14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has updated Zune.net adding new functionality to the website. As a direct consequence, Zune.net was down on the night of June 8, with Jessica Zahn, Zune Social program manager, having announced in advance that new features would be coming. The new additions introduced to the website will allow users to better keep in touch with their favorite musician, both on the web and in real life. At the same time, Microsoft is boosting the social networking capabilities of Zune.net, and is making it easy for music fans to discover new content by recommending items.
“We'll have some new features on the web – including "follow an artist," where you can explicitly state that you like a particular artist and get news and updates from that artist. We'll do RSS feed aggregation on artist pages – which means that from the one artist page on zune.net, you can see your favorite artist's latest Twitter posts, blogs, and so on (and if your favorite artist doesn't have this data already, you will be able to add the links yourself). We're adding more content, including concert dates, to the web, and we've redesigned our home page to showcase more of our social data,” Zahn explained.
Microsoft indicated that the update would focus on making the website faster, with performance improvements. At the time of this article the update to Zune.net had already been delivered, and the website was up and running at full capacity. Users will be able to take advantage of the new features immediately.
At the end of May 2009, Microsoft confirmed that it was stepping up its game when it came to the digital media player device face-off with Apple, and that it was planning to go against iPod Touch in the second half of this year. The Redmond company revealed that it was planning to deliver Zune HD, a device sporting features such as OLED touch-screen interface, 16:9 widescreen display at a resolution of 480x272, support for 720p HD video files, and even an HD Radio receiver.