Two new colours for Zune HD from december 1

Korneel De Feyter op November 28th 2009, 21u 38

500x_500x_zune2_newcolors_text
Some time ago – before this site existed – there were some hidden pictures found in the Zune Software source code. Nobody knew who they were or what they were up to.

One of those pictured Zune HDs (the ‘atomic’ Zune) show up a bit later on eBay - being sold for more than 5,100 USD. But still no clue of the three others…

Today two other babies from that family picture are announced to make their début on December 1. From that date onwards you’ll be able to buy a Purple or Magenta Zune HD. Leaving us only one player left to track down…

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View powerpoint on your Zune (or any device that handles images)

Korneel De Feyter op November 21st 2009, 15u 03

If you want – for whatever reason – to view your PowerPoint presentations on the go, there’s an easy and free way to get your PowerPoints on your Zune.
I say Zune because the website is quite Zune-oriented, but it works on every PMP that supports the JPEG file format (PNG or GIF works also).
Here’s a quick tutorial, the only thing you need is PowerPoint.
(As you might know, my maternal language is Dutch so I wasn’t able to change the interface language of Microsoft PowerPoint to English because I’ve a Dutch version of the software and the option to download extra languages is at extra charge. My excuses for that.)

1. First of all just open the PowerPoint file you’d like to view on your Zune.
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2. Go to the Office-menu and select the option Save as
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3. Choose the JPEG extension.
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4. Choose a folder and a file name
Powerpoint creates automatically a separate folder if you choose to export all slides (see step 5), if you only want one slide to be exported no folder will be created. Saving the slides to your default pictures folder (or a sub-folder) is the easiest because that folder is automatically added to your library in the Zune Software.
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5. Choose whether you want only the selected slide to be exported or if you’d like to export all slides. After this step the files are created.
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6. Now go to the pictures-section in the Zune Software and make sure that your folder is added to the library. If you can’t find your files, just open Windows Explorer and drag-and-drop the folder that contains the exported images to your Zune Software.
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7. To get the files on your Zune just select all those images and drag ‘n’ drop them to the Zune icon in the bottom left corner.

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Spare yourself some pain and don’t choose for the “Items I choose” sync option

Korneel De Feyter op November 14th 2009, 22u 10

When I bought my Zune 120 a year ago, I came up with the idea to make a playlist where I would put all of the music I wanted on my Zune in. That saved me a lot of time when switching to my Zune HD as my daily player. So when I got my Zune HD I just dragged that playlist (I called it Korneel, a very original choice) onto my ZHD through the Zune Software. I have about 22 Gigabytes of music, so syncing does take some time.
I went to bed and the next morning all my music was synced. So far so good.

But today, four days later, I experienced that choosing the sync option “Items I choose” was a very bad move. The “Items I choose” option comes down to this: everything that’s in your Zune Software collection will be synced to your Zune. If something disappears from your hard drive and the Zune software notices, it will be removed from your Zune. So because I have such a big music collection, I store all those files on an external hard drive.
Also my playlists were stored on that drive.
So what happened today? For some reason my external hard drive lost the connection with my PC. I was recharging my Zune and the ‘Software was running. The ‘Software noticed my Korneel-playlist was gone so it deleted all my music, except for two albums from my Zune. Only ‘Flaming Pie’ by Paul McCartney and ‘Songs’ by Admiral Freebee are left.

So if you want to spare yourself some pain, go to settings > device > sync option and make sure you have selected the right sync option. I find ‘Manual sync’ the best option, but that’s up to you…

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ZHD firmware 4.3 brings us 3D gaming

Korneel De Feyter op November 11th 2009, 13u 28

Newly added 3D games and apps
Last Friday the Zune HD was given a firmware update that added a few improvements:

Zune HD firmware update: Today we released the v4.3 firmware update for Zune HD players; this update adds support for upcoming 3d games and applications, as well as an auto-suggest feature for better text input, and other minor improvements. Enjoy!

Like you see, support for ‘upcoming‘ 3D games and apps was added, well it looks like those upcoming games are arrived at the ‘Marketplace.
The new games are:

  • PGR: ferrari edition, a 3d racegame
  • Lucky lane bowling, a 3d bowling game
  • Vans Sk8: Pool service, a 3d Skate game
  • Piano, a simple piano where you can play your own tunes on
  • Audio Surf: Tilt, ride your music – you choose a song that the game will turn into a roller coaster track for you to ride
  • Checkers, I don’t think you’ll need a description for this one

All these games are free, so don’t hesitate and download yours…

Update: Check a list with pictures and descriptions of the games on zune.net.

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ABi Zune HD glass screen stress test

Korneel De Feyter op November 8th 2009, 10u 49

Over at anythingbutipod.com Grahm Skee did a stress test on the Zune HD’s glass screen. It turns out that the glass screen performed as good as the 120′s did.

(No scratches)

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