A new technique allows Zune owners to share files of any type wirelessly with other users. But Microsoft could soon close this loophole with a mandatory firmware upgrade. In Listening Post.

Fantastic news for the handful of people who actually own a Zune. Someone's found a way to enable a sort of hard drive support, which although doesn't assign a drive letter to your Zune, does allow you to drag and drop files from it.
Turns out it's just a registry value to enable visibility in the shell. Cake! Hit the jump for the instructions.

1. Make sure your Zune is not plugged in and your Zune software isn't running 2. open up regedit by going to the start menu and selecting "run". Type regedt32 and hit "OK" 3. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Enum\USB\ 4. Search for "PortableDeviceNameSpace". This should be contained in the Vid_####&Pid_####\########_-_########_-_########_-_########\Device Parameters within the above ...\USB\ The ##'s listed here will be numbers and letters specific to your Zune 5. Change the following values: * EnableLegacySupport to 1 * PortableDeviceNameSpaceExcludeFromShell to 0 ...

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Microsoft won't let the Zune function as an external USB drive? Fine. We'll make it function as an external USB drive our damn selves. Looks like the fine chaps over at ZuneBoards have divined a method to make the non-MSC non-MTP Zune open the hell up and act like a real drive for god's sake. They haven't yet posted the tutorial on how to do it (so as far as we know this might be a hope-shattering Thanksgiving-day hoax) but we're kind of thinking those guys wouldn't let us all down like that, so watch out here for further developments.

[Thanks, Aaron R] 
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I keep getting asked what tools do you use or recommend for Zune. So, I started a list of some of the tools I find useful. Feel free to send me links and I'll add them to the page.
*Note: I will link to encoders, but nothing that uses DeCSS.
LINK

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
It's been well-established that for some strange reason the Zune doesn't work with Windows Vista -- yet, anyway. (Hey, it's not out yet, ok?) Fortunately for those of you Microsoft überfanboys who suffered much frustration after buying a Zune and trying to install its software on your Vista machine, there's now a solution. While we won't regurgitate the exact step-by-step instructions outlined on MoDaCo, we will tell you that it involves your Zune CD, WinRAR and a MyZune.msi patch. If that method doesn't work for whatever reason, you can always try a similar strategy that Andre de Cavaignac found, which involves Orca (a Microsoft-made disassembler for MSI). As usual, we take no responsibility if either of these methods turns your Zune or your box into a brick, but be sure to let us know in the comments if one of these methods ends up doing the trick.

[Via MAKE: Blog]

Read - MoDaCo
Read - Andre de C...

Filed under: Gaming
While we aren't sure if this is just another lashing from the lingering bitterness ole Bill is surely feeling from Sony's most recent criticisms, Mr. Gates has unwillingly volunteered himself for yet another episode of CE-Oh no he didn't. Shortly after praising Apple's iPod, he apparently felt a few brash phrases were in order to bring the world back into balance, and balance he did. In an interview with CNET, Microsoft's chairman explained that he knew very well the pain "of being a year late" -- presumably in regard to how belated the Zune is in hitting the iPod-filled DAP market -- but continued on by stating that he "wouldn't change positions with Sony in a million years" when referring to the Xbox 360's head start in the next generation console race. But fun and games turned staid when Gates remarked that "Sony could make 80,000 bricks, and people would buy them." While we can't quite decipher the true meaning of "bricks," we're fully aware that the stakes ...

Yes there is a way to beef up your Zune to a 40 gig or even 60 or 80 gig, but sadly this is not an official thing and does lead to you voiding your warranty. The guys at iPodMods.com (strange for them to be messing with Zunes..) have manged to crank the Zunes hard [...]

I've decided to put my money where my mouth is in regards to accessories partners. We are almost ready to select the next wave of accessories manufacturers for the Spring season. Since the entire reason I started this blog was to have a direct dialog with the Zune community, I thought what better way than to let you guys decide who one of the partners should be? So, here's what I'm going to do.

Step one: I'll take partner nominations in the comments section of this post. I want you guys to tell me which company and which product and why. There's no word limit to your description. Assume I've never heard of the company. If you happen to have a contact for that company, you can email me directly.

Step two: Here's where I need some help. I'll take the top 8 suggestions and make a survey if someone can help me with a blogger-based survey form. I'll post it for a week and let you guys vote on it. If for some reason nobody can help me with the survey, I'll d...

Despite declaring the iPod the winner of Christmas '06, we decided to use the Zune exclusively for a while because 1) we wanted to get an even better feel of what the Zune scene was like, and 2) we're tired of the iPod. After packing the essentials—clothes, laptop, Xbox 360—we set off for the airport with the Zune in tow. High hopes abound! Would we serendipitously meet someone with a Zune and trade songs? Will a fellow passenger strike up a conversation over the cocoa-colored player?
The short answer: no. The long answer...

Also no.
We admit, we did get a kick out of holding the Zune in a sea (if a sea consists of three people) of iPods. But as much as we wished, the "Searching for Zune devices" function always gave us a "no nearby Zune devices found." No matter, it was a big airport and we had time to kill. So we walked around like doofuses, stopping at each gate and scanning for fellow Zunesters. No dice.
After a while we were afraid ...

The Nintendo Wii launched on Sunday to pretty much universal acclaim—Chen loved it quite literally, putting it down his pants. But not all is happy in Wii World, for some complaints are starting to trickle out. One of the earliest shots across the bow comes from one of Slate's fine writers. The treatise, entitled, "Nintendo't: The Case Against The Wii," rails on the the Wii and the Wiimote specifically for being, effectively, garbage. "The ugly truth is that the Wii's already-legendary motion-detection system doesn't work very well," he writes. For more insight, as well as our own expert opinion, keep reading.
Essentially, the writer, Erik Sofage (a self-described "hardcore gamer" who's written on subjects like the Zune and next-gen video games in general), says that the Wiimote is too counter-intuitive for its own good. He brings up several instances where he felt the controller didn't quite deliver the immersive experience that Nintendo had promised. He complained that in "...