Anyone here remember the anxious moments on New Year's Eve 1999 when it wasn't clear whether or not the world would end at Midnight? Well these days the threat isn't quite as serious as a global shutdown but Microsoft Zune users are reporting some bugs that seem a little more than coincidental. According to reports flinging up across the web, it seems the Zunes reboot then freeze once the status bar reaches 100 percent. While this would be inconvenient enough at any time, the simultaneous nature of the complaints seems a little more than serendipitous. The problem, it turns out, seems to have started at exactly midnight PST Wednesday; the first moments of the last day of 2008.

Microsoft hasn't been available for comment on what victims are calling the Zune 30 Midnight Meltdown but forums around the globe are ablaze with complaints and demands for updates from Microsoft.

While Microsoft has been struggling to close the gap on the popularity of Apple's iPhone with their Zune music player, this latest snafu surely isn't going to help matters any.