Well there is a good news from Cesar the recent 2.3 firmware update puts an end to this problem and also provides some performance improvements like

Improved device recognition

(and)

Improved stability and reliability on sync (both wirelessly and while connected to a PC).

Hopefully after this update we will not hear any more issues related to batteries.

Happy Holidays

The update is now available for download here. A member of zunethoughts team has also detailed his upgrade experience in the video below.

Zune 4GB and Zune 8GB
Audio: up to 24 hours
Video: up to 4 hours
Tested Using: 128kbps .wma tracks

Zune 80
Audio: up to 30 hours
Video: up to 4 hours
Tested Using: 500kbps .wmv videos

List of features:

• First of all no clock. Well a lot of people expected it to be in the first place when zune was launched
• No portable hard drive support.
• Support Podcasts.
• Resolution of 720×480 @30fps or 720×576 @25fps without transcoding.
• 640×480 TV out or video out resolution without transcoding.
• Flash zunes (the 4 and 8 GB models) will not have TV out.
• Lossless playback support.
• But no gapless support yet.
• Native video codecs for h.264 and MPEG-4 that means you no longer have to transcode it to WMV.
• No native support for Avi/DivX files.

Please let me know if I missed any.

Specifications:

Both 4GB and 8GB flash memory based zunes will have a 1.8 inch screen and will come in black, pink, green and red. The 4 GB version will retail for $149.99 and the 8GB one for $199.99. The dimensions for both are 3.6 x 1.62 x 0.33; Weight: 1.7oz.

The 80GB zune will have a 3.2 inch screen, premium headphones and will retail for $249.99. The dimensions are 4.26 x 2.41 x 0.51; Weight 4.5oz.

Features:

All of these devices will have wireless sync, updated wireless sharing, an FM tuner, updated device UI, lossless playback support and a bright LCD color screen to display music, pictures, videos and podcasts. You’ll also be able to sync your Vista Media Center TV content to your Zune. There’s still no word on the battery performance of the new zunes.

They have also redesigned the zune software and the zune marketplace. The ZMP will now host more than 3 million tracks, thousands of music videos, free audio and video podcasts and over a million DRM-free MP3s that can be played on your zune or any other DMP.

They have also launched something called Zune Social, an online community in beta which extends the connection from device-device to PC-to-PC and allows you to share music tastes, knowledge and experiences with others. This will be possible by creating a personalized profile called Zune Card with your picture, custom backgrounds, biographical information and more. You will be able to browse your friend’s profiles, invite friends, send and receive song recommendations and post comments. Your card will automatically update with the music you are playing on your Zune or with your Zune software.

See Cesar’s post for more detailed information:

He said they having been thinking about doing this for a while as around 94% of people polled found the price to be on the higher side.

Now with the new price more people would enjoy the Zune experience. On the other hand we still don’t have any information on the new Zune or any new updates.

The Zune - Halo 3 Edition comes:

• Pre-loaded with music, artwork (over 120 different images), trailers and videos from Halo, Halo 2, and Halo 3
• Custom Halo graphics
• Special edition, customized packaging
• Exclusive episode of Red vs. Blue (only the first six episodes of season 1)

It looks great, see for yourself in the un-boxing video below.

Halo 3 Zune Unboxed

You need to login to view the video. Sorry, can’t embed the video guess wordpress and MSN Soapbox don’t like eachother

Microsoft will be manufacturing its own zunes in China, wait a minute isn’t zune from MS? Yes, but its build by Toshiba which is re-badged and repackaged and slapped with the Microsoft logo. So, will MS have any advantage?

As per Jason Reindorp, Microsoft’s marketing director for Zune, Yes. “There are definitely some cost efficiencies, but the more important thing from our perspective is the flexibility and control we have in creating a device from scratch and making it down to the last component what we want it to be.”

Now the big question, with this move MS will definitely be creating new zunes with new features. But what about the first gen zunes, will they be phased out, will they be compatible with the new features released. This will definitely be a big concern for the existing zune owners. What are your thoughts?

Well as I mentioned before, the update includes known bug fixes. For example skipping issue with zune marketplace content, improved device, syncing and software reliability. And a few changes to the FM tuner which prevents the battery from draining in sleep mode.

Now let’s move on to feedback. I just searched around a few blogs and sites to see if this update really helped in fixing the bugs as claimed by Microsoft.

Here are a couple of responses:

NO SKIPPING! Woo hoo!

On another note the skipping is wonderfully fixed, great work!!

Thank you Zune team for fixing my skipping problem.

Well with these comments we can definitely see the skipping issue has been fixed.

Now as far as the performance is concerned, after the update the device is running a lot faster. The GUI has improved, the zune responds much quicker when going throughout the menus, you don’t see the loading circles anymore and finally there is no lag on Marketplace content too.

Well that’s great news. Now, what are your experiences?

A zunescene forum member devised a hack; well not actually a hack, but registry tweaks which will enable the zune software to recognize and convert DivX files.

After making changes to the registry you can now drag and drop DivX files into the software. These files will be automatically transcoded to the native WMV format when you sync your zune.

Remember, this hack doesn’t add native DivX support to the software or zune itself.