In a move to help take away more marketshare from Apple’s beloved iPod, Microsoft’s Peter Moore has confirmed that in 18 months, video games will be a reality on the Zune.  This of course could also put the Zune in the same playing field as Nintendo’s popular handhend the Nintendo DS and the likes of Sony’s PSP.

Source:  Bloomberg

Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, will introduce video games for its Zune music player within 18 months to match features available on Apple Computer Inc.’s dominant iPod.

Peter Moore, a vice president in the company’s Xbox video- game business, confirmed the plan yesterday, saying the Zune’s large screen will offer a better way to play handheld games. He didn’t specify what games would be offered.

“I love the interface, I love the screen,'’ Moore said at a dinner with reporters during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Zunemytube is an IE plugin that allows you to download videos from youtube, google video in a format viewable in Windows Media player, Zune, Creative Zen, Archos, IRiver players. Watch a video, click the Zune icon to get wmv video in “My Videos”.   Can’t get more groovy than that!

Downloads:

ZuneMyTube –and you may need this– .NET Framework 2.0

With the Freescale iMX31L processor, we already knew Zune could run Linux - but who was gonna be the first to try?   Well, according to one fearless warranty-voiding individual, that prospect is now at least one step closer to reality. In a post on ZuneBoards, “Mys Videl” claims that he’s managed to get Linux on Zune “partway working,” currently only able to be booted while synced and with limited capabilities. While Videl’s not willing to let the secret loose just yet (or even provide pics of it in action for that matter) he is promising to release it as open source when its finished, and open it up to beta testing before that. Exactly when that might happen, he isn’t saying.

Zune may have some undisclosed features waiting to be unlocked. A contributor to the Zune Scene forums has explored the zune.exe file, discovering that the file contains references to sychronized lyrics as well as podcasts — neither of which are currently supported by the player, the Zune Windows browser, or the Zune Marketplace. Microsoft may be planning a future revision to the Zune which will enable the above options, though podcasts in particular might require significant revisions to the browser and Marketplace, according to Electronista.

According to Gartner Inc., the mobile music market will grow strongly through 2010, to more than five times its size at the end of 2005, and reach $32 billion. Mobile operators stand to gain a lot, but face many hurdles in the race to be the main winners in this market. So how are the two main competitors on the market doing? Well, it seems iPod maintained its undeniable supremacy this year too, while Zune only enjoyed a brief period of glory, right after its launch.

It looks like iPod’s success is not only ensuring Apple’s dominance in the MP3 player market, but it also skyrockets the sales on iTunes. In the pre-Christmas period, users literally attacked Apple’s music download service, probably overwhelming the company’s servers and exceeding even the most optimistic expectations of the Cupertino-based giant. This is why most of them started complaining about long downloading intervals and receiving error messages.
 
Overall, Apple still maintains a tight grip on the MP3 players market, with 82.7 percent market share for the hard-drive iPods in the first half of December 2006, but down from the 86.8 percent registered last year. Considering both hard-drive and flash-based MP3 players, Apple holds an impressive 62.2 percent market share for its gadget, almost the same percent as in 2005 (63%).

As a comparison, Zune managed to obtain 9% market share in the first week since its launch in November, making it the second most important MP3 player, but far behind iPod. Zune’s success is diminished though when we consider that it took 9% of the hard drive MP3 player market. These numbers also do not include sales from Apple retail stores, which sell only iPod players.

Despite the heavy investments in advertising and marketing, Zune was received by consumers with indifference. A survey of 40 retailers conducted by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster found only 8% of the sales people recommended Zune compared to 75% recommendation for Apple iPod, and that most of the sales people did not even know what Zune was or who made it.

In the second week Zune was the 5th most sold player, with a 2.1% market share, according to the market research firm NPD Group. The figures do not include iPods sold directly from Apple.  Overall, SanDisk was No. 2 in December with 18.4 percent of the overall market, up from 17.5 percent last year.  Zune’s sales relative to other MP3 players continue to decline, with NPD Group placing its market share at 1.9% by the second week of December 2006.

According to Gartner, Microsoft’s strategy of differentiating Zune through its ability to share songs over Wi-Fi is not particularly compelling, pointing to the fact that users can’t buy songs through their player.  Gartner says: “Microsoft’s claimed differentiation for Zune is based on applying Web 2.0 community concepts to the music experience. With the inclusion of an integrated Wi-Fi/antenna, Zune users can exchange or share songs by transferring them to each other. Whilst Gartner believes this is a good, high level strategy that is potentially market leading, it is not clear that the scenario Microsoft describes is all that compelling.

Source: Playfuls

Ozymandias  is a member of the Xbox team.  Oz bought his brother a Zune, and has some pretty valid nit-picks on the device. He notes that the Zune had a lot of bugs when installing on Vista, and tried to sync all of his 500 gigs of music automatically on setup. There’s also various sync issues, crashes, and other stuff that’s basically focused on the PC-side of the Zune experience. He did like the actual device itself, save for the fact that there aren’t nearly as many car adapters as there are for the iPod.

On the positive side, the player itself is pretty slick. The screen is large, bright, and quite frankly, gorgeous. UI is simple and easy to use, and the included FM tuner is a nice bonus. It feels a tich bigger than the same 30 GB iPod, but I like the feel a bit better - the case is made of that textured plastic you sometimes find on high-end home theater remote controls. Nice “grippability”, to make up a term. Note that I didn’t use (nor care to) use it to playback videos, so I can’t comment on that. Also didn’t play with the wireless capability.
On the negative side, actually hooking it up to a Vista PC and getting it synced had some issues. It may be that the early version of the Zune software for Vista has issues - I don’t know - but it shouldn’t have been as painful as it was.

To start, the Zune decided it wanted to try and sync all of my music library automatically. This may be a good scenario for most people, but since my library is a half-terabyte of lossless WMA tracks stored on a basement media server, it was pretty obvious it would never all fit (even transcoding on the fly as it does). Even worse, there was no option to tell the Zune software to not automatically sync to the entire library - you had to go ahead, cancel the sync, turn off automatic syncing, and then reset/erase the Zune to have any control over what tracks you want on the device. Bah.

We also had some weird issues with stability - the sync crashed several times, we’d get half-albums moved over and then have to start again, and once the whole PC froze. Again, this may just be due to early Vista support, but it was a pain.

Now I’m not one to go and plug a band, but this is a different case.  I was introduced to this band sometime ago by our good friend Kim Burke and I cannot thank her enough.  This band has that sorta… U2, Keane kinda feel going for it.  But in a good way.  They’re latest CD is entitled “Into the West” and anyone who is on my Live Messenger contact list can attest that my display pic is of their CD cover.  No no… I’m not a fanboy.  I just appreciate good music when I see it.  So I only ask that you listen to some of their tunes.  My recommendation is “Knife-Grey Sea” and “Into Your Hideout”.  You can check both of these at:  MySpace.com/PilotSpeed or simply by visiting their website:  PilotSpeed.net. 

Here is some more info and some photos of the undressing of the Pilot Speed Album.  So sexy!

Pilot Speed is:
Todd Clark – Vocals
Ruby Bumrah – Bass
Chris Greenough – Guitar
Bill Keeley – Drums

You can’t shape love with a hammer
You can’t shape life with a will
What horror lies in knowing
There’s no fate that chaos can’t kill
From “Barely Listening” by Pilot Speed

“Heart-wrenching,” “sweepingly-epic,” “meticulously-crafted,” “virtuoso-caliber,” and “poetry-like” are but a few of hyphenate accolades used to describe Pilot Speed and their explosive American debut INTO THE WEST. Put simply, this Canadian quartet’s soaring, incandescent muse will knock music fans of all stripes on their collective ass. Indeed, with a Juno Award nomination, a Top-Twenty Canadian album, one Top-Ten Canadian radio single, and a Much Music video award, Pilot Speed is primed to invade their behemoth neighbor to the south.

Pilot Speed’s genesis, however, doesn’t actually begin north of the border, but rather far, far west, over the South Pacific. “New Zealand is a funny place,” explains Pilot Speed’s lead singer-songwriter Todd Clark who was born and raised in Wellington, the island nation’s capital. “You have to be somewhat of a chameleon to survive there.” For Clark that meant picking up a Stratocaster copy at the age of 12 while digging on legendary down-under bands like Crowded House, the Split Enz, and the Finn Brothers as well as seminal British acts like U2 and Radiohead and emulating classic blues rock guitarists like John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Eric Clapton.

At age 16, Clark’s father was transferred to Canada and Todd suddenly found himself in the more urbane confines of the Toronto suburbs. In 2000, after leaving the University of Western Ontario’s music program, Clark placed an ad on a musician’s website seeking like-minded musicians. Enter bassist Ruby Bumrah, of Toronto’s Ontario College of Art & Design, who recruited fellow alumni, guitarist Chris Greenough and drummer Bill Keeley. “We were lucky we all had similar frames of reference and yet our own eclectic likes and dislikes,” explains Todd. “Ruby was into Depeche Mode, The Smiths, U2. Bill and Chris were into stuff like Radiohead, Pink Floyd and Neil Young, and I was starting to get more into American songwriters like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits. Each guy has distinct qualities and talents that make our band incredibly unique.”

Witness the band’s estimable 2001 EP, FOR ALL THAT’S GIVEN, WASTED, recorded in Todd’s basement and presaging the band’s heartbreaking melodic sound. The six-song EP quickly sold out its initial run and helped establish the band on the Canadian music scene, leading to shows with acclaimed Canuck bands like Broken Social Scene, DFA 1979, and Hot Hot Heat. After an incendiary performance at Canada’s 2002 North-by-Northeast music conference (Canada’s SXSW), where the band received the Best Unsigned Band honor, the quartet inked a deal with Canadian indie MapleMusic Recordings.

The band’s brilliant 2003 full-length debut, CAUGHT BY THE WINDOW recorded with producer Joao Carvalho and mastered by Greg Calbi (Dylan, Patti Smith), captured Clark’s powerful and emotive croon and the band’s fragile-to-ferocious dynamics. The rapturous “Into Your Hideout” (#4 on Canadian Rock radio ) and the poignant “Melt into the Walls” (#3 video on Much Music) led to critical and commercial acclaim as well as tours across the U.S., Australia, and Japan.

The conundrum so many Canadian musicians face is that once they attain a certain level of success they have to look outside their homeland to continue cultivating their careers. In 2006, after recording breathtaking material for INTO THE WEST, Pilot Speed signed with Wind-Up Entertainment. The forward-thinking deal encompasses recording, publishing, merchandising, and touring. “We played a couple of showcases in America,” Clark explains, “and we just connected best with Wind-up.”

INTO THE WEST, recorded at Vancouver’s Armoury Recording Studios with Carvalho, is a revelation. The scorching first single, “Barely Listening,” with Clark’s explosive vocals backed by Greenough’s staccato, lashing guitar and Keeley and Bumrah’s driving, lock-step rhythm is emblematic of the album and already a Top Twenty radio hit in Canada. Elsewhere, the ethereal, groove-filled “Knife-Gray Sea,” the rapturous epic “Don’t Stare,” (complete with sparkling glockenspiel and chimes), and the agonizingly beautiful title-track will each leave you exhilarated and awed. “I’m really proud of the band on this record,” says Clark, “we really pushed ourselves.”

Looks like iTunes may be in for a shake-up.  And hey, we’re not iTunes haters, its just interesting.  Plus its something to blog about.  The Register writes that Apple’s flagship online music service is dwindling in the sales department.  By as much as… 65%!  Holy cripes, what the hell is going on?

Source:  Engadget > The Register

The leading DRM digital download service, Apple’s iTunes, has experienced a collapse in sales revenues this year according to analyst company Forrester Research.

Secretive Apple doesn’t break out revenues from iTunes, but Forrester conducted an analysis of credit card transactions over a 27-month period. And this year’s numbers aren’t good.