I don't own that many Zune Marketplace tracks, perhaps a dozen in total, because I loathe DRM. I really, really dislike it and I'll do almost anything to avoid having to deal with the hassle of authorization because there's always something that goes wrong. As I was browsing through the Zune Marketplace the other way, looking up an artist so I could add her CD to my Amazon.ca wish list, it occurred to me that the Zune Marketplace could add a feature for people like me: an MP3 filter. Meaning, a software toggle that would filter out all the DRM'd music, showing me only the tracks in the Zune Marketplace that are in DRM-free MP3 format. Sure, the catalog would be incredibly small at first, but I'd really enjoy browsing the marketplace and only see music offered that I don't have to think twice about buying. Right now when I see a song I want, and it's not tagged with the little "MP3" icon shown above, I always have a little internal struggle as to how badly I really want the song - and it's never about the cost in points, it's always about the hassles of the DRM.

I just reinstalled the Zune desktop software a couple of days ago (after my install of Windows Vista went belly-up forcing a complete re-format and re-install) and after it scanned my music, videos, and pictures, I was reminded of the truly useless way the Zune software organizes my videos. There are only two sorting options: by Name, or by Date Added. Over a period of months, Date Added starts to actually work (just a little bit), but when you first install the software every single video, regardless of how old it is, it stamped with the same date - which effectively gives you no sorting option at all. Why did the Zune team think this would be useful to the user?


Figure 1: The above videos were created more than three years ago, yet are at the top of my video list as the first videos shown.

What would make much more sense would be to list the files by the created date - because that's the real date of the video, similar to a photo. Sure, it's not entirely perfect because if you digitize a video today of your family holiday from ten years ago, it will be stamped with today's date, but at least the date is relevant to the file: the date you digitized it (and the Created Date can be manipulated via software if you want to really get accurate). The date that the Zune software scanned it has no practical use that I can think of - because even if we're talking about TV shows & movies recorded via Windows Media Center, the file creation date will be the date it was recorded, so those will show up as being newer than most of your other videos.

I'd also like to see a folder-based approach for organizing videos, rather than having a single flat-file approach. Thinking about how your organize and access your videos, how would you like to see the Zune desktop software improved?

Although the recent 2.3 software update included a long list of fixes, I'm seeing things that still need looking after. One of them is the way the Zune software seem to struggle with having an accurate index of the content - either that, or it's an oversight in the user interface. If I type "Jars of Clay", this is the research result I get:



I have 15 Jars of Clay albums, yet it only shows me three. Either the Zune software doesn't realize that there are more than three albums, or the user interface designer forgot to add an "Expand" button next to albums to show the user that there are more than three albums. The latter is somewhat unlikely because it says "(3)" after the word albums, meaning there are only three found.

If I look up the artist manually, I see the correct result of 15 albums:



So...this needs to get fixed!

I like speakers that sound good, speakers that have a bit of muscle; that's why I just wasn't all that impressed with the Altec Lansing M604. I've written about the zKICK ZK500 from Kicker before, but since it was hard to make out much detail about the unit from the video I took at CES (YouTube and their low-res quality), I thought I'd upload some sweet high-resolution images.


[click the image above for the 2000 pixel wide JPEG, 879 KB]


[click the image above for the 2000 pixel wide JPEG, 802 KB]

I can't wait to check one of these out when they start shipping!

Well, well - it seems that 2.3 software update contains more than just a few little fixes - there's some very significant stuff in the update. I've re-published the list here for your convenience.

"Key Marketplace fixes

* Allow users to view top music videos in marketplace
* Misc improved error messaging including splitting sign-in issues into 4 separate errors for customer and support benefit
* Resolved most cases where retrieval of subscription download history stalls
* Better handling of accounts that have expired credit cards
* Podcasts with spaces in their name can now be subscribed to
* Marketplace no longer blocks explicit content purchases when parental controls are set to allow
* Points balance label is now updated when user purchases new points

Key Player UI fixes

* Allow zooming in/out (2x, 4x, fullscreen) during video playback to prevent stretched playback
* Ability to switch Zune to GDI mode through command-line parameter

Key Podcast fixes

* Allow subscriptions to podcasts larger than 10MB
* Fixed some parsing errors that prevented some podcasts from syncing to the device
* Fixed bug where podcasts were unsubscribing themselves

Key Setup fixes

* Fixed numerous bugs affecting build to build upgrades
* Improved installation for users accessing from corporate networks
* Fixed driver uninstall failures
* Included device 2.3 firmware in client download
* Failure in creating system restore point no longer blocks client installation

Key Sync fixes

* Fixed issues with reverse sync
* Fixes issues with sync meter UI showing incorrect information as to what is on the device
* Fixed issues using wireless sync with multiple devices to the same PC
* Fixed a few different issues setting up wireless sync
* Device is no longer being reported as full even after deleting large file from device
* Device content is no longer being turned into guest content when it shouldn’t be
* Content with bad metadata now shows properly so it can be removed from device
* Turning off “autolaunch when a Zune device is connected” no longer prevents “Sync Now” from working from a wirelessly connected device
* Podcast bookmarking is now transferred/saved to the device
* Wireless sync connection continues to work after rebooting host computer
* Unsubscribe podcast from device now works properly
* Changing album art in the client now updates the device as well
* Duplicate tracks are no longer synced to the device twice

Key Xbox Streaming bug fixes

* Xbox Streaming now monitors the rip folder if user changes default location
* No need to reinstall client to fix Xbox Streaming when upgrading from XP to Vista

Key Infrastructure fixes

* Vista x64 customers can now get to web help from error messages
* Client no longer crashes if database is corrupted

Key Library fixes

* Changes in pictures or video metadata made outside client will now get updated in the library
* UI is now smoother during file groveling
* When a track is added to an album we will now always update the track on disc
* User can now update album art for marketplace tracks
* 'Unknown Artist' metadata is no longer written to files when writing out user edit of album name
* Renaming an artist now more reliably keeps the change
* Two different copies of the same album no longer get duplicated down to one when it shouldn’t
* Access violation no longer occurs when checking song properties in the burn list
* Multi-disc albums imported from iTunes no longer show in the client as a single disc album
* Thumbnails for video content now extract on XP properly."

There's not much to say here, because according to Zune Insider there are no new features added to the Zune desktop software, just more "performance enhancements around set-up, sync and as always general reliability". I was really hoping we'd see some improvements in the way of meta-data handling (their current system is what's causing some people problems with albums not being read properly).

So basically, if you fire up the Zune desktop software today, you should be notified about the new 2.3 update. Myself, I'd report first-hand on any changed, but my Vista-based machine that's running the Zune software is completely trashed from a software perspective - I updated the system BIOS and nVIDIA nFORCE drivers and now Vista won't boot. <sigh>

"Video demo of NJOY nicotine vaporization technology that provides simulated smoking experience without the carcinogens generated by burning tobacco in traditional cigarettes and cigars. TSA approved and theoretically legal to use on airplanes."



My buddy Jake managed to find, bar none, the strangest thing I think I've ever heard of at CES: electronic pseudo-cigarettes. Just a little Friday off-topic fun for you all - have a great weekend!

Matt Harley has a brief Q&A with head man Robbie Bach about the Zune launching in Canada, and in response to the question "Zune Marketplace and Zune Pass aren't part of the launch, what is the reason behind that?", here's what Bach had to say:

“It turns out the vast majority of music on people's devices is music they have ripped rather than bought from an [online] store. So over time, do we want to make those things available in other areas? The answer is sure, but we've had a lot of demand just to get the devices. People have all their music on their hard drives and they want to be able to put them onto a device and we think it's a good opportunity for us to get into the market. So we're optimizing for reaching out to those sets of customers especially since the United States and Canada are so close to each other, we want to make sure people have that opportunity.”

That makes sense, but it makes you wonder why they didn't launch the Zune v1 in Canada last year then - or perhaps they realized it wasn't the product they wanted it to be and wanted to wait for the v2 product. Either way, it bodes well for seeing the Zune launch in other markets around the world this year. The rest of the article has a few other interesting bits of info, although I would have asked Bach why the Canadian Xbox video marketplace launch was so lacklustre.

Apple unleashed several new products today, and updates to older products, so I thought I'd jot down some thoughts and reactions about what I read about (this text is adapted from a series of emails I sent to the Mobius email list while discussing this).



Apple Charging $19.95 for the iPod Touch Software Update
Utterly ridiculous, but it's what Apple does - remember the $2 charge for 802.11n? Apple has the worst type of corporate arrogance imaginable, and almost everyone lets them get away with it. But that's also how they're able to create some pretty impressive products - so you take the bad with the good. Myself, I take none of it (for now - I continue to be tempted by some of their products).

iTunes Movie Rentals
It's so incredibly frustrating seeing Microsoft have all the same pieces - Xbox Live videos, Windows Mobile + Zune hardware - and not do a damn thing with it. Microsoft could have beaten Apple to the punch by more than a year, but there's probably still some committee arguing about it. The Apple solution looks slick, and the pricing looks a bit better than the Xbox Live pricing (I think - points confuse matters somewhat).
Apple TV v2
The update looks great, lots of cool features. Finally, the product is no longer a joke - they evolved it to what it should have been when it was first released. The UI is slick, I love it. And at least current Apple TV owners don't need to pay for the upgrade. I finally got access to Xbox Marketplace movies in December, and it was a truly pathetic launch - about 30 movies, no TV shows, only a handful are in HD or even movies you've ever heard of. Apple now had a powerful round-trip solution from TV room to computer to mobile device.

MacBook Air
So it's a thin laptop - is that so exciting? Maybe it's more impressive in person. Multi-touch on the touchpad is pretty cool, though I think it's one of those "makes a great bullet point" but most people won't use it past the first day. Seems like it would be useful in iPhoto more than anywhere else. I watched the demo video for Macbook Air and I had to chuckle at how they made the lack of an optical drive a feature rather than a limitation. The "remote optical drive" thing is pretty slick though. 80 GB 4200 RPM hard drive? Bleh. 5 hours of battery life is good, and I sure wish my XPS M1330 came with a back-lit keyboard! I don't see any mention of a memory card reader either. What's with Apple's hate-on for memory card readers? It's silly their monitors don't have them, but it's inexcusable for a laptop not to have an SD/Memory Stick/XD card slot at the bare minimum. It's like if they didn't invent it, or they don't sell it, it doesn't exist. One USB port? No Ethernet port? No Firewire? This laptop is obviously aimed at a very specific niche, so while it might be a killer solution for some, it doesn't seem to be very well-rounded. I have to admire Apple's engineering though, and it's impressive that Intel designed a smaller CPU for them - I wish more notebook makers would care about making their notebooks as small as possible. Every spare millimetre matters.

iPhone January Update
This video was interesting to watch. Apple added significantly useful features to the iPhone only a few months after release - by controlling the hardware, the software, and ultimately the customer, they're able to innovate much faster than Windows Mobile can. We've all known this for a long time, but this is real-world proof of the huge liability that Microsoft finds itself in.

Time Capsule
So this is Apple's answer to Windows Home Server? Seems nice and simple, and has some good features, but it's insane that they didn't make it dual hard drive setup in case the drive fails. I suppose if it's ONLY a backup and no unique data is being stored on it, then you have a copy of that data on your Mac/PC and it's not such a big deal of your Time Capsule drive crashes. But hard drives do fail, "enterprise class" or not.

Did anyone else notice how much of this new stuff is "Windows friendly" in terms of inter-operating with a Windows ecosystem? Apple is really stepping into Microsoft's turf, which is quite interesting to see.

So what are your thoughts on what Apple unveiled today?

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He's still not ready to buy a Mac.

"With all of the Big Four record labels now jettisoning digital rights management, music fans have every reason to rejoice. But consumer advocates are singing a note of caution, as the music industry experiments with digital-watermarking technology as a DRM substitute. Watermarking offers copyright protection by letting a company track music that finds its way to illegal peer-to-peer networks. At its most precise, a watermark could encode a unique serial number that a music company could match to the original purchaser. So far, though, labels say they won't do that: Warner and EMI have not embraced watermarking at all, while Sony's and Universal's DRM-free lineups contain "anonymous" watermarks that won't trace to an individual."

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I say bring on the watermarking technology. If it means getting DRM-free audio files that I can use on any device I want without the hassle of authentication, I'm more than willing to put up with watermarking that says I bought a song. In fact, to protect the work of artists from theft, I think personally identifiable watermarks and ISP filtering of P2P traffic based on detection of watermarks isn't such a bad idea. I strongly suspect the people that purchase content are generally not the types to turn around and put their paid content up onto a P2P network, so the people complaining about this probably aren't the ones who buy content to begin with.

Where do you land on this issue? Would you shy away from a watermark that identifies you as having purchased a song or movie?