After selling some pink Zune, now there is Orange Zune limited edition being sold at eBay.

As of now its being sold at $750 at eBay 24 hours auction.

I am not sure whether it is officially launched in India or not but Zune
is now available on some retail stores in India (for example: at heera panna mall in Mumbai) for a price of around Rs. 16,000 for a 30 GB model.

Similar 30 GB iPod in India is being sold at a price of Rs. 13,000 only.

Microsoft has released Vista update and Zune firmware update to make Microsoft Vista compatible with its Zune player.

It was announced yesterday:

Today (Tuesday the 19th of December) we’re issuing a 22 MB update to make Zune compatible with Windows Vista. The update also improves the Zune software installation process, addressing some of the known issues that users reported. Like Jason R said recently “It is plumbing stuff, but it is stuff customers will notice and appreciate.” So you should install the update, even if you’re not running Vista.

MadZ Software has released a DVD to Zune video converter version 1.0 which is a software to convert your DVD to WMV format to be run on your Zune player. So if you want to see your DVDs on your Zune player you can do that now.

DVD to Zune Video Converter 1.0 will rip your DVD files and will convert them into Zune’s WMV file format so that they can be download to your Zune player and played. Just connect your Zune to your computer as you normally do, and instantly the converted video files will be downloaded to your Zune player. With this converter, you can convert any type of DVDs.

There is one pink Zune for sale at eBay for a sum of $920 by some member of Zune team at Microsoft.

For the people who don’t know, Microsoft create a limited edition of pink Zune players (total of 100 players) and gave them to the Zune team. So this is one of the team member of the Zune team at Microsoft who is selling it at eBay for a sum of $920. And, it seems somebody wants to buy it.

Bill Gates, in a small group of high profile bloggers said that he is not happy the way DRM is done. He expressed his disappointment in the overall situation with DRM. He said “it causes too much pain for legitimate buyers”.
He said:

DRM is not where it should be, but you won’t get me to say that there should be usage models and different payment models for usage. At the end of the day, incentive systems do make a difference, but we don’t have it right with incentives or interoperability.

In summary Bill Gates said:

People should just buy a CD and rip it. You are legal then.

Why people are loving their Zune players? Here are some of the comments posted by Zune users:

I have both Zune as well as iPod. But nowadays I am loving my Zune more than iPod because Zune marketplace gives me option of “unlimited downloads” which is not available in Apple iPod.

I love the big bright screen of my black zune. I also love the big album art. I can select media items next to each other without passing them by 10 times like in iPod.

I love the large screen of Zune and the FM tuner. Yes, I use the tuner a lot.

I got a zune on the first day, very excited about the hype. I must say that this thing is truely a dream. I have had no issues, and have even met up with a few zuners on campus. I look fwd to microsoft smaller flash base model. As for the marketplace, it is getting better everyday! I love the subscription model! The sound quality is wonderful too! FM tuner is really cool in the city where stations broadcast over the airwaves what song and artist is playing

I love the bigger screen, same battery life, and I like the operating sysmte of Zune better. The wireless is a great feature (maybe not fully useful yet, but updates happen) and the FM radio is excellent.

Microsoft said today that it expects around 1 million Zune player sales in the first six months of 2007. In comparison to Apple’s iPod, which sold 39 millions iPods in last 12 months, it is vary small figure. But, Bryan Lee, corporate VP for Microsoft’s Entertainment Group thinks, “We think that’s actually pretty awesome.” But he also said that he expects his company to be eventually a leader in it.

As of now, the Zune media player is only available in USA. Its sales figure are expected to go high as and when it goes international. But if we believe its initial sales numbers, it is not expected to be any blockbuster.

Microsoft and Tandberg has enabled Zune-optimized content creation with their Tandberg Content Server, which is a Windows-based audio/video streaming solution. With this, any standard video conference can be recorded/converted/optimized for Zune based video playing.

With the Tandberg Content Server, Microsoft Zune not only enables people to enjoy their favorite songs or videos, but to catch up on important training sessions or product presentations when and where they want,

Said Fredrik Halvorsen, CEO for Tandberg.