Zune Thoughts: Tips Day 2: Make Your Zune Card Less Flashy (Zune Card)

Editor's Note: This is the second in a series of tips on getting the most out of your Zune device, pass, software, and card. Check out the forums for more tips, or to submit your own.

"I have come across a site that takes your Zune Card user ID and then makes an image of your ZuneCard so you can put it on other sites that don't support flash. It updates the image ever[y] half an hour with the music you're listening to."

I was hoping someone would come out with this! The Zune Card, while pretty, can often take quite a bit of time to load correctly. This is a really nifty utility, and it's really easy to use. How easy? Read on, dear reader:

"Simply type in the following url: http://card.mygamercard.net/apps/zune/YOURZUNEID.png
Change YOURZUNEID to your Zune ID. Mine is Nathan Anderson. When there is a space in your ID, just put a plus sign in it's place, so mine would turn into Nathan+Anderson so my final Image would show up at:
http://card.mygamercard.net/apps/zune/Nathan+Anderson.png"

What's truly exciting about this isn't the portability or ability to be resized to one's liking (though those are cool too). Nay, the message this heralds—that the ZuneCard data can be exported into really cool new forms—is what I'm most excited about. I can't wait 'til someone creates a tool to allow you to scrape your entire play history, and then use it to find out what you're actually listening to, and when. You could receive recommendations based on what you're actually listening to, and more. All that has to happen is for Microsoft to provide the tools, and the community to provide the support, or, more likely, for Microsoft to do the whole thing.

Stay tuned for another installment of Zune Tips tomorrow. Got a super tip you're just dying to share with the world? Hit the comments link or discuss in the Forums.