Vincent Hie Zune HD Skin Abolisher – 7.99

The Abolisher is a super cool Zune HD with a crystal blue dragon scene which is sure to hae friends and family asking what kind of mp3 player you have under that cool screen protector.

Eyes glowing and teeth bared, this exquisitely detailed blue and grey dragon will protect your devices from attack as he watches over his skull collection in this exciting design from artist Vincent Hie.

About This Skin Kit

The presicion-fit DecalGirl skin kits for the Zune HD cover both the front and the back of the player in high-res, full-color personalization!

The premium vinyl that DecalGirl uses offers added protection while retaining compatibility work with most third-party cases and accessories. Zune HD skins also arrive in attractive retail packaging, which means they are perfect for gift giving!
DecalGirl Skin Features

* Each design is digitally printed in vibrant, art-quality resolutions onto cast vinyl.
* Each skin is covered with a glossy clear laminate layer to protect the design and the device from minor scratches and abuse.
* Our unique, removable channeled adhesive means no air bubbles when installed and no nasty goo or residue when removed.
* DecalGirl skins offer protection, yet are thin enough to work with most third-party cases and accessories – click here for more info.
* Every skin is MADE IN THE USA – produced and packaged right here in our Lewes, Delaware location.

Zune HD Skin – Paper Cut – $.99

Paper Cut is a nice looking cover for your Zune HD media player with unique graphics and color patterns to accent your portable media player. The ZuneHD is an excellent media device and the beautiful large screen are surely worth a couple bucks to protect. Save your Zune HD with a new skin from Decal Girl today.

About This Skin Kit

The presicion-fit DecalGirl skin kits for the Zune HD cover both the front and the back of the player in high-res, full-color personalization!

The premium vinyl that DecalGirl uses offers added protection while retaining compatibility work with most third-party cases and accessories. Zune HD skins also arrive in attractive retail packaging, which means they are perfect for gift giving!
DecalGirl Skin Features

* Each design is digitally printed in vibrant, art-quality resolutions onto cast vinyl.
* Each skin is covered with a glossy clear laminate layer to protect the design and the device from minor scratches and abuse.
* Our unique, removable channeled adhesive means no air bubbles when installed and no nasty goo or residue when removed.
* DecalGirl skins offer protection, yet are thin enough to work with most third-party cases and accessories – click here for more info.
* Every skin is MADE IN THE USA – produced and packaged right here in our Lewes, Delaware location.

Discuss this in the Zune Message Boards.

The first Zune ready Windows phones will be named the Kin 1 and Kin 2 and should be on the market by May according to the information released today at the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 release conference. The Kin phones from Microsoft will come preinstalled with Zune software for online music and also allow you to update your Facebook, Myspace and Twitter status at the same time.

I think the timing is off for Microsoft on the phone business but at least they are offering some cool new phones for the younger generation. By getting more young people using Windows phones and Zune music service they should be able to keep them using their platform on other devices and in the future.

my only confusion has to be in the names. Why more names? Why do we need a Kin phone when we could have had a Zune phone instead?

Microsoft Introduces Phones Aimed at Young People – NYTimes.com

Microsoft’s effort to revitalize its cellphone business took a new direction Monday with its release of a pair of phones aimed at a younger market.

The phones, the Kin One and Kin Two, are built around their social-networking features. For example, they allow users to update status messages on sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, all at once, from the home menu. In addition, users can scroll down the touch-screen to see a variety of notes from friends and other information gathered from the Web.

“This generation, let’s call it the social generation, really does have a point of view,” said Robert J. Bach, the president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, at a news conference here. “Their social life is their priority No. 1.”

You will soon be able to download the twitter app for Zune and access the microblogging service on your wifi enabled Zune HD media players. For fans of the social network access to Twitter from your mobile media player is a sweet thing. I wonder what level of integration we can expect? Do you think the Zune HD will tweet your music playlist? I likethe idea of auto updates from Zune HD to Twitter feeds so I can have a web based tracking of my media use.

Too bad I can’t call you on my Zunephone and update my tweets on the same device.

Techtree.com India > News > Software > Get Twitter App for Zune Tomorrow

Microsoft’s Zune team announced that it will bring a Twitter App for Zune tomorrow through Zune’s official Twitter account. The Twitter App will enable the Zune HD owners to stay connected with their Twitter followers. Microsoft had recently brought 3D Games for Zune HD.

Earlier today, Zune’s official Twitter account updated the following message:

Zune Nation! The Twitter App for Zune is coming tomorrow – more details in the morning!

RT

Got Zune apps? Seems the Zune HD forum members are upset over the lack of apps for Zune HD players. The hot new media player from Microsoft is lacking in the number of downloadable apps available and fans of the Zune HD are voicing their concerns.

I gave up on timelines with Zune a long time ago. They seem to have no idea what the heck they are doing with the devices and they have been weak on the games and additional applications. This is the problem with a closed system like Microsoft offers. the Apple Touch device has loads of apps and a few app developers have made a pretty penny selling apps for iPhone but things are so dead on the Zune side that no one is jumpong up to create much more than the existing games and apps available.

Patiently Waiting for Zune Apps, In the meantime…

In the Zune HD forums there are some frustrated Zune HD users patiently waiting for more Zune applications. I do sympathize with them since it is a little bit disparaging having such a powerful Nvidia Tegra device being limited by application releases. In the thread, Microsoft’s DaveMac-MS cannot yet offer a time table for app releases but does offer this: “I’ll be able to tell you more about the Twitter and Facebook apps once they’re out – in the meantime, there are a number of cogs in this wheel and we’d rather stick to a quality-driven release schedule, than a date-driven one.”

As many as 2 million Xbox fans have logged into the Facebook app on Xbox Live and posted updates through the service. Thats about 10% of all Xbox Live subscribers and a decent chunk of people using the new social media tool. I was one of those 10% who logged in and used the service once but I have yet to follow up on using it much. It seems a bit of a drag using the Xbox controller to update Facebook when I have my laptop so close to the Xbox.

I imagine it will get more use in the future when they add new features and better integration but for now a 10% adoption seems strong.

News: 2 million used Xbox Live Facebook – ComputerAndVideoGames.com

At least 2 million Xbox Live users have logged into their Facebook accounts through Xbox 360 since it launched last week, Microsoft claims. That’s 10% of all Xbox Live users.

The impressive statistics, given to Cnet by Microsoft spokesman David Dennis, show that while Facebook has had the biggest adoption out of Xbox Live’s new social network features, in its first 24 hours more than half a million accounts were created for Last.FM.

Xbox Live users have streamed 120 million minutes of music through the service, says Microsoft, while a massive 1.7 million Xbox live users have watched a video on Zune Marketplace.

I have been invited to discuss the Zune HD and iPod Touch on the BlogTalkRadio Showdown show this Sunday at 7PM EST. Check it out if you can.

Discuss this in the Zune Message Boards.

Looks like Zune is dragging down the Microsoft Entertainment Division with poor sales of the portable media players putting a dent in the sales of Xbox and Windows Mobile Devices. The Zune hardware lineup is rather weak at the moment and it’s understandable that sales are flat when you have basically one player on the market.

The push towards Zune mobile services is going to take some time to play out in sales of Zune Pass or Zune video services and this may be the case for another year or more. The Zune mobile devices slated for release soon are not going to boost Zune sales unless Microsoft is able to turn these into subscriptions for their Premium Content Services.

How long this takes or whether or not it actually happens remains to be seen but I expect sales at Zune will remain weak until Holidays 2010.

Microsoft Mobile sales flat

The Entertainment and Devices division – which houses Windows Mobile as well as Xbox/ games, Zune and hardware accessories – saw flat revenue. This was bad for mobile – Xbox 360 and its games enjoyed increased sales, which meant the rest of the products were down. The Microsoft statement said: “Non-gaming revenue decreased $98m or 14%”, though it insisted that the worst performers were not Windows Mobile – whose share of the smartphone market fell from 12% to under 10% in the second calendar quarter – but PC hardware products like mice, Zune and embedded device platforms.

Discuss this in the Zune Message Boards.

Welcome to the Zune video Preview!

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

Discuss this in the Zune Message Boards.