Zune HD Firmware 4.7 Requests Thread

[KGTheKinG]

I think they should put web browsing like the iPod touch so we can like go to any web site an watch a video YouTube for example

[CrowdAds]

[Oswald]

I want better Zune Pass Credit integration.

[Zuniq]

flac, flac, flac (if not in firmware, then at least inside software...)

[lem7]

Search function for the zHD.

Looking for one song is very hard on the zHD.

[bluezune16]

Originally Posted by lem7

Search function for the zHD.

Looking for one song is very hard on the zHD.

great idea. my song list is around 1,200 and it gets tiring to search for that one single song.

[lem7]

4.7 might be coming soon[zunited.com] true or not 4.7 needs a new browser! pls!

[Stujoe]

The did the biggies I wanted with the last update. But a search function sounds kinda nice.

[Zuniq]

Any room for battery optimizations? I was the one who thought that battery performs quite well, but after some months of use, i would love to see some optimizations. Practically, our beautiful Zune HD doesn't last over 3 hours with wifi off and screen brightness at medium. The problem is the screen, and i know that if we don't use the screen too much, it takes many hours to discharge...but the point is that this device's basic feature, is...the screen and everything it shows! So, it's stupid IMO to just make a random playlist and never watch the screen again with this type of device...

(personally, i use the screen on every track change...)

[NSILMike]

Originally Posted by Zuniq

Any room for battery optimizations? I was the one who thought that battery performs quite well, but after some months of use, i would love to see some optimizations. Practically, our beautiful Zune HD doesn't last over 3 hours with wifi off and screen brightness at medium. The problem is the screen, and i know that if we don't use the screen too much, it takes many hours to discharge...but the point is that this device's basic feature, is...the screen and everything it shows! So, it's stupid IMO to just make a random playlist and never watch the screen again with this type of device...

(personally, i use the screen on every track change...)

You can't do that and expect battery life comparable to users who don't... there is no optimization for that! Or, you could say the optimization was to switch from LCD to OLED which provides a better view at lower power.

[Lookin Fancy]

Ok here is a list of the things i think are missing.

1) There should be a clock indicator that comes up when the media rocker button is pressed. Right now the only place the time is displayed is on the lock screen that has to be slid up.
2) How come the Facebook App has the "Keyboard Tilt" Ability but not the web browser? If I am using the ZuneHD's web browser while holding it in portrait mode, then i switch to landscape, the keyboard does not follow. I have to close the keyboard, and then re-open it after i tilt my ZuneHD.
3) I don't see why we can not change the background of the home screen. Or at least something similar, like visual themes, or something like that. Looking at white letters on top of a black screen does get tiring after a while.
4) An actual percentage of how much battery is left is ALOT better than just a visual icon.
5) A forward button on the browser. Every single developer knows that every decent web browser (even indecent ones) has a forward button. Sure it isn't used as much as the back button, but it is used.
6) The ability for the browser to save my user name and passwords on web sites. My home browsers do this, and I don't see why the Zune can't.
7) The browser needs tabs. I have a laptop from 1994 with only 96mb of ram, and it can run firefox with two or three tabs open, on windows 95, without any performance trouble.
8) It's cool how we can see our Xbox Live friends on the Social menu, but we can't do anything with it. I'm willing to bet that the Social choice on the main menu is the most unused item on every single ZuneHD. If we could send messages back and forth, or read our xbox live inbox from our Zune HD that would be great.
9) It would bee good if we could update album art, info and artist information on the device itself.


I disagree with the people that say there should be a search feature. I think that, no matter how many songs are on your HD, that going to Music > Songs and then tapping the letter and finding it alphabetically would actually be a lot quicker than typing anything in, and then hitting search. And thats all I can think of for now. If I remember anything, I'll update this.

[Zuniq]

Originally Posted by NSILMike

You can't do that and expect battery life comparable to users who don't... there is no optimization for that! Or, you could say the optimization was to switch from LCD to OLED which provides a better view at lower power.

No, i don't expect a comparable battery life to users who rarely use the screen (e.g. 12-15 hours), but i expect a logical battery life (about 6-8 hours with the use i have described)...

Its ironic for a product like this (with a touch screen and such a great UI), to have a battery that lasts almost 3-4 hours when you search for a new song or watching photos and reading the bio in every track change...its a big restriction for a product which was made for the absolute media experience with no physical controls and an advanced UI based on a touch screen...

There are so many functions inside Zune HD, but if we use them regularly, the battery becomes empty very very quickly..

It's not a big problem when you hear music as you go to work, in the bus, etc, but it's a problem when you are on a trip for many hours or somewhere with no plugs and usb ports...

[lem7]

Originally Posted by Lookin Fancy

I disagree with the people that say there should be a search feature. I think that, no matter how many songs are on your HD, that going to Music > Songs and then tapping the letter and finding it alphabetically would actually be a lot quicker than typing anything in, and then hitting search. And thats all I can think of for now. If I remember anything, I'll update this.

Maybe because your don't have a lot of song its is easy for you to find song easily... but for people with a lot of music like me searching for one song is torture on the zHD....

[NSILMike]

Originally Posted by Lookin Fancy

Ok here is a list of the things i think are missing.

1) There should be a clock indicator that comes up when the media rocker button is pressed. Right now the only place the time is displayed is on the lock screen that has to be slid up.
2) How come the Facebook App has the "Keyboard Tilt" Ability but not the web browser? If I am using the ZuneHD's web browser while holding it in portrait mode, then i switch to landscape, the keyboard does not follow. I have to close the keyboard, and then re-open it after i tilt my ZuneHD.
3) I don't see why we can not change the background of the home screen. Or at least something similar, like visual themes, or something like that. Looking at white letters on top of a black screen does get tiring after a while.
4) An actual percentage of how much battery is left is ALOT better than just a visual icon.
5) A forward button on the browser. Every single developer knows that every decent web browser (even indecent ones) has a forward button. Sure it isn't used as much as the back button, but it is used.
6) The ability for the browser to save my user name and passwords on web sites. My home browsers do this, and I don't see why the Zune can't.
7) The browser needs tabs. I have a laptop from 1994 with only 96mb of ram, and it can run firefox with two or three tabs open, on windows 95, without any performance trouble.
8) It's cool how we can see our Xbox Live friends on the Social menu, but we can't do anything with it. I'm willing to bet that the Social choice on the main menu is the most unused item on every single ZuneHD. If we could send messages back and forth, or read our xbox live inbox from our Zune HD that would be great.
9) It would bee good if we could update album art, info and artist information on the device itself.


I disagree with the people that say there should be a search feature. I think that, no matter how many songs are on your HD, that going to Music > Songs and then tapping the letter and finding it alphabetically would actually be a lot quicker than typing anything in, and then hitting search. And thats all I can think of for now. If I remember anything, I'll update this.

2) it has to be built in to the application apparently.
3) There are a ton of touch locations. On a busy background you wouldn't see many of them, especially the small faint text items such as the playlist on the now playing screen.
4) that could be done pretty easily. the problem is folks misinterpret it. for lithium batteries, the % remaining depends on your usage rate. I do not mean that if you play a video (screen lit up) vs. play music (screen asleep) that it will deplete faster... that is of course true. What I mean is that the actual remaining capacity that you can use is dependent on depletion rate. So, the estimates are all rough guesses since the device cannot know what you plan to do next.
6) my HD browser remembers sign on's!
7) tabs? the screen is small to begin with...I don't want forced tabs eating up even more. optional would be fine.

[Icky6]

Originally Posted by lem7

Maybe because your don't have a lot of song its is easy for you to find song easily... but for people with a lot of music like me searching for one song is torture on the zHD....

I agree, it's pretty cumbersome if you have say, a lot of songs that start with "H" (or G or I or whatever). Again, these are things that really should be addressed if they want to say the Zune HD is the ultimate media player.

[NSILMike]

Originally Posted by Zuniq

No, i don't expect a comparable battery life to users who rarely use the screen (e.g. 12-15 hours), but i expect a logical battery life (about 6-8 hours with the use i have described)...

Its ironic for a product like this (with a touch screen and such a great UI), to have a battery that lasts almost 3-4 hours when you search for a new song or watching photos and reading the bio in every track change...its a big restriction for a product which was made for the absolute media experience with no physical controls and an advanced UI based on a touch screen...

There are so many functions inside Zune HD, but if we use them regularly, the battery becomes empty very very quickly..

It's not a big problem when you hear music as you go to work, in the bus, etc, but it's a problem when you are on a trip for many hours or somewhere with no plugs and usb ports...

Then please explain the logic...

You may not know that the ARM core of the Tegra chip is highly energy efficient -which is why one of its primary popular uses is in cell phones- as is the OLED technology used in the screen (Lumens/watt is one of the biggest advantages of OLED vs. other technologies.)
It's OK to say you want longer battery life, but you cannot assume it's inefficient in your usage mode based on a completely unscientific comparison to some other usage mode... Battery life is even highly dependent on the codec (wma vs. mp3) and bit-rate!

[Icky6]

Your mom goes to college. Man these boards are slow lately.

[lem7]

Originally Posted by Icky6

Your mom goes to college. Man these boards are slow lately.

Thats because ABI combines all the app topics and everyone started making jokes on em... now theirs not that many things to talk about anymore... =(

[KingAvarice]

Originally Posted by Lookin Fancy

Ok here is a list of the things i think are missing.

1) There should be a clock indicator that comes up when the media rocker button is pressed. Right now the only place the time is displayed is on the lock screen that has to be slid up.
2) How come the Facebook App has the "Keyboard Tilt" Ability but not the web browser? If I am using the ZuneHD's web browser while holding it in portrait mode, then i switch to landscape, the keyboard does not follow. I have to close the keyboard, and then re-open it after i tilt my ZuneHD.
3) I don't see why we can not change the background of the home screen. Or at least something similar, like visual themes, or something like that. Looking at white letters on top of a black screen does get tiring after a while.
4) An actual percentage of how much battery is left is ALOT better than just a visual icon.
5) A forward button on the browser. Every single developer knows that every decent web browser (even indecent ones) has a forward button. Sure it isn't used as much as the back button, but it is used.
6) The ability for the browser to save my user name and passwords on web sites. My home browsers do this, and I don't see why the Zune can't.
7) The browser needs tabs. I have a laptop from 1994 with only 96mb of ram, and it can run firefox with two or three tabs open, on windows 95, without any performance trouble.
8) It's cool how we can see our Xbox Live friends on the Social menu, but we can't do anything with it. I'm willing to bet that the Social choice on the main menu is the most unused item on every single ZuneHD. If we could send messages back and forth, or read our xbox live inbox from our Zune HD that would be great.
9) It would bee good if we could update album art, info and artist information on the device itself.

1) Agreed.
2) It is very possible within the internet browser. I'm guessing it'll come with the next firmware update.
3) This is already possible, though in an indirect way. There's an OpenZDK app called Dive! that you can find on ZuneBoards. You put a background into a folder, deploy the app and then run the app and you'll have a background. With the background up, I don't think you can watch videos, but everything else works fine. Every time you restart your ZHD, the background will disappear and you'll need to rerun the app.
4) Possible. Not sure I care much.
5) Agreed.
6) If you don't clear your browsing history, most sites should already do this. Like for hotmail, after you log in, every time afterwards that you go to hotmail, it'll be already in inbox.
7) Tabs is possible. Not sure why we don't have them. At the poster afterwards regarding lack of space, what the iTouch does (I know we don't have to have exactly what the iTouch has; i'm just making a point..) is have a button, which allows you to swipe between tabs.
8) Don't care much
9) Cristoph is working on an app for that.

[lip]

Originally Posted by lem7

Maybe because your don't have a lot of song its is easy for you to find song easily... but for people with a lot of music like me searching for one song is torture on the zHD....

You really think it would be faster with the on screen keyboard?! I've got mine full basically and I still find it fine for finding music. The onscreen keyboard with this small screen is the definition of hell and I've got small fingers relatively speaking...

I think on the next gen, it will be integrated somewhat with wp7 and you will probably have a search by bing, similar to what search does in wp7 depending upon where you are in the menus it searches for different things...

[lip]

Originally Posted by lem7

Thats because ABI combines all the app topics and everyone started making jokes on em... now theirs not that many things to talk about anymore... =(

It's not a terrible sign either...the devices firmware generally works pretty well so you don't see a lot of people screaming of problems...
However, it's also not a great sign as MS is not updating the player with updates it needs to do (wifi issues, gapless with drm issues, etc...) and obviously there are not new apps for those who care.