If you're one of the many people who filled a Zune personal media player with energizing music to power through the work day or inspired spoken word poetry to uplift coworkers, it might be hard to believe that Microsoft just announced it's killing the Zune. But the company did, and it's leaving its few remaining loyal users wondering where to go next. The answer may be the iPod, or maybe even a new music-player alternative called Pono.
The Zune software functions as management software for the device and a full media player application with a library. It also serves as a shopping hub for content from the Zune Marketplace and an interface to the Windows Phone 7 mobile platform.
When the Zune software first opens, it displays three sections: New, History and Pins (a spot to create shortcuts). The New section holds thumbnails of any media — songs, videos or photos — that have entered your collection recently. The History section shows recently played content and the Pins slot lets you add any item to your Quickplay playlist.
When you make a playlist on zune, the resulting m3u file is saved on your computer like a regular text file — it's not an actual copy of the items in the playlist. However, when you connect a Zune to your computer and open the Zune software, the m3u file is automatically loaded into the player. In addition, any files in your Collection that don't have a compatible format are automatically transcoded when you sync them with a Zune.
