On November 13th, Zune launched its new Zune Software, Zune Social, Zune Marketplace and the Zune firmware. This release marks the official support of audio and video podcasting for Zune. JapanesePod101.com was among 1000 featured podcast feeds to come pre-seeded in the Zune Marketplace Podcast Directory (KoreanClass101.com and SurvivalPhrases.com are soon to follow).

Podcast lovers can now find, play, subscribe, share, organize, and give feedback about their favorite podcasts (hint hint)

Here’s a screen shot of the JapanesePod101.com podcast in the Marketplace Podcast Directory (click to enlarge)

Next is a screen shot of my favorite podcasts in my Zune Podcast Collection (click to enlarge)

Zune also supports an easy “1-Click Podcast Subscription” process that allows podcast listeners and viewers to subscribe to their favorite shows. According to Zune, “this 1-Click process will launch the new Zune Marketplace software and place the podcast subscription in the users collection. The process will work best if the Zune user already has the new Zune Marketplace software loaded on a Windows PC, but if not already installed, will then ask user to download the software.”

We’ve added a 1-Click chicklet graphic (like the one below) to the sidebar of our JapanesePod101.com page.

Please be sure to post your experiences with the new Zune.