Zune Insider

As you can tell by the new design, we’ve dusted off Zune Insider and relaunched it with a new look and feel!  If you are reading this in RSS, click here to head to the site and check it out.  A few things we want to point out:

• We love social media! We’ve added widgets for Facebook and Twitter in the sidebar to the right.  If you aren’t part of the Zune Nation on either of these, please join us!
• We love the Zune Nation! We have added commenting system Disqus to the site to encourage healthy conversation, feedback, tips and tricks.  But remember…just like on our social networks, we want this to be a place that everybody can enjoy, so please behave.  If you’re not registered on Disqus make sure to do so, we want to hear from you!
• We love links! Check out the sidebar on the right, there you will find information about other RSS feeds, product info and just about anything else Zune related.
• Don’t forget to subscribe! In the top right corner of this blog you will see links…one of them is to our RSS.  Click it and get updates delivered right to your reader.

Thanks for stopping by! As a special thank you for reading all the way to the bottom of this very short post, we’re going to do a little mini-contest to see who actually got this far.  Everybody that leaves a comment on this post between now and April 19th at midnight PST will be qualified for a chance to win a free month of Zune Pass! We’re going to give away a few, so send your friends our way too.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Zune Insider Episode 111 dated April 8th, 2011 of the Zune Insider Audio Podcast is now live and is hosted by Matt Akers (skipdeez) and Jessica Zahn (jetherealz).

Show notes:
We missed each other the last two weeks! (0:00 – 2:49); Zune HD gets more apps! (2:50 – 5:05); Matt gives Jess kudos (5:06 – 10:23); April Fools Day at Microsoft is awesome (10:24 – 17:14); New guest John Randolph discusses new features in the Music Marketplace and brings music recommendations (17:15 – 24:11); Marco is out, but Jess and Matt talk movies – Tron Legacy, Black Swan, and the Fighter (24:12 – 28:35); James is out, but emailed us TV recommendations – The Killing, The Hard Times of RJ Berger, and The Kennedys (28:36 – 32:03); Podcast Rob Greenlee (@robgreenlee) recommends This is My New Podcast and WTF with Marc Maron and Conan O’Brien (32:04 – 37:33);  Live inbox! (37:34 – end) .

The mp3 file is 33 MB and runs for a 48 minutes. Subscribe to the podcast in the FREE Zune Marketplace 4.7 Media Player software here.  Download the audio file directly here - stream it

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Zune Insider Episode 110 dated April 1st, 2011 of the Zune Insider Audio Podcast is now live and is hosted Matt Akers (skipdeez) and guest co-host Rob Greenlee (webtalkrob).

Show notes:
Rob is back in the saddle as guest co-host this week while Jessica is OOF! (0:00 – 2:35); Don’t forget about Zunestore.com for hot deals on new Zune HD media players! (2:40 – 6:00); Matt gives a how-to on Wireless Sync and the Zune.net learning center (6:04 – 12:20); Rob and Matt chat about the Zune software podcast collection view and settings! (12:25 – 15:30); The Barry Sanders of podcast guests Paul Pearson drops by with music action! (15:35 – 24:20); Movies with Marco Desimone! (24:30 – 34:00); Podcast Rob (@robgreenlee) does double duty as guest co-host & guest and he chats about free podcasts of full premiere TV episodes for Showtime’s Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara series (34:05 – 37:40);  Live inbox and the many ways you can contact us! (37:45 – end).

The mp3 file is 36 MB and runs for a 53 minutes. Subscribe to the podcast in the FREE Zune Marketplace 4.7 Media Player software here.  Download the audio file directly here - stream it

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The Weekly Download Episode 41 dated March 29th, 2011 is now live and is hosted by Jessica Zahn (jetherealz).

Show notes:
The Weekly Download podcast features audio samples from the hottest podcasts in the Zune Podcast Marketplace and is hosted by Jessica Zahn.  Let us know about a hot new podcast that you may have found and send us an email about it to: askzune at microsoft.com, we might feature it and give you a shout-out.  FEATURED PODCASTS SHOW NOTES:  Mostly Photo Podcast – 50 min – New Audio and Video Series from TWiT – Updated weekly on Thursdays  (:39 – 3:08); GeekWire Podcast – 35 min Audio Show – Every Fri (3:09 – 5:23);  The Alex Jones Show Podcast – 180 min Audio Show – Updated Daily Mon-Fri (5:24 – 7:20);  KenRadio-World Tech Roundup – 30 min Audio Show – Few times a week on random days (7:21 – 9:12); After Dark Podcast – 45 min – Audio Show – Daily (9:13 – 11:03);  Music: Earth by Ceps;  Episode 41 – March 29nd, 2011, 8 MB MP3, Total minutes (11:49)

The mp3 file is 8.5 MB and runs for a 12 minutes. Subscribe to the podcast in the FREE Zune Marketplace 4.7 Media Player software here.  Download the audio file directly here - stream it

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Zune Insider Episode 109 dated March 25th, 2011 of the Zune Insider Audio Podcast is now live and is hosted Jessica Zahn (jetherealz) and guest co-host Dave MacLauchlan (AussieDaveMS).

Show notes:
Matt is on vacation, so Dave from the Zune Hardware team joins us to co-host! (0:00 – 4:38); Dave and Jess talk Windows Phone games and Xbox for non-gamers (4:39 – 12:12); James Chott brings movie and TV recommendations – Tangled, Black Swan, and The Fighter, and Laugh it Up Fuzzball (12:13 – 20:30); Paul Pearson is back from South by Southwest (SXSW in Austin,TX) with stories and recommendations (20:31 – 30:43); Podcast Rob Greenlee (webtalkrob) talks about new podcasts from Revision3 (Lifehacker, Film State) and The Gilmore Gang at TechCrunchTV is back (30:44 – 36:52); Special guest Larry Hryb, Xbox Live’s Major Nelson podcast and Inside Xbox “Majors Minute” host – visits Zune Insider! (36:53 – 50:40); Live inbox! (50:41 – end).

The mp3 file is 42 MB and runs for a 61 minutes. Subscribe to the podcast in the FREE Zune Marketplace 4.7 Media Player software here.  Download the audio file directly here - stream it

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