Does anyone use zune

Woods tells me that solidarity among Zuners has never been stronger. He finds even more thrills in this strange afterlife, as the years have eroded away everyone except for the zealots.

He can scour the earth in search of every last scrap of Zune memorabilia with the confidence that there will be an audience willing to upvote his efforts indefinitely. He can strap an absurdly huge SSD on the motherboard, ensuring that it will never be replaced. He can post a Zune-stamped coaster, rescued from the deep recesses of the Microsoft trash pile, and trust that his friends will treat the discovery like the Holy Grail.

The Zune was mocked, lampooned, and chased out of the market with its tail between its legs. But it never truly died, not with fans like these. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from.

By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Filed under: Microsoft. Linkedin Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Photo by Conner Woods. Verge Deals The early Black Friday tech deals are coming on strong. But you won't be able to stream or download songs from the Zune service.

Microsoft is turning off the spigot. Of course, DRM content "may not play if the license can't be renewed," Microsoft says, and any Zune Music Pass subscriptions still out there will be converted to Groove Music Pass subscriptions.

Of course, just how all of this unfolds depends upon your Zune account, and for the five or six of you reading this who might have one, Microsoft explains it all on its support page.

It's worth repeating that copyrighted music you've downloaded with Zune may not play with Groove if the licenses didn't renew, which is a very real possibility.

And it's worth noting that although your Zune will continue playing all of your old music, anything you stream or download from Groove won't play on your Zune. There are rumblings that some Zune power users might make an open source Zune client replacement. Assuming this actually happens, such a client almost certainly would do only the simplest of tasks, allowing you to manage what's already on your Zune and nothing more.

Q: How's the video quality with the Zune? If you were to compare it to the iPod's video playback, which one would you say is better looking? A: The Zune, because it's got a bigger screen—despite the fact that they're the same resolution.

Q: How are the default headphones? Are they worth it to keep or should I be making a headphone purchase day one? Q: If I manage to get myself a Zune over the Christmas holidays will the software work ok in Australia or will I be out of luck? A: The software itself should work, but the store most likely will not.

I hate music protection, but hey, sometimes you can only find that one song on iTunes And on the flip side, will Zune not play all those random mp3s that I've moved here and there and everywhere? Particularly ones that I didn't pay for, even if it was a free download off of the artists website?

Q: Does the Zune have gapless playback? A: Nope, neither the Zune or the Zune Software has gapless playback. Update: Cesar says there's gapless playback in the software. Either it's on all the time, or I'm blind, cause I can't find it in the options. Q: Second, I am curious how the Zune handles albums that have an album artist that is different from the track artist.

For example, on a DJ mix album, the DJ would be the album artist and the track producer would be the track artist. A: Yes, there's a concept of "Album artist" and "artist" on there. So to answer your question, yeah, it would work. Q: Can the Zune record from your TV? A: Sorry, no can do. Q: Do you know if there are any plans to make the Zune compatible with Macs? A: Maybe someday generation 2? Q: The zune itself only supports a limited number of video codecs.

Will the software automagically transcode the rest to wmv? Q: The buttons! The back and play buttons on the Zune — are they actual buttons or are they like 3G iPod 'buttons' as they sorta look like? A: They're actually buttons, and not touch-sensitive buttons. You gotta press them. Q: Can you download pictures directly from your digital camera to the Zune?

It would be great to not have to carry multiple SD cards on vacation. A: It may be possible in the future to have an adapter that does that. Q: While your testing out the Zune, have you seen or heard of support by the Zune for "Podcasts"? Q: XM? And no FM recording. Q: Does the zune come with the FM transmitter or do I have to fork out for a seperate device? You'll have to buy a transmitter separately.

Q: Hi, I see from some videos of the Zune interface that there seem to be different backgrounds for each function that you are using. Am I correct in thinking that the background for the start up screen is different from the background for the transfer screen and so on?

If so, can you customize each background? That was a lot of questions. If you still need to know more about the Zune, check out our Zune vs. No gapless playback? Why is this so hard? I had a Dell DJ 3 or 4 years back that had gapless playback, and the iPod just got it and the Zune apparently can't do it. Are the HDDs they're using in these things just so slow they need a whole second to locate the next song and begin playing it?