Restricted Words in ZuneCard Status Field

[Adam Krebs]

The Zune Card is undoubtedly cool. You can set your own profile and background picture, in addition to selecting a custom status to describe how you're currently feeling (as if your last five played songs weren't enough of an indicator). Unfortunately, there are a few "no-no" words you can't put in your status. Most of them are fairly obvious (the "_-word", certain bodily parts and functions, and things like "Microsoft" and "Support"), but a few of them seem to be going a bit over the top. For instance, if I'm listening to to Jerry Lee Lewis' famous "Great Balls of Fire", it won't allow me to say so. I can't even say "I love my Zune!" without it throwing up a hissy-fit. It's interesting, because it recognizes some substitute letters but not others (e.g. $ for s, \/ for v, 1 for l, or * as substitute for any letter).

It's interesting to note that while "Xbox" and "Windows" are blocked (though not "XP" or "Vista"), "PlayStation", "Apple", "OSX", or even "iPod" are not. The only non-Microsoft trademark they block? "Linux."

[Adam Krebs]

The Zune Card is undoubtedly cool. You can set your own profile and background picture, in addition to selecting a custom status to describe how you're currently feeling (as if your last five played songs weren't enough of an indicator). Unfortunately, there are a few "no-no" words you can't put in your status. Most of them are fairly obvious (the "_-word", certain bodily parts and functions, and things like "Microsoft" and "Support"), but a few of them seem to be going a bit over the top. For instance, if I'm listening to to Jerry Lee Lewis' famous "Great Balls of Fire", it won't allow me to say so. I can't even say "I love my Zune!" without it throwing up a hissy-fit. It's interesting, because it recognizes some substitute letters but not others (e.g. $ for s, \/ for v, 1 for l, or * as substitute for any letter).

It's interesting to note that while "Xbox" and "Windows" are blocked (though not "XP" or "Vista"), "PlayStation", "Apple", "OSX", or even "iPod" are not. The only non-Microsoft trademark they block? "Linux."