This afternoon I am mulling over an intriguing post from Zunerama member WillysJeepMan. He notes how the 3.0 update offers significant enhancements for “connected” Zune users, but not so much for “standalone” users.
He offers 8 updates he’d like to see in Zune, including sleep timer, 5-star ratings, video playlists, and on-device picture rotation.
A post worth [...]

Both Zune and iPod unveiled significant new approaches to music discovery in this month’s product updates. Central to iPod’s approach is its Genius feature, which recommends additional music tracks based on a single track that you’ve selected in iTunes. Zune’s approach is the MixView, which brings up a graphical cloud of related artists, listeners, and [...]

Our boards have been buzzing today - as our members check out Zune software 3.0. In fact, we hit an all-time high this evening, when 1,300 people were simultaneously in Zunerama’s forums.
Here are some more-or-less random reports from Day 1:

You can once again get a 14-day trial Zune Pass - an offering we haven’t seen [...]

Microsoft rolls out Version 3.0 of its Zune software and player firmware today. We’ve prepared a guide to all that’s new with this significant new release.
We’ve included screenshots and photos from our 3.0 preview with the Zune team. We’ve also included links to some helpful posts and articles from our fellow Zune MVPs who were [...]

Just got word from Cesar of ZuneInsider - Zune Marketplace, zune.net, and Zune Social are going lights-out at 9pm PT, in preparation for tomorrow’s release of Zune 3.0.

He says it should all be online again, “by sunrise”.
Looks like we’ll have a crew checking through the night to get all the goodness in Release 3.0.
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Video: Zune Fall 2008 Wireless Features
Here’s a video from Microsoft that shows how you can use your Zune to browse Marketplace wirelessly.
In particular you can see how search text is entered by using the Zune pad to scroll through characters.
Can’t wait to play with this feature on the 16th!

Microsoft just sent me this picture, which I expect we’ll see a lot of over the upcoming holiday season.
From left to right, that’s the 16GB glossy black flash Zune, 8GB pink, 120GB glossy black, 8GB blue, and 8GB glossy red.
Come to think of it, I have that same collection of players, and could take a [...]

Just received these sneak preview shots from Microsoft of Zune 3.0. Click on any of the images to see a larger version of it:

See labels for these shots, and user comments, in this forum thread.
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My Zune compadre Jason Dunn has prepared a nicely-organized survey of the new stuff in Zune 3.0.
Jason was in Redmond along with me and the rest of the Zune MVP gang, to hear firsthand the enhancements that are rolling out on September 16.
His six-page summary of what to expect is a worthwhile read and I [...]

To go along with our Zune flash versus Nano comparison table, we’ve prepared a table comparing the new Zune 120GB with the iPod Classic 120GB (announced by Apple today).
The essential differences and similarities:

Both are the same price, at $249.
Zune has a 3.2-inch screen, while iPod Classic has a 2.5-inch screen.
Both support music, video, pictures, podcasts, [...]