I want a Zune (1 Viewer)

[EricW]

pixel resolution of the Zune is 320x240, same as the ipod

 

[Ken Chui]

Zune sales off to sluggish start

 

[MarkHastings]

LOL - This part of the article made me laugh: At least for me, the main reason I LOVE my iPod (or any MP3 player) is to escape the monotony of radio. Since I've had my iPod, I only listen to the radio in the morning for traffic reports.

Adding FM radio capability to the iPod would be as useless (for the amount of space needed to add it) as adding a frying pan or a turntable.

 

[Ruz-El]

Dang! I've been wanting to get a video/MP3 player for ages, and none of them see that great.

Can anyone offer advice? I'm looking for the following:
Play DIVX and WMV files.
Play MP3 files up to 320Kpbs
doesn't require any converting of the above, they can be trasfered straight across.
Will display folder art when playing MP3's.

I wouldn't think that the above would be that hard to come by, but based on what I've seen in stores none of the players seem to do this. I think there is a Creative Zen W or something coming out with a 16:9 screen, but I haven't seen it around. The only thing I have seen is the ARCHOS players, but I'm not sure about the DIVX/XVID capabitlity as none of them say if you can play it or not either on their websites or on the box.

 

[JeremyErwin]

Zune's strange ad campaign "Welcome to the Social", is ripe for parody.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

I've yet to see anything that beats my ipod (except newer ipods), and if something ever does, I doubt it will come from Microsoft.

And no, I'm not an Applehead. The ipod is the only Apple hardware I have.

 

[MarkHastings]

One of the major drawbacks to a lot of these MP3 players, is Mac support. Apple has got the cross-platform issue nailed to a T! As much as people gripe about iTunes being bloated on the PC and other issues, I've had little to no real issues with my iPod on my PC - the same can't be said for Microsoft products on the Mac - either they just don't work well or don't work period.

I use iPods on both Mac and PC and there really doesn't seem to be much of a difference between the two...unlike other cross platform products.

Does Zune even support Apple systems? I don't think they do. Microsoft is going to have to do a lot better than that if they want to compete with iPod - I mean, the iPod is an Apple product and I bet there are more PC users that own iPods than Mac users


p.s. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathoov/297327208/

 

[Phil Kim]

Considering how buggy and unstable Zune's Windows application is, and how it is not yet Windows Vista compatible, Mac OS X compatibility is probably the last thing on Microsoft's mind.

 

[JeremyErwin]

That's it. Microsoft definitely needs to be broken up. If it can't work on more than one project at a time, its gargantuan size means nothing.

 

[Chris]

Yep. Which makes it all the more dissappointing that for something with the same resolution it looks so bad in comparison.

 

[Mark Murphy]

I looked into a Zune but ended up getting a Creative Zen Vison:m. Its a great alternative to an Ipod.

 

[Ruz-El]

I was looking at these as well, but the B&M sales people are useless!

question for you...
Can you play DIVX/XVID AVI files right out of the box?
Does it display album cover/folder art?

Also, anyone seen the Zen Vision-W around with the wide screen? Local shops don;t know what I'm talking about.

 

[ThomasC]

Looks like it.

http://www.creative.com/products/pro...ct=14331&nav=1

 

[Ruz-El]

Thanks for that Thomas.

one other question, a lot of these players list battery life and such based on 128kbps. they do play higher resolution audio, right?

 

[BrianW]

Amusing but informative review:

http://www.suntimes.com/technology/i...Andy23.article

 

[Ken Chan]

Sure. For example, the iPod plays compressed audio up to 320kbps. Especially for hard drive players, smaller files mean more battery life, and that's what Apple sells on their store, so it's "typical".

 

[Philip Hamm]

That is incomrehensively stupid. Just thinking of the conversion makes my brain hurt. Someone at microsoft should be fired for that.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

If people were fired at Microsoft for being stupid there'd likely be very few people left

 

[MarkHastings]

It kind of sounds like what they do with ride tickets at the carnival. Then, at the end of the night, when you're left with only 4 tickets and every ride is 6 tickets, you have to decide wether to cut your losses and dump the 4 or buy more tickets.

 

[BrianW]

Plus, just like at the carnival, Zune Bucks can't be used to buy food.