If you've been experiencing the dying battery issue with your Zune 30 (and 80), get the latest firmware update just released today! This fixed the issue for me...at least I'm 99% certain.

From Zune Insider:

Zune will be issuing a firmware update today. There are no new features in this update, but it does address some issues we’re reading about in the forums. Specifically the battery issue affecting a small percentage of Zune 30/80 GB users - I posted about this last week in case you missed it.

Did they learn anything? I hope so. I still think they handled this poorly. Even though they got a fix out to us within 6 weeks it took them 5 weeks to publicly acknowledge the problem. That's waaaay too long in the world of the internet. Not to mention, I read about people being told by the official support channel that their Zune's were broken and needed to be sent in for repairs. I'd be pissed if I later found out it was just a software issue and all I had to do was wait for the next firmware to be released. Ouch.

Well, if you've been having the problem fire up the Zune software, plug in your Zune 30/80 and update your device.  I'm getting about 14-15 hours of battery life now.

~tod