The Zune was a really good media player that should have been a success. Except it was always late to the party. A party full of white earbud wearers who left the Zune to die alone.

It's a shame that the Zune HD died so young. It had so much potential. But life goes HEY LOOK! Microsoft just released 9 new Zune HD apps. For some reason... Should we stop mourning now?

It's getting to be one of the more recycled rumors in tech: Microsoft is done with Zune hardware, but Zune software will live on, maybe rebranded, maybe not. This time it's Bloomberg's Dina Bass throwing her tweet into the ring, saying that we won't be seeing any more Zune hardware.

As much as I hate to say it, the Zune is more or less dead. It's been a year and a half since we've seen a redesign, and though Zune hardware has always been quality, Microsoft seems to have refocused their handheld efforts behind WP7 (with rumors of an Xbox-branded device). But there's also Microsoft's Zune…

And older Zunes, too! But let's talk about the HD: With the new OpenZDK toolkit, developers can make homebrew apps for the Zune HD, and by following a relatively simple set of instructions, you can install them.

The big daddy of the Zune HD family is now available for order. Aside from the increased capacity, it's the same as the older Zune HDs, coming in 7 snazzy colors. It'll set you back $350. [Zune Originals]

The Zune 4.5 update we saw last week looked pretty good! More codec support, Smart DJ music discovery (similar to the iTunes Genius feature that's pretty stellar with a Zune Pass), and a few other fun features. It's available even sooner than we thought, so all you Zune owners go ahead and open up your Zune software…

Well hey, here's a nice little complement to the Zune's updated software: As expected, there's a new 64GB model, which is otherwise unchanged, and sells for a hefty $350. As for the 16GB and 32GB models, they're $20 cheaper now.

As promised (and as a sign that Microsoft isn't forgetting about Zune HD to work on Windows Phone 7), the Zune 4.5 update brings more video codec support and Smart DJ music discovery to the player.

Wander over to Zune's website and you'll see three different capacities for the Zune HD are listed: 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. There's no further info on that roomy HD, but we'll be here all day, Microsoft. [Zune Thanks, tipsters!]

Sorry, everybody who bought a Zune HD! You screwed up. It won't be a part of the XNA Game Studio 4.0 party—meaning it won't play those new mobile Xbox Live games for Windows Phone 7—unlike the Zune HD2.

You can now feed your social media obsession even further by downloading a Facebook app onto your Zune HD. Heads up though, seems that you may need to update your Zune software first. [CrunchGear]

PPCGeeks is offering up a whole bevy of rumors regarding Windows Mobile 7 and what will be revealed at MWC next week. What they're referring to as Windows Phone 7 has a Zune-like interface and Xbox integration but no multitasking.

A firmware update will bring two great features to the Zune HD this spring. The first is native XviD support, which is self-explanatory. The second requires just a tad more explanation.

Apple makes some of the most specialized mainstream devices around, but the gear is never very cheap and, let's face it, it stinks for any one company to own your wallet. So here are the best alternatives for each iProduct:

For $15 a month, a Zune Pass subscription is a pretty great deal. The only catch, seemingly, is that you also have to pony up a couple hundred bucks for a Zune. Except! Turns out you don't. PocketNow shows how:

In the most random and unfortunate act of censorship we've seen since the iTunes Ninjawords debacle, the Zune HD Twitter app automatically whitewashes any bad words that show up in your timeline. UPDATE: