Apps on the Zune HD?
A blogger for the Seattle Times wrote a brief comment on what he saw at at Zune HD demo recently, and the most interesting part of his comment is his reference to Apps on the new device. Apparently, he saw “Apps” on the main menu screen of the demo unit, and the Zune demonstrator mentioned that Microsoft wasn’t ready to discuss the possibility of Zune applications or app developers.
This is extremely intriguing, since most people want games and cool apps for their mobile devices. Since the iPod Touch has such apps and games, it only makes sense for Microsoft to follow suit. From what I’ve read, you can create apps for the existing Zune models now, however, these apps are made via a gaming programming language and are not the easiest to create. In fact, it’s down right hard to create a Zune app now since you have to jump through a lot of hoops and hacks to do so.
Hopefully, Microsoft will have a easier way of creating Zune apps and will provide good documentation to potential developers. I’m not entirely sure what the Zune OS is based on (i.e., is it a derivative 0f WinCE, Linux, etc?) but I hope app development is easier than for the Windows Mobile OS devices (Pocket PC and Smartphones). I’m currently working on writing an app for the Palm Pre WebOS device (Linux OS) and it is surprising easy to create apps (I plan to discuss more about this on my tech blog), however, the WebOS programming tools aren’t very mature and there’s lots of holes and lack of capability currently. Hopefully, Microsoft will make programming for the Zune HD much easier.
Video Attributes Application
When converting video files to MP4 or WMV format for the Zune, it’s often helpful to know certain facts about your source video. Information such as frames per second (fps), video codec, audio bit rate, screen resolution, etc. are important for setting the parameters in your video conversion software. For example, if you convert a video file using a setting of 29 fps but the video source is at 24 fps, your audio may slowly become out-of-sync with your video. So, it’s important to identify information such as frame rate when doing video conversions.
Normally, I recommend the freeware program called GSpot which can open most video files and display relevant information about them. However, GSpot is a bit overkill for some, as it displays lots and lots of information (maybe too much at times). To simplify matters, I decided to brush up on my Visual Basic programming and create a basic application called zVideo which displays pertinent video/audio information for a source video file.
You can download my application from this link. My simple application basically runs the program called FFMPEG and parses through the output from that program to get the relevant video/audio information. It then displays this information in a dialog box window. You can also activate an option for it to display the optimum screen resolution dimensions that you can use for your video conversions (if the video source resolution is larger than 320 by 240).
To use this application, download the zVideo.zip file and unzip the contents in a folder on your Windows system. Then, double-click on the zVideo.exe application icon. Note, that you need to have the file called FFMPEG.exe located in the same folder as the zVideo.exe file. Sorry that I don’t have a slick installer application to load this software.
Now, this program doesn’t do any actual conversion. It only shows the attributes of a selected video file.
Have fun with my simple application, and let me know if you find any bugs or have any issues.
Applications for your Zune
With the recent release of the XNA SDK for game development, a lot of resourceful people have already started creating applications (not games) for the Zune. This link on GotZune.com shows three such applications (e.g., clock, calculator, and calendar). With this capability, a developer could create whatever application they wanted so long as it stays within the boundaries of what is available for game programming. Wouldn’t it be cool to have your MS-Outlook calendar and contacts synced to your Zune? What about having the ability to use a WiFi connection at a local coffee shop to check emails, or web browse? Of course, this is assuming the XNA SDK would allow for such access to the device’s WiFi and other system functions. Also, you’re limited to what you can input using a touchpad control and a few buttons. I’m sure some clever and resourceful developers will come up with some interesting applications for the Zune!
Currently, the only major limitation is installing such applications on your Zune. So far as I can tell, you need to install the Visual Studio C# Express development software on your PC to make a connection to your Zune to upload the applications. This is still a bit too techie for most people, so I don’t think a lot of Zune owners will be installing applications. But then again, a clever developer could probably create an simple installer application to circumvent this issue.
So, stand back and wait for the flood of cool apps soon to be coming our way for the Zunes!
