Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

This past weekend at a conference in Seattle, J Allard and Christina Calio from Microsoft’s Zune team both confrimed the company’s plans to reward customers for sharing music with eachother.  If you’re unfamiliar with all of the buzz surrounding the over-hyped digital audio player, it includes the ability to share music wirelessly with your neighboring compadres.  The rewards will be payed out in Microsoft Marketplace Points ($1 = 80pts) which can be spent on both the Zune Marketplace and the Xbox 360 Marketplace.  No word yet on how much they will reward social customers, but lets just hope they make it worth our while.

Read [Gizmodo]

It’s 11.14.06 today, and you know what that means.  Yep, you’re right - Microsoft’s new portable audio/video player the Zune hit store shelves this morning.  This is a wrap up of our Zune coverage thus far.  And if this thing is half as popular as the iPod, you can expect us to cover them for years to come.  Check out our Zune tag here, or click on for the entire list.

• Zune Marketplace: Songs to be re-downloadable
  


• Zune Premium Earphones and Wireless Remote


• Microsoft strikes deal with Universal, to pay for every Zune sold


• Belkin releases a boatload of accessories for the Zune


• Microsoft gets ready for Zune, launches Zune.net


• The cans and can’ts of Zune WiFi


• 5 reasons the Zune is causing Apple to have nightmares


• Breaking: Pre-order Zune on Wal-Mart.com


• Zune and iPod get compared


• Zune factory pictures, mass production has begun


• Zune gets a price: $229.99 ($249.99 final)


• Zune won’t be undercut on price by iPod


• Sorry Mac-heads, no Zune for you


• Apple forces Microsoft to rethink Zune pricing


• Zune battery life revealed: 12 hours music, 3.5 hours video


• Microsoft says Zune phone is coming soon


• Video: Zune-to-Zune in action


• Microsoft Zune coming today!


• Zune approved by FCC, confirmed as a repackaged Toshiba Gigabeat


• Microsoft Zune details leaked


• The Microsoft Zune is in the wild


• Zune docks up with the Razer Pro|Type Multimedia Keyboard


• Microsoft plans to spend hundreds of millions to compete with Apple’s iPod/iTunes

The problem with many of the big online music stores like Apple’s iTunes is that once you lose a downloaded file, you’re screwed.  Backing up all of your songs can be a pain when you download (legally) as much as some people.  That’s why Microsoft is taking on this issue by allowing customers of the Zune Marketplace to have up to 5 downloads of the same song.  And just like with a Windows product key, you can call up tech support and complain when you’ve gone over your allotted amount.  All I can say is hooray for Microsoft for giving us this option.  Obviously backing up is still the way to go since Microsoft can exercise their right to discontinue this feature at any time.

Read [Gizmodo]

The Zune’s coming today and Microsoft’s building up the hype.  They just launched a new video on ComingZune.com this morning with some rockin’ birds and the official specs are out.  The first released version will sport a 30GB hard drive, WiFi, built-in FM radio, a 3 inch QVGA screen, and of course music, picture, and video playback.  In the music department, they’ve thrown us a curve-ball with support of h.264, MP3, AAC, and WMA.  I never would’ve guessed in 1,000 years they’d provide support for Apple’s Quicktime formats.

Another huge feature which we’ve talked about in the past is the ability to have some good old Zune-to-Zune action with a friend (or person within your WiFi vicinity).  This functionality will allow you to stream music off of another neighboring Zune up to 3 times before it will be flagged for you to download in the Zune Marketplace.  If they’re an unlimited “Zune Pass” subscriber, songs won’t be disabled at all and they will be able to listen at their pleasure.

Pricing and availability will surely be announced later today along with other exciting news.  So stay tuned to Gadgetell for all the latest.

Read [Coming Zune] Via [Engadget]