Ok, that was sort of cheesy, but you get what it’s about,ight? Last week, on September 15th, Microsoft released the newest version of the Zune PC software, 4.0. In short, it’s attractive and very, very functional.

The first thing you see when the program starts is a wholly new feature called Quickplay. Mimicking the interface of the Zune HD (the latest and greatest in the Zune brand of MP3 players), it functions very intuitively, but it breaks the design scheme of the software. It works as though the program is a touch-screen and your mouse is your finger. You move the mouse across the screen to move the focus in the line, and you can click on the SmartDJ mixes to make that overtake the Welcome section as what your “finger” affects. However, the rest of the Zune software does not even have the option of the black background/white text scheme. It breaks the aesthetic flow of the program, but it does help differentiate the navigation of the program between the “touchscreen” Quickplay and the traditional interface of the rest of Zune.

Other than the Quickplay section, Zune keeps a very good design scheme for across the program. The main "tabs” are smaller than the more important content tabs, but are still easily red. It sticks to the “Organize your music, not a spreadsheet” mantra, where it really looks nothing like its main competitor, iTunes.

Another function of the Zune software is to sell subscriptions to the Zune Pass, the $15 a month subscription service where you can download all of the songs available on the Zune marketplace and choose 10 each month you want to keep forever. The Zune software has many features that are either augmented by the Zune Pass or out-and-out require it.

One new feature is the SmartDJ. Zune’s alternative to the iTunes Genius playlist, SmartDJ playlists take a band or song that you want a playlist based around and make a list of 100 songs. If you don’t have a Zune Pass, it can only make a playlist from songs on your computer’s hard drive. The problem with that is the way the SmartDJ creates the list seems to have some flaws when it does not have 5 million songs to pick from. Maybe I’m crazy, but when I want a playlist for Weezer, I don’t think Nirvana fits in too well. Throw in the Zune Pass, and it completely changes, getting a list as varied and accurate as anything you can get from the Genius playlist.

Overall, the Zune software is well-designed, being both beautiful and useful. It probably won’t convert a Mac-only or iPod-only user, but it makes me really hope that the rumors of it replacing Windows Media Player as Windows’ preinstalled media software are true.