New Zune 4.0

Zune 4.0 released today. Zune 4.0 came along with the awesome new device (ZuneHD), a new program and new online services.
For several weeks now I’ve been the proud owner of Zune HD. But I want to talk about the innovations in the new Zune. The Zune team has put a lot of effort into developing the update, including optimization for Windows 7!



The Zune 4.0 update presented several important features designed to improve the selection of new music and its playback.

Fast playback - a new window in Zune, which allows you to get quick access to your data.
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In it, you can consolidate your favorite content (up to 6 items), watch new music and videos added to your collection, as well as view the history of played music, podcasts and videos. Fast playback provides five SmartDJ mixes of your favorite artists or groups.

Speaking of SmartDJ ...

SmartDJ automatically creates playlists from your collection, but makes a few changes to them by mixing the sound. SmartDJ mixes are available when you right-click on an artist, track or album in your collection. For mixing, Smart DJ can take music from your collection or from the Zune Marketplace. If you have a Zune Pass, all songs, including those from the Zune Marketplace, will be available to you. If you do not have a Zune Pass, Smart DJ songs offered will not be active.

If you do not want to see the proposed music from the Zune Marketplace in your Smart DJ mixes, you can uncheck the settings and then only your personal collection will be listed.

You can also save Smart DJ's queue as a playlist to listen to later.

The following screenshot is a Smart DJ mix for Weezer, which shows how Smart DJ looks with the option to save a playlist with a choice of songs to play from the Zune Marketplace.



But that is not all!

Zune now has MiniPlayer mode. It allows you to keep the player always on top of all applications.



And if the Mini Player mode is not exactly what you need, you can control the process directly from the Windows taskbar (right-click on the taskbar, select Toolbars and then Zune)

As I said earlier, the new Zune is optimized for Windows 7. This means that it uses the new features of Windows 7.



Using Jump lists in Windows 7, you get access to the albums that are fixed in Fast Play. You can also shuffle all the music and pause the playback.

Using the preview in the taskbar (just hover your mouse over the Zune icon in the Windows 7 taskbar) you can play the next / previous song, pause and more — rate the song.



And with the help of Aero Snap, you can resize the Zune window to the top or bottom, left or right side of the screen.

For the first time, Zune supports DTO or Rent types of movie purchase from its growing TV base. These movies and TV shows can be downloaded in standard definition (SD) or high definition (HD). And remember - Zune Pass costs only $ 14.99 and gives unlimited access to listening to any music online. And yet, you get 10 MP3 credits per month, which are also used.

We go together on Zune. Loading the player