That's right, and I'm not kidding, it does indeed seem that Zune30's all over the place are committing mass suicide. At first I thought this was a hoax, a big ugly hoax, but that no longer seems to be the case.
Many members of popular Zune fansite Zuneboards.com are posting comments depicting how their Zune 30's are just dying all of a sudden. One zuneboards member named
Arcon-Death writes:
"My zune has never had any problems freezing untill today, and when I set it down and headed outside to do some work, I came back to find it at the screen it usually shows during startup, I thought it would load up and be fine, but it appears to be stuck at the logo/startup and I cant restart it or anything. Am i doomed, or is there a fix?"
It would appear he is not alone, as there are 34 pages (at this moment in time) of similar comments in
this massive thread.
At first I shrugged this little issue off as a few people overreacting, but now I actually find myself believing that their may very well be an issue here...I guess the hoards of posts and reports may have something to do with my change of heart. I would want to hope that Microsoft can sort this mess out, but this really will not do their reputation any favours.
Now, any Zune30 owners here? please, speak up! The theory is that this sudden death issue was introduced in the latest firmware update, so if you haven't updated you could be safe, but that's just a theory. It'll be a fun ride while we watch and learn how this one plays out.
Update: Apparently it has something to do with the Zune's internal clock or something. It's like the Y2K bug! (Begin panic mode now). It's clear Microsoft has problems with setting a clock. Anyway here's a workaround that was posted in the comments section:
It appears that it is related to the hardware clock in the Zune 30. People are reporting that by disabling the Windows Time Service on their PC, resetting the date on their PC (to something like 12/04/2008) , and stopping all Zune-related Windows services (and hard-resetting the Zune device) they are able to get it all working again.
Update2: http://zuneinsider.com/archive/2008/12/31/30-gb-zune-issue-update.aspx
ZuneInsider wrote ...
Hey folks. We are getting close to IDing the issue. We are conducting additional testing and checks now to make sure it is accurrate. thanks again for your patience.
Update3: Zunes are working again!
Thanks Ricardo Dawkins
Okay so we messed up a wee bit with our Best DAP of 2008: Mid-range category. Upon request we added the Sony A820 series to the poll. That was 14 hours after it started however, and it was already at a disadvantage to the other players; including the Sony S730 series which ended up winning the category. Despite being a later addition the A820 got nearly as much as the winner, so to be fair we're having a run-off between the top 3 players in the category:
Sansa Fuze
Sony S730/S630/E430 seriesSony A820 series
You'll have another three days to vote, but hopefully this time we'll have an outright winner to compete in the finals. We want to apologize for this slight delay, but we want to ensure our final selection of players were selected without any doubts in our minds. Thanks for participating in our voting!
VOTEIf the system shows you already voted (possible bug), leave a comment in the Poll section!
Slacker radio might not be for everyone, but I
found it to be one of the best ways to discover new music. Woot.com has the 1st gen Slacker Portable radio for just $69.99 plus 5.00 shipping. That's for the 8GB model, which wll hold 40 radio stations, as well as your own music.
Features:
- Capacity: 8GB (40 Station capacity)
- Display: 4.0" TFT (480 x 272 resolution)
- Audio: MP3, and WMA
- Built-in WiFi allows you to connect to Slacker on the go and even play stations offline
- Battery Life: 10 hours
- Dimensions: 70mm x 16.5mm x 109mm
The Slacker portable comes with a free basic service to Slacker radio. It allows you to skip songs up to six times an hour, and will play 1-2 commercials per hour. The premium service costs $7.50 per month (or $3.99 a month if you pay for the whole year). That gives you the ability to skip as many songs as you want, play any song on demand, eliminates commercials and allows you to save songs to your player. The player comes with a USB cable, and a nice carrying case. If you want to try something different, the Slacker portable looks like the best change of pace for the price.
Woot!Slacker.comThanks DaHarder
Thought iriver was done playing around with Mickey and the gang? Think again. The Mplayer was just the tip of the iceberg for iriver and Disney. In just a metter of months we'll be seeing Mickey headphones made by iriver and worn by the masses. Next there will be some sort of Mickeeepc netbook, and then all robots on earth will become self-aware. We all know how that ends, but here's how it started...
After the breakout success of the Mplayer, iriver and Disney mutually agreed that making tons of money was awesome. Though the player had technology to find out the users' music preferences, the two companies soon realized this information was useless towards their plans of world domination. They needed something that could be in your home 24/7; something inconspicuous, and cute. A digital frame was perfect for their diabolical plans. On December 30th 2008, they released the Framee-M, which was an anagram for Free M.A.M (My Automated Mind). It pit man against man and lay the foundation for our demise.
It has a 3.5" display to show off your photos, 1GB on-board memory (plus SDHC expansion), and plays back your audio and video files (MPEG-4). Disney worked on the design of the frame, adding Mickey and Minnie ears to top for the best spying possible. Iriver worked on the software;creating an appealing interface to disguise the daily subliminal messages to kill your fellow human. The Framee-M is being released in Japan tomorrow, but we must find a way to stop it. All of mankind rests in our hands. Check out the mission briefing below, and good luck!
LINK
The Cowon S9 has only been out for 10 days in Korea, but users are already hard at work creating their own themes for the player. I think the original UI looks great, but some of these User themes look incredible.
Click to Enlarge
The Cowon D2 has a huge modding community, so I expect the same will happen with the S9 as well. Custom themes aren't a top factor when I'm buying a player, but it's something I truly love to see. We'll keep you postd on the latest and greatest S9 themes as they come in.
Sources:
iAudiophile Forumsblog.bycube.netThanks Design Fabulous!
The Cowon S9 has only been out for 10 days in Korea, but users are already hard at work creating their own themes for the player. I think the original UI looks great, but some of these User themes look incredible.
Click to Enlarge
The Cowon D2 has a huge modding community, so I expect the same will happen with the S9 as well. Custom themes aren't a top factor when I'm buying a player, but it's something I truly love to see. We'll keep you postd on the latest and greatest S9 themes as they come in.
Sources:
iAudiophile Forumsblog.bycube.netThanks Design Fabulous!
I'm sure many of the readers of this site have all but given up on Creative. They're certainly not the audio powerhouse that they used to be in this industry, but I have a feeling that's going to change. As an editor at epiZENter (our Creative fansite), I've been privy to a lot of insider information, but this just might be the most mysterious one yet. Creative has been working on a computing chip called the "Zii". The chip will be used for a variety of products, including future players from Creative. They've coined the term "Stemcell Computing" to describe the Zii, whatever that means.
The Zii teaser site doesn't give any information about the chip, they just say it's going to change everything.I can't share any more info at this time either. We'll have to wait till CES 2009 for Creative to officially announce their plans.
Zii.comvia
epiZENter
I'm sure many of the readers of this site have all but given up on Creative. They're certainly not the audio powerhouse that they used to be in this industry, but I have a feeling that's going to change. As an editor at epiZENter (our Creative fansite), I've been privy to a lot of insider information, but this just might be the most mysterious one yet. Creative has been working on a computing chip called the "Zii". The chip will be used for a variety of products, including future players from Creative. They've coined the term "Stemcell Computing" to describe the Zii, whatever that means.
The Zii teaser site doesn't give any information about the chip, they just say it's going to change everything.I can't share any more info at this time either. We'll have to wait till CES 2009 for Creative to officially announce their plans.
Zii.comvia
epiZENter
