Just in time to get the penny stock trader within you excited, last night Microsoft unleashed it’s new MSN Money application for the Zune HD. Features include the ability to of course monitor stocks, get detailed information on past trends, and gather information on the company straight from your Zune HD. At the same time Microsoft has also pulled the covers off of a new game called Animalgrams. As always both are free and available right now in the Zune App Marketplace.

We love to get see pictures of your Zune, headphones, and home stereo setup. Post yours here!

It would seem that after I went to bed last night we all got a little bit of news. For the next 24 hours Zune.net, & the Zune Marketplace are down. We’ll pass on more once we have it.

Update: Looks like we’re back to business. All Zune services are back online. Yep, just as I reasoned there are no changes from what I can tell.

Note: A few of you have written in asking if there may be an update coming. The email sent out via every users Zune.net account mentions the service being down for routine maintenance. I’m sure it’s nothing more then that.

Starting soon you’ll be able to listen to music as well as video via your XBOX 360. We’ll have more when we can get some hard details on what that entails, or whether you will be required to have a ZunePass and XBOX Live Gold Subscription. Either way this should be epic.

Today Microsoft Announced that long time head Robbie Bach has decided to leave the Microsoft Entertainment and Devices division.  In addition J Allard will also leave step down effective immediately.

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Please do not attempt to adjust your television set, (or I guess in this case your monitor). Your eyes do not deceive you. Starting tonight i’ll be hitting you with a double dose of Zune news on both ZuneSpring and Zunerama. As most of you probably won’t remember me, or already know my bio i’ll indulge myself.

Back in 2006, I learned about a great music player from Microsoft, in fact I learned about it from this very site. Even-though I’ve not been as acting in the forums since leaving to start my own ZuneSpring, Zunerama has always been a special place for me. Anywho I won’t bore you too much. Here’s to the rebirth of a Zune icon.

The next firmware release for Zune HD players – “Zune 4.5″ – will be released in the next few weeks. We’ll get some sweet new features – a few that were announced previously, plus some nice surprises. Here’s what’s coming:

Smart DJ on Zune HD. As we heard in January’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Zune 4.5 will provide instant playlists directly on the HD player. These playlists consist of selections from your local tracks, as well as streaming Marketplace content for Zune Pass subscribers. This is one of my favorite features of the Zune PC software and it’s great to see it coming right on the player. You choose a song or artist – either from your collection or from Marketplace – and press Smart DJ to create a mix of tracks.

Stream Music from Zune Marketplace on your TV. With firmware 4.5, you can connect your Zune HD to your TV via the Zune HD A/V dock, and stream music from Zune Marketplace through your TV. You can navigate through New Releases, choose from your Picks, search for songs or artists, or create a new Smart DJ playlist on your big screen. This is in addition to playing your device’s local music and videos on your TV through the dock. I can see this being an appealing way to show off new Smart DJ playlists – having the Now Playing graphics displayed on my TV, while the music plays through my home theatre sound system.

Picks on Zune HD. “Picks” – a Zune software feature that recommends content for you based on what you listen to – is coming to the HD player. On the go, you’ll now be able to see personalized recommendations right on the device.

More Codec Support. Also announced at CES, your Zune HD will have native support for MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile (ASP), which includes Xvid and Avi support. No transcoding required! .

Zune 4.5 will be released in the next few weeks; we don’t have a specific date yet. The new features will apply to Zune HD players only; they aren’t available for older Zune player models.

It’s a significant update for the Zune HD, which was released last September with its OLED screen, HD Radio, HD video out, and music discovery features. This update builds on that, especially in the music discovery area. When coupled with a Zune Pass subscription, the firmware update provides Zune HD owners with more powerful and easy ways to get ready access to new music as well as old favorites.

Microsoft’s incorporation of Zune into its next release of mobile phone software is, to put it mildly, big news for Zune.

Announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the release of Windows Phone 7 Series – the next operating system for Windows mobile phones – includes fully-branded Zune features for music, videos, and podcasts.  Beyond that, the look and feel across the Windows Phone 7 user interface – at least as far as the screenshots and video demos I’ve seen in reports from Barcelona – is distinctly “zune-esque”.

Effectively, this puts every Windows mobile device – and there are a lot of them – on an upgrade path that includes Zune. The phones will have built-in ties to Zune Marketplace content, for music, videos, and podcasts.

What does this mean? Well, this is an unprecedented leap for Zune in terms of…

Exposure. Millions of phone users – when they upgrade to Windows Phone devices starting later this year – will be treated for the first time to the Zune user interface. They’ll get a firsthand look at the friendly navigation, and – I’m presuming – the appealing graphical content of the Now Playing animated background artwork and text. Music can be downloaded or streamed to the phone from Marketplace, over either WiFi or 3G networks.

No doubt most of those people would never have ventured to the Zune experience before, and I’m sure many will be pleasantly surprised at the Zune experience. And even more so for those who sign up for a Zune Pass subscription.

Which brings up the question of…

Scale. No doubt we’ll see significant leaps in traffic to Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace, with corresponding growth in download activity. The Zune.net site – which impressively is taking on more and more functionality akin to the Zune software client – will likely see similar growth. Recent upgrades by Microsoft to the back-end Zune infrastructure seem to reveal an anticipation of amped-up demands for Zune services. This has to be a paramount focus for Microsoft, so that the performance of Zune online access and delivery of content downloads are a positive part of the Windows Phone experience.

Software vs Hardware. I expect we’ll continue to see Microsoft-branded Zune players, especially with the positive reception that last fall’s Zune HD received. But now, for the first time, the Zune experience will be available on mobile devices beyond the Zune player line-up.

It’s like the Windows business model: Microsoft’s OS business grew at phenomenal rates because it made the OS available to many hardware partners. Windows was and is available on high-end and low-end PCs from many manufacturers. Not a bad business model to apply to the phone market, if Microsoft can address the need for…

Consistency. With many manufacturers building devices for Windows Phone 7, how will Microsoft ensure a consistent user experience? According to Engadget, Microsoft is laying down strict requirements for manufacturers, including hardware specifications of single aspect-ratio WVGA screens, hardware buttons for Start / Back / Search / Camera / Power, capacitive multitouch, CPU and GPU requirements, WiFi, Accelerometer, FM radio, and high-resolution cameras.

I’ve run this website since July 2006 – a few months before Microsoft released its first Zune player and unveiled the Zune music service. I’ve followed Zune through all of its player generations, through the growth and maturing of its Marketplace, and through the expansion of its online Zune.net experience.

In years ahead, when we look back at the defining moment in the Zune story, it might just be this week’s announcement.

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This’ll be an interesting week ahead for me.

I’ll be in Redmond, meeting with Microsoft for the MVP global summit. Most of my time will be with the Zune product team. That is time I value, as this group has always been generous with their time with MVPs. I’m looking forward to that opportunity, and to learning about Zune activities from their perspective.

Also this coming week, Microsoft will be announcing Windows Mobile 7, an important update to its smartphone operating system. This will occur at the MobileWorld Congress in Barcelona. The new OS will be demo’d on Monday.

I have no insider information on this whatsoever, but find it intriguing that the Wall Street Journal is speculating that the user interface will be inspired by Zune HD. Other reports, less reliable in my opinion, are postulating that Microsoft will release a device as well… a “Zune phone”, if you will, or the mobile device code-named “Pink” that has been long-rumored.

The Consumer Electronics show – the world’s largest technology and gadget show – is on this week in Las Vegas. As usual, Microsoft has a massive presence at CES, including the line-up of players below to give the gadgerati a taste of Zune HD.

I arrived here late today, and missed last night’s keynote from Steve Ballmer. If you missed that, you can see the coverage on Engadget’s liveblog.

Starting tomorrow I’ll be navigating through the fields of booths here, for the latest in audio products, 3D, mobile entertainment, and other geeky innovations.

Meanwhile, my MVP contacts let me know that, in demos of Zune HD this week, they are shedding light on a couple of new Zune HD features planned for later this spring.

First, the Smart DJ feature, which dynamically creates playlists based on a seed song or artist, will be made available directly on the Zune HD player. (Presently it’s availably through zune.net and on Zune PC software. When Smart DJ is used on the HD, it’ll generate playlists pulling from music stored on the device, and from music on Zune Marketplace when the player is connected to the net via Wi-Fi.

I love that! Smart DJ is one of my favorite Zune features – it provides a Pandora-like experience with all the benefits of the Zune Pass subscription. It’s a great way to enjoy and discover new music and artists.

The other feature coming this spring: the Facebook for Zune HD app. This has been hinted at earlier by the Zune team; hopefully I can get view a demo of that tomorrow or get more details on it.

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