The cans and can’ts of Zune WiFi

David Caulton of Microsoft has posted to his blog the capabilities of the Zune’s WiFi at launch. We’re glad he cleared this up because it was starting to confuse us what exactly the WiFi was used for other than Zune-to-Zune. And the answer to that confusion seems to be it does nothing other than that. See below for more from David (re-formatted, but not edited):

Can

• You can search for nearby Zune owners to interact with.
• You can send them a song, album, etc… for a 3-day/3-play trial listen. Songs come over with metadata and album art (neat).
  After the 3 days or 3 plays are up, the song gets deleted from the Zune on the next sync, but the info on the song stays in a “journal” on your PC for later purchase or acquisition.
• You can send them photos for unlimited viewing (and these can sync back onto the recipient’s PC).

Can’t

• The wireless happens to be wifi (802.11 b/g) but Zunes will not (at launch) connect to the internet via your home base station network.
• Zunes can not download songs over the air from the internet service.
• Zunes cannot act as telephones or personal teleporters.

Read [Zunester]