This evening, at the request of my wife, I’ve been playing around with iTunes on her computer. I’ve got to say I haven’t missed anything. I’m simply trying to get her library to update itself and remove references to songs that are no longer available to her on our home network.

The songs aren’t available because the computer they were stored on is now offline and I’m not sure when it will be getting fixed again. You’d think there would be an easy way to get this done. If there is, I haven’t found it. That’s one of the reasons I …read more

The Zune HD is shaping up to be what the Xbox 360 was to the original Xbox: the Zune, perfected. (Hopefully without the red ring of death.)
An enterprising spycam operator took footage of the Zune HD in action — complete with those smooth-as-silk transitions that are all the buzz throughout the blogosphere — at the recent GDGT Launch Party in San Francisco where the Zune HD was shown off to select members of the press.
I have to say that the more I see of the Zune HD, the more impressive it looks. Microsoft has yet to set a price point …read more

One of the things I almost always need when I’m working is music. Not sure what it is but there’s just something about silence when I need to be moving and doing or thinking and processing. It’s been that way since I was a little kid and was told to clean my room.

Normally when I’m working on my computer I’m listening to either my own music I’ve ripped to my hard drive or downloaded legally; or I’m streaming some great music from Pandora into my headphones.
The only challenge is that when I’m working I’ve also usually got a number of …read more

There was a recent post on the ZDNet blogs about whether or not Microsoft should ditch their Zune media player to the curb and stop trying?
The revenues dropped significantly in the fourth quarter of 2008, which the article shared is really only a fight for the 30% that’s not already taken by the Apple iPod.
The post had a couple of poll questions that I felt were interesting to take a look at the data as well.

Should Microsoft drop the Zune? NO 60% / YES 40% (1483 votes cast)
Do you own a Zune? NO 46% / YES 40% / NO, …read more

Microsoft and Zune have now given me another great reason to choose the Zune over the iPod for my next MP3 player. The Zune Marketplace now offers subscription services.
With the Zune Pass Subscription I can download all the music I want and keep 10 of them as my own each month. The service costs $14.99/month, so that works out to about $1.50 per song each month. Just $.50 more than I’d normally pay if I purchased it at iTunes or Amazon. So, I can look at it as paying $5/month for unlimited downloads and listening options normally.
Right now I can …read more

File folders are pretty ubiquitous right now aren’t they? Anyone using Windows is probably quite familiar with them right? Windows has been around now for awhile right? Microsoft developed Windows right? Microsoft developed the Zune right?
Why doesn’t the Zune interface support a folder hierarchy for files?
I’m still trying to decide if I’m going to go with the 120GB Zune or the 120GB Apple iPod Classic. Luckily the finances right now aren’t putting me in a position to make this decision immediately so I’m able to glean some good feedback from other individuals I know and online.
A friend of mine …read more

I sure wish that the images for CD covers on albums were stored as embedded information within each MP3 instead of as separate files in the directory. If you really want to start thinking of your MP3 collection like your old-school CD collection (can you believe I just used “old-school” and CD collection in the same sentence?) then you need to allow people to easily browse through their album covers and potentially even the inside liner information as images or text in a file. Embedding this in the MP3 file would be great so you wouldn’t have multiple files …read more

It seems Bill Gates is in touch with reality and understands that DRM is just a pain in butt for most people. Of course it’s necessary though, I don’t fault any company for trying to protect their business interests and profitability. The problem is it just gets in the way. If I purchase a digital copy of the song, why can’t I have the same rights with it as I would if I bought the original CD. Make a copy of it, play it on any device with no hurdles to jump through.
Bill agrees
People should just buy a cd and …read more

I signed up for the Zune newsletter quite awhile back when the original website first popped up with the weird guy and the rabbit.
I just received my first e-mail newsletter from that sign-up. Technology and coolness aside, Microsoft could learn something from Apple about how to create a buzz around something that’s not yet available.