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Zune's last days: Microsoft pulling Zune HD apps, select features on August 31st
Microsoft's oddly named music service put its official resignation in earlier this summer, but the Zune brand isn't in its coffin just yet -- although Redmond is certainly driving in the nails. Zune Pass subscribers, for instance, are now receiving word that the service's Mixview playback and channel playlist features will be discontinued on August 31st, along with music video streaming from the Zune desktop software. User licenses to previously purchased music videos are being reworked as well, cutting off user access to old content on new machines. The service's once heavily touted social aspect seems to be making way for Xbox Music as well: users will no longer be able to send or receive messages, invite friends or share songs, playlists, and play history. Last, but not least, the company is dealing its old hardware one final blow by discontinuing Zune HD apps -- not that there were many to kill off. Microsoft has little else to say in the brief email, but promises to share more information about Xbox Music soon. Check it out for yourself after the break.
Zune is dead, long live Zune
Like Zune's own Business Development Manager once said, all consumer electronics products have a lifespan, and today the (not so long) lineage of dedicated Zune hardware expires not with a roar, but with a promise to honor its warranties. Tucked away in the inner chambers of the Zune support site lies a page spelling out Microsoft's final words on the device, "Windows Phone will be the focus of our mobile music and video strategy," it says, "we will no longer be producing Zune players." The Zune HD is survived by the Zune music service, which will continue to function with straggling standalone media players, as well as the Windows desktop, Windows Phone and Xbox platforms.
Installing the Zune... sucked
When it comes to the hardware, we're pretty much set; we all now know the Zune inside and out. But how it interacts with the software, the marketplace, etc. -- that's where the magic happens. Or doesn't. We really wanted to give the Zune the benefit of the doubt. We hoped installing the Zune software and getting our player running would be as seamless and painless as getting iTunes and an iPod running on your machine, since that is, after all, what it's up against. (Granted, not even iTunes is bereft of major problems on major releases.) Unfortunately, the reality of our experience with the first version of the Zune software this afternoon is much like that of many version 1 software experiences. It sucks. Read on to see what happened.
