Zune 3.1 Update

[Disgustipated]

...is out today. Load up your Zune software to update it and your device. Whoo-hoo!

Just two months after the Zune 3.0 release, Microsoft is now deploying the next incremental update to their Zune platform with Zune 3.1. Available for download today, the Zune 3.1 update brings quite a few welcome feature changes and updates:

* New Games: Checkers, Sudoku, and Space Battle
* New multiplayer mode, and single-player difficulty levels, for Texas Hold’em
* Visual changes to the Zune Social, making it prettier and easier to navigate
* Like-Minder Listeners feature added to social, allowing you to compare your music tastes to others
* Improved play count reporting, content synchronization, and other bug fixes in both the hardware and software

Checkers?! I'm so there.

[Re3x]

Only gets better.

[Shadowstorm]

Chess would be 87% more awesome to have than checkers, sorry :P. Thanks for the post.

I really hope a games tab is added. I'd like to see more games.

Loading it up now.

[Murtaug]

It might actually register that I have more than 2,522 plays now, yay. I use the damn thing every day and that number never moves, little thing that always bugged me.

Pretty nice update, only messed with the game a few times, but they come in handy when I find myself with no book. Almost always have the Zune in my pocket. Chess would be better than Checkers, but for nada, I will take Checkers.

The Social has really taken off since the past update, I have actually gained quite a few Live friends through it.

They should think about adding achievements to these games. A little bonus Gamerscore, and could be a start of that ever mythical "Live Anywhere".

[Hexxagonal]

Not much there that I use... but an update is an update.

[Lance Uppercut]

Cool, I was starting to get tired of Hexic.

I didn't like the Zune much early on, and I still dislike the software's sluggishness. However, I think my next new MP3 player is gonna be a Zune. These updates have always been pretty good.

[Telefrog]

Damn. That's sweet. I didn't even know this was coming.

[Disgustipated]

I wished for chess as well, sigh.

[Hellbug]

Good to hear they are doing some bug fixes. Has anyone else noticed that the Zune occasionally locks up? When I used the thing a lot if can happen more than 2-3 times a week! Still, my 30GB is a damn good MP3 player, and having the ability to put movies on there makes it even better. All of that value for half the price of any of the iPods that offer basically the same features.

[Lance Uppercut]

Good to hear they are doing some bug fixes. Has anyone else noticed that the Zune occasionally locks up? When I used the thing a lot if can happen more than 2-3 times a week! Still, my 30GB is a damn good MP3 player, and having the ability to put movies on there makes it even better. All of that value for half the price of any of the iPods that offer basically the same features.

I, too, have noticed that happening ever since the last update. Happens at least once every day for me, since I use it a lot.

[Shadowstorm]

Good to hear they are doing some bug fixes. Has anyone else noticed that the Zune occasionally locks up? When I used the thing a lot if can happen more than 2-3 times a week! Still, my 30GB is a damn good MP3 player, and having the ability to put movies on there makes it even better. All of that value for half the price of any of the iPods that offer basically the same features.

Hey, I had experienced lockups just this past week. I've never had it before. This is the first time I've seen other people mentioning this.

Hellbug, if yours locks up, just hold the back arrow + up button (or is it the left button). It restarts it.

[Lance Uppercut]

Just installed the update. I don't know yet if it fixes the freeze-ups. Don't care for the Social updates. The games are nice, though.

Does anyone know what exactly the new update fixes in the firmware?

[pomeroy]

Half the price, Hellbug?

FUD ftw.

[Hellbug]

Half the price, Hellbug?

FUD ftw.

I was referring to the 30GB models, which besides the space limits, offer basically the same features as the 'next' generation of Zunes like the 80GB.

It isn't hard to find a 30GB Zune on ebay for around 80 or 90 dollars.

Here are the 30GB models listed on ebay right now. (http://catalog.ebay.com/Microsoft-Zune-Black-30-GB-Digital-Media-Player-JS8-00001_JS8-00001_W0QQ_fifptsZ1QQ_pcatidZ39QQ_pidZ56516126QQ_t rksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em271#{%22Page%22%3A%22%2FMicros oft-Zune-Black-30-GB-Digital-Media-Player-JS8-00001_JS8-00001_W0QQ_asetZ0QQ_fifptsZ1QQ_lytZ1QQ_pcategidZ73 839QQ_pcatidZ39QQ_pidZ56516126QQ_rptypeZ4295QQ_sop Z1QQ_tabZ2QQ_trksidZp4295Q2ec0Q2em299%22})

[Everyone vs Dinosaurs]

I was referring to the 30GB models, which besides the space limits, offer basically the same features as the 'next' generation of Zunes like the 80GB.

It isn't hard to find a 30GB Zune on ebay for around 80 or 90 dollars.

Here are the 30GB models listed on ebay right now. (http://catalog.ebay.com/Microsoft-Zune-Black-30-GB-Digital-Media-Player-JS8-00001_JS8-00001_W0QQ_fifptsZ1QQ_pcatidZ39QQ_pidZ56516126QQ_t rksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em271#{%22Page%22%3A%22%2FMicros oft-Zune-Black-30-GB-Digital-Media-Player-JS8-00001_JS8-00001_W0QQ_asetZ0QQ_fifptsZ1QQ_lytZ1QQ_pcategidZ73 839QQ_pcatidZ39QQ_pidZ56516126QQ_rptypeZ4295QQ_sop Z1QQ_tabZ2QQ_trksidZp4295Q2ec0Q2em299%22})

Yea, I got mine for a bit lower than that price. It is an AWESOME little gadget, and I use it every day as well!

Thanks for letting us know about the update!

[Lance Uppercut]

It looks like the freeze-ups have been fixed. I haven't had a single glitch all day.

[Telefrog]

Half the price, Hellbug?

FUD ftw.

I know this is a tiny nitpick, but it bothers the shit out of me when people misuse the term "FUD". "Fear Uncertainty & Doubt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt)" is a marketing term for the tactic of disseminating negative information about a competitor's product to influence consumer opinion against it and towards yours. For example, saying Obama associates with terrorists, or only IBM guarantees their servers will work with MS Server software are both examples of FUD.

The idea, of course, was to persuade buyers to go with safe IBM gear rather than with competitors' equipment. This implicit coercion was traditionally accomplished by promising that Good Things would happen to people who stuck with IBM, but Dark Shadows loomed over the future of competitors' equipment or software. After 1991 the term has become generalized to refer to any kind of disinformation used as a competitive weapon.

A general statement like "the Zune 80 costs half the price of the comparable iPod" isn't FUD because there's no "doubt" being planted.

[Shadowstorm]

You rock, Telefrog.

[TheEpicOfTyler]

Will my Zune stop crashing now? I swear the thing randomly reboots or freezes at least twice a day, only after the 3.0 update.

EDIT: I should probably read threads before posting in them.

[pomeroy]

I know this is a tiny nitpick, but it bothers the shit out of me when people misuse the term "FUD". "Fear Uncertainty & Doubt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt)" is a marketing term for the tactic of disseminating negative information about a competitor's product to influence consumer opinion against it and towards yours. For example, saying Obama associates with terrorists, or only IBM guarantees their servers will work with MS Server software are both examples of FUD.



A general statement like "the Zune 80 costs half the price of the comparable iPod" isn't FUD because there's no "doubt" being planted.

And I learned something today. :D