn’t want to hide my Zune under a case. I have a Zune Original and it seemed like it would be a waste if I couldn’t see it! Fortunately Belkin released an acrylic case that looked like it fit my bill. So, does it?

The case itself is made of acrylic. The sides and back are completely clear while the faceplate has a brushed aluminum finish. The face plate is very easy to remove so that the Zune can be put in or taken out quickly. It provides easy access to the headphone jack and lock switch on the top and a synch cable can be plugged in on the bottom.

Accessing the controls while the Zune is in a case has always been one of my larger worries. The Zune’s touch pad makes it so that you don’t want to make it too difficult to move your finger around. Belkin did and excellent job here and the face plate actually slopes down around the controls, making it very natural to both slide around and easily press any direction on the d-pad as well as both buttons.

With the belt clip removed, the back is entirely clear and allows me to show off my cool Zune art. And speaking of the belt clip, this may be my favorite feature of the case. That I can clip the Zune onto my belt isn’t that important since I won’t do that very often. The best thing about the clip is that it doubles as a stand. The clip flips out and allows you to view your Zune more easily while watching video. This has been something I’ve needed for a long time. If you watch video on your Zune, a feature like this is a must have.

There are a couple things to be aware of if you use this case. The first thing to keep in mind is that while using the case you will be unable to place the Zune in a dock. I did try and even without any of the adaptors in, it just didn’t quite fit. I wasn’t really surprised and it’s easy to remove the Zune from the case whenever you want to dock it, so it’s not really a big deal. The only other thing to be aware of is that acrylic does tend to scratch. I can already see plenty of very fine scratches on the screen portion after only a few days of use. Fortunately they are impossible to see while the screen is on.

So would I recommend this case? Absolutely! I’m very picky when it comes to the case I put my Zune in since I would prefer to go without one at all. This case provides an excellent combination of protection for the Zune while allowing easy access to all of the functions you need to use it. It also is quite attractive and while I didn’t really care for the brushed metal right away, it has actually grown on me. When you add the multifunction belt clip on, this case is a real winner!

David Tucker is a software developer who writes for Zune Thoughts in his spare time. He is a fan of all things technology. If it runs on electricity, he wants it! He currently resides in the subtropical paradise of Florida.

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I saw this news story over at Got Zune? and here’s the launch message from the ZuneTV team:

"We’ve hinted at an upcoming project a few times earlier. We’ve asked for donations to help with the development costs. Well, after almost 4 months since the announcement, we are proud to launch ZuneTV. ZuneTV is a YouTube-like site specialized for Zuners. All content uploaded are automatically converted into a Zune-friendly .wmv format, that is readily available for download to members. To start off, we have already uploaded a few hundred videos, but the rest is up to you. Have a video you love? Think something is so absolutely hilarious that you must share? You’ve come to the right place. ZuneTV’s success is dependent on you, the member. To get started, you’ll first need a ZuneBoards account. For support and suggestions, we have set up a forum for that here. Without further ado, say hello to ZuneTV."

I think it’s really great that they’ve decided to do something like this for the Zune Community, but if the content I see under the Most Watched Videos is any indication of what the overall content is like, ZuneTV is going to run into trouble pretty quickly. The contest consists mostly of South Park episodes, MadTV clips, a few typical "teen stripper webcam" videos, and other commercial content that I have a hunch wasn’t shared with permission. There are a few personal videos that might have been uploaded by the owners, but the double-compressed look of them leaves me doubting that as well.

It’s really hard to launch a video site from the ground up and get legitimate content, but unless the ZuneTV people take copyright violations seriously, they’re going to be in trouble.

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"Just in case you didn’t really believe Microsoft was finally bringing the Zune to Canada, along comes a release to make it doubly official. Aside from reiterating the June 13th launch date — not to mention the $249.99 CDN (Zune 80), $189.99 CDN (Zune and $139.99 CDN (Zune 4) price points — Microsoft is also announcing seven new designs for its Zune Originals artist series. Fittingly, the mega-corp has tapped actual Canadian artists in order to find said designs, and considering that all Zune Originals artwork / engraving will be offered up gratis for three months after the launch day, you might as well indulge."

Well…darn. I knew about this a few weeks ago, but was waiting for permission from my contact at Microsoft Canada to release it. And here I go and get scooped by Microsoft releasing the news to PR Newswire. Sheesh. Stephane Dion has a great article on this topic - complete with a list of all the included artists and a couple of pictures of what the new Zunes will look like.

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If you’re into buying TV shows for watching on your Zune, this is great news: they’ve added a huge amount of new content. Myself, I’m leery of investing in much video when the purchased content has DRM on it. The full press release is below with all the details.

"Zune announced today that it will expand the selection in its recently opened Zune Marketplace video store by 50 percent by adding more than 400 new episodes of popular television shows. In addition to adding more programs from COMEDY CENTRAL, NBC Universal and the SCI FI Channel, Zune will start offering shows from USA Network. 19 new programs will be available on Zune Marketplace within the next two weeks, including COMEDY CENTRAL’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “Colbert Report,” NBC’s “Friday Night Lights” and “Saturday Night Live”, USA Network’s “Monk” and “The Starter Wife,” and many more. New shows from Bravo will also be available in the coming months.

Zune makes it easy for consumers to download popular TV shows to their computer or Zune portable media player to enjoy anytime, anywhere. Earlier this month, Zune launched its video store with download-to-own hit shows from COMEDY CENTRAL, FUNimation® Entertainment, MTV, NBC Universal, Nickelodeon, Starz Media (including Manga Entertainment), Turner Broadcasting, Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC) and VH1. Each show is 160 Microsoft Points per episode (approximately $1.99)."

"With more than 3.5 million tracks, two-thirds of which are available in pure MP3 format, over 1200 episodes of popular television shows, 4,800 music videos and 3,500 audio and video podcasts, the Zune online store is the place for consumers to find the entertainment content they want. More information about Zune can be found online at http://www.zune.net/en-us/press.

• Friday, June 6: USA Network
“Dr. Steve-O”
“In Plain Sight”
“Law & Order: Criminal Intent”
“Monk”
“Psych”
“The Starter Wife”"

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This week, there are two Zune Marketplace freebies that you can download, play back, burn to a CD, and sync to your Zune device. The first is "This Boy’s In Love" by Sydney-based electronic duo, The Presets. This track is actually an absolute hit on the waves in Australia and in clubs around the world, so I was pleasantly surprised to see it tagged as a freebie. Be sure to check it out! The second is a soothing remix of "Me Cai" by Pacifika, and is definitely worth a listen! You’ll need a Zune account to download the free content. Clicking on any of the links below will automatically launch the Zune software and take you to the artist’s page, so please ensure that the software is installed on your PC.

Title: This Boy’s In Love
Artist: The Presets
Genre: Dance/Electronic
Time: 4:12

Title: Me Cai (Da Cruz Jazz Ragga Mix)
Artist: Pacifika
Genre: World
Time: 4:33

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Want to take your friend’s Zune Cards with you on your player? You do this in Zune Software with the Sync Friends feature. Once you’ve synced a friend’s Zune Card, Zune software will keep that card updated each time you sync. Your player will display that card under the Social menu, along with your friend’s current favorites, top artists, and recent plays. And, brilliantly…
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Our favorite Zune celebrity Stephen Colbert is coming to Marketplace, along with over 400 new TV episodes from 19 shows. Colbert and Stewart are already up in Marketplace. Here’s the whole schedule…
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