If you’re an owner of the first generation of Microsoft’s Zune MP3 player, you’ll probably want to head to the download page for today’s big launch of the updated software. After a year of using the original software, the latest version is faster and easier to use. It also includes support for podcasts, a missing feature critics have often pointed to.
The software also includes a nice bonus for owners of the original 30GB hardware in the form of a firmware update that will put the same software running on the newly released second generation Zunes, providing much of the same features on the existing equipment.
If you’re looking into purchasing a new Zune, CNet has video reviews of both the new 80GB and flash-based 4GB models, which they seem to like.