Feature requests
Wow, lots of good comments here since more specifics hit the web. Many fall into the "feature request" bin, and I feel bad that some folks are disappointed by features we didn't include at launch. While I can't go into specifics, I wanted to respond generically.
Most feature requests fall into one of two bins:
- Niche features that wouldn't appeal to the mass market consumer - not that any of these are bad or unimportant, just that we initially needed to focus on the biggest buckets to get to market. Frankly, many of the PlaysForSure partners have tried to differentiate from Apple by adding these features, and have made little or no traction. In fact, many of those guys get trapped into serving the enthusiast community at the expense of the mass market (ex: Archos).
- Great features that we simply couldn't get to by launch - I feel sad about the items on this list, but you should know we're on the case here and those features will roll out and be downlevel to existing Zunes as fast as possible.
I can't really bin features specifically, but most of you know which are which. ;)
One specific thought on the stuff below; there's some argument over whether Zune "supports" podcasts. While zune will happily play most podcasts, I don't think it's fair to say we've really got a podcasting feature at launch; that would really require the whole enchilada - rss reader, podcast guide, etc.... - and we didn't ship those at launch. I didn't want anyone confused by that.
43 Comments:
please please please tell me you have some information on a european (specifically uk and ireland) launch date by now. i dont understand why there is so little information and varying reports from microsoft employees. i would really like to buy a zune but i certainly wont buy one when it is dated and old by this time next year if it wont be released till then. thankyou.
How's it going David? How often can we expect these Zune update and will Podcast support be the first one (I believe you said it would be ready in January)?
-Evan from Zunecorps
Hello David,
Do you have any info on whether or not the Zune software will support Windows XP x64 edition.
Will the Zune support bookmarks for audio files? I know it supports it for video files, but it'd be nice to be able to stop a podcast (or books on tape) and go back to where the playback left off.
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Hi- As a subscriber to the Zune subscription service, will I be able to stream downloaded subscription songs from my PC directly to my 360 without needing the Zune hardware hooked up? I used to be able to do this with Rhapsody subscription songs.Thanks!
Hey,
Before the Zune launches, I have one measly question left. In the menu "Settings" there's an option called "Display." After that, there's "Theme." Can you please explain to us what we can do in Theme?
"Downlevel"! It's not even out yet, and it's already legacy to you.
Some integration with Media Center's TV files shouldn't be considered niche. Seriously, 100 million media center PC's have beens sold. I just hope features don't get tossed in a (garabage) bin like this because they "seem" hardcore. And, I hope cool, more advanced features aren't decided against simply because you guys don't want to compete in that way. It is certainly possible to have a simple, easy to use device/software that also has nice features for the more advanced user (see OS X).
In terms of marketing, trust me, the Zune loyalists and enthusiasts that come to this site and zuneinsider everyday will do a lot as far as promoting this player. IMO, to turn them off but "dumbing down" the player would be a big mistake. Then, the casuals are going to complain about the little usability issues that casual consumers usually gripe about (i.e. no deleting mp3's from device) and the absence of "niche" features (no media center tv file syncing) will annoy the hardcore users. In the end, no one will be satisfied... Just a thought.
In WMP 11 as soon at the program opens you press the play button and it makes you a random playlist. I really would like to see that on the zune.
I cannot believe that it would be shipped without the Podcast abilities. That is a dealbreaker for many of us.
- Paul
Well, 100M media centers is about 5x too high, but still 20M is a lot. MCE files aren't niche, I'd agree. ;)
What about the theme thing I asked? Please, just one simple question! :)
Audible support or bust.
I'm not worried about podcasting, but hope that Microsoft makes that one of its first upgrades.
Am I right that it would be a Zune software upgrade (on the PC), and not require a change to the Zune player firmware itself?
In the meantime, I'll keep mine updated manually, and still play my podcasts on my Zune.
- Harvey
http://www.zunerama.com
Oh well. I guess my request for lossless will fall into niche market. Maybe in future some lossless code will make its way through. I wonder if it takes a lot of time and effort to get a codec ready to play for a lossless format on Zune.
I think whenever it’s included, it will satisfy all the audiophiles of the world in one stroke and I think they do fall into the “Influencer” category so I think the impact goes well beyond audiophile community.
I guess till then LAME will have to do.
Got two questions David. Its not directly related to the Zune device.
1. I was wondering if you guys have plans to come up with a scheme where user can put up their own music on the Zune marketplace. A place where garage bands and up coming artists can showcase their talent. I would love to see Zune come up with something like that.
2. What is Zune teams outlook towards podcast. I would like you guys to come up with something which will make it much easier to use podcast. Some way that it’s better categorized, better visually represented and easier to use. In other words make it much more main stream so that even my mom can easily find one and subscribe to one.
re: themes. Pretty much what you'd expect; a combination of color, background image, and font to personalize the device software look and feel.
re: podcasting upgrade.
*Speaking hypothetically* (nudge nudge), a podcast update would have to be more than just a client update. The service would have to be updated to include a guide, the client would need an update, and the device would need an update to make consuming podcasts easier (bookmarking, separate podcasts from music in the index, etc....).
i have a suggestion that i believe most people will benefit from. after the 'update album info' finally started working with my music, i see what a great feature it is. i think it would be awesome if this could be implemeted in the zune. for often ill miss an album or something and then when it plays i'll realize a lack of album art. so if there was an option to 'retrieve album info' over the wifi or something that would be really awesome.
rohit:
it's core to our thinking to make sure Zune has a lot of affinity to "edgier" bands and garage bands.
I totally agree re podcasts; Apple has done an uncharacteristically lousy job of designing the podcast end to end experience, and it's forever stuck in niche territory. We can do better.
jake bryant:
good thinking on offline album art; when wifi can connect in infrastructure mode to the internet it might make sense. For now, you can quickly "earmark" songs on the device so you're reminded back at the PC which songs were missing and fix them.
As our technologies improve, you'll lack album are less and less of the time, so hopefully it'll be less necessary later.
Question about The Zune Marketplace. Is there a "My Station" feature similar to Yahoo Music, Last.fm, Pandora, and Etc???
With the newly announced XBOX Live Video Marketplace, I'm hoping we can transfer files from the xbox 360 to the Zune. That would be a natural progression from the streaming integration that will be present at launch.
Also, a way to navigate the zune marketplace from my couch would rule, whether its from my 360 or media center.
About the device itself, I'm hoping that we will be allowed to create, save, and delete playlists directly on the hardware. Also, in addition to rating songs and flagging them, I hope an update will allow us to delete them straight from the device.
Wireless syncing would be a deal breaker for most people. Syncing without fiddling with the computer is just a killer feature. It would put the wireless connection to good use. Being able to access the Zune Marketplace straight from the device would be challenging from a user interface standpoint, but I think most people would love it.
David - I realize that you're the 'technical' guy on the team, but from one Rush fan to another I'd ask you to try and convince your colleagues to consider forming some major content partnerships with other-era bands, like Rush. Zune would instantly have that-much-more credibility with the 'older folks.' Thanks!
gene from zunechannel.com
Yeah - I second the Rush fan comment. I bet we could even talk Sir Paul into partnering with Beatles tracks...since I doubt he's much of an 'Apple' fan.
Is recording live radio a big addition for you guys? It is a fairly common feature in FM capable players and I am astonished is not preliminarily included. Any comments? Seems like it would be easy to add also.
Also, I'll second the podcasts... We need our podcasts.. Seriously... This is a very important feature to a lot of people including myself.
Audible support... I hear a lot of things about this and I'm not sure exactly if it is supported yet, but it is also a very popular and ideal file to support... Some big userbase comes from here and podcasts.
Also DivX converting support, I hear the current version of the Zune software can't handle this EXTREMELY common codec. Please, don't disappoint.
I have a few requests.
1.Gapless playback.... didn't see any mention of this. Apple has already done it, are you working on it?
2. As mentioned, when the 360 launches its video marketplace, it would be nice to take those purchased tv shows on my Zune. (would help that whole, no video store on zune software thing)
And it would justify the speculated 3 dollar price.
Doesn't the Xbox team use the same drm as the Zune? so couldn't you hypothetically even transfer rented movies to your Zune?
you guys really need to work together on this, because if I could buy tv shows to play on my 360 and then transfer them to my zune to watch on the road, that would rock.
Custom EQ? This is a big recent option that really helps you make music sound how YOU want it to.
Pretty handy feature there...
Does the Zune pause when headphones are unplugged? Also, I read somewhere that the Zune can not be used as a standard removable HDD (ie: when you plug the device in to sync, it also shows up in "My Computer" as a drive that you can drag and pop files to - utilizing any space that isnt already occupied by music).. this CANT be true... right? that doesnt make any sense..
Can you comment on the "download to zune" links found on KEXP's podcasting page?
http://www.kexp.org/podcasting/podcasting.asp
Thanks,
Dave
*Speaking hypothetically* (nudge nudge), a podcast update would have to be more than just a client update. The service would have to be updated to include a guide, the client would need an update, and the device would need an update to make consuming podcasts easier (bookmarking, separate podcasts from music in the index, etc....)."
I don't see why you can't use the RSS/Atom Feed and set the Zune Marketplace to download the attachments/enclosures and save them, and create a separate playlist for them. The freeware program "Juice" http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/index.php does this for WMP. It seems that podcast support would be more of a software fix...
Other requests, bring back DJ mode where someone can continuously stream music to multiple Zune. I'm thinking that if one person has a nice playlist, then the music can be streamed at a lower bit-rate to up to 4 or more zunes.
DJ mode from a computer. Maybe an add-on program that allows zune-marketplace DRM and non-drm music to be played from ANY source (iTunes, WMP, etc) to a zune. This would open up music sharing to potential customers (e.g. if I can get a friend to install a zune-sharing program on his/her wifi enabled laptop and then start listening to his music without even connecting a cable, he/she will be impressed - especially if he/she has another MP3 player)
A response to the 3x3. I think that you guys are taking WAY too much heat from Pogue (NYT), Mossberg (WSJ), Ewalt (Forbes) and the other apple cheer-leaders! Seriously guys, you have to speak out against this HOARD of negativity that in the biosphere!
Ogg Vorbis support, for the love of god! If you're not going to support Ogg Vorbis, it would at least be nice to have WMA10 Pro support, so people would have a reasonable low-bitrate option.
WMA10 Pro sounds great, WMA9.2 sounds bad below ~160Kbps. Why does Microsoft bother to develop a codec that even they don't support?
Also, while we're at it, FLAC. If not FLAC, WMA-Lossless. Again, the format already exists, and is MS property, why not support that?
These are not feature requests per se but are positives and negatives that I found with the software.
+The Softwware has a nice user interface that not only looks good, but is very functional.
+Scrolling through your albums and libraries is lightning fast.
+Search is well done and you can do the standard song and artist search. An "also appears on" features lets you download other songs that your artist appears on
+All the menu items and functions are easily accessible in this very easy to use program.
+Streaming music, pictures, and video to an XBOX 360 worked like a charm. It was infinitely easier to do this in Zune than it was to do in Media Player 11.
+Setting up or demoting your authorized computers is a snap. Too bad you can only deauthorize a computer once in 30 days.
+The fast forward buttons work in the software. Too bad there's no rewind.
+Playlist creation is a snap.
+The software instantly accessed all of my Microsoft points and information once I entered my Windows Live ID. There was no customer data input from me whatsoever. Everything, including my credit card info, was already in there. Sweet.
-So much for the virtual locker idea. There is no way to access your library or playlists when you're at another computer. Music downloads and playlists remain on the local hard drive to which they were downloaded and are not saved remotely.
-Installation took several minutes even on a dual-cored beast of a computer.
-No podcast subscriptions.
-There is absolutely no sharing features in the Zune software. This appears to go against the whole social aspect of the Zune platform.
-The music selection leaves a lot to be desired. They are missing many key albums from artists in several genres. The library doesn't even approach the selection of Rhapsody or Itunes. When it's really all about the music, this isn't a good sign.
-Microsoft may offend many people by putting certain genres in the "more" category. It just shows bad taste. Last time I checked, Jazz deserved its own genre.
-Thumbnails for Pictures and video take a while to generate in the software.
-I ran into hiccups during the installation. Once, when I linked to my XBOX 360 account, it wouldn't let me continue the installation problem. The second time, after I signed up for the Zune Pass, it wouldn't let me download anything. Both problems were fixed with me closing the program and reopening.
-Honestly, there's not a lot to do in the software since there is only music available. There are no music videos, no movies, no tv shows, and no games.
-Installing the software on a slow computer was brutal. It appears that if you're computer is very old and slow, the Zune software will take very long to install.
It's amazing how many errors people had while installing the software, including myself. No text input for your zunetag, searching for updates forever, and stuck at the installation screen. And of course, all the zune bloggers are on a mini-strike again...lol. I guess we'll find out whats up some time on Monday.
now that I got my Zune... it's cool... but I wonder when it will have the ability to display Japanese Song Names as alot of my songs are in the script characters
:)
IF id want anything, its more configurability. I dont mind if its deeply hidden, but i want it there. for example, in the quick-playlist (which i love) Id like to be able to default to keeping the curently playing song while deleting the rest because when i double click on a song it will add my entire library to the list. when i delete it all, everything goes. and triple clicking to add to the end of the quick playlist, and things like that. nothing difficult, but useful and streamlined, as opposed to clicking in a menu.
Please give of Lossless audio support, Please
Hello. My only real request/concern involves album art. The Zune displays this art rather prominently, but unfortunately I cannot figure out how to actually make it look good.
Most of what is downloaded off of the Marketplace is of poor quality. I can paste in my own, but if it's too big it seems to resize terribly. I'm having a very hard time making any of my album art look anything but compressed or skewed.
Are there any suggestions on ways to fix this?
I have got a simple request relating to the Zune desktop application - create an easy way to tag video and photo files within the Zune app.
It's rather odd that there really is no way to organise and categorise video any other way except either using the very limited Windows Media File Editor or rencoding the files in Windows Media Encoder.
It's just a real, unecissary hassle and hampers the entire experience on the Zune device itself - especially when audio files have such in-depth tagging features.
I'd love to use my Zune left handed when in Video mode. Can I change a setting to get the landscape mode to flip the other way?
Contextual lists while playing songs: If I'm on shuffle or in a playlist of diverse artists and I like a particular song, let me click on the song and find more songs on my device by that artist, on that album, or in that genre.
Flag songs for removal from the Zune during next sync. I've got a ton of music on the thing and not all of it is good. Let me build up a kill list while listening so I can free up space automatically.
On that same topic, I'd love to see the ability to influence ratings while listening to music. If I've got a track I like but I'm not interested in adding it to my quick list or in buying it, I should be able to mark it as preferred (or 5 star or whatever) so I can build my own playlists later in the PC Software.
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