With Microsoft Windows Phone 7 now on the market, many users are discovering the Zune music and video experience on their desktop as well. Windows Phone 7 integrates your Xbox and Zune account together on your phone using a single Live ID account. But many customers are trying to make their Live ID’s the same on both the Xbox and the Zune Desktop. But from the Zune desktop you can’t chance you Live ID.  However……

Why!!

Now why do you want to change the Windows Live ID with your Zune account.

The reason I will do this  is because I want my children to have the benefit of all the functionalities that Windows Phone 7 has to offer without draining my bank account. If I have to get the Zune Pass for me and both my children that will be a total of $48 a month. I own my children’s phones and pay their bills. This way I am in control of what they can use their Windows Phone 7 for and make a wise family choice which apps movies and music to purchase. For that same reason I have my children use my Xbox Live Gold account for the one $59.99 a year instead of $180 a year. In my situation I am saving the family over $500 a year in subscriptions and even more since we don’t have to duplicate previous purchases. Now if I could add a 4th device for my wife we can really be a total Windows Phone 7 family. (for the Apps in the Marketplace you can actually have 5 devices using the same Windows Live ID, but for the Zune Pass only 3 ).

Microsoft really should get Family plans going for the Zune Pass and Xbox Live Gold accounts. With iTunes I can connect unlimited devices and have my family enjoy the apps and music we all bought on one account.

The Zune account let’s you connect up to 3  mobile devices. If you have more then one device in your family you can for example connect multiple Zune’s and or Windows Phone 7′s, then use the same credits, memberships, previous purchases and payment information.

A Warning!! Using this new Live ID for the purpose described above will let your family members on their Windows Phone 7 see the same Contacts, Mail, Calendar and SkyDrive items associated with this account as well as your possible Xbox Live account.  A separate Live account (Your Old One) can be added. More info later.
Tip: Leave this account as empty as possible and just use it for the purpose described earlier. An extra great use of this new Windows Live ID is to use this calendar as your shared family calendar and I will be able to manage the phones in one dashboard on the devices dashboard page. (Map it, Ring it, Lock it and Erase it)

How to change Windows Live ID without losing your credits and memberships.

The Zune desktop let’s you sign in with a different Live ID account but you will lose all your credits and memberships. Most users have their Xbox account and Zune account already linked and are using the same Gamer Tag/ Zune Tag.

The Zune account won’t let you switch your account to a new Live ID, but the Xbox does !!

If you don’t have a new  Windows Live ID to change it to you need to create one at www.live.com. Using the same first name and last name in your account will benefit you later on, when you have to re-set-up your Windows Phone 7. We will get to this later.

If you don’t have a Xbox you need to create a free Xbox live profile on a friends Xbox with your current (old)  Live ID on your Zune account. This action will sync your user tags and your Microsoft points and Zune memberships.

Now on the Xbox you can log in onto your profile with the following steps.:

1. My Xbox
2. Select your Profile
3. Connect to Xbox Live
4. Manage Account
5. Windows Live ID
6. Change Windows Live ID
7. Select “Yes I do”
8. Enter the password of your old Windows Live ID
9. Enter your new Windows Live ID and password.
10. Now all your Xbox and Zune credits/memberships will be transferred for free to this new Windows Live ID account.
11. On your desktop make sure you log out of f from old Windows Live ID account and sign in with your new Windows Live ID.
12. Now you can see all your Credits, Memberships and Payment information are transferred over when you click on the  ”Settings” right next to your avatar on the top of your screen.
13. In your inbox you should even have a confirmation that your Points transfer from you account was successful.

Extra Set Up for Windows Phone 7 users.

If you already had set up your Windows Phone 7 with your old Live ID account you need to unfortunately do a hard reset on your Windows Phone 7 using the following steps:

1. Home Screen
2. Settings
3. About
4. “Reset your Phone”
5. In the initial set up now use your new Windows Live ID information
6. Now your Windows Phone 7 will be associated again with your Xbox and Zune account.
7. You can add your old Windows Live ID in the accounts set-up in which you will get your “Me”  Tile back. Only if you used the same first and last name in your old and new Windows Live ID.  Now you can select as well which information (Contacts, Calendar, Email) you want to sync from your old Windows Live ID. Unfortunately this is not possible with the new Windows Live ID account which was used during the initial set-up. The initial ID used with the set-up will sync all information.

Previous how to’s for Windows Phone 7

• How to quickly Search People in Windows Phone 7 Peolpe Hub
• How To Change your Picture Tile Image and Picture Hub background on your Windows Phone 7
• How to access Marketplace for Windows Phone 7 (or Zune HD) from outside the USA
• How to add (Windows Phone Radio) podcast to your Zune HD or Windows Phone 7 !

In this article I will outline step-by-step how to add a podcast, like the Windows Phone Radio podcast, to your Windows Phone 7 device or Zune.  In this tutorial I will add the Windows Phone Radio podcast to the Zune software and let the weekly episodes automatically sync with my Zune HD.

“Each week, since October 1st 2010, Matt Akers (@skipdeez) and Brian Seitz (@brianseitz) will record and release a new podcast episode featuring behind the scenes information and conversation with key personalities inside Microsoft and our partner friends, regarding Windows Phone !”

Podcasts in Zune Marketplace

Last week I shared a closer look at Zune software 4.7, that included features for Windows Phone 7. Each Windows Phone 7 device is effectively a Zune mediaplayer (with comparable software onboard like the Zune HD).

The screenshot above shows you an overview of the Zune Marketplace, with the section podcasts on the second row from the navigation “breadcrumbs”. You can purchase and download podcasts from this section from the Zune Marketplace or use your ZunePass.

On the left you can see the different genres to easily navigate through the database with podcasts ! On the upper right you can see the search box, which simply allows you to search for a podcast or podcast series. On the bottom right you can see the most subscribed to podcasts.

There are two ways to add your favorite podcasts to the Zune software and sync these to Windows Phone 7 or Zune HD !

Add a favorite podcast to your Zune collection manually

The first option to add your favorite podcast is manually adding it to the Zune software. You navigate to collection in the upper navigation bar and select podcasts from the navigation bar below (collection – podcasts).

You can see the text “You have no podcasts in your collection” and just below the text ”add a favorite podcast” which you need to click !

A subscribe pop-up window opens, with a field where you need to enter the URL of the podcast series. The screenshot above shows this step with the URL of the Windows Phone Radio series entered:

• http://wpradio.podcast.windowsphone7.com/rss

Unfortunately some podcasts only seem to be available through iTunes. Tom Verhoeff, Student CS @ TU Delft, Microsoft Student Partner, has written an article on his blog about subscribing to iTunes podcasts in the Zune software. The same option of manually adding a podcast is used in this article !

Search for podcasts in Zune Marketplace

The second option to add your favorite podcast is to search for it from the search box in the upper right corner of the Zune software. The screenshot above shows the results of the search query “Windows Phone Radio”.

When you hit the search button the Zune software will both search through your collection as well as in the Zune Marketplace.

The search option is probably the easiest way to add a podcast, but as you could read above it is sometimes a necessity to add the podcasts manually !

The screenshot above shows the added Windows Phone Radio podcast series. On the left you can see the podcast series listed, and when you are subscribed to more series you will see those here.

In the screenshot I have selected the Windows Phone Radio podcast series, while you can see the episodes in the middle main-part of the Zune software. Episode 4, 3, and 2 are being downloaded. Remark the red progress bars !

Furthermore you can read the details of the podcast series in the right column. In the screenshot above you can read some background information and details about the Windows Phone Radio podcast series.

The screenshot above shows the  Windows Phone Radio podcast series, with Episode 2, 3, and 4 downloaded to my collection. However you might ask yourself why is episode 1 not downloaded, given the download-button behind the episode.

On the bottom of the right column you can see two buttons: (1) unsubscribe, and (2) series settings.

Podcast series settings - Set your playback and sync preferences !

The screenshot above shows you the series settings window of the Windows Phone Radio series. The first heading is called episodes, and the slider controls the number of episodes that are downloaded to the collection. You can see “keep 3 episodes of this podcasts“.

The second heading is labeled playback order, where you can choose between the newest episode first or the oldest episode first. The third heading allows you to configure the syncing options. Sync all unplayed and partially played episodes is selected here.

Overall thoughts and wrap-up

I hope that this how to tutorial provides insights in the different ways to add podcasts to your Windows Phone 7 device or Zune HD mediaplayer. While the search option is the easiest way, it is sometimes inevitable to add the URL of the podcast manually. Remark the article of Tom Verhoeff, Student CS @ TU Delft, Microsoft Student Partner.

Enjoy your favorite podcasts on the go !

I was fortunate to receive a Zune HD during the Mobius Conference a few weeks ago, so I was able to have a close look at the applications for the Zune HD.

Last week I noticed that the Microsoft Zune Team announced a new Twitter application in the marketplace for the Zune HD. In this article I will have a walk through of the latest Twitter client for the Zune HD.

The screenshot below shows you an overview of the Zune Marketplace section in the Zune software on my Windows 7 powered Lenovo X60 tablet.

Zune Marketplace on Windows Desktop

As you can see there is an overview of applications for the Zune HD in the Zune Marketplace on your Windows desktop. However you can see that the Zune Marketplace also consists of “picks” , “music”, “videos” “podcasts” and a “channels” section. However let’s focus on the apps for Zune HD, and remark the categories on the left side of the screenshot “games” and “other”.

In addition you can clearly see in the screenshot that the Twitter client for Zune HD is on the number one spot on the overview page of the apps for Zune HD section. When you click on the Twitter graphic, the product page of the Twitter client for Zune HD is opened. The screenshot below gives you an idea of this product page.

I would like to highlight a few points in the screenshot above. At first you see the title of the application pretty big on the first line, while just below that you can see the version number, the application type and copyright information. Furthermore you can see a button where you can download the application for Zune HD to your Windows Desktop, and below the button you will find a short application description. Finally you can see an overview with 5 screenshots, that give you an idea about how Twitter for Zune HD looks like.

Remarkable is the version number 1.1 , because within a day the Microsoft Zune team released an upgrade to address an issue with the Twitter client:

“The recently released Twitter for Zune HD application has been abbreviating some explicit words in tweets when viewed on the device; however these explicit words do appear in their full text on the Twitter site or on any other Twitter client. We have identified the issue and are taking steps to update the application as soon as possible to ensure Twitter for Zune HD users are able to view tweets in their original state.” – Microsoft spokesperson

Jason Dunn, Windows Mobile MVP and Editor in Chief of Thoughts Media has written an excellent article on ZuneThoughts “The Zune HD Twitter App & Curse Words“, which outlines the issue with curse words and looks at it from different interesting perspectives.

Twitter Client on Zune HD

Allright let’s start quickly with the application overview of the Twitter client for Zune HD. In the right picture above you see the mainscreen of th Zune HD, and at the bottom you can see the apps menu-item. If you tap on this item, a list of installed applications is shown, and I scroll down till I see the Twitter application. This is shown in the right picture, and by tapping on the Twitter text an about screen is opened with some basic information about the application. If you tap on the Twitter graphic the Twitter application starts.

When the Twitter application starts and the Wi-Fi radio on the Zune HD is turned off, you will get a “pop-up”  to turn on Wi-Fi while you see the connecting process to the accesspoint of -in my example- the home network. In the left picture you see the start screen, where you need to fill in the account credentials, while an onscreen keyboard slides up when you tap on a textbox.

I must admit the onscreen keyboard works pretty accurate, despite the fact that the width is relative small (in comparison with the HTC HD2 for example). However if you practice a little you easily get used to the onscreen keyboard of the Twitter application.

In the right picture you see the Twitter client in action. In the top row just below the Twitter logo you see 4 tabs and in the picture the first tab is selected: “Friends Timeline“. Probably most of you are familiar with Twitter clients so you see the other tabs consist of “Mentions”, “Favourites” and “Direct Messages”.

Just below this top row with icons you see another row, which shows the text “Timeline” in dark capitals. In light grey characters you see the text “Following” and with a swype you can easily switch to the next screens “Following” and “Followers“. Dependant of the selection in the top row the commands in the bar are different. For example in the case of the Direct Messages you can switch between the “Inbox” and “Sent” items.

Furthermore you see a “refresh” button to refresh the timeline manually, while below you can see a number of tweets in the timeline. At the bottom you can finally see a toolbar with 4 circular buttons:

1. Back button;
2. Create tweet or DM;
3. Search Twitter;
4. Settings;

The left picture above shows the screen where you can write a tweet or direct message and as you can see the main program layout is still active (two top rows and the toolbar at the bottom). Just above the text box you can see two additional circular buttons. The left one opens a list with followers, alphabetically ordered, so you can select one or more to @reply to them. The right button can be used to add the title of the song and artist currently playing on the Zune HD to a tweet or direct message. As you can see in the left picture the track Alive from Pearl Jam was playing on my Zune HD.

The right picture above shows the screen when I tap on the search button in the bottom toolbar. It simply opens a search box via which you can search on Twitter. Again the onscreen keyboard slides up as soon as you tap on the search box. Finally the settings screen just shows your Twitter-name, the number of followers and the number of following, while you can furthermore view the terms on the Twitter website.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkLiCwxGIGE

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

For an excellent summarizing overview I would like to highly recommend the article  “Video walk through the Zune HD Twitter app” from Matthew Miller, Editor of the Mobile Gadgeteer blog on ZDNet.

At first I would like to remark that the Zune HD is a great lightweight and very functional multimediaplayer, like you can see on the main menu in one of the pictures above. By adding applications or games on the Zune HD you can even increase the functionality. Personally I haven’t added much games, but loaded the Calculator application and the MSN Weather application on the Zune HD.

The Twitter client is another great extension, which is easy to use and easy to navigate. Furthermore I’m impressed with the accuracy and usability of the onscreen keyboard. Almost all the basic functionality you want in a Twitter client is there, yes almost.

At first I was searching for the hashtag #, and thanks to Matthew Miller this is a little hidden in the keyboard structure (“123″ and “shift”). Personally I do miss the ability to retweet in this Twitter client for Zune HD, and I truly hope that the Microsoft Zune Team will include this in the next version of this application.

On the other hand I would like to compliment the Zune Team for working hard on the problem as outlined in the “The Zune HD Twitter App & Curse Words” article on ZuneThoughts.com and releasing an application update in a very short timeframe !! Furthermore it is really cool, to easily include the currently playing song in a tweet you sent from your Zune HD.

Overall the Zune HD is an awesome multimediaplayer which is incredibly powerful and functional. With applications like the Twitter client it becomes possible to keep track of your social network as well. I hope to see the great Facebook application for Windows Mobile become available in a Zune HD variant as well !!

Microsoft just launched their new Zune HDina 16Gb and 32Gb version. I was lucky to get my hands on it for a day and play with for a while.

I really, and I mean really like the OLED screen. The colors are vibrant and the image is so clear. The interface is so easy that you definitely don’t need a manual to figure it all out. To take full advantage of the possibilities of the Zune HD you have to pair with your Zune account. This happens when you connect your Zune with the Zune 4.0 desktop software.

The Zune HD has added functionalities compared to the original Zune, like HD Radio and…..yes Apps. With the Microsoft Marketplace now available for applications on the Zune (and soon for Windows Phones as well), The Zune will become a more functional device.  However you need to wear your earphones to get the full experience in apps/games on the Zune because it is missing an external speaker.

Below is a short video of my un-box first impressions of the Zune HD:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAs0gZSwcB4

Other great friends have their great impressions and reviews. Make sure to visit them to get even more information.

• zunethoughts.com – Many articles about the Zune HD and Zune 4.0 desktop software.
• gotzune.com – Many articles about the Zune HD and Zune 4.0 desktop software.
• anythingbutipod.com – The internal organs of the Zune HD