There is a little know feature of the new Zune 4.0 software. That is the fact that it allow you to have a mini player in your taskbar now…

1. Open the Zune Software and go to Settings

2. Go to General under Software

3. Scroll down to the Taskbar section and click Setup Zune Toolbar

4. Rick click on your Taskbar and go to Toolbars and Click on Zune

5. Minimize the software and you should have the below player in your Taskbar…

It’s a commonly known thing that the Zune Software takes up tons of system resources. So I came up with a list of 4 things that are sure to speed up your Zune experience.

1. Condense Your Library

Reason: Condensing your library into 1 folder for each type will make the zune software be able to search less stuff

What To Do: Just moved all your stuff from each thing into a folder

Cons: You have to be able to fit your whole collection wherever you store your media

2. Change Your Display Settings

Reason: It will tone down the graphic aspect a bit to make the speed way better

What To Do: Go to Settings > Software > Display > Screen Graphics and slide the bar to basic

Cons: You won’t see the visualizer or the nicer now playing screen anymore

3. Turn Off Now Playing While Idle

Reason: It will no longer go to the resource heavy now playing screen while running in the background

What To Do: Go to Settings > Software > Display > Now Playing and uncheck the box

Cons: None

4. Turn Off The Conversion When Syncing

Reason: You don’t want to convert each and every file you send to the Zune when they will play just fine without it

What To Do: Go to Settings > Device > Conversion Settings > Audio and select Only Convert Formats That Aren’t Supported by The Zune Device

Cons: Your Zune will fill up faster do to higher bit rate files

]]> http://t03.us/2009/08/4-tips-to-speed-up-your-zune-software/feed/ 4 http://t03.us/2009/06/4-apps-no-netbook-user-should-go-without/ http://t03.us/2009/06/4-apps-no-netbook-user-should-go-without/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:56:24 +0000 Josh http://t03.us/?p=1076

1. VirtuaWin

VirtuaWin is a free program that creates multiple workspaces on any computer plus it has a low foot print. Just install and let it run and press the Windows and arrow keys to change which space you are in.

2. FastCopy

Want to copy files quickly from your netbook to your usb drive or vise versa? Well fast copy will allow you to do it quickly and efficiently.

3. VLC Media Player

VLC is like the swiss army knife of all media players. Throw almost any non DRM format at it and it will play it.

4. CCleaner

Lots of netbooks have limited drive space that can easily be cleared up a bit using CCleaner.

AlternativeTo is a site for those that hate following the trends of others. Put in a piece of software and it will give you good alternatives to it, hence the name. As an example put in Photoshop and it will give you a list of other programs that have similar feature sets. You can choose if you want them to be Free, Open Source, or Paid. They do this for the big 3 operating systems: Windows, Mac, and Linux. So if your trying to find a alternative to that application you keep hearing about then go to AlternativeTo.net

This little application scans your computer for some popular applications and lets you know if their are more updated versions of them. Not only that it gives you a place to download them free, legally, and most importantly spyware free. I have used Filehippo for years now without any problems at all. I highly recommend them as a great resource for download software.

Don’t know how to get those 10 free songs that come with your zune pass? Find out how in this tutorial on how to do just that. Find out more after the break…

Things you need:

• Zune Pass (not the 14 day trial)
• 1 credit for a song from the Zune Pass
• Zune Software.

Steps:

1. Select your song in your collection you want to get a DRM Free version of. In this case I chose California by Hawk Nelson.

2. Right Click on the chosen song and select More About This Album.

3. Find the chosen song on the list and Right Click on it and select Buy

4. Click on the Buy button noting that it will use one of your 10 credits you get a month.

Tips:

• You must use your 10 credits every month. They do not roll over to the next month.
• Selecting the songs at the top of your most played list may be a good place to start.
• The 10 song credits don’t get added to your account on the first but on the month mark of your first buying of the Zune Pass.

Things you need:

• A computer
• Windows XP,
• Windows 7 or Vista
• Access to an administrator account

Instructions:

1. Boot into Windows 7 or Vista including logging into an Administrator Account

2. Click on Start

2. Right Click on Computer and select Properties

3.  Click on Advanced system settings

4. Click on the Settings button in the Startup and Recover section

5. Change the Default operating system to Earlier Version of Windows or similar

Tip:

To change the time it waits to boot into the operating system, change the number in the box next to Time to display list of operating systems. I changed mine to 5 seconds so it would be almost transparent it gave the option.

Just 25 minutes from now the Public Beta of Windows 7 will be released upon the consumers. The question is will the servers hold up? I know for sure that many hundreds of thousands will be rushing to download it all at once. So will you be downloading it right away, or will you wait?

Download Windows 7 at Noon PST here

Tonight at 6:30PM PST CEA will be steaming the Microsoft Keynote Live from CES. I will be watching and so should you. For those of you who are time Challenged that is 7:30PM Mountain, 8:30PM Central, and 9:30PM Eastern.

Live Webcast – Steve Ballmer Keynote: 6:30PM. PST, Jan. 7: 100k | 300k | 750k

Today I checked the Zune Originals Store and as you can see Zune 120s are again available in blue and red. Some of you will finally be able to buy your dream Zune now. And some of your won’t even care. For me I care but have no money to buy.

Today Zunited.net announced it would be giving away a Microsoft Zune 4GB signed by no other then the rap star Common. Next week is the 1 year anniversary of Zunited and this is part of their celebration. Good luck to everyone who enters to win. As for other things going on over at Zunited. They are also going to be at CES coming up later this week. For live reporting from CES check out CES.Zunited.net.

The week of CES you will see a new board appear with all the information about our Annual Celebrations and how you can win the numerous prizes we will be giving away!

This giveaway will be open to all members with 10 or more posts on the forum. Zunited is a small community so your chances of winning are good!

Just a few seconds ago Microsoft employees posted the following via twitter:

ZuneInsider: OK all. the issue is a bug in the driver that controls the internal clock. turns out it does not like leap years. as the date flips to 09 the device should be back to normal. let the battery die then plug in and restart once we flip the date. more info coming on zune insider and zune.net. thanks to you all for your patience and support while we got this worked out.

So as most guessed it should straighten itself out tomorrow morning. I just hope it really does fix itself and not become more broken.

Update:

Source: Zuneinsider.com

Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used).  The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year. 

The issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009.   We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on.  If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device. 

Customers can continue to stay informed via the support page on zune.net (zune.net/support).

We know this has been a big inconvenience to our customers and we are sorry for that, and want to thank them for their patience. 

Q:  Why is this issue isolated to the Zune 30 device?

It is a bug in a driver for a part that is only used in the Zune 30 device.

Q:  What fixes or patches are you putting in place to resolve this situation? 

This situation should remedy itself over the next 24 hours as the time flips to January 1st.

Q:  What’s the timeline on a fix?

The issue Zune 30GB customers are experiencing today will self resolve as time changes to January 1.

Q:  Why did this occur at precisely 12:01 a.m. on December 31, 2008? 

There is a bug in the internal clock driver causing the 30GB device to improperly handle the last day of a leap year.

Q:  What is Zune doing to fix this issue? 

The issue should resolve itself.

Q:  Are you sure that this won’t happen to all 80, 120 or other flash devices? 

This issue is related to a part that is only used in Zune 30 devices.

Q:  How many 30GB Zune devices are affected? How many Zune 30GB devices were sold? 

All 30GB devices are potentially affected.

More info to come as they post it…

On December 20th, Pidgin launched it new version of the software to the public. While it is mostly bug fixes it seems. You should still go download it. I would recommend this software to anyone out there. Check out this blog post for info on adding Facebook Chat and Twitter to pidgin.

Today I have had 3 people search for “is it bad to leave your Zune plugged in”. Now I now this may be a topic I get some flack for brining it up, but here it goes.

Today’s modern batteries like the ones found in the Zune and most other media players don’t care if they stay plugged in. Heck, it doesn’t even make a difference whether or not you empty them before a recharge.

With older batteries you had to empty them before recharging so you would get a longer life out of the battery. With today’s technology this is no longer needed. In fact topping off the battery often is actually better. So stop empting your batteries before recharging because it is not needed and your just wasting your time and inconveniencing yourself.

While I say not to worry about running down the battery. You still should do this once every month  or so. This will re-calibrate the battery and give it the battery life it had from the start.

Everyone has their favorite applications, but some of us like some apps more then others. Well here is my personal top 5 free applications.

5. Windows Live Writer

This great free application is part of the Windows live suit offered by Microsoft and with out it It’d be a lot harder to blog. This free tool allows me to format and post more efficiently.|

1

2

4.  Zune Software

OK, so this is sort of biased. But this is a free application that I use constantly. I always have it running in the background even if I’m not listening to music.

1

2

3

3. Pidgin

This Free chat client covers all the bases. From MSN to AIM it has you covered. It lets you keep all of your IM client contacts in one simple program and lets you communicate with them all as well. Not to mention it is a very light weight program.

|

2. Google Chrome

Recently out of beta this solid and fast browser is only lacking one thing, that being extensions. They are coming soon though. It is still the fastest non beta browser out there.

1

2

1. Firefox

Firefox comes out on top due to the support for extensions and the large amount of the there are. It is still the best out there and will continue to be until Google get’s the extensions running in their browser.

Today one day after the release of 2.7 RC2. The Final version of WordPress 2.7 has been released. I have had it installed on my server since Beta 4 so I haven’t noticed much different. But if you are still on 2.6, upgrade immediately. You will love it, the best parts are the ones that are nessary. Check out the demo after the break.

Tonight WordPress officially released its second release candidate of WordPress 2.7 moving it 1 step closer to releasing the final version of the software. Millions of bloggers out there are using WordPress and loving it and many can’t wait for the features to come in 2.7.  I for one will be one of the first to download the final version.

Download it from this page

Today I stumbled upon a way to add the homepage button to Google Chrome. So here is how to do it…

1. inside Chrome go to the toolbar and select the button all the way to the right.

2. Then in the menu click on the “Options” menu item.

3. In the “Google Chrome Options” dialog box find the “Homepage” section

4. Then check the box next to “Show Home button on toolbar”

5. Select where you want it to go when you click on the button. (I personally have it going to my homepage instead of going to the page that shows by default)

Today I was looking for a way to find the duplicate songs in my music collection. Well I found a great free way to do it using a tool called Duplicate Cleaner.

Make sure you have all your music folders selected and that the option to scan sub folders is on. You can find that option in the options menu found at the top of the window. then un check the same album button unless you don’t want to get rid of the songs that get put into those albums like WOW Hits and stuff.  The easiest and fastest way to select which files to delete is using the Selection Assistant.