Here are some of my favourite features of the new Zune software and the improved website. Why don’t you leave comments with your favourite features.
Software
When you install the new Zune software the first thing you see in the player is the above screen which has got to be the best new feature in the Zune software, its a brilliant way to have quick access to the music you are most likely to want to play without having to look down lists to find the playlist, artist, album etc etc. I also love how nicely it moves around the screen and the way there are two sets of menus to this one screen.
The one on top has pins, allowing you to put whatever you like the Quickplay page, then there is the welcome area with easy access to your collection, the marketplace or a free trial of the Zunepass, the new section has the most recent additions to your libraries and then the history has the most recently played media. Not seen anything like this before, other than on the Zune HD, and its great.
Another feature I like is the mini-player which presents a huge amount of information in such a small area and still looks nice, not something that is all that easy to do.
It is good to see that more and more Microsoft applications are supporting Windows 7, as they should be, as users can access the Jumplist for Zune and drag the window to the side and have it resize. The software also feels much quicker to me, it was lightning quick at adding my media to the collection, apart from pictures which it seems to be having problems with.
One thing I would like to see added to the software though is a dark theme, I like how the Quickplay screen looks but it is a shame the collections screens can’t match it.
Website
Alongside the release oft he Zune HD and the new software there were also huge improvements to the website and the services provided online. Some of these additions are as good as the improvements made in the PC software, I much prefer the new theme of the site, it is much cleaner and nicer to look at and use than the previous version, not that there was much wrong with it before.
The use of Silverlight on the site has open it up to allow much more functionality within any browser as you can now play music using the Zune bar at the bottom, it has some good features for such a small browser.
The Zune bar also has a popout component to allow for constant music streaming when you are moving around the Zune site, I can see this being very useful when you can listen to your music, via the Zunepass, anywhere, any time on any browser. This shows just how good Zune can be as you don’t need a device or the software to be able to get a lot from it, now looking forward to the other ways the Zune team are planning to expand the Zune experience.
