Pocketnow have published the above video, showing the latest version of the Zune desktop software, version 4.7 (the publicly available version is 4.2).

I must admit to some disappointment that synchronizing a piece of music to your phone requires a right click menu item – the option should be a one-click somewhere in the user interface.  Hopefully WIFI synching will be fully sorted out well before release.

Be sure to watch the video full screen in HD to get a good appreciation of the software in action.

Read more at Pocketnow here.

The Apple fall music event came and went and with it, the IOS platform, through the freshly minted iTunes 10, introduced a “magical” social component called Ping. The conference room was filled with tech bloggers and journalist but from all the cheering and clapping during several occasions by the audience as Mr. Jobs introduced yet another new feature or device to the platform, one had to wonder what kind of objectivity they would have when time came to write articles about the event. Setting that aside, the introduction of Ping validated Microsoft’s effort with the social aspects of the Zune ecosystem and shows that Apple is paying attention and perhaps a little worried of what WP7 will bring to Zune as a whole.

On November 13, 2006, Microsoft unveiled the Zune with the tagline, “Welcome to the Social”

As Microsoft launches Zune this week, the goal is not to manufacture another digital music player but to create a shared, social experience that will be shaped by the collective imagination of consumers and will inspire discovery of new music and artists.

When you read articles about the Ping service, you will be hard pressed to find one (although cnet does in this article) that mentions that the “un-innovative” Microsoft had a social music feature almost 4 years ago! After the initial fanfare about Apple’s social aspirations, most people are finding out and writing that it is basically a dud as it now stands and needs a huge upgrade for it to be of any relevance at all in the future. That Microsoft’s press release for the Zune four years back went on to say this

Zune features wireless technology that enables friends to spontaneously share full-length sample tracks of select songs, homemade recordings, playlists or pictures among their Zune devices. The full tracks of these songs can be listened to up to three times over three days, and, if the recipient enjoys the song she hears and wishes to buy it, she can flag it on her device and easily purchase it from the Zune Marketplace, which features over 2 million songs. A consumer has the choice between downloading individual songs and "Zune Pass" subscription plans. This is especially attractive for the MySpace generation, who frequently use the power of community to share common interests and promote social networking.

Very prescient words in the light of last week’s developments I must say! This however does not mean that the Zune team needs to seat on its laurels. In fact, it should act as a catalyst and elicit a sense of urgency for them to build and improve on the already great foundation with competition now nipping at their heels. I recently proposed a deeper integration with Facebook  together with ability to purchase tickets and event notifications. However, I would like to delve deeper into music discovery and local bands/artists promotion for this post.

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A handy tipster sent us a screen shot from the Zune desktop software which conveniently reveals the UK pricing for the service, which is expected to launch concurrently with the phones in mid-October.

The service will cost £8.99 for one month, or £26.97 for 3 (which means no discount for a longer subscription), and like the US includes 10 free tracks, which at the current price for a CD makes the service more or less free if you buy music regularly.

I have had reservations about signing up to another subscription before, but at these pricing levels its pretty hard to resist. 

Do our readers agree? Let us know below.

Today our Cupertino Colleagues are set to unveil their fall 2010 lineup of music and video devices and services, and as always, the tech gossip sites have run amok with rumors and speculation of what’s next for Apple’s biggest cash cows. At the end of the day, after all is said and done at One Infinite Loop, the collective eye of the tech world will shift to Microsoft for its response with its still-nascent yet commercially troubled Zune brand. Of course, this isn’t a normal year for Redmond & Co., as its set to launch its revamped Windows Phone OS to compete with the opulent beasts from Apple, Google, and Research In Motion. Given how Microsoft is set to focus so much on phone this fall, it can be safely deduced that there won’t be a hardware refresh to its (non-phone) Zune devices this year. Indeed, we might be seeing the end of Microsoft’s efforts in the MP3 player market, with Zune moving on as a service to phones, Xboxes, PCs, search engines, etc.

Given this context, what can we surmise will be Microsoft’s plans for the Zune brand as it relates to its Three Screens & Cloud strategy this year? Will abandoning its hardware MP3 player aspirations hurt its reputation, or will it free up resources to use in other areas? Can it ever topple our Fruity Opponent’s media ecosystem? As a first step, let’s take a look at what’s already known about Zune this year based on Microsoft’s demonstrations so far.

What We Know

Back in February in Barcelona, Microsoft made it a point to say that “every Windows Phone 7 will be a Zune.” Zune functionality, curiously, is not its own hub. Instead, it is part of the larger Music + Videos hub, which, as Microsoft also emphasized, will include third-party music & video services. Some of the services that have been announced include Pandora and Netflix streaming. Also on the device will be Zune Pass streaming over 3G, as well as Wi-Fi sync with your desktop computer when on your home network.

In terms of the software (which will be 4.7, and yes, the “7″ is for Windows Phone 7, as explained by skipdeez in Zune Insider Podcast #78), Zune will become the sync application for Windows Phone 7, handling music, pictures, video, and apps. According to Thurrott, one of the big changes to the software is distinguishing between purchased and DRM-free videos. It will also list all the videos you have ever purchased or rented from the Zune service, and, in his own words, “make them available [to stream] at any time, from any Zune compatible device.” That’s big.

On the Xbox front, at E3 Microsoft announced that starting this fall, Zune Pass streaming is coming to the Xbox 360. They also demoed a slick-looking Zune UI for Kinect.

What’s Been Leaked/Rumored

Microsoft has been keeping its Zune news close to the chest, but there have been some leaked information that they have not announced yet, and they are both related to Zune Pass.

First, back in late May, a Microsoft executive hinted that Zune Pass might be getting a price cut in the future to “better compete with Apple and RealNetworks.” It has also been rumored that Microsoft is looking to have tiered Zune Pass subscriptions, with the current one being called “Zune Pass Plus”, and a lower one, without the 10 free credits and only one device, at $5.

The second, more concrete rumor, came in mid-July, from a Briton who stumbled across a page on Zune.net that featured Zune Pass at £8.99 per month, approximately $14 USD. This bit of news was very brazenly denied by the Zune Insider podcast the week of the rumor. It doesn’t take a genius, however, to realize that Microsoft will need to bring the Marketplace and Pass available to international markets because, as they said at MWC, Zune will go wherever Windows Phone 7 goes.

What We Don’t Know/What We Wish

I’m sure our Zune wishlists differ widely, so I’d like to present you with my list of features I hope Microsoft will bring to Zune this fall. Some of them are obvious, others I think have wide popularity, and still others are a bit more far-fetched. One can only dream. Here we go:

• Smart DJ on Windows Phone 7, Xbox 360, and Zune.net
• Zune Video Pass.
• Podcast downloading/streaming from device.
• The return of music/picture sharing on the device.
• Native audiobook support.
• Remaining major studios for Marketplace (most obvious and also most unlikely: Disney, which is partly owned by Steve Jobs)
• There hasn’t been a big Zune Social update in 2 years…Some of the things I wish they ported from the Zune social on Zune.net are personal top artists, followed artists, favorite songs, badges, top listeners to artists/albums, and the ability to comment on someone’s profile.
• TV-out from Windows Phone 7 devices, in high-definition.
• Lyrics. Already on Bing. My guess is that it will be a Zune Pass exclusive.
• The ability to choose between 5-star rating and heart/broken heart rating.
• On device, Genre can be navigated by album AND song.
• Customize playlists and videos. Choose thumbnail for video, and choose either thumbnail or solid color for playlists.
• On-device editing/updating of smart playlists.
• Smart playlists may include songs in the Zune Marketplace if you have Zune Pass.
• Mixview on device, TV-out and Xbox 360.
• Bring together Windows Phone Live, Zune Social, KIN Studio, and Windows Live Mesh.

What are your wishes for Zune this fall?

Gangster of Awesome Matt Akers of the Zune software team explained in the latest episode of the Zune Insider podcast a question that’s been asked a lot about Zune and its relationship to Windows 7: why Zune players don’t have Device Stage capability.

I think it’s because we have specific software that powers our devices such that we don’t require a Device Stage-kind of page, right? So, Device Stage is really meant for devices, like let’s say like a [Sandisk] Sansa, or some sort of, like, you know, really, you know, obscure MP3 player that may not have its own software and may rely more on either Windows Media Player or just basic file transfer stuff. And so that way those companies can program their own Device Stage page to make it look like—light up and look cool and provide that kind of functionality.

Now, what I think you’re really, you know, I see what you’re saying, but at the same time, when you’ve got, like, full-fledged software made by us that takes care of those things than you really don’t need to do the Device Stage thing, right? Because we take care, I mean we’re like, you know, Device Stage on steroids with the Zune software, so I think that’s probably why we haven’t done that, but it would be interesting just to have some nice little thing that looks cool, and stuff. Although I can say that lately when I’ve been plugging in my, uh, Zune devices to Windows 7, and it installs a driver and pops up, it actually, the little icon looks like a Zune HD now. Which is really sweet, yeah.

There you have it. The Zune software is Device Stage on steroids. And it makes sense, right? The sync page on the Zune software goes beyond what Device Stage does by letting you view your media by type (music, pictures, video, podcasts, etc.), allowing you to link your device to your Windows Live ID, providing Sync Groups for easy and automatic media syncing, providing fine-grained syncing options for each media type (i.e. sync all, items I choose, manual), and a bar chart showing media usage, again by media type. The only Device Stage feature missing on the Zune software is a battery meter. As the Zune software expands to phones this fall (indeed it already powers the KIN devices), I think a battery meter (and ETA until 100% charge) will be more important than ever. I hope the Zune team is listening!

The Zune Insider podcast, hosted by Matt Akers (@skipdeez) and Jessica Zahn (@jetherealz) of the Zune team, comes out every Friday afternoon.

Coming this fall is also an official Windows Phone podcast, although no date or hosts have been confirmed yet.

In the world of technology, it is uncanny how today’s darlings can quickly become tomorrow’s also-rans. We all know what happened to MySpace, the once social networking behemoth, which turned into a ghost town in the blink of an eye, and is now desperately trying to find a way recapture the magic of the old glory days with little or no success.

With that in mind, a new battle is emerging  between the current king of social, Facebook, and the leader of online search Google, as they go head to head  to win the hearts and minds of consumers. The notable omission in these discussions is the oft-maligned company Microsoft, which I think will play a bigger role in these battle than most people think.

Techcrunch, last week posted an intriguing  article outlining Google’s new strategy to conquer the social web through Google Me. Their previous attempts with products like buzz, and Orkut and the now cancelled Wave,  have not gained wide traction with the general public as they had hoped. The article points out that Google will try to attack Facebook’s weakest point, Music, which is basically why some people still stick with MySpace, by augmenting GoogleMe, with their yet to be launched music service. In addition to Music, Google has been been on a buying spree lately  acquiring social app maker, Slide and Jambool, a social payments and virtual currency platform,  which together with their $100 Million+ invested in Zynga, makers immensely popular Farmville and Mafia Wars games, will constitute the core components of their rumored social network.

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On Windows Phone 7 the Zune desktop client will take the same role as iTunes  with the iPhone.  This includes allowing the purchase of applications from the desktop. At the moment, the selection of software is fairly limited, but that should soon change.

What may be of interest, is that you can purchase apps on a desktop/laptop and have them installed over the air to your device, you can also write reviews of software from the Zune on desktop.

Click for larger versions.

As I was talking to a friend this past weekend pestering him about technology, we somehow ended up talking about about the iPhone, antennagate, iTunes, WP7 and the Zune software. He had recently purchased an iPhone 4 which he loves but then he talked about  how he hated the iTunes software. He has been searching for alternative software for music playback and purchase so me being the evangelist for everything Microsoft, I suggested that he should look into the Zune Client and pass (not to sync or purchase apps with iPhone mind you) including how this all fit in with the upcoming WP7. He thought about it for a second and then quipped “I have heard great things about the Zune but I have never tried it. I think I will seriously check it out” This was an eye opener that revealed to me the potential of the Zune software and ecosystem in WP7 and “ZuneHD2” if MS marketed it right this time around. Here was someone invested in the Apple ecosystem but was still looking for a better experience than what iTunes offers. What a great opportunity for MS to come in and save the day.

So what does this have to do with the Zune Pass & Marketplace launch outside the US? Liveside reported a few days ago that people in the UK could now sign up for a Zune pass. MS has already promised its availability to more countries when WP7 launches but now I think that they should open the floodgates and unleash the Zune pass/marketplace to those territories right now. Zune will be sent in as the vanguard  with the mission build an awareness and familiarity to platform so that when WP7 launches, MS can just say, “You know how you love the Zune software and Xbox live? You can now have it all on your phone too!” I think that can be a a great selling point.  Having Zune launch earlier additionally helps Microsoft work out all the software and licensing kinks with the new expanded audience  guaranteeing a pleasant user experience with the OS come fall.