There was a confusion in the minds of people about Zune limitations of sharing music tracks for 3 days or 3 times. “Zune allows you to listen to the song your friend sent you 3 times in 3 days. Then you have to buy the song”.

Clearification about that statement:
This 3-plays in 3-days restriction applies only to the song tracks bought from Zune Marketplace by your friend and is sent to you by him/her. This 3-plays in 3-days restrictions does not apply to any other music, songs or tracks. For example, if your friend sends you any other mp3 song (or any other non-DRM song for that matter), then this 3-plays in 3-days restriction does not apply and you can keep that song forever on your Zune and listen to it forever.

That is really a good news. What it totally means is that you can wirelessly share any music mp3 between you (which you have not bought) without any problem. Great news Microsoft.

Will iPod users shift from iPod to Zune? If yes, do they have to buy all the songs they bought from iTunes, again from Zune Marketplace? Hmm… That is a big problem. But it seems Microsoft has found the solution for it.

To attract current iPod users to Zune, Microsoft is allowing the users of iPod to download the songs which they have bought from iTunes, free of cost from their Zune marketplace. It seems, Microsoft Zune Marketplace will scan iTunes store and will automatically add all those songs to your Zune Marketplace account, which you bought previously from iTunes. So all those songs will be free to you from Zune (Though Microsoft still has to pay to copyright holders of the songs.)

This is a very good strategy, though Microsoft will loose a lot of money in it, but switching users from iPod to Zune to gain bigger pie of mp3 players market may be a good strategy. Time will tell.

Microsoft has not yet released any pictues of any of its zune accessories packs. But Amazon has shown pictures of Zune travel pack. Here are some of them.

Amazon is featuring preorder pricing on a wide range of zune accessories, from wireless remotes to travel packs and round Zune Dock. It seems, Zune (like iPod) can also play your music or video on to your TV with the TV-to-headphone-jack output.

Zune will come preloaded with 9 audio tracks, 12 music videos, 3 films and quite some images, for example, 12 classic rock posters from Art of Modern Rock.

Microsoft has finally released the final official details of Zune player and Zune marketplace.

Zune player with a 30GB hard disk, 3 in. screen and FM radio will be sold for US$250 and its final release date is November 14.

Other than this, there are some accessories which will be sold at:
Car Pack: $79
Travel Pack: $99
Home Pack: $99

Zune marketplace will offer two services:
Subscription Service: $15/month
Single purchase: variable rates.

Zune marketplace subscription of $15 will enable the subscribers access to the whole store.

Purchasing single music and video will be based on a point system called as “Microsoft Points” by Microsoft. Users can buy packages of 1200 points ($15.00), 2000 points ($25.00) and 4000 points ($50.00). It is being said that mostly the song will cost around 79 points (around $0.99).

One of the biggest retailer Amazon has a listing at amazon.co.uk advertising pre-ordering Zune player. But it was showing that the product was being made by Apple Computer.

There has been a lot of rumors about the pricing of Microsoft Zune player. But it seems that finally the truth is that the pricing is set to $229.99 for 30GB Zune.

Previously it was announced that Microsoft is going to launch Zune at a price of $289 ($10 lower than similar iPod), but Apple dropped the price of this iPod to $249.00. Hence Microsoft has come up with this new pricing of $229.99

How many Mac users will think of buying Zune instead of iPod? Even if they do, they have to wait for some more time. Microsoft Zune will not be compatible with Mac operating system at initial launch. Microsoft has also not made Mac Zune Marketplace software. So the Zune would be Windows based only for the time being.

RealNetworks on Monday revealed that its partnering with SanDisk to create a digital media player that would compete with iPod and Zune. This will include 32 hours of pre-loaded music from artists signed with EMI Recorded Music, SONYBMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group, as well as independent labels.

This Rhapsody-based Sansa e200 digital media player is expected to be out around holiday season. It is expected to have 8 GB of flash memory and the ability to add 2 GB more through memory slot. This will have microphone to record and FM tuner as well. You can even record songs from FM tuner. Battery life is expected to be around 20 hours.

While Microsoft Zune is still not out, Creative has come out with its Zen Vision W Player with 4.3 inch screen for better movies and TV shows and the software to link with the Unbox online digital movie sales and rental service.

Unbox has television shows and films from many networks like Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Fox and many others.

We designed the Creative Zen Vision W to work easily with major video download services

- Sim Wong Hoo, Creative CEO

Vision W comes with 30GB or 60GB or memory and its bettery can provide 4.5 hours of video playback or 14 hours of music playback. Player includes a built-in microphone, alarm clocks, an FM radio and calendars that synch to Microsoft Outlook.

Vision W was compatible with online music subscription services such as Yahoo Music Unlimited, Napster To Go, Urge and MSN Music