Laurent Duveau : Zune

Zune 30 frozen day

pluginbaby — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:14:00 GMT

I thought it was just a problem with my Zune, I was wrong.

It appears that all Zune 30 froze while moving from 2008 to 2009!

Fortunately the problem is not critical and there is now an official fix.
http://www.zune.net/en-us/support/zune30.htm
Too bad if you planned to enjoy your New Year’s Eve Party with your Zune ;-(

I would love to know what that bug was…

[Update] The bug was due to 2008 being a leap year...

[via Guy Barrette]

Zune bag loves iPhone

pluginbaby — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:59:17 GMT

Guess what’s inside my Zune bag…

…my iPhone!
The original Zune suede bag is way too small to fit the Zune but I found the perfect fit now!

My IE8 Zune Social Accelerators and Search Provider

pluginbaby — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:07:00 GMT

I made 3 Accelerators to interact with Zune Social right into IE8:

* For some reasons Microsoft has removed my Zune Accelerators. Sorry about that.

Also a Search Provider to search for Songs, Artists and Albums on Zune Social:

Zune Social Search

Check out my other IE8 Accelerators:

Search Images with Live Search
“Use this accelerator to find related images with Live Search based on selected text.”
Search with Google Canada
“Use this accelerator to find information with Google Canada.”

And Search Provider:

Youtube Search for IE8

Technorati Tags: IE8,Accelerator,Zune

Zune feedback

pluginbaby — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:16:40 GMT

As you may have heard Zune v3 is out, I spent a long time playing with it to provide my feedback one¦more time.

First thought: Zune software is still a piece of sh*t!

But I have to say this is no more the worst software ever written by Microsoft, it is a bit better now, but still full of crappy features and the UI s*x badly. First, I always wonder myself: “why the hell did they create a NEW media player ???”.
Windows Media Player v11 - Zune v3 - Hello?
Marketplace?? Why not simply add a new “Social” tab on WMP ??

So that is the point, I start this feedback exactly like my previous one: “both Zune software and firmware can do a lot better”.

Having said that I will start with what I like on this new version:

The “Add to now playing list” feature on device. Best.Thing.Ever! they finally get rid of the “Quick list” stupid feature (it was soooo useless!)
Games are officially supported!
Time displayed on device main screen
Zune is now able to go back to current song after viewing some pictures.
Find Zune buddy by Live ID: Now, on your "my social" page you can see if any of your Windows Live contacts have a Zune Card and add them as friend.
Picks are great and allow you to get personalized recommendations.
I can’t talk about Channels as I don’t have a Zune Pass but this seems very nice.

Now here is my list of suggestions :

* Device:

Add some auto playlists please
- Last sync (a bit like the “date added” view in software). When I have a lot of music in my Zune it become hard to find the last synced music.
- Favorites songs, the one tagged as “heart”.
Snooze mode. Not a big deal but this would be a nice addition.
Screensaver: why not? my Zune at home is always docked and can’t stop itself, so it would be nice to have a screensaver coming – or to be able to enter sleep mode while docked.

* Software:

Add a Folders view (like Windows Media Player) tags are nice but a great part of my collection is not tagged so I have difficulties to browse my music. This is also a big problem with compilations which generate me thousands of artists entries with only one album/song. I would love to have a setting “Do not display artists with less than X songs in artists view”. See also next bullet.
Add a live search box (like in WMP library).
I would like to get some stats of my library (number of albums, songs, artists, most played song, album, artist, ….)
Now playing screen is interesting (and really beautiful with artists shots and stats) but… I would need a party mode, where I can see the current playlist, sort, move and add new music. It would be like a “Now playing” + collection view.

Also it seems to me there is a bug: while playing just one song (not an album), then browse to another song and "add to now playing list": it turns out that the song is queue after the whole album of the current playing song. I would need to add songs one by one to the current playing list, what do you think ?

Don’t get me wrong my goal is not to flame Zune but to bring ideas and feedback to make it better. I like my Zune, but to me the Zune Software is a total mistake.

If a Microsoft guy or better someone from the Zune Team read this, I would love to be a beta tester and bring my feedback, do you have a beta program ?

As an MVP + Windows Live Butterfly let me say I am strong on feedback.

Technorati Tags: Zune

Add games to your Zune

pluginbaby — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:41:32 GMT

Yes, you can add games to your Zune right now!
Although this is not really a public feature yet… it is more for XNA developers to test their games.

!!This is not a supported scenario yet!!

So by installing XNA Game Studio and Visual C# 2008 Express (both free) you can deploy some games to your Zune, this will add a “Games” entry in the main menu.

As you can see Games can take advantage of the wide screen (horizontal display).

I made it work for me, but I won’t detail here as you can find the procedure there:
http://tinyurl.com/6kqsfl

Technorati Tags: Zune,Zune Games

Zune Parties in Montreal

pluginbaby — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:51:12 GMT

There are plenty of events during June in 6 Canadian cities to celebrate the Zune availability in Canada starting June 13, 2008.

>> Tonight in Montreal a free concert at La Tulipe.

More infos:
http://zunenews.ca/comingzune/default.aspx

Technorati Tags: Zune,Zune Canada

[MIX08] Sessions are available online (non Silverlight users banned)

pluginbaby — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 05:24:00 GMT

Not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas...

All sessions/keynotes can be viewed/downloaded at http://sessions.visitmix.com/.

Note that this is a good example of a site using way too much Silverlight (you can't even do a copy/paste), but... seems that MS has a new toy to push !
A non Silverlight alternative version would have been appreciated for people (like me) who can't install Silverlight on their company's computer.

[Update] Luciano Evaristo Guerche has a nice MIX08 sessions list with WMV direct links!

[Update] And now a nice Zune Podcast feed!

Technorati Tags: MIX08

Zune v2

pluginbaby — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 03:38:00 GMT

New Zune are available, as well as new software!

What's really nice is the upgrade is also available for previous Zune (device + desktop software)!!!

I am very disappointed by this upgrade, some really good points, some really bad, but both software and firmware can be a lot better!

Good:

Podcast support
WiFi sync!!
Online Zune Card (social)
New menus are nicer

Bad:

WiFi sync do not support WPA2 (ok, not a big deal).
No music resume
No "Stop" button
No genre filtering
No live search box
Zune software UI is such a piece of crap
Still no "Add to now playing list" feature in the device
Still no "Recently added" list in the desktop software

The simple fact that the last 2 features are missing is a problem for me, because I *still* need to use Windows Media Player. And I still don't understand why they had to create a new player, everybody already have WMP 11 right ?

Conslusion: This software is unusable for anyone with a large quantity of music files.

For those who got the upgrade don't forget to check the cool but not so easy to find (almost hidden!) "now playing" feature: it displays your current playlist in front of a wall filled with your albums art collection! To launch it you have to click in the small icon at the very right bottom.

Another feature well hidden.. the "search as you type". To get this, you have to click somewhere in the artists list first and then start typing. Why the top right search box does not have the same functionality as in WMP ???

To finish it is good to know that you can download for free the preloaded content that come with the new Zune, in case you "accidentally deleted the preloaded content"... or not!
Preloaded content for Zune devices

Zune in Wonderland

pluginbaby — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 22:22:46 GMT

Check out the new Zune promo website : www.zunejourney.net
It is a real Alice in Wonderland experience!

The TV ad is also very psychedelic :

Zune 2 ad

No more "Welcome to the Social", the slogan is now "You make it you".

Zune 80GB

pluginbaby — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:52:03 GMT

Can't wait for the new Zune 80 ??

Here is a tutorial on how to boost your Zune 30GB with a 80GB hard drive :
http://www.zunescene.com/80gb-zune/

Zune not working on Desktop USB

pluginbaby — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:53:55 GMT

I was not able to setup my Zune device since I bought my new desktop PC.

I downloaded and installed the latest version of the Zune Software, removed and reinstall Zune driver, nothing worked!

Symptoms:

- Connect Zune to the PC with the USB cable
- Zune software launch
- Get the message : "Searching for device..." and then...... nothing happens!

No way to find out why!!

Tonight I found the solution : I plugged my Zune through an external powered USB hub (and not directly on the computer) and now... it works like a charm!
My USB ports are working correctly, but I suspect them to not supply enough power for a Zune...

New Zune soon

pluginbaby — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:38:57 GMT

New Zunes are coming in November!

3 new versions were added to the family : Zune 80GB hard-drive, Zune 4GB and Zune 8GB flash models, respectively named Zune 80, Zune 4 and Zune 8. First generation Zune is now called Zune 30. New design seems cool and comes with new colors, but no white version available (they can't beat an iPod!)

Both hardware and software changes, I can't wait for these especially:

Touch Pad
WiFi sync with your computer !!
Podcast support (audio and videos) !

They rebuilt the software from the ground up (Great!!) but it is still separate from Windows Media Player (Oooh shit!). Why not an upgrade or a pluggin ???

Note that first generation Zunes will get the upgraded interface and software enhancements! That is so nice!!

Earlier this year I wrote Zune: My feedback, so what's new? Now we get wireless sync and podcast support (cool!), still no clock (not a big deal), but I hope it does resume songs now. I am a real music lover (which is 99% of my Zune usage), so for me the most important additions would be :

"Add to now playing list" feature like WMP (current "quick list" feature is totally useless for me, I don't want to edit this list, I want to launch an album immediately, then adding new music's while listening, and I don't want this list to be saved, I want to repeat the whole process with new music every day).
"Recently added" entry added to the songs/genres/artists/albums menu. I have a lot of music, I mean... A LOT. When I sync Zune with my latest albums I would like to easily find them, like in WMP.

Customizing Zune Background

pluginbaby — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 01:56:33 GMT

Duncan Mackenzie wrote some tips you need to know for creating backgrounds pictures for your Zune.
As you know Zune screen is 240x320, but also has a little zoom effect when browsing menus, and another size when using TV out. This article describe all you need to know to create an appropriate picture :

http://www.duncanmackenzie.net/blog/creating-backgrounds-for-your-zune/

Zune Vista Gadget

pluginbaby — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:27:06 GMT

Wow, here is a really cool Vista Sidebar gadget !
The Zune gadget acts just like a music player in the side bar, that looks and behaves just like the Zune!
It displays informations from your music library (pictures, tags, ...), is fully customizable and can be used with keyboard.

The layout is fantastic for a gadget and it provides lots of settings :

Read the review on ZuneInfo.com:
http://zuneinfo.com/zune/vista-zune-gadget/

Download it on Windows Live Gallery:
http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=c21f2bd1-0115-45db-ae59-3c44ad7094b0&bt=1

[via Renaud Comte]

Zune tips and tricks

pluginbaby — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 22:21:17 GMT

How to use the Zune as a hard drive:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/how-to-use-the-zune-as-a-hard-drive-217024.php

The Guest Zune Hack : Make your Zune sync on multi PC:
http://www.zuneboards.com/content/view/52/2/

How to convert Divx/Xvid AVI files to Zune format WMV:
http://vinodunny.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!F162DB18909CE884!305.entry

Hack to make your DivX/XviD files sync enable and auto-convert :
http://www.zunescene.com/zune-divx/

Build a TV out cable yourself! (french):
http://ebartcodes.info/temp/ZuneCableAV.pdf

Also see my previous post on Zune backgrounds and themes:
http://weblogs.asp.net/lduveau/archive/2007/03/31/zune-backgrounds-and-themes.aspx