Zune Software
updated November 1, 2008
The Zune software acts as your gateway to both your collection of music, pictures, videos, and podcasts, and your link to the Zune Marketplace. Although inseprable the Zune Marketplace is in fact a part of the Zune ecosystema, so you’ll find our seprate look at the Zune Marketplace here
A Brief History of the Zune Software
Now currnetly in it’s third version the Zune software has come a long from it’s Windows Media Player based days. Originally the software, much like it’s Marketplace counterpart, were simply rebranded editions of other products Microsoft had been previously invloved in. For example if you remember MTV’s URGE Music Store, it seem’s to have a stunning resemblence to the Zune Marketplace, the difference being only it’s brand and that software used to access it. Zune 1.0 by all accounts was a complete unjustifiable disaster, helping the software part of the Hardware + Services brand Microsoft was attempting to establish into a laughing stock within the tech community. Users everywhere reported slow response times, horrible interface issues, and worst of all- installation nightmares.
Thankfully Microsoft returned in late 2007 with the next version of Zune, titled appropiratly Zune 2.0 and clearly they paid attention to user’s concerns. This new software was designed by the Windows Media Center team, allowing for complete interface changes making Zune’s ease of use remarkable, and effectively putting the software package slightly ahead of it’s chief rival the Apple’s iTunes Store. Nevertheless, in it’s rush to redesign Zune they also seemed to leave entire features on the cutting room floor. Autoplaylists, Album Art Searching, even Meta Tag editing were all stripped from the software, forcing users to use Zune as just shell for displaying and syncing their music, after all you couldn’t even change a song’s name permanantly with it. Equally ubsurd was the new Social area of the software which only allowed you to take a look at your Inbox from the Zune Social online website.
In Zune 2.5 most of these lost features made their returns signaling the software’s maturity. One of Zune 2.0′s strangest omissions, was the strange restriction when it came to viewing your music and movies the way you wanted to, speciclly not being able to browse by Genres. Where Zune 2.0 could only display your Inbox from the Zune Social website, Zune 2.5 intergrated more features directly into the software and elminated most of the everyday need to visit the online site.
At least Microsoft was able to best the market leader Apple in Fall 2008 when it released Zune 3.0. Instead of just improving on core functionality (like meta tag editing), new features were added to help listeners better discover music. These new features included the MixView, a way to select a song or a friend from your collection and relate their favorites and most listened to in a easy to use, graphical way. The Now Playing screen also recieved an update allowing your computer to not only automaticlly transistion to Now Playing, but to also display full size photos, and Zune Social related Zune information during playback.
A Tour of Zune 3
The new Genres The genres view has been tweaked a little, but overall it’s still a great home screen to open the software up to. Other then a visual tweeks nothing has changed, and it’ll still looking fimiliar to anyone who has used the last two releases.
Pocasts Podcasts also didn’t get much a redo either, except for one thing, it actually works correctly! No more strange incidents of the software auto unsubscribing you from the podcasts you love.
Channels New to this version is “channels” and automaticlly downloaded weekly playlist of your favorties, sorted by genre. It’s made especially for those of us who don’t like radio and would rather have a playlist with this week’s top songs on it.
The Social Once upon a time Zune would encourage you to take part in “The Social”, problem was you needed to schlep to the web in order to do anything meaningful. Note anymore. The Zune 3.0 software has pretty much brought all the social features from the online site right into the desktop software, yes we love it too.
Information and Music at the same time The new add-on the the “Now Playing” screen shows high-res images of the artist currently playing along with tour dates, and play counts.
Mix My Music If you like to check out new bands but don’t have time to troll for what everyone else is listening to, why not let the Zune software do it for you? Now you can check out music in little graphical clouds, displaying someone’s listening habits, and friends on the Zune Social. You can also use it on artists to find out who their influcences were, as well as the people in the Zune Social who listen to them.