Zune has just doubled its market share of the portable MP3 player market, but it seems that Microsoft is bent upon taking over the whole market. In this regard, Michael Pinto, creative director for design firm Very Memorable has a few suggestions that Microsoft should follow to make the Zune the top most MP3 player.

For one, he says that Microsoft needs to offer a $25 model of the Zune. This will be the competitor to Apple's iPod shuffle. It should also [...]

We mentioned that Microsoft had plans to launch Zune in Canada, and we got many inquiries in this regard, now, finally, what seems like an eternity later, we have an official launch date of June 13th. There were also rumors that the whole line of Zunes would not be available in Canada. The 4GB, 8GB, and 80GB Zune players will be in stores on June 13, 2008. Canadian Zune lovers (or would-be lovers) can go over to zune.ca for more information.

Personally, [...]

Microsoft announced, not too long ago, about a pilot program which aims to put advertising into Zune Social. The blogosphere has responded with a resounding "NO!" at this news. However, most bloggers probably assumed the worst (pop-up advertisements while trying to navigate to the next song or something). So, ArsTechnica has a write up explaining what exactly Zune Ads is all about.

To begin with, the advertising is not just limited to the Zune. It is a [...]

The retailer, GameStop, which sells mostly video games, video game consoles, and other video game related merchandise, has said that it will stop selling the Zune because it does not fit well with its product mix. Though I don't understand who thought that an MP3 player would fit with video games. However, with Zune games coming out, it may begin to fit better soon. The target market of video games and the Zune are similar so I can see how they might have thought [...]

So, Microsoft's conference for advertisers just happened and the one thing that came out of it that piqued my interest was that there is a possibility of putting advertising on the Zune. Now my first reaction is, "noway" but Microsoft demonstrated a concept that really doesn't seem that bad on the whole. Read it and see what you think.

The demonstration consisted of a music festival sponsored by Doritos. A musician from the festival could create a Zune [...]

Musicwave is a provider of mobile entertainment services. It is a unit of Openwave Systems, a Paris-based provider of mobile entertainment services. Microsoft will of course be leveraging the relationships with content providers to by using it with Windows Mobile and Zune. This has sparked off a round of rumors of the next Zune Phone concept as well, but that is just a bunch of air at this point.

The mobile space is more developed in Europe than it is i [...]

This is a major update. It does not just affect the device hardware functionality but also the software and online interaction as well. The following changes have been reported: there is finally a video marketplace, social aspect, you can now sync Zune cards, auto playlists, TV shows can be downloaded, Zune reminders, you can sync groups, video browsing, genre browsing, gapless playback, reputation badges, Windows Live Now Playing can now be accessed, search frien [...]

Zune Arts, the program that Microsoft has created to bring unique art to the Zune is working on a graphic novel called "The Lost Ones" written by Steve Niles, of 30 Days of Night fame. This novel is about the adventures of four characters who are on an epic space adventure. Different artists will work on each of the four chapters of the book creating a unique novel experience.

The four artists are Dr. Revolt of the NYC based graffiti group The Rolling T [...]

Microsoft initially launched the Zune with the tag line "Enter the Social." However, it wasn't much of a success on the social front. It had the ability to share music via WiFi in a very limited and restricted way, and it didn't catch on. Now Microsoft is back with a new plan. They have just enabled a feature that allows users to download their friends' nine most recently listened songs and nine others that are tagged as favorites.

To get this service, [...]

The New York Times has suggested in one of its articles that Microsoft will be putting a tiny "Copyright Cop" in its future versions of Zune as part of a deal with NBC to get its videos on the portable player. Officially Microsoft has denied such a thing, saying instead that it has agreed to work with NBC on a number of issues but no plans for any content filtering system.

Personally, I don't see Microsoft implementing any sort of DRM system. The reason [...]