Planning on buying a Zune by the end of the year?
A few weeks ago the media were predicting the death of Microsoft's Zune portable media player based on the fact that the software wasn't yet Vista compatible. Forget about the fact that Vista was two months away for home users at the time, this fact alone was going to bring the skies crashing down on the Zune (it's odd though that the journalists who kicked off about this didn't have anything to say about the fact that Microsoft didn't have compatible versions of IntelliPoint and IntelliType available at that time either, both drivers that had greater significance for business users).
[poll id=57]Anyway, Microsoft have now released Vista compatible software for the Zune (only Vista RTM is supported, not release candidate versions). If you're a Zune user on Vista you can download the package from Zune.net or Microsoft.com. It's also available via Microsoft Update. This update contains both updated software and firmware, both version 1.2 (build 434).
However, it seems that not everyone is having a happy time with this update. Ryan Block of the Engadget team mentioned having problems, as have a number of people who have commented on the post. The good news is that cancelling the update doesn't seem to brick the Zune. It doesn't seem like a widespread problem, but it is something worth being aware of.