What are the free accessories that come with a new Zune?

Zune accessories?

Can my ipod accessories work with a zune?

How can I use my iHome iPod accessories with a Zune? Is there an adapter that converts the iDock to zune?

Where can I find 2nd generation Zune accessories?

Can Microsoft Zune accessories be used with the Ipod?

Microsoft To Let Zune Users Record From FM Radio

FM radio is absolutely inundated with commercials these days, but occasionally, radio stations still play actual music. And Microsoft believes there’s a market in letting Zune music player owners capture songs from the brief intervals of non-advertising related content.

When Microsoft releases version 3.0 of its Zune software on Sept.16, Zune users will be able to tag and buy the songs they hear through the Zune’s built-in FM radio tuner whenever they’re in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot. If a user isn’t within range of a hotspot, the software will queue the song and download it from Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace store when they’re back in range.

Customers have the option of buying single tracks or subscribing to Zune Pass, which costs $14.99 per month. The subscription includes access to Microsoft’s Zune social music community and the ability to share music with other members via the Zune Card, a real-time playlist of each user’s favorite and recently played songs.

Wi-Fi and social networking are features that Microsoft is using to differentiate the Zune from the massively popular iPod line, which has one Wi-Fi-equipped model, the iPod Touch.

But thus far, Zune’s Wi-Fi capabilities have been oddly restricted to synchronizing digital music, photos, and video with PCs and sharing music with other Zune users, which is why the FM recording feature could attract some consumers’ attention.

Microsoft is also expanding the Zune portfolio with new 16GB and 120GB versions, and is also adding new blue-on-silver and all-black color schemes. The 120 GB Zune will be priced at $249.99; the 80 GB model at $229.99; the 16 GB model at $199.00; the 8 GB model at $149.99; and the 4 GB model at $129.99.

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.

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.

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