Hasta La Gadget!

We’re receiving word from multiple early-bird readers indicating that they’ve received the 4.2 update on their Zunes and that, now that they’re out of that nasty maintenance window, all is right with the world. That said, our tipsters are not spotting any major differences, and neither are we, certainly nothing as exciting as 4.3 brought to the Zune HD. What about you? Have you been granted access to 4.2 yet? If so, let us know in comments if you’ve found anything fresh and exciting. And, if you haven’t, feel free to discuss the weather — it sure has been a little crazy ’round these parts lately.

[Thanks, Brent R. and Bryan]

Zune 4.2 update released, what’s new? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know you were put off by the whole Twitter censorship debacle last month, but Microsoft and the Zune HD have moved past that (honest) and they want you to come along as well. They’re enticing everyone to forget about that bone-headed move by, well, throwing everyone a bone and adding in Xvid support, part of full compatablity with MPEG-4 part 2 Advanced Simple Profile. DivX will not be coming out to play, but Smart DJ will be, a feature that isn’t so much new but is newly portable, providing a counterpoint to the iPod’s Genius and, since you can use it to stream content from the Zune Marketplace (when connected via WiFi) it begins to approach the functionality of apps like Pandora or Slacker Radio. Tasty, indeed, though at this point we’re not sure when Microsoft will be throwing us this juicy firmware update.

Zune HD getting Xvid, Smart DJ, ever more appealing originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft definitely copped some of Apple’s lame App Store antics with its tweet-censoring Zune HD Twitter app, so now it’s time for the infuriatingly vague PR-speak backtracking — Redmond just pinged us to say it’s “identified the issue” with the Twitter app and that a naughty words-enabling update is coming “as soon as possible.” That’s a pretty lame response, considering the “issue” is that the app is coded to actively censor tweets — not exactly an “oops” moment, you know?

Here’s the entire statement:

The recently released Twitter for Zune HD application has been abbreviating some explicit words in tweets when viewed on the device; however these explicit words do appear in their full text on the Twitter site or on any other Twitter client. We have identified the issue and are taking steps to update the application as soon as possible to ensure Twitter for Zune HD users are able to view tweets in their original state.

Flack silliness aside, it’s still the right step — let’s hope this update addresses the performance issues we noticed as well.

Microsoft updating Zune HD Twitter to stop censoring tweets originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, at least MSI has good taste. We can’t fault the company for nabbing a multitude of Zune HD stylistic elements in the creation of its new MT-V660 PMP — outside of general moral qualms, of course — because the results are predictably attractive. Such brazen style-lifts aren’t a first for MSI, who took quite a few pages out of the MacBook Air book for its first X-Slim. Like we said, good taste. The MT-V660 itself has a 3.2-inch WQVGA screen and a codec-friendly Rockchip RK2806 chipset instead of the Zune’s Tegra. No word on price or availability.

MSI’s MT-V660 goes to the Zune HD bank for design ‘inspiration’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not enough variety in your Zune HD color palette? How about a friendly dab of magenta and purple to mix up the proceedings? Microsoft’s Zune Store is now showing some grayed out selectors for purple and magenta color options for the player, which will apparently be available on December 1st — just in time for something or other. No word on whether these will be available for both 16GB and 32GB versions, but pink already representing on the 32 gigger, we’d really hope Microsoft would spread the love down to the cash strapped.

[Thanks, Jerel]

Zune HD getting magenta and purple flavors on December 1st originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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