This week's update : Zune Delivers Connected Music and Entertainment Experience

“The digital music entertainment revolution is just beginning,” said J Allard, vice president, design and development, at Microsoft, who is leading the charge for building the family of Zune products. “With Zune, we are not simply delivering a portable device, we are introducing a new platform that helps bring artists closer to their audiences and helps people find new music and develop new social connections.”

The Zune software which is more like iTunes, is capable of importing unprotected WMA, MP3 and AAC audio files. Images would be stored in a JPEG format and for the device to handle videos these would need to be in one of three formats: WMV, MPEG-4 or MPEG-4 AVC (H.264). The software presupposed the presence of Windows XP SP2 and the availability of a broadband Internet connection, Microsoft stated. The company has announced three accessory packs: a "Zune Car Pack," which allows signals from the player to be transmitted to the car radio, a "Home A/V Pack" that will make it possible for the user to integrate his or her Zune with the TV set and music speakers at home and a "Travel Pack," for an on-the-road Zune experience.

Available this holiday season in the United States, Zune includes a 30GB digital media player, the Zune Marketplace music service and a foundation for an online community that will enable music fans to discover new music. The Zune device features wireless technology, a built-in FM tuner and a bright, 3-inch screen that allows users to not only show off music, pictures and video, but also to customize the experience with personal pictures or themes to truly make the device their own. Zune comes in three colors: black, brown and white.

Every Zune device creates an opportunity for connection. Wireless Zune-to-Zune sharing lets consumers spontaneously share full-length sample tracks of select songs, homemade recordings, playlists or pictures with friends between Zune devices. Listen to the full track of any song you receive up to three times over three days. If you like a song you hear and want to buy it, you can flag it right on your device and easily purchase it from the Zune Marketplace.
Zune makes it easy to find music you love — whether it’s songs in your existing library or new music from the Zune Marketplace. Easily import your existing music, pictures and videos in many popular formats and browse millions of songs on Zune Marketplace, where you can choose to purchase tracks individually or to buy a Zune Pass subscription to download as many songs as you want for a flat fee.

To get started with great music and videos out of the box, every Zune device is preloaded with content from record labels such as DTS, EMI Music’s Astralwerks Records and Virgin Records, Ninja Tune, Playlouderecordings, Quango Music Group, Sub Pop Records, and V2/Artemis Records.
Zune Accessories
To enhance the Zune experience, three accessory packs help Zune users enjoy their music where they want to, at home or on the road. The packs and the individual accessories, all designed exclusively for Zune, will be available at launch:
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The Zune Car Pack includes everything needed to hit the road with a Zune device, such as the built-in FM tuner with AutoSeek and the Zune Car Charger.
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The Zune Home A/V Pack enhances your experience in the home through five products that integrate Zune with the TV and music speakers: Zune AV Output Cable, Zune Dock, Zune Sync Cable, Zune AC Adapter and the Zune Wireless Remote for Zune Dock.
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Zune Travel Pack is a set of five products designed to keep friends and family entertained on the road: Zune Premium Earphones, Zune Dual Connect Remote, Zune Gear Bag, Zune Sync Cable and the Zune AC Adapter.

Providing consumers with additional options to customize and personalize their Zune experience, Microsoft is also working with leading accessory manufacturers Altec Lansing, Belkin Corp., Digital Lifestyle Outfitters (DLO), Dual Electronics, Griffin Technology, Harman Kardon and JBL, Integrated Mobile Electronics, Jamo International, Klipsch Audio Technologies, Logitech, Monster Cable Products Inc., Speck, Targus Group International Inc. and VAF Research.

More details

Look at this beauty...

Zune Update!

Here is the link to the Toshiba's submission to FCC for the proposed Zune audio player. Click Here

Bryan Lee, Corporate Vice President Entertainment and Devices Division, Microsoft, during Citigroup's Global Technology Conference in New York said "... We see this space as having the potential scale not of today's market, which sells 30, 40 million devices, but of something closer to the cell phone market, where you sell hundreds of millions of devices....As we've gone out and talked to consumers about Zune, we've asked them, 'Do you feel you have choice in the space?' and we get a resounding, 'Yes, we have a lot of choice -- you can get a Shuffle, a Nano, a video iPod.' ... Which just amplifies the challenge that we face."

He added, on the choice of Toshiba as manufacturer "...we knew that we needed some contract manufacturing, someone to help us. Much like with the Xbox business, we don't literally run the factories. ... We do a lot of the design. So we picked Toshiba. They brought experience in the space that we didn't have. They brought some of the foundational technology, but the device that you see will not look or feel or smell very much like the product that they've taken to market thus far." Courtesy : Source

Download everything from Microsoft without WGA Check!

Another useful stuff to get rid of the Windows Genuine Check. If you want to download anything from Microsoft's site, it will do annoying Genuine check right? You can get rid of this now. Just follow the instructions in the following web page. I give this for learning purpose and not for commercial use!

Click here for the link!

Freeware Recommendations from ghacks.net

I found this url list a very interesting one. All of these are freeware utilities you can download and use.

Click here for the link!

Tragic end to Steve Irwin's adventurous life...

Shocked to see the news of Steve's death caused by Stingrays. Everytime we see these Stingrays, we thought they are one of less harmful creatures. But as a professional Steve would have known about this much and should have taken enough precautionery measures.

He sounds and looks too much of adventurous in the screen, people complains. But we should admit that that is the differentiator of his episodes with others. When we see him in the television, our mind thinks more about his safety and risk than the program's content. That is his success I believe.

There were few black spots in his career as well, when his pictures created a lot of furore in which he was feeding a crocodile while holding his one month old baby in the other hand. Although it looked really stupid for everyone almost, he tried convincing that he was in total control of the situation.

Our whole family used to sit and watch all his Croc Hunter episodes. We really loved his accent and famous phrases like "Crikey" etc. We are going to miss him a lot and for sure we would remember his quote...

"I have no fear of losing my life if I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it..."

...for a moment when we switch to one of those TV channels he used to show up.


I also remember his another quote about MGM, the US based moviemakers :

"Crikey, mate. You're far safer dealing with crocodiles and western diamondback rattlesnakes than the executives and the producers and all those sharks in the big MGM building." Comparing dealing with deadly animals with show business..."

Our prayers to his wife Terrie and the kids Bob and Bindi.

Read More : Tail as 'deadly as a bayonet'

Video of the day...helicopter crash!

Mobile phone/MP3 Player Lithium based battery explosions...How to avoid them?

Thought good one to share with you all...courtesy hardwaresecrets.com

• "To avoid explosions and to prolong Li-ion batteries usage, we’ve listed some warnings:
  You can recharge a lithium-based battery frequently, but you shouldn’t recharge it more than it’s necessary. You use to recharge your cell phone for hours? Forget it!
• If the device needs to be kept stored for a lengthy period of time, keep the battery in a cool place at 40% state-of-charge. The website http://www.batteryuniversity.com stated that a Li-ion battery stored for a year at 40% charge lose 4% of its permanent capacity, and one stored at 100% charge lose 20% of its capacity.
  Keep your cell phone away from water, sand, dust and humidity. Short-circuiting can also explode your device.
• If your handheld gets wet, remove the battery and let your cell phone dries before put it back.
• Do not freeze the battery. When the battery gets warm again, it can be humid and cause damage to the battery’s circuit.
• Do not place your cell phone in a hot car.
• Do not carry your cell phone in your pocket.
• Do not use plastic cases to protect your cell phone. They can overheat it.
• Do not open the battery. Do not even try it!
• Prefer original and authorized accessories and batteries.
• Keep the battery away from metallic objects. It can short-circuit.
• Lithium-based batteries are used not just in cell phones, but also in many kinds of electronic devices, such as MP3 players, digital cams and laptops.
• If despite all these warnings your device gets overheated, contact technical assistance."

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/326

Functional Specification...What the heck is it?

As usual, When I was looking for some information about writing Functional Specifications, I stumbled upon this nice article by http://www.joelonsoftware.com.

The part I liked most is the comparison between a project which is started without a FS and another project which is started with complete FS. Also, the author elaborated nicely about the advantages and benefits of writing FS from not just developer/project manager point of views, but as well from QA team, Documentation team, Marketing team, Managers and even Biz Dev people who are going to market that product!

The keyword is communication. If there is a cleanly written FS, it helps in many ways to communicate the information/details about the product well throughout the organisation!

some excerpts from the article...(Courtesy http://www.joelonsoftware.com )

....So that's giant reason number one to write a spec. Giant reason number two is to save time communicating. When you write a spec, you only have to communicate how the program is supposed to work once. Everybody on the team can just read the spec. The QA people read it so that they know how the program is supposed to work and they know what to test for. The marketing people use it to write their vague vaporware white papers to throw up on the web site about products that haven't been created yet. The business development people misread it to spin weird fantasies about how the product will cure baldness and warts and stuff, but it gets investors, so that's OK. The developers read it so that they know what code to write. The customers read it to make sure the developers are building a product that they would want to pay for. The technical writers read it and write a nice manual (that gets lost or thrown away, but that's a different story). The managers read it so that they can look like they know what's going on in management meetings. And so on....

When you don't have a spec, all this communication still happens, because it has to, but it happens ad hoc. The QA people fool around with the program willy-nilly, and when something looks odd, they go and interrupt the programmers yet again to ask them another stupid question about how the thing is supposed to work. Besides the fact that this ruins the programmers' productivity, the programmers tend to give the answer that corresponds to what they wrote in the code, rather than the "right answer." So the QA people are really testing the program against the program rather than the program against the design, which would be, um, a little bit more useful.

When you don't have a spec, what happens with the poor technical writers is the funniest (in a sad kind of way). Tech writers often don't have the political clout to interrupt programmers. In many companies, if tech writers get in the habit of interrupting programmers to ask how something is supposed to work, the programmers go to their managers and cry about how they can't get any work done because of these [expletive deleted] writers, and could they please keep them away, and the managers, trying to improve productivity, forbid the tech writers to waste any more of their precious programmers' time. You can always tell these companies, because the help files and the manuals don't give you any more information than you can figure out from the screen. When you see a message on a screen which says

Get your download from : http://www.inleadmedia.com/files/PainlessFunctionalSpecifications_34.doc

Happy Reading...