Zune MAX is an original Zune blog and forums for Zune HD owners to share mp3 music, movies, and XNA games for Zune. We have grown into an all around entertainment blog with mobile technology news and reviews, tips and strategy for Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Facebook Games.
Zune video on Xbox LIVE powers your video entertainment experience on the Xbox 360. Get the selection of a video store, in the highest possible clarity, with the convenience of cable. Easily watch and enjoy the content you want, when you want it, with instant-on HD in full 1080p video and 5.1 surround sound.
Features:
* Instant On HD in full 1080p – Transform your TV into a virtual theater. With Zune on Xbox LIVE you can enjoy all your favorite films and TV shows in vivid-color with 1080p picture quality.
* Smooth Streaming – Immediately access select movies and TV shows you want to watch with smooth streaming technology.
* Party – With Video Party you can catch the latest movies and share the experience with up to 7 of your friends — even if you’re miles apart.
* Simple Search – With new enhanced search functions, get easy access to your favorite movies and TV shows with the touch of a button
* Buy Once Play on Multiple Screens (US Only) – Entertainment is now connected. With your LIVE ID, you can now purchase content and watch it from your Zune HD device, PC or on your Xbox 360 Console
Movie Night:
Welcome to the first Zune movie night. Throughout the program we will ask you to join us for a movie night. These nights will usually take place on Saturday and Sunday night. We would like to ask you to watch the streamed HD version of the movie. If you encounter problems, complete this survey to tell us about your experience.
Scenarios to Try
* Stream movies and TV using Zune video
o Rent or purchase your favorite movies and TV shows and choose Stream to watch instantly in 1080p High Definition
* Use Party to watch videos with your friends while your avatars hang out in a virtual theater
* Buy once, play anywhere! Content purchased on Zune PC Client can be also be accessed through Xbox LIVE
* Browse through content or Search to find exactly what you’re looking for
* Download videos instead of streaming
The full Zune HD review from Cnet is up and they have listed all the pros and cons to the device with a pretty sweet video as well. The Zune HD is a touch screen mp3 player from Microsoft that was released on September 15th and has been getting rave reviews from most major gadget sites online.
Check out the Zune HD review video for more details on the new mp3 player with internet access and web browser.
The good: The Zune HD’s brilliant OLED display, HD Radio tuner, long battery life, movie rentals, and subscription music integration finally give iPod expatriates something to shout about.
The bad: You still can’t use the Zune with a Mac, Marketplace purchases require “Microsoft Points,” video format support is limited, audio quality lacks advanced controls, you’ll need to purchase a dock accessory for HD video output, application and game selection stinks, and the recommended music subscription plan puts the real-world cost higher than the iPod.
Zune HD reviews are in from Cnet Crave and they have nothing but good things to say about the new Zune player from Microsoft. ZuneHD devices hit the shelves at local retail stores on Sept 15 and it has been a good launch for the new touch screen mp3 player from Zune.
It seems everyone expects the Zune HD to be a phone but its only a music and game device with Zune games available that should really kick butt. The Zune HD is a high powered player and the Tegra chip was made for high end graphics and video game play. The Games for Zune HD applications were made available recently along with the new game player and it seems we can expect Microsoft to offer us up some great games.
OK, so my official CNET review of the Zune HD is up and running over at CNET Reviews. It’s worth checking out, but if you don’t feel like taking 10 minutes out of your day to soak it all in, then I’ll make it real clear to you with just two sentences:
Buy the Zune HD if you love music.
Buy an iPod for everything else.
That’s it. And I don’t mean for that to sound dramatic, condescending, or pro-Apple or pro-Microsoft. If we met on the street and you asked me “iPod or Zune?”, then that’s the answer you’d hear from me. The Zune HD does a phenomenal job showcasing and organizing music in a way that invites exploration and interaction. And if you have the extra $14.99 per month to throw at a Zune Pass music subscription, then welcome to the music orgy.
Zune HD Reviews are in and they are all positive with the new mp3 touch device getting high scores for the beautiful OLED screen and the fast and responsive Tegra processor which seems to offer more than enough power for even power users and makes the new Zune the muscle car of mp3 players.
Zune software is much improved and people are finally catching on to what an incredible music discovery device the Zune HD and Zune pass can be together. I’ve had my original Zune since the very first day and the Zune software really is a great way to share music and find new artists online. The Zune pass is not necessary but it sure has been cool to find new music online with great features such as the playlists you can download at Zune.net.
If you have not had a chance to do so yet than swing over to your local retailer and check out the new Zune HD player from Microsoft and I bet you’ll find it to be one cool mp3 player.
The first thing I thought when I saw Microsoft’s new Zune HD player ($220 for 16GB and $290 for 32GB) was, “Man, that thing would make a great phone.” Its size is just right for a cell phone. It has a 3-in., gorgeous OLED touchscreen with intense contrast (although it is not, as the name of the device might imply, high-definition). The Zune interface is quick and responsive to every tap and flick of the finger. It is also a beautiful-looking object that fits nicely and unobtrusively in a shirt pocket.
In fact, next to the Zune HD, the iPhone and iPod Touch look positively chunky. Once I got the device up and working (Microsoft provided me with a tester unit two weeks ago, but the new Zune software was not available until yesterday), I found the user interface and OS to be responsive and quite beautiful—although after two years of using the iPhone OS, anything that works differently can seem slightly awkward. The new Zune’s menu architecture is quite browsable—categories and titles are highly readable and everything has that rolling, scrolling, dive-in, jump-out logic that I’ve come to expect from touchscreen devices. In short, it’s everything that Windows Mobile should be. And yet, Windows Mobile does not work anything like this, and the Zune HD is not a phone.
What the Zune HD is, along with the $15/month Zune Pass, is a marvelous music learning and discovery system. That presumes, of course, that you want to explore new music or care enough to learn more about the musicians who make it. (That also presumes that you’re not just stealing all of your content.) When artist information is available, the Zune software downloads bios, pictures, a discography and info on related artists and downloads it to the device. If you use an album or song that you like to make a SmartDJ playlist, the Zune software combs your collection and the Zune Marketplace for music that goes with that song. This is fundamentally different than what Apple’s iTunes Genius does, because Genius offers you a mix from music that you already own, with suggestions of music to buy. Zune blends what you own together with a broad library of music that you have access to as part of your monthly subscription. Since the concept of Zune Pass is all-you-can-eat music listening, the SmartDJ encourages you to listen to and try out new artists. In fact, much of the Zune interface is designed to expand your music appreciation from one band to another to another. If you ever quit your Zune Pass subscription, however, the music you’ve grown to love will disappear, so to spice up the deal, you get to download and keep 10 songs a month as part of your fee. So one way to look at it is that you’re paying $1.50 per song for ten songs, plus unlimited browsing for free.
Launch day for the Zune HD has come and you can buy the new touch interface mp3 player from Microsoft online or at any retailer in your area. I stopped by the local Best Buy and the salesman said he was impressed with the number of players they had already sold but he was not specific on sales figures.
I was happy to hear that someone actually bought a Zune HD on the day it was released and I have hopes that the new Zune player will offer more of what we expected from the first and second generation devices. How cool would Zune be if it had a browser in it 2 years ago? Why is it that Microsoft crippled the Zune so?
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) launched a slimmer, revamped version of its Zune handheld music and video player on Tuesday as the software giant makes its latest attempt to compete with Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) ubiquitous iPod.
The touch-screen Zune HD, which features a radio receiver and wi-fi, is priced just below Apple’s comparable iPod Touch in the hopes of grabbing market share as the U.S. holiday shopping season nears.
It looks like the Zune HD will be the only Zune player that you can buy soon. Apparently Microsoft has some big plans for the Zune lineup and the first thing theya re doing is to scrap the entire existing line and replacing it with only one device.
Zune HD is probably a great device but to dump all the others seems a bit shocking to me and to be truthful I’m worried this is a bad sign for Zune in general. If none of the earlier devices are to be on the market than are we to expect replacements devices to be developed or are they simply going to forget about the mini mp3 player market all together and concede this battle to the iPod Nano?
I have no idea but I do feel it’s not the best move to announce that you have discontinued all previous players without first offering up some replacement devices as upgrades in the category unless you plan to abandon the line. Does this bode well for a Zune phone in the future? I’m pretty sure Microsoft will not be designing a music phone and it just looks like they are about to dump the whole line of devices in favor for having Zune software implemented in Windows Mobile 6.5 devices.
On the eve of Microsoft releasing its new Zune HD platform (the one targeted at competing with the iPod touch), Windows Super-siter, Paul Thurrott is reporting that the still nascent plain vanilla Zune platform (the one targeted at competing with the iPod touch and classic) is being abandoned. (Shades of PlaysForSure?)
Zune rumors are flying around again. It looks like we’ll finally see some new Zune hardware from Microsoft this year. It’s been a slow start to the year 2009 as far as Zune news goes and we’re just happy to see some development considering the current financial crisis gripping the entire world.
I was a bit worried that Zune was about to be shelved and to be honest if this new round of hardware doesn’t sell it’s probably the end for Zune. How much of this kind of success can Microsoft afford?
if the new Zune devices do not offer a web browser I doubt they’ll sell well at all. Lets hope we can finally break out onto the web with the new firmware for Zune 4.0 hardware.
So we all know there have been some huge changes coming Zune and to be honest it’s been a great big question mark as to what Microsoft would do to shake things up. I’ve been sitting back and watching this with little to say on the matter since Microsoft released those horrible holiday sales stats which show Zune losing over 100 million of their hard earned dollars
I did not say much when they posted stories about huge layoffs at Xbox and Zune and even though it hurt to see him go, I didn’t have much to say about the departure of our longtime friend Cesar from the Zune team. It got to be a drag trying to keep up so I set back and waited for signs of a direction and now it appears we have one.
The Zune team will be split into two divisions based on hardware and software. The software team will focus on putting Zune on every other device on the market while the hardware team will continue to develop and manufacture Microsoft devices. The Zune lives on and maybe we’ll begin to see all the wonderful features we wanted in the beginning with the new and improved Zune family.
We’re hoping for great big things from the software division and the upcoming release of Windows Mobile 6.5 is the first big step. Screenshots from the latest update to the Microsoft mobile operating system show new links to the Microsoft Marketplace. And today we find out that Microsoft will be opening up retail stores a la Apple and actually retailing their products in their own stores for the first time in company history.
Is the new Microsoft really just the old Apple in disguise? Will the juggernaut of technology be able to become the juggernaut of consumer electronics in America? Will a Microsoft store with Windows, Zune and Xbox for sale make it in a recession or should they have considered a staffed boutique inside Best Buy or even Walmart?
We’re just days away from Mobile World Congress where Microsoft is expected to make a few notable annoucements. Until then, we have to settle for all the hints and innuendo we can gather as Redmond attempts to win back the hearts, minds, and pocketbooks of consumers infatuated with Android, WebOS, and whatever Apple’s got cookin’. Like these supposed 6.5 screenshots above, this time showing what looks like a Marketplace store a la the Zune.
My latest project is the Xbox 360 Portable. Figured that was a more appropriate name than laptop, because seriously, who’d put this in their lap? It weighs almost as much as my sister’s cat.
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