zune audiobooks

Now that my Zune is back on it’s feet, I wasted no time to update it’s content. First, I loaded two new games (Alien Games and Name That Song) in addition to the existing ones (Hexic and Texas Hold’em). There are a lot of available apps and games for Zune already considering that the XNA Platform is still in Beta. However, most of them are not yet ready for primetime. Most of their UI are poorly implemented.

Next is I enabled the “Audio Books” feature of my Zune. An audiobook is basically a recorded audio version of a book, usually read by the author or somebody else.  This is really cool since I’m a heavy podcast listener/watcher. Enabling this feature for Zune is relatively easy. First, you need to download and install an Audiobook Manager. Currently, Zune supports only two of them, audible.com and overdrive.com. In this guide, I’ll be using audible.com’s audio book manager. During the installation, the manager will prompt you to choose a device from the pull down menu, choose Zune and click Ok. The installer will download the necessary files so that your Audible Manager recognizes your device.

Attach your Zune via USB cable. Once connected, your Zune’s screen should flash “connected” as if is connected on the Zune Software.

At this point you need an audible.com account to activate your Zune on the Audible Manager. You can get one for free here.

Once you have your audible.com account, Right click the “Microsoft Zune” icon on the lower left panel of your Audible manager and choose “Activate”. You will be asked for your audible.com’s account credential, supply as necessary.

That’s it! You’re Zune can now load audio books. Here’s a free audio book from Zune.net , “Black River” by Dean Koontz. The Audible Manager should open the link and download the file for you. Once it’s done, it should automatically synch the file to you device.

zune fixed!

Ok, I’ll admit, I had trouble connecting my Zune 80 to my Desktop PC (with Windows Vista SP1) for almost 2 weeks (I know that’s quite a long time). The problem is every time I try to connect my device, Vista is able to detect it, however, installing its driver fails.

I scoured the Internet just to find a solution, I’ve been to forums, tech sites with no success. I tried so many things like rebuilding my INFCACHE.1, Manually installing the drivers, completely wiping out the Zune software  and even resetting my Zune device but my PC is still unable to recognize my Zune. I suspected that it’s connected with my USB drivers because I had the same problem with my USB devices. Rebuilding the INFCACHE.1 did fixed this problem however but not with my Zune. Until I found this really, really weird solution from http://www.technologyquestions.com from a forum user named Davis (Thanks man!). I’m pasting his solution here since the forum thread is really long.

Hey all,

I realise this is an older thread, but I found a solution after several hours searching the net.

I am currently running Vista Home Premium, 2GB Ram, etc…

I was unable to use USB Flash Drives, as when vista tried to install the drivers, it would come up with an error similar to: cannot find the file specified.

To fix this and install the drivers, I had to do the following:

1. Open Windows Explorer, then go to the following address line: C:\Windows\inf\setupapi.dev.log…double click
2. This should open up Notepad..or equivelant.
3. Go to the bottom of the log and press Ctrl + F, and search upward for ‘cannot find the file specified’
4. I few lines above that you should see ‘SourceFile – [FileName]‘ and just above that ‘SourcePath – [Path]. You will find that if you go to that path, the specified file will not be there.
5. If you then go to C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\ and find the specified file…copy it and paste into C:\Windows\inf
6. When you try to install the drivers again, (using device manager -> reinstall drivers) direct the wizard to C:\Windows\inf and make sure ‘include subfolders’ is checked, and it should say drivers have been installed.

Hope this helps

And it worked like magic! When I plugged my Zune, Vista automatically installed all of the necessary drivers.

synth’ed: mt. pinatubo

I’ve been itching to blog something about Photosynth, Microsoft’s jaw-dropping, award-winning, photo stitching technology but I can’t find a good subject to test this baby. Finally, I realized my trip to Mt. Pinatubo would be the perfect subject. I made a couple of shots on the crater so I thought it’d be really cool to “stitch” these photos together and create a 3D replica of the place. By the way, I took this photo way before I discovered Photosynth, that means these photos are not “orchestrated” to initially work with it. These are random shots and we’ll see how really good the software is in relating these photos together and building, not just a panoramic view, but a 3D replica of the place. Here’s the final product:

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=d1a0e932-8f78-4186-9970-f9eddffdda59

(you need to install Photosynth’s plug-in for your browser. This is actually my biggest, if not the only, gripe here. MS should have implemented this using their Silverlight platform)

Update: WordPress does not allow iframe so that means the synth won’t be visible. Just follow the link above.

microsoft web platform installer

With the help of Microsoft Web Platform Installer, I was finally able to install IIS 7 on my Vista desktop. The installer is a collection of all the things you need to get you started with MS development. It includes IIS7, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 Express Edition and the .NET Framework. This is a very clever strategy for MS to attract newbie developers.

ie8 accelarators

If you’re using Internet Explorer 8 (Beta 2) like me, you will love accelarators. Basically, accelarators allow a user to “use” an online service from any other page using only the mouse. For example, since I read a lot of blogs I usually encounter foreign or high-falutin words. Prior to IE 8, what I usually do is copy the word, do a “define” search in Google or use dictionary.com.That’s a lot of work. With accelarators, I can just highlight the word > right-click and chose “Define with Encarta”. It will automatically pops up another tab with the definition of the word, cool and easy right?

What’s even cooler is there are so many accelarator providers out there. You can check them out here.

BenQ S6 MID, I want

I was  browsing pocketables.net when I came across to this device, the BenQ S6 MID. It’s a UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) with a very slick UI. Now I’m not easily impressed by these devices (including netbooks and if they’re not running on Windows), but the S6 has a very refreshing look. BenQ has clear vision regarding its aesthetics and functionality.  Take a look at the specs:

Checkout the demo video here:

Update:

Here’s an early review from one of the owners:

http://www.umpcportal.com/2008/10/benq-s6-owners-early-review/

say what you need to say

I’m a firm believer of “knowing when to shut up” but John Mayer’s “you better know that in the end it’s better to say too much than never to say what you need to say again…” lyrics is so much better. Here.