Jason Dunn
07-06-2011, 07:22 PM
<p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//zt/auto/1309976001.usr1.png" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>There have been a few updates in the world of Zune over the past week or so.</p><p>First, Microsoft has discontinued Zune Originals. That's right, no more custom Zune HDs are available for order. I did a little eye-roll when this happened, because I wanted a 64 GB Zune HD but was waiting for the price to drop a little more. Looks like I waited too long! The <a href="http://www.zuneoriginals.com" target="_blank">Zune Originals Web site</a> says to go look for a Zune HD at Best Buy or Wal-mart, but good luck with that. Zune all but died at retail a long time ago.</p><p>In the same week, the Zune team released nine new Zune HD apps, along with updates for a few older apps. <a href="http://anythingbutipod.com/2011/07/microsoft-releases-nine-new-zune-hd-apps/" target="_blank">Anythingbutipod has the full breakdown</a> on the new apps. I'm in Canada, and despite the <a href="http://www.zunethoughts.com/news/show/109291/zune-hd-apps-now-available-to-canadians-or-not.html" target="_blank">announcement two full months ago</a> about the Zune HD apps coming to Canada, I'm still seeing this ugly error when I try to browse the Zune HD apps in the marketplace:</p><p><img height="277" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//zt/auto/1304612042.usr1.png" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" width="589" /></p><p>Lastly, there's software update for the Zune HD that takes it from 4.5 Build 109 to 4.5 Build 114. I have no idea what it adds or changes, because Microsoft doesn't release changelogs about the update.</p><p>It baffles me as to why Microsoft continues to release apps for a product they've ignored and marginalized in an epic way. I mean, what's the point?</p>