Zune for Windows Phone is an built-in application providing entertainment and synchronization capabilities between PC and Windows Phone 7 gadget. The Windows Phone multimedia experience is divided into two distinct hubs, the "Music + Videos" hub and the "Pictures" hub, both of which are similar in appearance and functionality to that of the Zune HD.
The "Music + Videos hub" allows the user to access music, videos, and podcasts stored on the device, and links directly to the Windows Phone Marketplace to buy music, or rent it with the Zune Pass subscription service. When browsing the music by a particular artist, users are able to view artist biographies and photos, provided by the Zune Software. This hub integrates with many apps that provide video and music service, including, but not limited to, iHeartRadio, Youtube, and Vevo. This hub also includes Smart DJ which compiles a playlist of songs stored on the phone similar to the song or artist selected.
The "Pictures hub" displays the user's Facebook and Windows Live photo albums, as well as photos taken with the phone's built-in camera. Users can also upload photos to social networks, comment on others photos, and tag photos on social networks directly from the Pictures hub. Multi-touch gestures permit zooming in and out of photos.
Media support
According to Brandon Miniman's test review for pocketnow.com, he stated "if Zune can play it, your Windows Phone 7 device can play it" - this refers to the supported playback of files. The audio file formats, supported, include WAV, MP3, WMA, AMR, AAC/MP4/M4A/M4B and 3GP/3G2 as standards. The video file formats, supported, include WMV, AVI, MP4/M4V, 3GP/3G2 and MOV (QuickTime) standards. These supported audio and video formats would be dependent on the codecs contained inside them. It has also been previously reported that the DivX and Xvid codecs within AVI are also playable on the system. Unlike the previous Windows Mobile operating system, there are currently no third-party applications for handling other video formats. The image file formats that are supported include JPG/JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIF and Bitmap (BMP).
