Yeap, I've been using a preview build of the next release of the Zune software. This is the version that will allow people to sync their Windows Phone 7 devices with their PC. On the surface, there doesn't seem to be much by way of big features, but there was some tweaking underneath the hood that makes things somewhat easier to use. Again, this is just a preview build and things may change by final release, but there are some things here that I hope carries over as they have been great.

The first major thing, as pointed out by my buddy Travis over at ZuneSpring  is that you can purchase a video from the Zune Marketplace (I know, big shocker, right? Um, keep reading). When purchasing that video you are presented with a couple of options: watch now or download now. If you choose watch now (and then choose whether you want HD or SD video), it will diagnose your bandwidth and determine if you can watch the video in the format that you choose. If you choose HD and your bandwidth (for whatever reason) can't handle it, it will default you to HD. If you strongly feel you can handle HD, have it run the test again. Once you get HD as an option, click on buy.

Now this is the pretty part. The video will immediately start playing through the Zune software and you'll see (in collection), but it hasn't downloaded anything. If you check the folder where the video is located on your computer. You'll see this really small "streaming" file that simply tells the software to only stream the video when you pull it up. If you go to the video in your collection you'll see a play and download button. The beauty of this is that you don't have to clutter up your machine if you don't choose to. And these videos will also remain streamable on your XBOX 360 if you pull up the Zune Video Marketplace. If you decide that you want to watch these vids on your Zune HD, then you'll have to download and sync the physical file.

I just realized that this makes it especially helpful for people who have netbooks, or travel PCs with not a lot of room on them. If you're sitting in a WiFi hotspot, you can call up any of your purchased content and watch it without having to A) wait for it to download first or B) using up any of your precious hard drive space.

This preview build of the Zune software also includes a much better organizational method for pictures. Well, what happens is that when you go to the pictures tab in your collection, you're presented with a folder system on the side that's similar to the presentation you get with Windows Live Photo Gallery. In fact, you can select a photo and go straight to Windows Live Photo Gallery for editing. Just having that folder menu system has already made the pictures section more tolerable to use since it makes it easier to see what your photo albums are and go directly to the one that you want to work with.

For you Windows Phone 7 users, there is an app store for Windows Phone. It sits along with the app "store" for Zune HD. I say that because really what you're getting with Zune HD app area are a handful of picked free applications to run on your Zune HD. Considering that apps can be easily ported from Windows Phone 7 to Zune HD, maybe some of the best of the best Windows Phone 7 apps will see the light of day on the Zune HD device.

A curious change (minor, but curious) is that what was once called "personal content" in the music part of the collection -- you know where you choose from 'personal content', 'protected content' and 'zune pass content' -- is now called 'drm-free content'. I'm not sure why that particular change was made, but hey it still applies to what gets filtered out when you choose it. Choosing that will only present music that has no DRM on it whatsoever.


I've been syncing my Zune HD to the build, creating Smart DJ and Auto Playlists, using the Marketplace, checking out the Social and everything is running smoothly. The only real major thing seems to be the tinkering to get the software prepped for Windows Phone 7 and being able to simply stream, but not download videos.

Zune is notoriously known for hiding little features in their releases that users end up stumbling upon and sharing. They are also known for creating major new features for users to have fun, er, using. If this particular software release is only about syncing with Windows Phone 7, and making sure that everything else didn't break in the process, if you're the kind of person that thinks that Zune must do major updates for Fall then the only other places to look would be firmware in the device or the new Zune Pass update on XBOX 360.

Time will surely tell what Zune has in store.