November 16th is the launch date of Zune Pass in Australia, so thanks to the wonders of time-zones, our readers from Down Under should reboot their handsets and pick up the Zune Pass ability, opening up the subscription music service on their desktops and Windows Phones.

It's not the complete Zune experience others are getting, as WP Down Under digs out the missing features, the main ones being the lack of Podcast support in the marketplace and the requirement that the Live ID being used is an Australian-only Live ID.

While I can understand some of the musical restrictions in place because of the territorial nature of the recording industry, I still fail to see why Podcast support is not included - especially as all the user needs to do is drop in the RSS address to get the shows. Why is the directory simply switched off?

But it's the music service that's part of the ecosystem, and it's expansion is to be acknowledged. It's just a shame it can't move any faster.