Hmm. Looks like Zune is still feeling the love from Microsoft. In a few days they will be releasing a slew of new features for the Zune. New software updates that will be pushed to ALL Zunes. Even the original 30GB ones.

That’s how you take care of a customer. No forced hardware upgrades. Love all the hardware, even the old stuff.

Briefly here are the 3 notable in my eyes feature upgrades.

1. "Buy from FM" - This will allow you to buy music you hear on the FM radio in the Zune. When you hear a song you like, you will be able to tag the song for purchase/download. This works on the RDS Features of most radio stations. The radio stations actually broadcast the song title info artist info etc over the air. If you have a newer car with RDS you may have noticed that the artist is displayed and wondered how'd they do that? Well that’s how. When you hear a song you tag it, and it'll go into a queue to be purchased/downloaded when you sync. Very cool, but it gets better. If you have a live wifi connection, the Zune will go and download it for you right then and there. A lot like the record feature on my Pioneer Inno portable XM player. It's fundamentally different, but works the same. "I like that song", hit button, keep song.

2. Market Place directly available on the Zune - Instead of having to use the Zune software to access and buy tracks from the market place, you'll be able to do it directly from your Zune. Search Functionality, Top Lists, etc. No PC required for downloading new content from the market place. The previous feature plus this feature combined with a $15 a month all you can eat subscription means you have a new level of control over your music.

3. Games - There has been Zune games floating around for a few months or so already. The thing is those weren't official. This is. So now there should be downloadable games available in the market place which you can download anytime without a computer. Personally that’s one of my favorite things about my cell phone. I need something, I download it directly without the need for a PC. That same functionality in the Zune how can you go wrong.

It's my understanding that there are a lot of updated social functions too, but since I am the only person I know with a Zune those mean little to me. I'm just jazzed that the Wi-Fi hardware is starting to get some serious love. The only thing left with to use it for is surfing. That’s not mentioned and probably isn't in the cards, but that would be cool. If only for checking email, or the occasional YouTube video.

Now I don't personally need either of those things. My Helio ocean has me totally covered with respect to connectivity for email, surfing (with opera mini 4), text messaging, YouTube (with a custom player designed for the phone), and actually talking. So I don't need any of those on my Zune.

I'm not saying don't do it Microsoft, Do it by all means. I'm just saying I can get by without. Others who don't have such connected phones would love it I'm sure. All I really need now after those additions is an alarm clock function. I don't need the clock on the screen, but it would be nice to be able to use it like an alarm clock while I have it docked.