Zune player forum makes teen a fortune
SANTA ANA, Calif. - Young entrepreneur Hansup Yoon, 15, recently sold his creation ZuneBoards, an Internet forum devoted to Microsoft’s Zune media player, for $62,000.
The teenager, who lives in Fullerton, Calif., created the site months before Microsoft introduced its answer to Apple’s iPod in 2006.
“It was the most perfect time to start a Web site about Zune, and I was one of the first few to create a Zune-related site,” he said.
Yoon built the site using the free MyBBoard software, later shifting to vBulletin and Joomla. In less than two years, it grew to 60,000 members with more than 270,000 posts, all about Zune. It has been making about $1,000 a month from Google Adsense and TribalFusion, both with tools that place ads that are relevant to a Web site’s visitors.
When he decided to sell, he posted it on SitePoint.com and other sales Web sites for a minimum of $30,000 or “Buy It Now” for $60,000. Two bidders chose the latter option, and crowdgather, a Woodland Hills, Calif., company that has bought more than 70 message boards and forums as a foundation for Internet advertising, upped its bid to $62,000.
“Bidding was getting close to the Buy It Now price, and I didn’t want to lose (ZuneBoards) over a few thousand dollars,” said crowdgather founder Sanjay Sabnani.
Sabnani wasn’t surprised to learn that his acquisition was created and owned by a teenager.
“I’m getting more and more used to that,” he said. “My first acquisition was a graphic site from someone in Italy. I was blown away when I found out he was 16.”
Because Yoon is a minor, crowdgather negotiated with his parents, and the deal closed in a day. They used escrow.com, an Irvine, Calif., site that acts as a shield against fraud between buyers and sellers of businesses, Web sites and other ventures, Sabnani said.
Yoon’s ability to build a profitable site would be the envy of older entrepreneurs.
“At first I tried to teach myself with books I would buy from bookstores. … However, ultimately, I was mostly self-taught from other Web development communities like Forums.DigitalPoint.com, SitePoint.com and NamePros.com,”
Yoon said. “The Internet is an amazing place. You can practically learn anything you want if you’re willing to make a time commitment.
“It is so easy to make money on the Internet. Web development. Made-for-Adsense sites. Affiliate marketing. Paid to post. And the list goes on,” Yoon said. “I guess that’s one reason why I am so thankful to God. Not everyone has the mentality and understanding of how things work online as I do.”
After he designed ZuneBoards, he marketed it by exchanging posts with other small forums. In a few months, he had several volunteer administrators and moderators who made sure the forums were organized and all posts obeyed the site’s rules. ZuneBoards now has more than 70 people working on it.
“The great thing was I had so much freedom,” Yoon said. “I only spent 30 minutes online a day on ZuneBoards.”
Yoon decided to sell ZuneBoards to spend more time on his studies. He is a sophomore in high school and plans to try out for the football team. Also, he wanted to give some financial support to his family.
Getting A Quality DVD Download On Zune
How do you get good quality DVD download on your Zune? It’s a question most Zune player owners ask. The best DVD download on Zune movies can be had from all sorts of different sites. It’s all a matter of just choosing a site and then downloading files in a trial and error fashion. But movies are large files and a person will be wasting a lot of time if he or she downloads a bunch of movies only to find that more than half of them are of the worst quality ever.
A Case of Piracy - This is usually the case if a movie is pirated or is from not so reputable sources on the Internet. Here are ways to make sure that you get quality downloads onto your Zune player every time you sync it up to get a movie.
Study Links
Know the links and your source. Although once can get quality video clips, images, music, and games from a Zune download site, it is still not a source for big movies that are licensed by huge studios. One will have to turn to third-party websites for full-length movie downloads. There are many third-party websites but not all of them are accredited and licensed to distributed material that can otherwise be pirated.
This is where the consumer has to get smart. By studying a site, one can see if it is the kind of site that offers legitimate content and if it’s worth spending money for. Then, one can continue to try registering for the site to see what sort of payment options are available. Payments accepted via credit card usually are a sign that a site is legitimate in its services
Download Packages - The packages give members access to millions of files that can be used on the Zune. When it comes to quality DVD download on Zune, one can expect to pay a little more for access to their libraries of movies as well.
Preview Then Sync
Review the quality on PC first. This is a good way to make sure that you are getting a DVD quality movie for your Zune, to first watch it on you r PC before you sync it on the device. The beauty of the Zune is that it accepts three formats: MPEG, MOV, and WMV.
Proper Format - These formats can easily be played on computers and so you can easily preview what you download to determine if you have a good download. Of course this may be a tedious process because you have to download the whole movie first but at least you will be sure of the quality before going around carrying what may have been pirated.
Converting Collection - Lastly, the one way to make sure that you have quality movies is to convert your already existing DVD collection into a digital format best suited for the Zune. This is a tedious process but at least you will have back ups of all your DVDs that you can carry around on your portable player. These are the major ways to make sure you get Quality DVD download on Zune.
Xilisoft Zune Video Converter
Xilisoft Zune Video Converter is a video to Zune conversion tool. It can convert popular video formats like AVI, MPEG, DivX, RM, MOV, ASF, VOB to Zune WMV, MP4, MPEG4 video files, and also convert audio files including WAV, RA, AC3, MP2, APE, OGG, and CDA to Zune audio formats MP3, WMA, AAC easily and fast, with excellent quality. It also allows you to capture pictures in batch from video, and create video from pictures.
Key Features: Support multithreading and batch conversion; Integrate with all video/audio encoders/codec; Auto-detect your CPU; Provide both general and advanced settings, such as customizing output file size with video bit rate obtained accordingly; Support setting divers output profiles for one video source at the same time; Support run in background for more efficiency. Version 5.0.98.0815 is a bug fixing release.
You can download it by clicking here.
FCC gives OK to 120GB Zune
Microsoft’s 120GB Zune gets by the FCC.
(Credit: FCC)
The FCC’s Web site let us all in on a little Microsoft secret Monday: the company is working on a 120GB Zune.
A report detailing a test performed by the government agency in mid-June shows a picture of the portable media player, which looks identical to the 80GB version of the device. It doesn’t appear that there are any other spec changes besides the larger hard drive capacity.
At 120GB, that puts Microsoft neatly between Apple’s largest-capacity iPod offerings. Apple has an 80GB and a 160GB iPod Classic, and doesn’t participate in the 120GB category.
And although the report has plenty to say about radiation test results, it offers nothing about any prospective release date or price.
Microsoft looks to revamp Zune
iPod rival bolstered by exclusive programming
Microsoft is in the process of revitalising its Zune media player with new unconventional features not currently offered by the currently more successful Apple iPod.
In order to do this, the firm has joined forces with production companies and talent agencies as it enters an ‘exploratory phase.’
Part of this drive will be ‘Zune Social’ – software that will allow users to join a social networking community.
There is speculation form some quarters that this will be Microsoft’s last attempt to boost the device’s sales before dropping the project entirely.
“What we would be looking to do with any form of original content is the added component that Zune could provide that iTunes or any competing service couldn’t,” said Richard Winn, director of entertainment development at Zune.
Zune seeks a few good studios
Microsoft is said to be on the hunt for studios to provide exclusive content for the Zune media player.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Microsoft officials have been visiting with studios and talent agencies recently in hopes of securing a deal to provide the player with video content.
Originally hailed as Microsoft’s answer to the iPod, the Zune has failed to emerge as a credible threat to its Apple counterpart. Microsoft has sold just two million of the players since its 2006 launch.
One of the main reasons credited for the iPod’s continued dominance of the market is the iTunes store. The Apple service allows users to download and transfer both music and video onto the iPod easily.
Microsoft reportedly hopes to counter this by securing the rights to exclusive content that Apple would not be able to license and distribute through iTunes. The company may also look to take advantage of the Zune’s wireless networking features, which have not yet proven to be a major selling point.
“What we would be looking to do with any form of original content is the added component that Zune could provide that iTunes or any competing service couldn’t,” Zune director of entertainment development Richard Winn told The Hollywood Reporter.
“The thing we’ve all been looking for is, ‘What can we do that is a little more interesting than just looking at a piece of video?’”
Nokia and Microsoft in alliance to make Zune phone?
Chicago (IL) – Speculations about Microsoft’s iPhone beater are about as old as the iPhone itself. Rumors that both Microsoft and Nokia are worried about Apple’s advances aren’t dying down and if we believe the latest wave of speculations then both companies could be working together to prevent Apple from repeating even a fraction of the success the company had with the iPod. Microsoft’s effort to integrate Zune Marketplace content with Windows Mobile and Nokia handsets is seen as part of this effort.
Microsoft remained conspicuously mum on the possibility of a Zune phone, neither confirming nor denying Zune phone speculations. Whenever media presses Microsoft executives on the matter, the same answer is given: Microsoft is more than happy with its position in the mobile phone space. In addition a Zune phone may make no sense at all, given Microsoft’s less than impressive Zune music player and the general consensus that Microsoft might remove the device from the market soon. There could be room for a new Zune device, but the brand name needs to be cleaned up.
A Zune phone remains only a rumor at this point but there are signs that Microsoft will at least leverage the Zune brand and Zune Marketplace content to slow down the iPhone.
According to a report published by UK tech site Electric Pig, the software giant is now teaming up with Nokia to launch an “all out assault” on Apple, while there is still time. The report cites an unverified “well placed source within Microsoft” that revealed details behind Microsoft-Nokia partnership to the Zunescene web site. The Zune team is reportedly working with Nokia to integrate the Zune Marketplace with Nokia smartphones. This should not come as s surprise as most industry watchers have been repeatedly calling Microsoft to expand the Zune Marketplace content (music, movies, TV series, etc.) to Windows Mobile platform, PCs, Xbox, etc. It is unknown at this time if the Nokia Music Store and the Zune Marketplace will merge or will coexist.
The non-exclusive deal appears to be limited to content delivery only at this point. However, a Zune phone would be a conclusive move. Yes, we are speculating but you must admit that such a device may make sense. Microsoft already knows how not to create a MP3 player, how not to create a Zune cellphone (see Motorola Rokr) and how a successful Zune cellphone could look like (iPhone). The software giant first partnered with Nokia two years ago to bring its online services to Nokia handsets (such as Windows Live search, Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail.) It was a limited collaboration and it never reached the operating system realm.
Microsoft and Nokia have the same rival to battle. Other handset vendors have failed to crank out iPhone killers or have delayed potential competitors. However, the combined resources of Microsoft and Nokia present an interesting opportunity to challenge Apple in a highly profitable market segment.
At the moment, Microsoft seems to be content with expanding the Zune brand and the Zune Marketplace content into the Windows Mobile space and Nokia mobile phones. Most analysts do not believe that Microsoft will make a Zune mobile phone at this time. “The business model of Windows Mobile is totally different than Zune,” Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg wrote in his blog. “Zune worked to some extent since the technology Microsoft was licensing wasn’t getting them anywhere. As it was, hardware partners were taken aback by Microsoft’s actions but were still comfortable licensing.”
According to the analyst, Microsoft now has 20 million Windows Mobile licenses out there and is “gaining traction.” It also has “a great stream of partners” that make more and more Windows Mobile-powered phones for business and personal use, so Microsoft’s entrance into the handset hardware business would potentially affect this scenario in a negative way. “Windows Mobile is a core platform and OS. No one has ever been successful licensing technology platforms to others and then competing with a device of their own. Apple failed (twice), Palm and Nokia all tried it and it just can’t be done,” Gartenberg wrote.