Is it possible to hook a Zune up to a Macbook?

Question

I really want to get a Zune, but hate the Zune Marketplace, "microsoft points", and don't want to have to buy Windows XP just to run it on my computer. Would it be at all possible to just hook up the Zune to my computer and have the macbook recognize it as a hardrive where i can just drag and drop/remove audio files?

Answer 1

Yes, but to do so you'll need to run Windows (XP or Vista) on your Intel-based Macbook, under Boot Camp:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa...

Some people have apparently had success doing so under Parallels or VMware Fusion (rather than Boot Camp), while others have had problems.  Examples:

http://www.zune-online.com/mac-and-linux...

http://www.macworld.com/article/54223/20...

The closest someone has gotten to connecting a Zune directly to a computer running Mac OS X or Linux is this open source project:

http://www.wentnet.com/projects/xnjb/

"There has been much excitement recently about getting XNJB to work with the Zune. Unfortunately Microsoft have put some protection on file transfers so the Zune has to authenticate with the host computer before files can be transferred. So currently XNJB will only show a list of songs and files on your Zune. You cannot (yet) upload or download anything."

Here's a bit of technical overview on why other platforms find it so difficult to work with the Zune:

http://www.zune-online.com/news/zune/zun...

"Zune uses MTP storage format. It is like the UMS used on USB memory sticks but its more sophisticated. This is the way Zune stores the track ratings, genres, artists etc listings. It also does bad things like DRM [digital rights management]. Lets say its like a database and storage format mix."