The Zune team has been hard at work in the Zune headquarters (cleverly disguised as a library) lately and is now going live with the next milestone, version 2.5. It is a fairly substantial update adding to the social aspect, implementation of auto playlists, better meta data editing, and even a video section where TV shows can now be downloaded. The most interesting I find to be the Gapless playback, since it has always been such an elusive appearing only on a hand full of devices over the years. It may go unnoticed by some, but for the live music listener and or electronic mix fan it’s a feature we longed for.
For the details on all of the latest changes in software/firmware version 2.5 check below for a quick look list and screen shots of the software that should be live in a few hours.
Video Marketplace: TV Shows for 160 points each. Around 800 episodes at launch including: COMEDY CENTRAL’s “ outh Park,” FUNimation’s “Afro Samurai” and “Witchblade,” MTV’s “The Hills,” NBC’s “The Office,” “Heroes” and “30 Rock,” Nickelodeon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants,” SCI FI Channel’s “Battlestar Galactica” and “Eureka,” Starz’s “Ghost in the Shell” and “Street Fighter,” Turner Broadcasting’s “Metalocalypse” and “Robot Chicken,” UFC’s “The Ultimate Fighter®” and “Fight Night™,” and VH1’s “Rock of Love” with Bret Michaels.
Synch Zune Cards: Members can sync other members Zune Cards that will act as a auto play list sharing your friends top artists and favorites.
Search Friends By Real Name: The Zune Social now allows you to add your real name, location, and bio; becoming more of a social network.
Instant Friends: Upon starting in the Zune social you will be able to pick one or a few of the Zune music editors to be on your friends list. Each editor will specialize in a particular genre of music so there is one for most listener’s taste. This will help you help you get accustom to the friend features until you add your own. If you already have friends you have the option of selecting none.
User Reviews for Album and Artists: The Zune member will be able to post reviews on artist pages.
Reputation Badges: In the Zune forums members will get badges for helping out in the community.
Windows Live “Now Playing”: Windows live will now display what you are listening to on the Zune software.
Auto Playlists: Dynamic playlists that can be filtered by Artist, Rating, Genre, Recently Added, Year, Composer, and Songs Played.
Video Browsing: View your own collection by genre and series as well as preview them before full screen play.
Gapless Playback: No skips or silence in between your favorite continuous mixes or albums.
Sync Groups: Users can simultaneously sync multiple Zunes even when it’s not connected. Sync groups of music, pictures, and video can be created for each device.
Genre Browsing: You can now browse by genre.
Improved Metadata Editing: Meta data editing is much more powerful in that multiple simultaneous tracks can be edited, but also a really simple and intuitive drag and drop metadata editing.
Zune Reminders: When capacity is nearing tools are available to remind you. (I don’t know what this is)
Support for XNA: Xbox game developers will be able to load custom code using the XNA platform.
More Seamless Social Integration: Software will show user profiles now without having to go to zune.net.
17 Comments
dragnandy on May 6, 2008 12:12 AM
looks like the zune is looking even better and better.
nywytboy68 on May 6, 2008 8:00 AM
Now if they could put the EQ back in the 80 and increase the steps for volume from 0-20 to 0-30 or 40 I’d go and get 1 and not stray. I need my EQ and more precise volume control. It IS looking better & better though!!!
musichound on May 6, 2008 8:34 AM
This is fantastic news!!! If gapless playback is successfully ported to the Zune and the software interface is improved I’m selling my iPod and jumping on the Zune bandwagon – Mark my words.
tim on May 6, 2008 8:59 AM
This isn’t listed in the changes, but now if you click in any of the panes (artists, for example) and begin typing a sweet searchbox fades into the center as it narrows your music down.
Chris on May 6, 2008 9:51 AM
Is the gapless and the autoplaylists in the software only? Make my Zune80 do that on the fly and you have something here. The whole reason I have the Zune is to have my music with me without carrying my laptop everywhere, having those features in the software is useless.
Grahm on May 6, 2008 4:27 PM
Gapless you dont need to do anything special, just play it on the fly.
Zoodar on May 6, 2008 5:03 PM
I’m still surprised that most DAPs don’t have gapless playback. I mean, even a compact cassette has gapless playback. I will NEVER let digital music files replace my CDs as long as true gapless playback won’t be standard.
Andrew on May 6, 2008 5:05 PM
I saw the same thing, tim, and it warmed my heart. It’s the polished features like this and the Zunepass that make me ever so increasingly happy I fired Apple.
shade51 on May 6, 2008 9:15 PM
The Zune is a cool device. I have two of the 8GB models, as well as a couple of iPods. But I have to ask – am I the only one who had this experience with the update to 2.5? After I updated, and the Zune software restarted, everything that I had added to my collection was gone. This includes about 2000 songs I’d added via my Zune Pass subscription.I connected each of my Zunes to my computer, and after the firmware upgrade, I dragged the contents from each Zune back into my Collection, and I seem to be getting my stuff back on my PC. It’s taking well over an hour though. Why should this be the case? Or am I the only one who experienced this?Also, I was hoping that the new firmware would allow the player to remember which song was playing when I turned the player off. Other players have had this feature for years. But even the latest update doesn’t seem to have added this feature.Or have I missed something?
Crashdaddy on May 6, 2008 10:28 PM
Gapless playback? Wow, the iPod has had that feature for two years now!TV shows for sale on Zune Marketplace? Incredible, iTunes has had that feature for several years now.Give it up.
songbird on May 6, 2008 11:06 PM
‘Gapless playback? Wow, the iPod has had that feature for two years now!TV shows for sale on Zune Marketplace? Incredible, iTunes has had that feature for several years now.Give it up.’the ipod has had that feature for two years, yet it has been around since 2001 …. the zune has been around since 2006 and now in 08 it has the feature ….. hmmm the comparison cant be made…once again the zune tv addition comes after two years yet it took the ipod till 2005 to add it .. so enough said …come back with better comebacks
wm on May 7, 2008 1:02 AM
songbird: I’m no fan of Apple (let me count the ways) but it’s not like Zune gapless or TV are, how shall we say, innovative. Zune Social is somewhat interesting as PMPs go but jumping on the already passe social networking bandwagon is, well, passe.
wm on May 7, 2008 1:09 AM
Oh yeah, for those of you that can’t seem to live without gapless play. Which is more disruptive of your listening pleasure: 1) gaps between tracks, 2) the kid kicking the back of your airplane seat, 3) the smelly guy next you in an overly humid subway car who decided your shoulder was the ideal pillow?
dewey1973 on May 7, 2008 2:50 AM
I think I may finally have a replacement for my Rio Karma!
songbird on May 7, 2008 9:48 PM
wm: totally agree but he honestly made it seem a little like ‘ oh big whoop apple came up with this years ago ‘ …so i just wanted to give some history ….. and comparison to what he was providingand yeah its definitely not innovative but hey it got here sooner than i thought ….
lyriclistener on May 9, 2008 2:46 AM
Seems NBC signed up because microsoft agreed to develop copyright filters for them.”A future software update of Microsoft’s Zune portable media player might even include a feature that will block unauthorized copies of copyrighted videos from being played on it, industry insiders are saying.” -G4tv.comHope this doesn’t mean I can’t rip my dvd’s to portable anymore.
Lawrence on May 10, 2008 9:17 PM
I think the Zune Reminders will warn you as you’re nearing your Zune’s storage capacity?