The more time I spend with my Zune HD, the more I like it. Sound quality aside–and I know opinions differ dramatically here, but I’m stuck with my ears and my preferences–there are a bunch of features that make Apple’s (AAPL) products seem like they’ve fallen behind the curve. Here are five things in particular that I miss when I use my iPhone or one of my iPods:

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TV Everywhere is a concept put out by TV distributors that basically says that if you pay for cable or satellite, you should be able to watch the content you want, where you want. Everywhere. To some people this is not a good idea.

As is always the case, many people think tv programming should be widely available for free on the internet. Of course the content is never free. Someone has to pay to create it and we purchasers of cable and satellite services pay the subscription fees that pay the content companies and allow them to create all that content.

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Hindered by a failure to sell large numbers of digital music players, Microsoft is singing a new Zune. A few weeks before releasing a new version of its MP3 player called Zune HD, Microsoft is taking extraordinary steps to court software developers to create applications for the device.

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With less than three weeks before Microsoft (MSFT) launches another salvo in digital music players, the marketing executive overseeing the company’s Zune device is headed for the exit.

Chris Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Zune, is leaving the company to take a position at Universal Music Group, according to people familiar with the matter. One of these people said Mr. Stephenson will become chief marketing officer at Universal’s Interscope Geffen A&M Records after Labor Day, reporting to the label’s chairman Jimmy Iovine.

Reached by phone while on vacation, Mr. Stephenson confirmed his departure from Microsoft and his new job at Interscope, saying he’s looking forward to returning to the entertainment industry. A Microsoft spokeswoman didn’t have an immediate comment.

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The news this week that Napster is relaunching with a $5-a-month subscription plan that includes 5 free MP3 downloads would appear to be a troubling development for RealNetworks’ (RNWK) rival Rhapsody service, which will set you back $13 a month for a streaming service that lacks the free MP3s. It is also no doubt irritating to Real that it comes from a company that is now a unit of Best Buy (BBY): in the past, the Best Buy digital music store was a re-branded version of Rhapsody, which came pre-loaded on non-Zune, non-iPod music players sold by the retailer.

Earlier this week, I chatted about the situation with Neil Smith, VP of business management for Rhapsody America. His spin on the Napster story is that what they’re really doing is going head-to-head with Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes store–that Napster is “all about the downloads.” He says Napster basically wants to use the new approach to get into the pre-paid music gift card market, using the free downloads as a driver to steal share from Apple. He thinks selling tracks is more their goal than “turning the tide toward subscription from purchase,” which is where Real is focused.

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If you were buying 30,000 songs, would you rather pay $30,000 or $15 per month? Microsoft (MSFT) is trying to advertise the Zune Pass by underlining the advantage in price.

Microsoft’s Laptop Hunter ads (one, two, three, and four) must be doing quite well, because what Microsoft started off as a price attack on Macs seems to have transcended over to the online music store business.

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Mike Homer was many things to many people. To the people at Netscape and the myriad of start-ups that spun off afterward, he was their visionary and counselor. Nobody made a move without checking with Mike first. He was our close confidant and truest believer, always encouraging us to push forward and to never give up on our our biggest ideas.

He had a get-it factor that was unmatched, understanding and relating to people as well as their ideas in a very deep way. He knew what made people tick and he intuitively knew how to talk to them and make them feel at ease.

He could mine ideas for their greatness and loved brainstorming for hours no matter where he was…in the office, at a baseball game, during a Moody Blues concert or in the barren new offices of the start-ups he counseled at their outset.

Mike was always the first to listen when I was at Netscape and then he became my closest adviser in the earliest days of starting Tellme. He gave me the confidence to believe that I could build the company.

He argued with me when I was too willing to compromise on the big idea, at times believing in my ideas even more than I did. He helped me select and hire my team. He helped me raise our first rounds of funding and close our first crucial sales deals. He worked tirelessly through all hours and his relentlessness and dedication helped set the tone for Tellme going forward.

Then, when we were eventually acquired, he sent me an email that was heartfelt and proud and he selflessly closed by writing, “Thanks for including me in the ride.”

I will never forget Mike’s passion for people and ideas and all he did for my team, myself, and the many other entrepreneurs, engineers, marketers and business leaders he worked with. He was one of a kind who left us far too soon.

Thanks for believing in us, Mike. And thanks for including us all in the ride.

–Mike McCue is GM of Tellme, which is now owned by Microsoft (MSFT).

Longtime Silicon Valley exec Mike Homer died yesterday at his home in Atherton, Calif., after a severe illness. He was 50.

On Dec. 31, some models of the Zune, Microsoft’s (MSFT) portable music player, went dark. The devices were unusable until the following day. Failures like this are sometimes caused by complex chains of mishaps, but this particular one is due to a single programming error that is reasonably easy to understand. Let’s take a look.

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Well, everyone else is in the phone business, so why not Microsoft (MSFT)?

There are several reports suggesting that the company may soon do exactly that.

On Friday, tech news site TheInquirer.net reported that the company is developing a phone that will use an Nvidia processor called Tegra. The phone supposedly will be launched at the 3GSM conference this coming February.

Today, CNBC offered a slightly different version of the Microsoft phone rumor, asserting that the company will create a Zune-based phone code-named “Pink,” which could be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. There have been rumors about the nature of the company’s “Project Pink” going back at least a year; back in May, ZDNet reported that Pink consists of a set of consumer-focused premium mobile services, including some from its Danger acquisition.

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In a mixed holiday sales forecast, an electronics industry trade group is projecting that consumer spending on such gadgets will grow 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter, half the growth rate in the same quarter a year earlier.

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Sitting in a McDonald’s in suburban St. Louis, breaking my rule about eating fast food when I’m not on the road and trying out the latest Zune gimmick–free wireless access via Wayport at roughly 9,800 golden arch outlets across the U.S. First impressions: Way easy and way slow. It’s not just the Zune Wi-Fi that’s sluggish; the free-with-food hour of Wayport Wi-Fi on my laptop is slower than real ketchup. It took about five minutes to establish a connection, load the page and log on. You could finish a Happy Meal by the time you’re actually doing anything purposeful.

As for the Zune, as soon as I went to the Marketplace area on my freshly updated second-gen 8G model, it started looking for the network.

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On Wednesday, Adam Sohn, the head of public relations for Microsoft’s Zune division, told me: “Babies are born every day without an iPod. We will get there.” That summarizes the challenge Zune faces from Apple–and Microsoft’s determination (at least for now) to meet it.

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If you like to download the latest episodes of “Heroes” or other NBC shows from BitTorrent, maybe you shouldn’t buy a Microsoft Zune to watch them on. A future update of the software for Microsoft’s portable media player may well include a feature that will block unauthorized copies of copyrighted videos from being played on it.

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A vice president from Microsoft’s eHome Division, who oversaw initiatives including Windows Media Center, has shifted to the Zune team, according to the latest Microsoft organizational chart from the independent Directions on Microsoft research firm. The question: Does the change indicate a new direction for the company’s iPod competitor?

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