[Darius Wey]

http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-6135131.html

"And although Microsoft is starting with a small feature list, Erickson said the company will be able to make additions fairly quickly through software updates. First on that list is compatibility with Windows Vista."

Yes, we all know that the Zune is a little crippled in its current form. First, the lack of Windows Vista support, but they're working on that (expect an update by November 30; if not, well before January 30). The lack of support for podcasts is a deal breaker for some, but that's going to be amended in the short term too. You can also expect a new and easy way to get videos on to the device (cryptic, I have to admit). In the long term, Microsoft is hoping to open up the Wi-Fi and perhaps reach out to enemy territory. Flagging and purchasing songs direct from the device? Mac support? It's all under consideration. The Zune team at Microsoft has ideas and wants the consumers to tell them what's hot and what's not, so go on, post 'em in this thread and we'll do our best to ensure they read it. ;-)

[Darius Wey]

http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-6135131.html

"And although Microsoft is starting with a small feature list, Erickson said the company will be able to make additions fairly quickly through software updates. First on that list is compatibility with Windows Vista."

Yes, we all know that the Zune is a little crippled in its current form. First, the lack of Windows Vista support, but they're working on that (expect an update by November 30; if not, well before January 30). The lack of support for podcasts is a deal breaker for some, but that's going to be amended in the short term too. You can also expect a new and easy way to get videos on to the device (cryptic, I have to admit). In the long term, Microsoft is hoping to open up the Wi-Fi and perhaps reach out to enemy territory. Flagging and purchasing songs direct from the device? Mac support? It's all under consideration. The Zune team at Microsoft has ideas and wants the consumers to tell them what's hot and what's not, so go on, post 'em in this thread and we'll do our best to ensure they read it. ;-)

[gshocker]

The Podcast thing is something that I can't wait for.. My ipod will have to remain my podcast device for now as it is just much easier than trying to transfer them to my Zune.

I would love to see wifi support so that I can sync and purchase music using this. The sharing is cool but I may never get a chance to use it as most of my friends either have an iPod or are using some other device. WiFi purchases would be a great tool and make the song sharing even better.

Another big thing would be to allow the use of this device as a hard drive. Being able to store docs that I need on my ipod is cool. This is something that I would like to see in the Zune as well.

[Jason Eaton]

So... your using the radio tunner... a song comes on and your like... this isn't bad, heck I kinda like it. I think it would be cool if the Zune could record a bit of the clip, analyze the song, send my zune name/account (you log in for a reason right?) a quick text like message with a link that I can click and purchase the song from the Zune marketplace.

Of course part of this feature set is that the Zune also has a function much like a DVR where it has a two minute continuous record. So at the end of the song I can jump back a bit and listen to it again if I wanted (this is also where the Zune store gets that audio clip of the song).

Now I am not talking crazy talk. Samsung and and Cingular Wireless in the States already have a phone that you can hold up to a speaker and have it identify the song and tell you artisit and song title.

Of course the Zune would also be able to do so from outside sources. So say I head to the club and a good song gets queued up. I press a button and the Zune does its thing.

Of course it would have to wait till I got home to send the message to the mothership but hey...

(additional thought) Same tech so when I am watching a movie on the Zune I can grab songs that are playing during the movie. Might be a little harder with ambient movie noises and speech but when in doubt could send you three closest matches or something.

Maybe some biometerics through the thumb wheel would be cool. Like I can record a couple thumb prints for me and the wife and presto the machine only turns on for us. Everyone else gets a brick. Don't want anyone to steal the sucker.

Slide up screen protector. A little plastic slip that slides up and down under the button wheel. So when I go to place it in a pocket I pull on the tab and the screen protector comes up, when I want to use I just push it down and don't have to be distracted by the messed up screen.

Or act like a wireless thumb drive. I just slide up next to my computer and the wifi makes a conection and a DHCP address later and poof an accessible storage area with no cables.

How about wireless sharing of the equivilent of business cards, but more social. You meet uber geekette and you can swap phone numbers, email addresses, and a playlist for them to check out later.

Subway wireless tag... yeah of course you got to get a city to use it but like speedpass for tollboths you just walk through the turnstyle and poof no more tokens just hop on the train to work while listening to your personal jams.

Keeping it going the Zune singles finder... you just set it to broadcast with your traits and what your looking for in a mate. Walk into the club and you broadcast and then it listens to see if your traits match up with someone else and poof it makes a connection. Talk about welcome to the social...

I guess if it just does music thats okay too...

[Aaron Roma]

Can someon find out if the Zune team is hiring, and give them Jason's number?

[prprush1]

ok im all about not using the computer when it comes to entertemt. Right now 360 is going to start HD video down loads from xbox live it would be great if i could by HD video for my xbox then plug my zune into the 360 and bam the xbox coverts the HD video and sync it to my Zune. with all the processing power of the xbox the convert time would be much faster then most PC plus i would only have to buy the TV, Movie once and it work all the way around with my great microsft home

Also putting Zune marketplace on the xbox and using it to sync to my zune.

it would be also great to sync my smiple xbox live arcade game to my zune so i can play lumines or zuma on the go. That way my gamer/zune tag is aways up todate with progress ive made in the game.

i would also like to see the zune market place sell digital reprints of Art work for us as backgound are just to enjoy the art work on the go.

it would also be nice if the wifi in the zune worked with xbox live so i can read messages and check gamer card info of friends and Leaderborads for the games i love.

lets not for get the ablitly to download and buy any thing from the zune market place right to the zune using wifi and a hot spot.

I hope all these good idea that the zunethoughts forms has come up with makes it way to Microsoft.

[Jason Eaton]

On the way home I flushed out the thought a bit, So the Social zune idea with the find a friend idea grows into...

ZuneSpace
So in your profile you actually create a blog about yourself, like MySpace, and you add a picture and so forth like cover art for a background and the rest is up to you. So in club zune you can broadcast your ZuneSpace and read others in the area. This way you can get a picture of the person and find them in the club, know a little more about them, find out there likes dislikes all before you say hi. For the younger folk... they just walk down the hall at school and wahmo... insta myspace type action. Expect Zunes to get band at schools but sell like hotcakes.

ZuneTv
Video on portable media players sucks assssshhhh. From downloading converting hassles argh. but with ZuneTv you log on and by a season pass for the shows you like. After the show runs live ZuneTv does all the transcoding for you and pushes it down to your account. So you leave the computer on at night and each morning (or however frequent your show is) the next episode is already on the device waiting. Your tv when you want all while you sleep. No mush no fuss.

DJ Zune
This one is a bi directional thing. So before you head off to club Zune you compile a wish list/favorites list of music. As you enter the club the wifi at the club recieves your list (like it did for the other patrons there) and makes a on the fly database and tallies the results. The songs with the most votes are played through out the night. THen DJ Zune sends you back a playlist for the evening for as long as your there ...

[Jason Eaton]

Aw heck, who needs Club Zune, just run it through xbox or windows media pc...

So your having the pool party, same concept your guests determine the music for you. The plasma display is throwing out some trippy music screen effects everyone having a good time.

Skip the party scene your friends come over for some Halo 3 and Dj Zune grabs the playlist for some personalized background noise so your jammin the warthog throttle and mashing the fire button to your favorite tunes. Throw in Gears of War if you want instead of Halo 3. DOA extreme beach volleyball probably isn't a good example, you don't want people to know you own that game.