Map Of Zunes

"Zune Pass is just such a subscription service, and it's a pretty good one… but lately, Zune Pass subscribers have been seeing their music collections just disappear into thin air. This can be a single song, an entire album or even whole artists' collections. Disappearing acts included, but weren't limited to, popular artists like Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend and Spoon. Now, when stuff like this happens, the usual culprit is that the record industry has re-negotiated its licensing deals with the service… which seems to be exactly what occurred. Microsoft has responded to customers' complaints by saying that their music has disappeared because record labels have pulled them."

This story's been making the rounds on the internet as of late. It appears that music from a number of artists is no longer available for Zune Pass download in the marketpace, and has been subsequently stopped working in Zune Pass holders' collections. Though Microsoft has stated that this decision is left up to the labels, there seems to be no larger reasoning behind what content has been pulled. For their part Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and promised to investigate. They are asking affected users to report missing music in the Zune.net forum thread.

"When the US [Gizmodo edition] reviewed the beta [of Zune Video on Xbox Live] yesterday, they were a bit harsh on the Zune marketplace. They said: “Not a whole lot to write home about yet besides 1080p streams”. But they come from a country where VOD is commonplace and easy to get — Netflix, Hulu, Roku, Amazon, TiVo… all let you watch your entertainment whenever you want. Here in Australia, we have iTunes, we have TiVo and we have Foxtel, but the truth is that the Zune Video Marketplace is a much easier and superior experience to both of those."

With all of the competition here in US, it's often easy to forget that even parts of the Western world don't have access to a wide range of quality VOD services. As compared to their brothers in the US edition, who found nothing particularly interesting in the Zune video-on-demand offering for Xbox Live, Gizmodo Australia was excited to report that the Smooth Streaming technology worked as advertised, and moreover that the service was easy to use. It seems like Zune Video is definitely a viable solution for those readers who are overseas and don't have access to maybe a Hulu or Amazon service. Hopefully we'll start to see some strong advances for those of us in the US too.

"[W]e are pleased to announce the immediate availability of XNA Game Studio 3.1 Zune Extensions to support Zune HD. This add-on for XNA Game Studio 3.1 adds the following functionality to the product: [1] The ability to target and develop for the Zune HD media player. [2] The addition of new Touch APIs to the XNA Framework for use on the Zune HD. [3] The addition of new Accelerometer APIs to the XNA Framework for use on the Zune HD."

Even though there's still no word on an official apps distribution platform for Zune HD, intrepid developers can still make use of some of the device's cooler features using the same XNA framework that worked on the older Zunes. Even just a few days in, developers are already starting to try out the multi-touch and accelerometer APIs like in this etch-a-sketch program (video below). Sure, it'd be nice to see some real apps available for purchase through the Marketplace, but for now I'm just happy the device is still somewhat open. Other downsides include the lack of HD-specific graphics libraries (everything's still 2D SpriteBatch-based, so no epic FPS's yet) or internet-aware niceneties.

"In partnership with ReverbNation, they're giving away more than 1,000 free MP3 / M4A audio tracks. The goodies are all available at www.reverbnation.com/windows, and unlike a lot of massive audio giveaways there are plenty of good tracks to be had. I was excited to find tracks from Skindred, Bif Naked, Fishbone, and Reverend Horton Heat (among others). While my taste in music might not jive with yours, don't fret - there's plenty to choose from. You can view the whole catalog or browse by genre - Alternative, Electronic/Dance, Hip Hop, Jazz, Latin, Pop, and Rock."

Check it out: there's a bunch of really cool, free MP3s and M4As for your downloading pleasure. If you find something you particularly enjoy, let us know in the comments!

This week brings another Zune Marketplace freebie that you can download, play back, burn to a CD, and sync to your Zune device. You'll need a Zune account to download the free content. Clicking on the link(s) below will automatically launch the Zune software and take you to the artist's page, so please ensure that the software is installed on your PC.

• Title: The Killer
• Artist: Mobile
• Genre: Rock
• Length: 3:40
• DRM-free MP3: No

I know it's a little late by Twitter standards, but this is a Zune site so why not?

Engadget's Ross Miller doesn't think this picture is interesting by itself. I would both agree and disagree; the picture itself isn't too interesting, but taken in context it reveals a few key tidbits. For starters, it looks like they're retaining the Twist UI paradigm, which was introduced all the way back in Zune 1.0. It looks like the artist views are going to start imitating the "enhanced now playing" in the Zune software a little more, with band pictures and info popping up when you scroll through music (see a better shot here.) Also, it appears that the Marketplace and Collection will begin to look a little more closely related, with dynamically-generated previews of the tracklist shown below the album title and release year (see abo.) September 8 can't come soon enough.

This week brings two Zune Marketplace freebies that you can download, play back, burn to a CD, and sync to your Zune device. You'll need a Zune account to download the free content. Clicking on the link(s) below will automatically launch the Zune software and take you to the artist's page, so please ensure that the software is installed on your PC.

• Title: Hold the Line
• Artist: Major Lazer, Mr. Lex & Santigold
• Genre: Reggae/Dancehall
• Length: 3:39
• DRM-free MP3: Yes

• Title: Heavy Cross
• Artist: The Gossip
• Genre: Rock
• Length: 4:02
• DRM-free MP3: No

This week brings two Zune Marketplace freebies that you can download, play back, burn to a CD, and sync to your Zune device. You'll need a Zune account to download the free content. Clicking on the link(s) below will automatically launch the Zune software and take you to the artist's page, so please ensure that the software is installed on your PC.

• Title: Quiet Dog
• Artist: Mos Def
• Genre: Hip-Hop
• Length: 2:57
• DRM-free MP3: Yes

• Title: Light Through the Veins
• Artist: Jon Hopkins
• Genre: Electronic/Dance
• Length: 9:18
• DRM-free MP3: Yes

"Chester French, the hotly tipped dynamic pop act who recently released their debut album, have just released an exclusive performance as part of Zune’s “Green Room” video series. The behind-the-scenes and performance footage gives an intimate and no holds barred look at the band on stage and in their tour bus."

If you haven't had a chance to check out the Zune Green Room podcast yet, you might be seriously missing out. The lineup so far has been awesome, with Adele, Mastadon, Janelle Monae, Duran Duran, Travis Barker and DJ AM, T.I., and Peter, Bjorn and John. Each series features some really cool answers and provides a bit more insight into the minds of your favorite artists (my personal favorites were the episode with Adele and Janelle Monae). Check out ZuneInsider for the lineup to the upcoming podcasts.

I was poking around the Hubble space telescope site, grabbed five images, and turned them into 240 x 320 backgrounds for the Zune. Want 'em? Grab the ZIP file.