"Zune Pass is just such a subscription service, and it's a pretty good one… but lately, Zune Pass subscribers have been seeing their music collections just disappear into thin air. This can be a single song, an entire album or even whole artists' collections. Disappearing acts included, but weren't limited to, popular artists like Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend and Spoon. Now, when stuff like this happens, the usual culprit is that the record industry has re-negotiated its licensing deals with the service… which seems to be exactly what occurred. Microsoft has responded to customers' complaints by saying that their music has disappeared because record labels have pulled them."

This story's been making the rounds on the internet as of late. It appears that music from a number of artists is no longer available for Zune Pass download in the marketpace, and has been subsequently stopped working in Zune Pass holders' collections. Though Microsoft has stated that this decision is left up to the labels, there seems to be no larger reasoning behind what content has been pulled. For their part Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and promised to investigate. They are asking affected users to report missing music in the Zune.net forum thread.

Looking at the price in our affiliate Amazon.com, the price on the Zune HD 32 GB has dropped to $249 USD, and the 16 GB Zune HD is $189.99 USD. Not bad!

"Windows Home Server was a large part of CES this year. I was pleasantly embraced by all you fellow Windows Home Server users and I joyfully shared the new features sets that Power Pack 3 empowered your home server with. The beautiful thing about our booth is the ability to walk everyone step by step, on how to take advantage of these new features. For those of you who were not at CES, I'd like to take the time to share with you those steps that I shared with CES attendees. One of the key scenarios that got a lot of interest at the show was how a Zune music player can benefit from having a Windows Home Server around as well. This post goes into more detail about why and how it all works together."

When Microsoft released Power Pack 3 for Windows Home Server, there were a number of new features added that perhaps not everyone realised was included. This article from The Windows Home Server blog, explains how to make full use of one of those features if you have a Media Center PC, a Windows Home Server and a media player such as the Zune. The ability to access your music, videos and pictures on both your Media Center PC and your Zune is nice, but to be able to record your TV shows and automatically create a copy compressed especially for the Zune so you can watch them on the go is brilliant. No more having to encode the TV shows specifically for the Zune, just record your show on the Media Center as normal and one extra copy encoded correctly for the Zune or other media player of your choice will be made. If you didn't know about this, then take a read and see how easy it is.

That's the kind of thing I've been seeing for about a month now from the Zune desktop software when I try to sync the College Humor video podcast. A couple of months back, it would only happen every few videos, but in December it turned into a problem with every single entry. When I click on the yellow exclamation mark, here's the error I get:

The Web Help link doesn't provide much in the way of useful information. The problem is that the files are MP4 in format, and I kind of doubt that the College Humor people decided to change their format recently (though I suppose anything is possible). So what's going on? I have no idea. I'm not the only one complaining about this issue, but so far there seems to be no fix. I tried un-subscribing to the podcast, and re-subscribing, but that didn't help. A podcast directory is only as good as the content in it, and if Microsoft doesn't have some way of tracking podcasts that are tossing errors into user's faces, it's going to be hard for them to grow the service as a reliable method of subscribing to podcasts. Any ideas?

"In the New World, computers are task-centric. We are reading email, browsing the web, playing a game, but not all at once. Applications are sandboxed, then moats dug around the sandboxes, and then barbed wire placed around the moats. As a direct result, New World computers do not need virus scanners, their batteries last longer, and they rarely crash, but their users have lost a degree of freedom. New World computers have unprecedented ease of use, and benefit from decades of research into human-computer interaction. They are immediately understandable, fast, stable, and laser-focused on the 80% of the famous 80/20 rule. Is the New World better than the Old World? Nothing's ever simply black or white."

This is a really great "think piece" that's well worth reading if you're the kind of person that likes to think about where computers - and that includes mobile devices - are going to be moving in the next decade. As such, I'm posting it across all our sites to get the widest possible take on the topic. I want to hear from you!

Steven Frank, the author, posits that new world computers are task-centric and secure, and that's the future of computing. For many types of scenarios, I think that works really well - but Frank doesn't seem to acknowledge that in order to do anything involving real content creation, an "old world" PC is still required. I'm happy to have a limited-in-functionality Web-pad style device next to my couch for Web surfing, tweeting, etc., but when I need to process raw files on a colour calibrated monitor, or edit HD video? Old world computing rules those scenarios.

I also have to wonder how sophisticated the software can get on these New World computers - ever noticed how so many iPod Touch games are the same? Screen size and touch-only inputs are significantly factors on what developers are able to do.

In some ways this boils down to the "appliances" vs. "computers" argument that has been going on for years. Appliances are more reliable, but they only do very specific things. Computers do infinitely more, but are generally less reliable than appliances. Which would you rather have, and why?

"Coinciding with the scheduled Zune.net maintenance today, a new Zune software update was also released (version 4.2.202.0 for those playing along at home). What might appear as just a regular software update is actually hiding a very big secret. The elusive 'Zune Phone' is pretty much confirmed... there are three unique class IDs and specifically Product IDs (PID) that identify three potential “Zune Phone” models (not storage capacities) off the bat. My bet is that they’re not just capacity variants (since various Zune capacities are all grouped under the same PID), but three actual hardware SKUs."

Long Zhen never fails to disappoint. The amateur coder and proprietor of istartedsomething.com cracked open the new Zune 4.2 software to reveal driver support for three upcoming phone models. Though the hardware ID listed shows Microsoft as the manufacturer there's no indication that they're the rumored Zune phone (which Microsoft has gone on record several times to deny.) So they could just be generic Windows Mobile 7 phones, right? Well not exactly. As we learned from the Palm Pre-masquerading as an iPod so it could sync with iTunes debacle a few months back, the USB-IF doesn't allow hardware vendors to mask their associations with the drivers, meaning that it looks like Microsoft is planning to release a hardware device afterall.

ZuneBoards seems to think these unnamed devices have something to do with Project Pink, specifically the Premium Mobile eXperiences division (PMX) and two Danger-designed devices, Pure and Turtle--a story first broke by Microsoft Watch's Mary Jo Foley. Refrences in a Zune library function pointing to a type of device called PmxPure and PmxTurtle seem to support this theory as well. Right now Microsoft is remaining fairly tight-lipped about their phone plans. Hopefully we'll see the strategy begin to coalesce around next month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The Zune HD is one of the gadgets up for Engadget's "Gadget of the Year" award - jump over to the voting page and cast your vote. We can't let the iPhone 3GS win! ;-)

"Xbox Live deserves praise as a service, but being the standard for which other online gaming services are judged means its flaws come under repeated scrutiny -- for good reason. It's why I always find myself asking Microsoft executives a couple of the same questions whenever I'm given the opportunity to sit down with them: why is there a friends cap on Xbox Live and when will the entire service allow me to pay for content in real-world dollar amounts, rather than confusing Microsoft Points?"

Where do you guys stand on the issue of points? I'm not as negative on them as some people - I'm fine paying 800 points for an Xbox Arcade game, largely because I have no frame of reference for the cost. Interestingly, I found points to be very frustrating when deciding to rent SD and HD video downloads - I know how much a DVD or Blu-ray rental costs at my local video store, so having to fire up a Web browser to calculate how much a video downloads costs ticked me off. I like the idea of micro-transactions for game content, but think that it could co-exist alongside all the other content (songs, videos, games) being in dollar amounts. Any changes made to Xbox Live would rippled down to the Zune Marketplace. What's your take?

"Zune Nation is excited about the Zune 4.2 Software update. What was labeled as a maintenance update has turned out to provide more than expected as many websites are reporting on new features and future possibilities that arise from this update. While it is not my goal to cite every article on the subject, I did try to get the originator. Overall, I wanted to give you a rundown of what has changed in this update as seen through the websites of Zune Nation."

My man Neville at Inside the Circle has rounded up and broken down some of the major changes we got as a result of the recently-launched 4.2 update. New in this version are support for Windows 7 podcasts Libraries, in-software playback of AVI video, black-tinted playlist tiles (saywha?), and some tantilizing hints of an upcoming phone device. Some users are reporting the ability to use the Zune interface in several other languages, including German. Unfortuantely, it looks like some of the international hacks have taken a step back to requiring the user to switch their Windows locale to US/English to access the Marketplace and Social. Hopefully this will be remedied soon with a launch in a a few international countries (as My Microsoft Life seems to think.)

"We know many of you are anxiously waiting for the Facebook for Zune HD app, and have been very patient. Thank you. However, we need to ask a small favor... just hold on a little longer. I know we said by the end of January, but we want to deliver the best app to you and it is going to take a little bit more time. Again thanks for understanding."

There's something kind of problematic about the Zune app story when it takes Microsoft months and months to release Twitter and Facebook apps for the Zune HD. They need to open up the Zune Marketplace to outside developers - Microsoft is neither fast nor agile when it comes to software development, and speed is what the Zune HD needs to start picking up if it's going to thrive. I really hope the Zune Facebook app is better on the Zune HD than it is on Windows Mobile - that's one sad app. I actually prefer using the Facebook mobile site designed for the iPod Touch rather than the Windows Mobile app because it's so much faster and functional. And when a Web interface is faster and more functional than a local app, you've really gone wrong with your app development...

Congrats to HueMan, andrew_lee, txa1265 and dlindman, our winners in the XO Skins contest. Their products shipped out last week so depending on where you are, you should see something in your mailbox this week. Again, congrats and thanks for entering! 

"The Zune service (Zune Pass, Zune Marketplace, Zune.net streaming and Zune video on Xbox LIVE) will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance. The Zune service will be offline for up to 24 hours starting at 10:00 p.m. PST on Monday, January 25. As with previous service updates, we recommend you download any new music, video rentals or purchases and sync Zune Pass content prior to the downtime. Content that is stored on your PC or Xbox 360 HDD will remain available during the downtime."

Just like the post above says, the Zune.net services will be down for a while. This is a maintenance update; no new features are going to be rolling out with this release.

Perhaps it has something to do with all the love the Zune guys feel at this time of year, but for the last three years the Zune Originals team have brought out a set of limited edition tattoo engravings to celebrate the Valentines Day holiday. There are ten designs in all, and all but one feature the heart shape in some fashion. Each of the Zune HD's six colors is available for free engraving, and can be ordered in 16 or 32 GB variety (it looks like we're going to have to wait a little longer for a 64 GB model after all.) Those finding themselves less interested in heart-covered patterns this February 14 can still pick up a design from the Artist, MLS, or Xbox series, at the usual $15 charge.

I think it’s even better news for Zune. I know plenty of people who have Windows Mobile phones who don’t also have a Zune. Subscription music combined with a 3G connection would be a pretty awesome combination.

I hope the rumor is true because I think Windows Mobile (or whatever they want to call it these days) desperately needs something to help it get competitive again. And Zune really needs to be better integrated into Microsoft’s other product lines. Maybe we’ll finally start to see the Zune platform live up to some of the promises that were made years ago when the Zune 30 launched.

You've doubtless heard the earthquake that has caused massive damage and loss of lives in Haiti. The Red Cross has set up an innovative way to donate: send a text message to 90999 with the word HAITI in the body. You'll get a message back confirming that you want to donate $10 to the Red Cross; reply back with Yes and you'll get a $10 charge on your next phone bill. Nice and simple - so if you can afford $10, and most of us reading this site probably can, please do it. And if you can afford to donate more, please do.

My friend Xavier from Notebooks.com has decided to step up to coordinate some extra efforts: he's going to match the first $500 donated to the Red Cross via this SMS method. He's reached out to others in the mobile tech industry, including us here at Thoughts Media, to increase the matching pool of money. A bunch of sites are stepping forwarding, including SCOTTEVEST, Gear Diary, Mobility Minded, Gear Live, Ivy Worldwide, and others. Ed Hansberry has personally donated $250 Xavier's Red Cross matching fund on behalf of Windows Phone Thoughts, and I'm going to match that by donating $250 myself. The fund is up to over $5000, which is over $10,000 donated to the Red Cross if everyone steps up to donate via SMS. So come on, help out if you can! All the details are at Notebooks.com.

Please join me in wishing David Tucker a very happy birthday! David is an integral part of our team here at Zune Thoughts, adding his thoughts and perspective to everything Zune. Happy birthday David, and thanks for all that you do. If you'd like to thank David in a tangible way, here's his Amazon wish list.

CES: it's the geek Mecca. This year, for me, it was a train-wrecka (har har!). Join me on my journey of unpacking the frustrations and tribulations of a CES I'd rather forget. I need some catharsis from the five days I spent in Vegas, so this is more for me than you, but perhaps you'll find it entertaining in a "driving past a car wreck" sort of way.

When I went to CES 2009, I posted quite a few videos of what I saw there. Producing those videos in 1080p h.264 on my Dell XPS M1330 took a long time, so on December 9th I placed an order for a pimped-out Core i7-based Dell Studio 17. Plenty of time before CES, right? Wrong. Despite calling in a favour with a contact I have in Dell's CTO office, as of December 30th I still didn't have the laptop - the estimated ship date was January 8th, three days after I left for CES. Switching to plan "B", I went out and purchased an HP dv7, a $2000 Core i7-based laptop with a 17.3" screen and a weight of seven pounds. I was planning on bringing this beast of a laptop with me to CES to leave in my hotel room for video production, and I'd carry a netbook me me for day to day CES reporting. Then I started to hear about the security restrictions after the December 25th "underwear bomber" was foiled, and my already rocky start to CES prep got worse.

On January 4th, a day before I left for CES, I spent two hours doing research online and on the phone, trying to determine what I could and couldn't bring on the plane from Canada to the USA. As best as I could tell, the Canadian rules were the strictest in the world - my peers flying in from Europe were able to carry on bags with no particular restrictions. The morning of the 5th I spent an hour crafting a great article about how frustrating the confusion and lack of information coming out of CATSA (Canadian Air Transport Security Authority) was, and Firefox locked up and I lost my entire article. Here's the short medium-length version: I spent 30 minutes on the phone with a CATSA agent - after trying for two hours to get through their constantly-busy phone line - trying to determine what was allowed and what wasn't. The initial, and sole, list of allowed items didn't include mobile phones, MP3 players, headphones, or even books. It listed laptops, but not laptop bags. It mentioned a "small purse", but no size dimensions. How was I going to carry two laptops with me?

The CATSA agent I talked to refused to confirm whether any of the items I had questions about - phone, MP3 player, headphones - were for sure allowed. He said they "Should be". You don't go through airport security with items you think will be allowed on the plane, because if you're wrong, you either don't get on the plane, or your lose the item you're carrying. Who's going to risk that with an HTC HD2, a Zune HD, a Panasonic GF-1 digital camera, a pair of Ultimate Ears headphones, and a Dean Koontz book that you really want to know the ending of? I asked for the dimensions of the small purse to see if I could find a similar bag, and the agent said they had no information on dimensions. He suggested I carry a "man purse" if I had one - but couldn't tell me the size of said "man purse". I kid you not. I investigated how much it would cost me in fees if I were to cancel my whole trip, and decided I'd make the best of it and still go.

So I went to the airport with all of the above jammed into the pockets of my leather jacket, carrying my Dell XPS M1330 laptop in a neoprene sleeve. I returned the HP dv7 to the store I bought it from before I left. Everything else - including my Canon HF100 video camera - was packed in my suitcase. I arrived at the airport 2.5 hours early, expecting to see long lines. Instead, I breezed through the ticket counter and US customs. Well, sort of - I had a small detour into US border security secondary inspection for some unknown reason where I just sat on a bench for five minutes and no one talked to me before telling me I could go. I arrived at security 15 minutes after I started at the airport.

What did I see? Security lines that were even lighter than the last time I travelled. Even more shocking? A bunch of people were carrying laptop bags, camera bags, and purses that I'd define as anything but small. Here I was, trying to be Mr. Responsible, doing my research, changing my content creation plans for CES, and the people who evidently didn't know any better or who thought they'd push their luck were able to get through carrying bags I was told would definitely not be allowed. I saw people with big, honking 17" laptops in shoulder bags. As a footnote to this part of the story, post-CES start date (Jan. 8th) CATSA decided to publish a PDF with all sorts of details about what's allowed, including the exact dimensions of permissible "small purse", and that laptop bags are permitted. Thank you CATSA for the lemon juice on the paper cut you slashed into me.

Once I made it to CES, I thought "OK, let's make the best of this." I was staying at the Imperial Palace, which, while it has a great location, was far worse of a hotel than I was expecting. I tried to make light of it with a Twitter meme that didn't catch on like I'd hoped it would, but I still had some fun. Wednesday and Thursday were pretty good days, though I managed to overtax myself on Thursday to the point of near-paralysis on Friday. Thursday's stupidity was me walking the show floor for two hours, then three of us walking from the CES show floor over to The Hilton seeking the sustenance of food and drink, failing miserably (The Hilton has very little to offer in that regard that we could find), walking back to the CES show floor, then going to an evening event and walking back from it. Friday morning my body was such a wreck I could barely move.

By Friday night I was feeling better and headed to a CNTRSTG event sponsored by DisplayLink. While there I was treated to a fine meal and had a good time chatting with my peers. By the time I got back to my hotel, however, I was starting to feel a bit strange. Two hours later I felt a touch ill, but thought it was the gut-wrenching two final episodes of The Shield season seven that I watched. When I woke up at 2am puking my guts out, I realized it wasn't the gripping cop drama, but food poisoning or a flu bug. Saturday felt like the longest day of my life as I went through the classic flu symptoms: fever, chills, and no-orifice-shall-be-spared expulsion of what seemed like more than my body weight. I felt like death, but was helped along by the delivery of a few bottles of fluids from a friend.

By Sunday morning the worst of it was over, and I loaded up on Pepto-bismal and Imodium to fly home. The Las Vegas airport was a ghost town, with no lines for security. I sat there for nearly three hours before the flight boarded. In my delirious state I accidentally deleted (and now can't recover) what was perhaps one of my only interesting videos - it was of an HP Snapdragon-powered netbook prototype - but at least I could carry a small laptop bag with me on the way back. Hooray.

As I stood at the luggage conveyor belt in Calgary, weak and exhausted, it didn't take me long to notice that I was the only person left waiting for his luggage. That's right, Air Canada had lost my bag on a direct flight from Las Vegas to Calgary. I shuffled, zombie-like, over to the baggage counter, ready to become an angry brain-eating zombie at not yet being able to go see my wife and baby boy waiting outside, and was informed that there were any number of reasons why my bag wasn't there. The TSA could have scanned it and found something suspicious; Air Canada could have not had room for it on the flight, or maybe just lost it. At that point, I didn't care. I stumbled outside, hugged my wife and child, went home, and slept for 12 hours.

The next evening (Monday), an Air Canada courier dropped off my suitcase - reeking of cigarette smoke - and thankfully all of my electronics were still inside. CES 2010 was a complete failure from a news coverage and health perspective for me, though I did manage to network and meet some of the right people for the next Thoughts Media site to launch (there's your treat for reading to the end of this long-ass rant). I can't think of very many things that I truly regret in life, but if I could go back in time to January 5th, I'd tell myself to skip CES 2010 entirely.

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, 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 may just hit himself in the head with a shovel repeatedly rather than going to CES 2011.

Do you enjoy using new hardware, software and accessories, then sharing your experience with others? Then join us on the Thoughts Media Review Team! We're looking for individuals who find it fun to test new gear and give their honest opinions about the experience. It's a volunteer role with some great perks. Interested? Then click here for more information.

"With its expansive new range of earphones, Sennheiser is taking music on the move to another level. Altogether the 22 new models, designed specifically for use with portable players, offer a first-class audio experience and the Sennheiser quality you have come to expect. Each set of headphones features fashion-forward designs to complement any taste."

There is no doubt that the most important accessory that you can buy for your Zune or any PMP is a better set of headphones. And if you were having a hard time deciding which of your options were best before now, well, wait until you check out Sennheiser's new line of headphones!

Sennheiser cans are definitely some of the best out there. I had a pair of Sennheisers that marked my entry into higher end earphones. It really looks like there's something for everyone here since the prices will range from $19.95 all the way to $339.95 with 20 price points in-between!

Check out the full press release here!

This week we're looking at the ZuneOne Travel Case for Zune 4/8/16/30/80/120 ($12.95 USD). Similar to the official Zune Gear Bag, this case wasn't designed for day-to-day use—you need to take it out in order to access the screen, buttons, etc.—but rather, as a means of transporting your player or players and headphones, sync cable, and screen wipes in a convenient, protected shell. In this regard, the Travel Case succeeds. Though as with most other cases, it won't suit all needs equally.

Figure 1: The device pocket in the case

The case is split into two halves via a flexible plastic divider that serves to cushion the device screen on one side and provide a mesh pocket for headphones or flash player on the other. The left well of the case is designed for hard disk-based players. It fits Zune 80s and 120s almost perfectly, but bulges slightly with the 30 GB model. I don't have a Zune HD with which to test, but I'd assume it fits reasonably well. Unfortunately, while the small form factor enables easy portability and protection, it ultimately means that it's impossible to put another case around your player itself. This is something you might consider if you regularly use a silicon or leather Zune case.

The second pocket, on the right in the above photo, has space for a set of headphones and sync cable, and is big enough to store an extra sync cable or even one of the smaller flash-based players (Zune 4/8/16). You can also keep a set of replacement buds or a headphone splitter, and the elastic mesh on the top and bottom keeps everything from falling out. The case closes with a flimsy zipper that traverses the majority of the length of the case, allowing it to be folded open flat. There's a loop for belt buckle on the back side of the accessories half if you happen to be the road warrior type.

Figure 2: The case, open on the accessories side of the flap.

Honestly I did not find too much use for this case, but perhaps I'm not in its intended audience. It does perfectly fine at what it's designed to do; you won't find any special or unique features here. That said, $15 is pretty steep for such a basic case, and you may have to decide if carrying around your sync cable and extra set of headphones in your bag is worth it to you, especially with the official case selling for even a few bucks less. Fits Zune 4, 8, 16, 30, 80, and 120 variations and comes in black. $15, ZuneOne.net.

Adam Krebs is an avid Zuner who lives in Boston MA with his family and sometimes obedient Zune.

Nvidia had their CES press event today and among the announcements were details on the next generation Tegra chip. The Tegra powers, among other things, the Zune HD and from everything I’ve seen it’s a very impressive chip already. The current Tegra runs the ARM11 chip. The new Tegra is going to be running the dual core Cortex-A9.

They also said that there will be 8 independent processors so if I understand the transcript from Engadget correctly, that means 16 cores total on the new Tegra (I didn't understand correctly. Thanks bitbyte for pointing out there are actually 2 Cortex A9 processors). All while only consuming 500 milliwatts. They claim this will allow for 140 hours of music and 16 hours of HD video but of course, that will depend on a lot of factors unrelated to the Tegra alone.

Nvidia’s biggest announcement for Tegra is that it will be powering all Audi cars starting in 2011. I assume that means the 2012 model years but they don’t specify in the live blog on Engadget. There is no mention of the Zune or other devices specifically but they do say there are 50 devices in the pipe for the new Tegra.

I think a combination of Tegra, Windows Phone 7, and the Zune all on one platform could make for a killer device.

Check out the rest of the live blog on Engadget. They have other announcements involving 3D on our laptops, which I’m sure everyone is excited about and lots of great pictures and slides from the Nvidia’s presentation.