Zune Stuck In 2008?

After an unexpected "Zune Bug" reared its ugly head yesterday, the original Zune, not in the spotlight for some time, has been front and center.  While Microsoft reassured users that "All would be well, and to all a good night," it appears that statement may have been a vision of sugar plum fairies.  It would appear that at least some users are not back to normal, and the original Zune is in a state of SNAFU.

While there are some workarounds, they appear to be homesprung remedies with varying results so far.  For the time being, the safest route is to simply leave the Zune disconnected from the computer for the next few days while this all gets worked out.  I'm confident that the Zune team will be back on the job next week, and someone has gotta work on this, right?

In the meantime, here are Microsoft's official recommendations on the issue.

Zune Hack: Upgrade your Zune 80 to a Zune 120

Not enough space on your Zune 80? Don’t worry, for $150 you can now upgrade you Zune 80 to a Zune 120 by replacing the original HDD by a Toshiba MK1231GAL 1.8” 120Gb 5mm HDD. This Zune hack as been performed by a Chinese based company called Luna Commerce. The company says it will replace any HDD with bad sectors.

Of course, buy at your own risk and remember that attempting to install a HDD in you Zune 80 will instantly void your warranty. Who will first try to perform this Zune hack?  Any volunteer?

Speaking of Zune 120. Do you think the next Zune device will be a Zune 120, Zune 160 or even a Zune 250?

More pictures after the jump...
 

zAlternator Brings Zune iTunes Love?

If you are looking for a different media application to sync your Zune with, you've largely been out of luck up to this point. Now a new hack has come along which is looking to change that - it is called zAlternator.

zAlternator works with an "unlocked" Zune which, according to this Zune Boards post, you can do yourself via a relatively simple four step process. After unlocking you'll find you should be able to sync it through other applications such as Windows Media Player 11, Winamp and MediaMonkey.

It may also work with iTunes...perhaps...

[via Gizmodo]

How to Hack the 3-Plays Restriction

Well, we all know that the 3-days restriction has already been removed from the new Zune's Firmware, and so now we want even less of a restriction than ever before. The 3 day restriction can be quite annoying, and all you have to do to get past it is to set a song as a Podcast, and it will still play. The only problem is, it won't be in your music section, it will be in your Podcast section, which I don't really care for when it comes to music.

So, I'm glad I have a Zune pass and don't have to buy the songs sent to me anyway, I just get to download them instead. So, if you don't want to have to go through this hassle and also want to get a large amount of music for a small amount of money, you should think of getting a Zune Pass.

Source

Hack Your New Zune For More Benefits

While I was searching for some Zune news, go figure right?, I found this interesting story on how many hacks are available for the new Zunes as of right now. While not surprised that the Zune has been hacked, I am a little surprised that there are this many hacks, in such a short time that the new Zunes have been out.

Sarah Perez over at on10.net blog, posted this story about all the available software hacks people can do to their new Zunes. There are surprisingly 10 hacks for the new Zune listed. Although some of them are not really hacks, like how to open up your Zune and stare at the unbelievable hardware inside the player, while others are actual hacks and actually improve the Zune quite substantially. Like for example, take Hack #3:

Hack #3: Use the Zune 2 as a flash drive - this hack makes your computer recognize your Zune 2 just like it's any ordinary USB flash drive

This Hack really caught my attention, because as one of exclusions in most media players, you cannot use your player as a hard drive/usb flash drive. Well worry no more, as this hack will as it says, act as any ordinary flash drive. Other Hacks include: Multi-Extension Support Mod, YouTube to Zune Converter, Custom Themes, etc. So why not go take a look for yourself and see which hacks interest you.