Now that the dust has settled on Microsoft's impressive, if not quite revolutionary, Zune 3.0 update, it's time for us all to do what we do best: start demanding a new version of desktop and player software -- and a hardware refresh, of course -- chock-full of features that we've been asking for since day one, and a few things we dreamed up along the way. Pick your top-priority from the poll below, or just go nuts in the comments -- the floor is yours.

After a couple misstarts, we've finally got Zune 3.0 running on our computer and that shiny new blue Zune 8 we nabbed yesterday. We had problems with the straight installer, but updating from within Zune 2.5 worked quite well, and after a restart we were able to perform the same feat on the player. The software choked up on the first sync, but we canceled out and it twasn't a problem.

With 3.0 all ready to go, we wasted little time jumping onto Marketplace wirelessly, which felt especially delicious on a teensy little flash DAP. Naturally, we could've squandered all our Microsoft Points on song buys -- which are quite easy to accomplish, with a cart-based purchasing system -- but we're all about subscription music, and Zune Pass speaks our language. The browsing, selecting and downloading processing couldn't be much easier, and you can pick a song to play from right in the store while browsing other wares. There were a couple hiccups in playback when switching tasks, but they were always brief.

The Zune 3.0 software update is now available, go get it! Unlike some vendors who shall not be named, 3.0 brings all the new features to generation one devices -- brown Zune, you never looked so good. We'll be back later with our first look. Until then, why not shout out your experience in the comments.

[Thanks, Adam H.]

It's Tuesday and the on-line store is down which can mean only one thing: new aluminum MacBooks. Huh? Oh, the Zune store is down. Well, in that case the Zune 3.0 software update is just around the corner.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

So much for that ta-da moment tomorrow -- Microsoft just confirmed the fall Zune lineup a little earlier than planned, and it's almost exactly as leaked: capacity bumps to 120GB and 16GB, new WiFi music store, Zune 3.0 software with recommendations and pre-programmed theme channels, and two new games, Hexic and Texas Hold 'Em. Oh, and that snappy blue flash Zune we just spotted. Pricing is similarly unsurprising, seeing as we've had it for a week: the 120GB Zune is $250, while the 16GB flash model is $199 and the 8 gigger is $149. Oh well, at least we still have those new mice and webcams to look forward to tomorrow, right? Certainly nothing else is going on.

Update: The official PR is out, looks like Zune owners can look forward to the Zune 3.0 software update on September 16. Oh, and there's new Audible support as well. Rock on, rockers.

[Via CNET]