Leap second causes Zune glitch

by Nathaniel Ed on January 1st, 2009 at 11:41 am EDT - 649 views

What happened?
Apparently a glitch in the Zune player, produced by Microsoft, has disabled thousands of the products due to the recent leap second. Yesterday, owners of the Zune device delivered complaints that an earlier version of the device, a 30 gigabyte model, wouldn’t listen to music, among other complaints.

How do I fix it?
Microsoft says this glitch only affects 30 gigabyte users, so if that doesn’t apply to you, then you won’t have to worry about it. If your one of the unfortunate ones who is affected by it, Microsoft says that the device should have corrected itself by noon GMT Thursday. A spokesperson of Microsoft said that even devices no longer covered by warrenty will fix themselves.  The company also said that Zune Pass subscribers should sync their devices to their computer’s time.

This reminds me of the Y2K insident in 2000. It’s just another example of Microsoft’s poor planning skills, like with Vista, or Internet Explorer’s security problems. Let’s hope that Microsoft is learning from it’s mistakes, and that Window’s 7 improves their image.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Image courtesy of zunereviews.