My First Zune Badge: A Lesson in mediocrity

I finally got my first Zune badge today and with it, a lesson in mediocrity. Microsoft may want to rethink their strategy as to how these badges are issued as I now feel that I listen to a bunch of kindof sortof artists..

The Bronze Artist Power Listener award! Wooo Hooo. Are you kidding me? Thanks for this bronze mediocre accomplishment. What if it was a Platinum Artist Power Listener award? Does that mean I've listened to the most commercial music possible - that I am a power listener of platinum artists? What about, Gold. What about Silver.

Either way, I'm still happy that Microsoft has finally allowed me to create a Zune account. Thanks for the good work.

Over and Out

Microsoft Zune Development Platform RELEASED!!!!! (CTP)

Why is this not news? Do people really not care about Zune. With this release it will be interesting to see what new apps we can load on our devices.

Anyway, as predicted the Microsoft Zune Development Platform has arrived. I'm thinking cardless card games :).

Officially, this is a gaming platform. Unofficially, it's a development platform.

Check out the Zune blog here.

Keep in mind the full platform will not be released until Holiday 2008.

If you are desperate for the CTP direct download from Microsoft try clicking here.

I'm downloading tonight and will report on my development experiences on this blog.

Over and Out

Microsoft Zune Dev Platform coming soon???

I bought a Zune 2 80GB media player because I believed in Microsoft when they gave the Zune 2.0 software update to all the Zune 1 users.

In February, Microsoft stated (on their XNA Team blog) that Zune game development would be possible in XNA Studio 3.0.

"A preview release of XNA Game Studio 3.0 will be available in the Spring 2008 timeframe, with a final release scheduled for the holiday 2008 season."

Moreover, they went even further to suggest the following api functionalities:

"Keeping with Zune media experience, XNA Game Studio 3.0 integration includes discoverability and access to user’s music allowing the user to customize background soundtracks or create real-time visualizations. In addition, the XNA Community Games Platform team has announced the ability to have multiple Zunes wirelessly engage in an ad-hoc gaming experience."

I visited the XNA Creators Club site today and they are showcasing Zune development (picture above right). Does this mean the Game Studio release is right around the corner? Or have they not updated their site since February?

I have to say, I may be a minority, but I really like my Zune!

Over and Out

Zune Software No Worky on Remote Desktop Connection

I wonder how many people are like me, remoting into their home PC's from the office so they may "organize things" or "view things" or "do things" that they can't do at the office - Like try to find where that mix tape resides on their Zune because the Zune interface has no ability to search.

Well, I remoted in today and tried to do a search of my device from the Zune Software (yes you can see what has been sync'd with your Zune even if it's not plugged in). So I remoted into my home PC and opened the Zune software.

Where the software was supposed to show me a window, I saw a white hole in the screen. Is this a sign of the times? Should I be upgrading to Vista? Anyway readers, if you know why this happens, or how the heck I can fix it I'd love an answer. I'm from Canada and had to import my Zune (not for sale here) so I don't have any friends in the same situation.

Here is a screen shot (sorry, I cropped out my IP and the Remote Desktop Title Bar):



Over And Out.

iPod / Zune feature request: Listen to Video

Just a little feature request. I'd like to be able to play a video file as an audio file on my Zune.

For certain shows, EX// Russell Peters comedy acts - I'd like to be able to turn off my LCD screen so I can just listen to the audio.

My primary reason for wanting this is to save some juice.

Over and Out

Microsoft and Silverlight @ ZuneOriginals.net

OK Microsoft,

When you release a new technology and you promote it as an alternative to Flash please at least make a little attempt to actually use the technology in one of your production web sites. I can't say much of your continued use of Flash in your production web applications. It's frustrating and it's degrading to your developer base. Do you actually think that any developers will jump on board with the technology when you yourselves don't even use it?

If anyone has any insight in to why the https://zuneoriginals.net site is written in Flash please let me know. I would have thought this project was a great candidate to show off what the Silverlight technology can do with a little Zune 2 demo with HD quality streaming video etc. I guess someone at Microsoft wasn't so keen.

Is Silverlight a pipe dream? Will Microsoft even use it in their production implementations? Or is Flash just that much better? You tell me! Would you ever use it?

Over and Out