[aiellenon]

The IM thing is probably for Xbox Live Integration, like the Friends list... since you can stream to your Xbox 360 (has anyone tried this yet, I have one but rarely use it for music streaming, as it crashes the Xbox 360 when it tries to load my 13,000 songs!!!! into a viewable list to choose what to listen to). so you can check and see if your friends are on, what device they are using, and what game/vid/song they are playing.

I would not be supprised to see the Wi-Fi get more features over time as it is their main selling point on the Zune. and it is possible to get some reprieve on the 3x3 (not a 2x4!!!) but it might only be like a 10x30 (plays x days) or 5x30. liek a demo software proggy. because they can't let you share media, I mean HELLO!!!! Napster ring a bell to anyone? but I don't think you will ever see a web browser on the zune. possible wireless sync and marketplace (which I and most people used the mods to remove). there is a chance you cannot wireless sync, because they are afraid someone will hack it to allow "down-syncing" (sync to the PC) to transfer to another Zune instead of a PC, there by opening up wireless permanet file sharing, back to the Napster problem.

as far as Divx goes, there is no reason not to allow it on the Zune, Phillips has put it on EVERY DVD player they make now. its Xvid that will never show up on the Zune.

Apple can't sue microsoft for allowing AAC playback on the Zune, but Microsoft has to find some way to encode/decode AAC without reverse engineering the format, or else they will have to pay royalties to Apple (or who ever actually owns the copyright/patent on AAC) in order to use it on the Zune.

As for Podcasts, that was probably left out because they were saving it for the Wireless sync/enhanced Wi-Fi activation. as they can't give you something new to play with, without giving you something to do with it. You can already get podcasts and sync them to the zune, you just have to subscribe to them in a program (not itunes, although I am sure someone can figure out how to use itunes to do this) and sync the files to your Zune. Microsoft already does podcasting for Microsoft Partners, they call them "Partnercasts" and I think they have Webcasts for non-partners as well (I am a Microsoft Partner) It would not be too hard to firmware update the Zune to say "webcast" and update the Zune software to support subscribing to "webcasts"

So, I don't see too much of this as being impossible to do. Maybe they are waiting for the launch of Draco? or perhaps the Gen2 Zune? They wanted to get the system out and see what happens before devoting too much money and time on it, IMHO.


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