Entries tagged with zune - Channel 10

Zunes In Schools

Sarah Perez — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:03:00 GMT

Last winter 125 Zunes were handed out to students in two U.S. schools – 100 at a New Mexico High School and 25 at a Missouri Junior High. The Zunes were given out in exchange for research data provided by the schools on how helpful the Zunes were in the classroom. Teachers were encouraged to create podcasts for the devices for their students to listen to, and, those that identified 20 podcasts to support their lesson plans as well as create 5 of their own received a $400 bonus. The full results of the case study will be released after this summer’s National Education Computing Conference, but for now, the reaction is somewhat mixed.

Foreign language teachers reported it was really helpful to have their students using the devices to help with vocabulary and pronunciations, but another teacher cited concerns about the devices not being used for studying at all. The students responded that, of course they were enjoying listening to music and trading songs, but they also insisted that they were using the Zunes to study, too.

Personally, I don’t see why the Zunes can’t be used for both entertainment and education. Just because a Zune lets you watch TV, listen to music, and listen to podcasts, that doesn’t mean that the academic aspects have no value simply because the devices can be used for fun, too.

I don’t imagine the students were allowed to keep the earplugs in during class, anyway, so who cares if they’re using them in between classes or after school to listen to music? If there are educational benefits to the devices, why not encourage their use?

Today’s students have grown up with technology all around them, so whether teachers like it or not, a lot of their education is already coming from digital media - for example, instead of books, students often use the internet for research and instead of magazines, they surf the web for the latest news. So why not enhance a traditional class with after-hours podcasts? This could be especially helpful for students struggling in a particular area of their studies. By being provided with educational podcasts, they could then play back the course, lecture, or guides created by the teacher at home, on their own time. Maybe the Zunes don’t need to literally be in the classroom…or in the halls either…that’s up the school to decide. But please, keep the podcasts coming!

Zune ID Cards

Sarah Perez — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:06:00 GMT

Thanks to a Zunerama member, Trastan, there's now a simple ID card available that you can send to other Zune owners when you find yourself within wireless range of another Zune. To use the card, you download it to your device and then sent it out wirelessly using the Zune's built-in wireless send feature. This is a friendly way of saying "hello" to the other Zune users around you.

On the card says "Nice to meet you" and provides a brief intro that displays your Zune Tag and favorite genre. The cards aren't being generated by an app - there's pure manual labor involved. Trastan is creating cards for anyone who requests one on this forum post. There are also some blank backgrounds here if you want to design your own. (via/img via Zunerama)

Zune Spring Update 2.5 - The Video

Tina Wood — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:48:00 GMT

Terry Farrell from the Zune team stopped by the Channel 10 studios today to give us a walk through of exactly the changes you can expect in the new Zune Update. We've brought you screenshots and cute commercials but Terry delivers the goods. He takes us through the new zune.net and dives into the software.

C8: Zune Rocker shows us Zune Social and the new FaceBook application

Max Zuckerman — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:06:00 GMT

From Channel 8:

"Cesar Menendez (my favorite Zune Rocker) has shown me how the Zune team has taken music back to its pre-digital roots when people used to gather at record stores and tell each other about the latest and best ways to rock out--or mellow out, depending on your style. It's called the Zune Social and it really is an interesting concept that leverages the back end from the XBox Live infrastructure and allows you to create a profile that displays your songs played, favorites, and friends. From there you can find out what others are listening to, get a taste of it, and share it with others... very cool stuff."

Cesar also demoes the integration with FaceBook in a new app which you can download by going to your Zune Social homepage.

Check out the video on Channel 8!

Get MIX08 onto Your Zune

Sarah Perez — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:48:00 GMT

At the beginning of this month, MIX08, the annual Microsoft conference which brings together web developers, designers, and business and digital marketing professionals, was held in Las Vegas. From this conference, 88 video presentations were made available on the web for viewing or downloading. Each one had a "Download for Zune" button, but as Matthew Wills discovered, downloading all 88 could be a challenge. Thanks to his efforts, there is now a MIX08 RSS feed that includes all the MIX08 sessions. You can subscribe to the feed just like any other podcast. Thanks, Matthew! (via Steve, thanks for finding that!)

Win my Zune! (not to mention an XBox 360 Elite!)

Steven Kerr Lindsay — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:50:00 GMT

theDigitalLifestyle.com is running a cool competition to win an XBox 360 Elite for the 'The Ultimate Media Center Enthusiast Setup'.

I decided to donate my Zune 2, 8 gig for this competition. This is MY actual zune, i've been using since release with a custom engraving. The grand prize is an XBox 360 Elite and other prizes will include Media Center software and my Zune.

So what are you waiting for!?, get your camera out and lets see your Media Center setup guys!

Check it out over here.

Games on your Zune!?! What? How? When?

Laura Foy — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:08:00 GMT

There are many happy Zune owners right about now. At GDC last week Microsoft announced that XNA Game Studios games can now also be made for the Zune. If you didn't know, XNA is a game development toolkit available to "do it yourself" enthusiasts for about $99 / year. You don't need to create your own games, simply take advantage of XNA games created by the user base. The XNA team also made some cool announcements about Xbox LIVE community games. I got all the good dirt- take a look.

C9: XNA Games on Xbox & Zune

Larry Larsen — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:10:00 GMT

If you're still hungry for info about XNA games for Xbox Arcade and Zune, check out this video from GDC where Charles met up with James Silva, winner of the XNA contest. James built his game, Dishwasher Death Samurai, based (hopefully loosely) on his life as a dishwasher in a restaurant.

It's a little programmer-centric but worth a look to see what's coming over the horizon with Xbox Live Arcade and possibility of a cottage industry of independent game developers.

JD and Brian Podcast - Episode 3

Brian Johnson — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:46:00 GMT

This week on the podcast, JD and I talk to G. Andrew Duthie, Microsoft Developer Evangelist, about Microsoft's announcements around interoperability and about XNA game development on the Zune.

Links for the show:

Write Once - Game Anywhere

Larry Larsen — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:24:00 GMT

You may have heard a little announcement today - that developers now can develop a (multiplayer!) game once and gamers can play it on a Windows PC, Xbox 360, and Zune. Wait, what?!?! Zune??? Yes, that's right, the new XNA Game Studio 3.0 available this Spring will have the ability to let devs make Zune games.

For the official FAQ, check out the XNA Creators Club, also check out Gizmodo, engadget, and don't miss the pictures at JefTek. Cesar at ZuneInsider points out that this is a dev tool announcement, not game title announcements.

For those of you wondering what XNA is, here's a two part video from Channel 9 (part 1 | part 2).

XNA Game Studio 3.0 criará jogos para o Zune

Galileu Vieira — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:03:00 GMT

A próxima versão do XNA Game Studio (3.0 para os que estão acompanhando) permitirá a criação de jogos para o Zune, além do Xbox 360 e PC.
Alguns destaques legais para esses jogos do Zune:
    - Suporte para multiplayer de até 8 jogadores sem fio via rede ad-hoc
    - Suporte para trilha sonora customizável utilizando as músicas do próprio Zune
    - Criação de visualizações para as músicas

A primeira prévia do XNA Game Studio virá em Abril de 2008. Esperamos uma versão final no final de 2008.

GDC '08 - Jogos XNA no Zune

Galileu Vieira — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:13:00 GMT

Não tenho os detalhes ainda, mas jogos criados em XNA estão sendo rodados no Zune agora mesmo no keynote da Microsoft.

ATUALIZAÇÃO: O Anibal tirou fotos durante o keynote.

25 milhões de MP3s gratuitos para baixar - legalmente

Galileu Vieira — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:46:00 GMT

O serviço se chama Qtrax e será lançado hoje. Com participação e "benção" da Sony BMG, Universal, EMI, e Warner (as principais detentoras das músicas de hoje), a idéia é fornecer downloads gratuitos para usuários em troca de propagandas. Os artistas seriam compensados pelo número de downloads, compartilhamento e número de vezes que as músicas são tocadas. Portanto, sim, os arquivos contém algum tipo de DRM, parecido com o do Zune. No momento iPod fica fora por não ser compatível com o DRM sendo utilizado. Aparentemente, o Qtrax vai utilizar a rede Gnutella para distribuir os MP3s. Essa iniciativa pode ter um grande impacto, e estão surgindo notícias (aqui e aqui) de que não está tudo 100% certo para o Qtrax ir ao ar. Estou curioso para saber o resultado dessa experiência, e vocês?

E para quem não estava sabendo, a Amazon anunciou que estará levando sua loja de MP3s sem DRM para mercados internacionais ainda em 2008.

Red Zune Just in Time for V-Day!

Sarah Perez — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:47:00 GMT

I don't know why we've always had to settle for black and white when it comes to the selection of our larger-capacity mp3 players. No more! On ZuneOriginals.net, I spotted this: a red Zune! (OK, actually .netDEvHammer spotted it, and I clicked the link...that counts, right?) Along with a selection of awesome Valentine's Day art (ahem, Joel, I'm digging the dandelions or the colorblock heart), the red Zune would make any girl happy. Heck, the red Zune would make any guy happy too! To have one arrive by Valentine's Day, you have to order by Feb. 4th. After V-Day, the red Zunes will be no more, so there's really no time to wait.

Zune Social at CES 2008

Laura Foy — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:47:00 GMT

During the Bill Gates keynote, Robbie Bach announced the Zune launch in Canada* in Spring 2008. The Canadian offering this spring will first include Zune players (including Zune Originals), Zune software and Zune Social, with the Zune Marketplace online store coming later this year. He also showed off some pretty cool functionality between Zunes and Microsoft Auto software with the "Sync My Ride" demo (check back soon for my interview with that team).

But still, after all that Zune love I felt there might be a little bit more. In this clip I chat directly with the Zune team about the new features on Zune marketplace and how much emphasis is being placed on perfecting Zune Online as a social networking site.

How To: Encode Zune Videos for Free

Larry Larsen — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:54:00 GMT

I know some of you probably got a Zune for the holidays and there are a lot of great programs now that will encode your videos for a variety of portable media players. I've used many many of these applications in the last year or so, some of them free, some not so free. But when it comes down to it, for the Zune it is hard to beat the free Windows Media Encoder 9. What sets WME apart from many of the other applications I've tried can be seen in the photo at left; WME will suck up all the cores you want to throw at it, meaning I can encode in a fraction of the time of some of the other products I've used.

Once you get WME installed, run it from Start > Windows Media > Windows Media.

Go ahead and click New Session, then select Custom Session and OK.
This will put you in the Session Properties box, in the "Source from" section, you want to choose File.
Now click that browse button right under it and select the file you want to encode.
Go back to the top and click the "Output" tab, uncheck "Pull from encoder' and select "Encode to file", picking the name and location to put it (probably your [username]\Videos directory).
Now click the Compression tab, change the "Destination" dropdown to "File download (computer playback)", change "Video" dropdown to "DVD quality video (1Mbps VBR)", and change the "Audio" dropdown to "CD quality audio CBR".
If you want to spend video quality on being able to put more videos on your Zune, you can click the edit button to the right of Destination and lower your bit rates, change size to 320x240, and audio to 128k.
Click Apply, click "Start Encoding", then sit back and watch it fly through your video.

Zune Hack - Zune Contact Cards

Sarah Perez — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:13:00 GMT

I'm really into finding Zune hacks lately (in case you haven't noticed), so here's another one that's definitely worth sharing - on the forum at ZuneBoards.com, a member posted a really cool program that creates contacts for your Zune. The Zune Contact Cards program lets you choose a picture for your contact and enter in their name, phone, address, URL, email, etc. and from there it creates a 320x240 .jpg that can be synced to your Zune. The program, a small executable available here also lets you customize the card's background by picking a custom color for the area behind the text. With Zune's photo-sharing feature, you can send your Zune contacts to other nearby Zunes easily. Just like sharing any picture, all you have to do is select the picture (the contact card) you want to beam, press the center of the Zune pad, select "Send," and then choose the Zune you want to beam your picture to.

Introdução ao Windows Media Center

Galileu Vieira — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:09:00 GMT

Lançado em 2002 somente nos Estados Unidos, finalmente chegou ao Brasil o Windows Media Center, o meu produto favorito para mídia digital. Conhecido inicialmente como Windows XP Media Center Edition (seu apelido era Windows MCE), ele agora vem dentro das versões Home Premium e Ultimate do Windows Vista e passa a ser chamado de WMC. Do Windows MCE original nasceu uma divisão inteira dentro da Microsoft chamada eHome, cujo foco é criar produtos e soluções para a casa digital. Lá estão as divisões de Xbox, Zune, WMC, Microsoft TV e tantas outras. Para o mercado norte americano, e alguns europeus, um produto como o WMC faz sentido. A penetração de computadores, tocadores digitais portáteis, vídeo games e televisores de alta definição, é mais ampla. Além disso, lares nesses mercados já contam com múltiplos computadores. No Brasil, porém, onde raros conhecem coisas como TiVo, DVR, Slingbox, Video On Demand, o conceito é muito novo.

Dentro desse cenário o WMC veio trazer a experiência com mídia digital que o PC permite para os televisores comuns em salas de estar e ambientes mais confortáveis. O que começou com ligando um PC tradicional a um televisor hoje já vai muito além. Diversos dispositivos se conversam num intercâmbio de mídia digital que permite o consumo de suas músicas, fotos, vídeos, televisão e até conteúdo de Internet em qualquer canto da casa, tudo com uma interface bonita. Essa é a finalidade do WMC, liberar nossa mídia do PC onde hoje armazenamos quase tudo e dar a elas uma navegação simplificada através do controle remoto, comando familiar para quase todos.

Eu estarei publicando uma série de sete vídeos curtos ensinando as principais funcionalidades do WMC. Vamos começar com o mais básico, como conectar e configurar um PC com Windows Media Center. Para quem tiver dúvidas específicas, por favor registre-as na área de comentários. Eu espero poder fazer um follow-up com configurações e usos avançados do WMC - por exemplo, utilizar o WMC como biblioteca de filmes, acessar seu WMC pela Internet para ver todas suas mídias, até TV ao vivo, e eventualmente utilizá-lo como plataforma para automação residencial. Para quem quiser mais informação, acabamos de traduzir o site oficial do Windows Media Center para português: http://www.microsoft.com/brasil/mediacenter.

Microsoft's Holiday Preview

Larry Larsen — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:48:00 GMT

Robbie Bach and Kevin Johnson hosted an event for Microsoft employees showing us some of the products that will be available this season and let us sit in and talk to them afterwards. The presentation was over an hour long and it really didn't even scratch the surface of all the new products Microsoft plays a operating system role in. There were high-performance desktops, laptops, phones, Xbox games, and the Ford Sync. One product that caught my eye was the Samsung digital picture frame which is able to pull photos from RSS feeds and Windows Live. Very nice!

Playback Your Zune Over Your Laptop Speakers

Sarah Perez — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:50:00 GMT

Had I found this earlier, I would have added it to my Zune hacks post. With this registry hack, you can enable playback of your Zune over your laptop's speakers. First of all: warning - don't edit your registry if you don't know...oh blah, blah, blah...you know the drill.

1. Add the following key to your registry, either by creating a reg file with the text, or go there yourself and create the binary value:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000\Settings\filter\SpeakerHp]

"EnableInputMonitor"=hex:01

2. Reboot

3. Enable the input monitor by going to "Control Panel" --> "Sound" --> "Speakers/Headphones." Click on "Properties," then click on the "Levels" tab and enable the input monitor button.
4. You're done - rock out!

Thank you, Dell Community Forum poster and .netDEvHammer!

RCRDLBL.com: Free tunes for your Zunes

Larry Larsen — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:03:00 GMT

Peter Rojas of Engadget and Gizmodo fame has started a new record label which goes by the clever name RCRDLBL.com. RCRDLBL is a big shift from your typical record label in that the music is free... yes, free. Instead of track sales, the bands are paid from advertising on the site. That might not get you gold rims and a dedicated episode of Cribs, but it's a good incubator for bands who want to be heard.

The music is licensed under Creative Commons - NonCommercial, so you can freely download it to your computer and/or any of your devices (Zune, cellphone, or one of those pod-things), you can even remix the music into something new, so long as you're not making any money off of it yourself in distribution. RSS feeds for the site and for each artist are available, as well as various web gadgets (Vista Sidebar gadgets coming soon, or you could use Amnesty on the existing ones.)

O rádio do Zune

Galileu Vieira — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:17:00 GMT

Uma das coisas mais legais do Zune é que o rádio dele funciona no Brasil. Digo isso porque o rádio (FM) do Zune capta informações do sistema RDS que as emissoras podem transmitir junto ao sinal de áudio. Ele também armazena as suas estações favoritas, é claro. Confira as imagens abaixo.

Personalizando o Zune

Galileu Vieira — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:30:00 GMT

O Zune é feito para ser algo bem particular do seu dono. Apesar de não termos aqui no Brasil a disponbilidade de comprar os dispositivos com um nível sofisticado de personalização, podemos alterar a tela de fundo do Zune dando um toque mais pessoal. Achei um site com vários wallpapers - telas de fundo - já no formato do Zune para baixar gratuitamente. É claro, o usuário poder usar suas próprias fotos ou imagens como tela de fundo. Basta visualizar a foto em tela cheia e clicar o botão central. Lá aparecem as diversas opções de interação e uma delas é "aplicar como tela de fundo". Já para pessoas como eu, com pouca criatividade, é mais fácil usar as imagens e fotos que encontro por aí.

Como disponibilizar o seu Zune card para o mundo

Galileu Vieira — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:18:00 GMT

Com o novo Zune surgiu a comunidade social do Zune que permite aos seus usuários um intercâmbio de informações e gostos musicais. Para facilitar esse compartilhamento, foi criado o Zune card, um cartão semelhante ao Gamer card do Xbox, que mostra ao mundo as suas músicas, álbuns e artistas favoritos e mais tocados. Como o Zune Social ainda está em beta, não ficou muito claro como criar os Zune cards. Um funcionário da Microsoft criou esse gerador automático de Zune cards. Basta inserir o seu nome de usuário do Zune e clicar em generate. Depois copie e cole o códgio HTML nas páginas Web ou até em assinatura de emails. Lembro que o mais interessante desse cartão é a possibilidade de interagir com os mesmos. Você pode ouvir trechos das músicas no Zune card, além de enviar para terceiros ou até comprar a música (somente nos EUA).

Veja o meu cartão:

Zune 2 wrap-up

Larry Larsen — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:50:00 GMT

Zune 2 is out, and here is a wrap up of some of the coverage so far. The official promo video is here, you can read more about the social here, you can get all your unboxing on here, you can compare Zunes to Zunes here and compare Zunes to iPods here. You can get your new Zune 2 laser etched for free at ZuneOriginals.net (Zune 80's available in December.)

Gizmodo has a Frankenreview here, they caught on to our collective dislike for painted jeans here. I'll let the reviews speak for themselves, but most recognize that Microsoft is in this for the long haul. Don't forget all the new software and firmware features work on the first generation Zune, which is a holiday bargain at less than $90.