Yes, you read the headline correctly. The Zune HD, which was recently rolled up and borged into the Windows Phone 7 brand, has received no less than nine new apps. We heard that the existing Zune games and apps would be ported to WP7, but perhaps during that process they decided to brush off a few that were still sitting in the box.

The new apps are mostly games, time wasters if I’m honest, and while I don’t think anyone will be going nuts about this particular app drop, it’s always nice when legacy hardware sees a little love.

If you’re a Zune HD owner (bless your heart), the new apps should show up and be loadable if you’ll just open up your Zune player. I know I’ll be downloading these — my Zune HD is still going strong, and I plan to make it last for at least a couple more years.

The trick is that Microsoft never intended the Zune HD’s XNA SDK to build productivity apps, but rather games. Because of this, the SDK lacked the necessary UI elemients such as lists, text entry fields and user controls. Matchbox Mobile had to develop those on their own.

Matchbox Mobile’s CEO, Simon Hamilton-Ritchie stated in the announcement, “Of all the developments that we have worked with Microsoft on, this was by far the most complex. But, in a market where it’s vital to continuously innovate, our technical excellence came into its own. Our internal development process enabled the entire development to be completed in just four months, including six weeks of beta testing.”

This new app seems to state that Microsoft isn’t done with the Zune platform just yet. Sure, the development is seemingly outsourced now, but it’s still being supported even as it nears its 2 year old birthday this coming September.

Not exactly unexpected; the Zune hardware hasn’t changed since mid-2009′s release of the Zune HD, although it has received several significant software upgrades. The writing has been on the wall for a long time, but whether Microsoft would double down (again) or cut their losses was far from clear.

Let’s just have a quick trip down memory lane. CrunchGear was one of the first in the world to see the Zune after a Microsoft employee unwisely (or perhaps wisely) left one on the table at a Seattle dive bar with bloggers around. We covered it feverishly, as it seemed to be a dark horse competitor to the iPod that might actually stand a chance. The unique (but cumbrous) sharing features, the brown shell (which, despite ridicule, was their most popular Zune), and the obtuse advertisements all suggested… well, something new and interesting.

Various updates brought us to today’s Zune HD and Zune software, both of which must be complimented for a truly original and effective interface. I still use the Zune HD and it still gets compliments. But sales were never what Microsoft hoped, perhaps because of Microsoft’s on-the-fence attitude about apps and additional functionality. While the iPod touch is plainly billed as an iPhone sans phone, the Zune was billed as being all about the music – except it was all about the cloud – except it had apps – except it didn’t have a clock – except it was in Windows Phone 7 – except it was in the Kin… and so on. It wasn’t a total albatross (it’s sold several million and the streaming service is well-liked) but that’s not much to throw in the face of the indomitable iPod.

It’s a sad story, one of many in which Microsoft is unable to find the right gun for a bullet. However, with the choice to integrate with WP7, and the imminent roll-out of WP7 via Nokia, the Zune service will probably live on, though almost certainly as part of a larger media and data cloud service (perhaps the “Ventura” project they’re hiring for). Their forward-thinking pioneership in streaming and subscription music (now reflected in cloud music services like Rdio and Spotify) are not forgotten, either. Zune DNA, and hardy DNA it is, will survive in the Metro interface and everywhere else thin, clipped sans-serif text is found.

One could say this was their plan all along, as part of their “three screens” wraparound service, but the fact is it’s been plan B all along, and now that the Zune has failed to dent Apple’s share from the media player side, they’re going to try a different tack. As for the player? No new hardware means the Zune HD is the last of its breed, though it will likely be sold for a while longer. Hell, at $179 I still think the 32GB version is a great deal. And now that you know there won’t be a Zune HD 2, the original is, in a way, future-proof.

So long, Zune. It’s been a long, brown trip.

Update: Zune’s hardware business development guy has commented, downplaying the report but pretty much confirming what we’ve written here, that the Zune as a discrete player and brand is being rolled into WP7.

The world needed the Zune. Hell, Apple needed the Zune. Microsoft better not kill off the Zune. Too bad it’s already as good as cooked. Bye bye, Zune. We’ll miss you.

As Mary-Jo Foley points out, Microsoft suits are seemingly avoiding using the platform’s name lately. It’s a bit strange seeing how the Zune brand is fairly important to Windows Phone 7. The mobile phone platform uses the Zune name for all things media. But it’s still odd that not only are Microsoft executives not talking about the brand, but also the absence of talk was noticed. Chances are if anything is changing, the brand will survive. It’s the physical media players that might get the pink slip. And that sucks.

The Zune launched as the anti-iPod. It was brown instead of white. You rented music instead of buying it. It was Microsoft’s attempt to think different. It worked. The Zune was a winner even if the sales numbers don’t agree. The Zune products kept up with the iPods in storage and specs for some time. Even the Zune HD countered the iPod touch nicely until Apple ultimately trumped Microsoft with the App Store — and then FaceTime.

The Zune products still stands as one of the best portable media players on the market. The Zune HD is a rock-solid device sold at a fair price. But it’s likely on its way out. Microsoft is moving forward hard with Windows Phone 7.

Zune products never sold all that well anyway. Microsoft was always in contention for the number two spot in the PMP race. Apple of course held a massive chunk of the market, but SanDisk, Rio, Samsung, Philips, Archos, and eventually Sony were fighting for second place. The Zune is about the only memorable device to stand strong against the iPod horde. It’s still number 13 on Amazon’s Bestselling MP3 player’s list. Only cheap SanDisk players separate it from the iPods.

It’s hard to imagine the Steve Jobs & Co. didn’t follow the Zune closely. The Zune Marketplace subscription comes to mind as Apple roles out a more modern version. But the hardware, the interface, the whole platform was on par with Apple’s when it debuted. Apple likely saw that its touch products needed something different and more storage wasn’t the key. It was the App Store, which is about the only reason currently to buy an iPod touch of a Zune HD. Apps later debuted on the Zune HD but some two years later, there’s still only a tiny fraction available.

The Kin’s death shows that Microsoft isn’t letting sub-par platforms survive. It’s make it big or hit the road now, and well, the Zune MP3 player is probably on the way out.

The Zune name will live on. It’s part of the Xbox 360 ecosystem. Windows Phone 7 uses the brand for locally-stored media. The name is important to Microsoft. The MP3 player isn’t. It’s still possible that the long-rumored Zune HD2 will surface (maybe at SXSW) and lead a valiant charge towards the iPod touch. But the timing feels off. Even Apple has slowed the progress of its large format media players and now with Nokia in Microsoft’s camp, smartphones will likely suck up all the dev juice.

Microsoft already split up the Zune team back in 2009. The majority went into the Interactive Entertainment Business division that also oversees the Xbox. A smaller chunk went with the WinMo 6.5 people. Whatever the future holds for the Zune, hopefully these people were at least internally recognized for their product. The Zune, and later the Zune HD, are fantastic. Too bad the same can’t be said about Windows Phone 7 yet.

The instructions are here; they’re quite straightforward, but be warned, this feature is not supported and may in fact be disabled for good reason. Back up your Zune on your PC before you try this!

This could be pretty handy, but it’s also worth noting that the Zune HD has pretty good on-device support for getting and removing music. I wouldn’t have a problem traveling with it and my Mac, even if I couldn’t sync it. Download music from the store, delete directly from the device.

[via Download Squad]

It’d make sense: several of the apps and improvements we’ve been seeing trickling out of WP7 development would work great on a Zune, though they might have to be slightly altered. Of course, Microsoft doesn’t always do what makes sense.

If they did it, they’d have to to it fast. The WP7 momentum will carry a couple months for other devices, and if they’re smart, they’ll aim for that. But if (as the rumors suggest) they’re looking at sometime in 2011, I’m afraid they’re going to have a lot more competition.

[via ZDNet]

Wal-Mart has the 16GB Zune HD available for $162.54 plus free shipping (and tax, if applicable). It usually retails for $199, so you’re saving quite a bit. Well, provided you were in the market for a Zune HD to begin with. Incidentally, that’s where I bought my Zune HD from, the local Wal-Mart. Fascinating, yes.

Potentially huge news for Zune HD owners—that means Devin and I. It has been hacked~! Yes, the good folks over at ZuneBoards have hacked the Zune HD to pieces, giving homebrew developers full access to the hardware, access that otherwise lay behind the XNA development kit. The Zune HD isn’t too shabby, so I fully expect to see ports of popular emulators like FCEUX in no time at all.

Homebrew developers will be able to use the OpenZDK to create their wares. Seeing as though it just went live, there’s nothing available right now, but it’s only a matter of time till people start making fun little applications for Microsoft’s reasonably popular portable media player.

Something I’d like to request: can someone hook up a FLAC player? It doesn’t even have to use the fancy Zune HD UI, just something to play these files I have here.

If I’m not playing Super Mario Bros. on this thing before summertime I will be very disappointed.

Great news, everyone! I just upgraded my Zune HD‘s firmware to the latest and greatest version, version 4.5, and I’m here to report that everything went smoothly… mostly. I probably shouldn’t have used the word “everything,” then. I can now play Xvid videos just fine, having tested an old SummerSlam 2001 DVD rip that I had in my Zune video folder. (Why I have old WWE DVD rips on my hard drive is a matter for another day.) So no problems whatsoever in that regard.

Smart DJ, on the other hand, seems just OK. You touch the little icon and off the Zune goes, trying to find similar artists and genres based on your current artist selection. The thing is, the results are sorta lackluster. Like, I’ll activate Smart DJ when looking at Pearl Jam, and it’ll throw back other songs from the same album, or merely other Pearl Jam songs from different albums. Same thing goes with Jay-Z. I thought the point was new music discovery? Or, even more weird (but in a different way), I’ll activate Smart DJ while looking at Ladytron and it’ll create a playlist including Wu-Tang Clan. What do Ladytron and Wu-Tang have in common? Unless I missed some sort of experimental phase of the Wu-Tang Clan, I’m gonna say they don’t have very much in common!

It’s not always like that—I’ll pick Yeah Yeah Yeahs and it’ll make a playlist including Phoenix. That at least makes sense—it’s all indie rock nonsense.

Presumably Smart DJ improves the more music you have on your Zune HD, and since I only have a 16GB version… Good thing there’s a 64GB version!

So, video playback works splendidly, but Smart DJ is a little iffy.

The feature I’d like to see most, especially if Microsoft is pushing the Zune HD as a “higher end” media player? FLAC playback. Surely if the Zune HD can handle Xvid playback it can handle FLAC playback, right?

Update I probably should have mentioned that I don’t have Zune Pass. I would imagine Smart DJ would work quite a bit better if it’s able to tap into the Zune Marketplace rather than merely a local library. I can only test what I have, so if anyone out there in Radio Land has Zune Pass be sure to let us know how you find Smart DJ. To be honest, I primarily use my Zune HD to listen to podcasts on the train, so Smart DJ is wasted on people like me. Still, it’s filled to the brim with music (I only keep the most recent podcast on there at all time, out of say five podcasts) and that’s how it worked for me. Your results may vary, etc.

This new device will run the 4.5 firmware.

In addition to introducing the new 64GB capacity, we are also reducing the prices of the 16GB and 32GB devices. Starting today, new price lists are being distributed bringing the estimated retail price (ERP) for the Zune 16GB device to $199.99 and the Zune HD 32GB device to $269.99.

With its OLED multi-touch screen, built-in HD radio, HD video out capabilities and Internet browser, Zune HD is a full-function media player which has received accolades from press and consumers. We’ve also announced details of an upcoming firmware update which will add even more features to the device, such as Smart DJ auto-playlists capability directly on the Zune HD, ability to browse, stream and acquire music from Zune Marketplace on your TV (while the device is connected to a TV set through the A/V dock) and expanded codec support allowing users to play more video formats natively from the device.

You can pick it up here.

The Zune HD has seen modest price drops the last few weeks with the Zune HD 32 now available at the ever important $199 price point. With a lite dose of speculation, it now all makes sense seeing as there is clearly a Zune HD 64 launching in the near future.

The Zune itself is going through a re-marketing phase now that Microsoft has another portable media solution in Windows Phone 7. It’s set to be the underacheiving older brother when the wunderkind WinPhone7 breaks cover and so it needs something to set itself apart from in the crowded PMP world. It seems like that’s initially going to be storage capacity with 64GB as the new top-tier.

Of course it’s only a matter of time before others out 64GB media players, too. But for the time being, the Zune HD 64 is king even though it’s not official nor do we know anything about it. [Zune via Engadget]

But all the Zune device does is copy the artist and song directly from the digital FM stream, and then search for it in the Zune store if an internet connection is available, right? This is an ability several devices have, including the iPod Nano, though certainly all their methods differ slightly.

But who knows? Maybe this guy has a point and his patent does include this stuff. If that’s the case, then may justice be done. I’m more skeptical of his claim that he pitched Microsoft with the idea in 2006; he claims to have emailed them, and includes some of the text — half of it is in ALL CAPS. I have a feeling Microsoft tends to ignore ALL CAPS emails.

What’s the likely outcome? Man, I don’t know! I’m not a lawyer!

The 32GB is now a clean $199 with the 16GB now fetching $140. You don’t need a coupon code, secret pass or anything. These prices are for everyone and might signal an official Micrsoft price cut is coming soon. Google Shopping still pegs the Zune HD 32GB at $240 everywhere else so we really don’t know what’s going on with Dell. Maybe it’s a mistake, maybe it isn’t. But $199 is the price point that the Zune HD 32GB needs to be at in order to have a fighting chance against the iPod touch.

Update: if you’re having issues with the app not pulling info from Facebook, Microsoft has this to say:

After launching the Facebook application for the Zune HD, we discovered a technical issue related to the API calls to Facebook which does not allow Zune users to view News Feed. The Facebook and Microsoft engineering teams are working together and hope to have a solution in the coming days

I don’t know how major apps like this launch without somebody maybe installing it on a random Zune HD and seeing if it works with someone’s Facebook account who isn’t on the Zune team.

Right now the Black 16GB Zune HD is going for $189, which is $30 off the MSRP. The big boy 32GB Platinum Zune HD however is now only $249. That’s a cool $40 bucks off. Hopefully the price cuts will become permanent shortly. The Zune HD deserves to be in the hands of more people. It’s that good.

[thanks for the tip, Nate]

Amazon, Newegg

Update: The app no longer censors tweets. Good, because that was the most ridiculous thing ever.

Oh now this is exciting. Microsoft released a Twitter application for the Zune HD a few moments ago, and I’ve been tasked with testing it out for your edification. Spoiler: it works, it’s buggy, and I can’t see the sense in using it.

Installation was not easy. Oh, sure, loading up the Zune software and navigating to the appropriate section was simple enough, and syncing the application was as expected, but my Zune HD wouldn’t connect to the Internet for whatever reason. An error message popped up saying “Disconnect your Zune HD from the computer before trying to connect to a wireless network.” To that effect, at least. (Strike one.)

Well, Mr. Zune software, I’m holding the device in one hand and the USB cable in another. The Zune, in fact, is disconnected from my PC. This is not how to get on my good side, especially as I was interrupted watching Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk I to test you out.

Moving on.

Once the Zune HD stopped freaking out, I was greeted by a simple username and password screen. You log in there.

Up top there’s four icons: a little man which gives you your timeline; an @ symbol that threw up the error “Oops, something went wrong. We can’t load this data due to an external error. Please try again shortly.” (Strike two.) It loads all the tweets that mention your name; a heart icon that I don’t know what it does because it says “Unfortunately, there is nothing to display here.” (Strike three.); and then a mail icon for all your DMs.

Along the bottom there’s icons for writing a tweet, searching tweets, and for fiddling with the application’s settings.

Let’s see what happens when I try to send a tweet.

Well, the tweet went out, but once again I ran into the “external error” happened. (Strike four.) (External to what, by the way?)

On twitter.com, all my tweets read “from Zune HD,” which links to zune.net.

Usability: limited. I can’t type for beans using the Zune HD’s onscreen display, but that could well be a function of me exclusively using the device as a music player and I’m not used to it. T9 tries to help you out but it can only help so much.

I don’t understand the point of the app either, other than to say, “See, we have a Twitter app!” But since the Zune HD only connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi, how is it any more useful to use the clearly glitch Zune app to tweet when you can, I don’t know, use a real computer or one of those iPhone or BlackBerry or Android apps? It doesn’t make any sense to me.

Oh, and it censors tweets. (The tweet in the main photo up there is supposed to read: Bret Hart is coming back to WWE according to dave meltzer fuck yes!) No bad words to be found on the app, and there’s no setting to uncensor tweets. Why? How many little kids use Twitter (on a Zune HD, no less) that Microsoft had to go out of its way to censor tweets? Dumb.

In conclusion: it’s buggy and there are far more practical ways of accessing Twitter.