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I want a Zune

post #1 of 57
10/12/06 at 12:08pm
Thread Starter 
Anyone waiting for these to come out?

I was leaning towards the Creative Zen M but I like some of the options the Zune has like the larger screen and the higher video output resolution.

ed
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post #2 of 57
10/12/06 at 3:21pm

Re: I want a Zune

So it's a revised edition of the Toshiba Gigabeat. I like how competition makes each manufacturer try to outdo each other with newer and better products (which is good for us), but I always find it funny how these products are being produced as competition for the Apple iPod, when they are basically copying the iPod and adding new features.

It's like me opening a new hardware store that is to compete with Home Depot - it'll be exactly the same, just 10% bigger....and I'll call it "Home De Place"...talk about a NEW idea!
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post #3 of 57
11/15/06 at 1:11pm

Re: I want a Zune

^^ Actually Apple just copied the idea from Creative originally as well, but that's how innovation and competition work

I was looking at the Zune yesterday and the resolution was pretty impressive but not sure I want to deal with the WMA DRM issues or lack of audible.com support. The brown looked cool though.
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post #4 of 57
11/15/06 at 1:35pm

Re: I want a Zune

will the zune let u transfer songs freely from your player to the PC, or is it like iTunes and it only goes one way?
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post #5 of 57
11/15/06 at 7:02pm

Re: I want a Zune

I've tried it, and personally, it sucks.

Here's the big issues:

1. You'd think with a Microsoft device, it'd use media player to copy files back and forth. Oh, not so. You need a whole other application again.

2. The screen is big.. but the quality is crap. I don't get this. I thought this would be a great feature, a nice large size LCD screen, but there is something wrong with the quality, the resolution is terrible in comparison to the Ipod or Creative devices.

3. Sluggish performance. The unit seems to 'chug' if you're using large files, an for some, that's important. I encode audiobooks or convert them And keep them in MP3 to play later. So, a 300MB audiobook file makes the zune puke and act like it's slow as a dog. Meanwhile, my Creative Zen Nano, a $55 player, has no problem with it at all.

The wireless bit is nice, but I can't think of how often I'd run into another Zune user to transfer them a song(?) ala the commercial.

In the end, the functionality of the Zune just isn't there. This is a high priced boondoggle. I'm sure it'll get a lot of adopters; but it missed the boat. Apple has the sleek market figured out; and Creative really made headway on super-function price/performance units. But Microsoft's Zune is expensive and not so good. I don't know how you mesh that into something people want to buy a ton of.
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post #6 of 57
11/15/06 at 7:28pm

Re: I want a Zune

No FLAC support

Presumably, no gapless playback

Not supported by Windows Vista http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2237

Has Wi-Fi, but can't be used to sync with your PC, only to send a song to a friend, who must also have a Zune, and a song sent in this manner is crippled by DRM even if you own the copyright to the recording

No cheaper than an iPod

No bigger (capacity) than an iPod

I can't think of a single good thing about it
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post #7 of 57
11/16/06 at 1:17am

Re: I want a Zune

FWIW, read this:-

http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/13/i...e-zune-sucked/
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post #8 of 57
11/16/06 at 1:29am

Re: I want a Zune

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yee-Ming
dayum! And I thought iTunes was already a clunky mess
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post #9 of 57
11/16/06 at 5:39am

Re: I want a Zune

Holy!!!!......They may as well include the EE of one of the Lord of the Rings epsiodes to watch during installation.
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post #10 of 57
11/16/06 at 6:00am

Re: I want a Zune

lol i'll stick with my 3 year old 20 GB iRiver.

A clone without software
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post #11 of 57
11/16/06 at 8:37am

Re: I want a Zune

Everytime I hear about "Zune", I think of this character from Ghostbusters:



Quote:
makes the zune puke and act like it's slow as a dog
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post #12 of 57
11/16/06 at 3:13pm

Re: I want a Zune

It should be great once someone is able to hack the wireless to enable connectivity to your computer capability. I'd give it about a week.
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post #13 of 57
11/16/06 at 4:05pm

Re: I want a Zune

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Hein
lol i'll stick with my 3 year old 20 GB iRiver.

A clone without software

In my own web searching it seems like iRiver and Creative have the happiest & most satisfied past customers, so personally I'm down to deciding between a H10 or a Zen Nano Plus, but it's ridiculous how hard they are to find despite shelves and shelves of every conceivable iPod accessory. At least Zune has forced a little bit of choice into the retail stores.
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post #14 of 57
11/16/06 at 5:10pm

Re: I want a Zune

The biggest downside not mentioned so far is that if you want to purchase music through Microsoft's store you can't use a credit/debit card like in iTunes but must purchase 'points' at a conversion ratio of 80 points = $1 with a minimum purchase of $5. I would imagine that would tend to cut down on impulse buys when the consumer is forced to purchase blocks of points to download one song.
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post #15 of 57
11/16/06 at 9:16pm

Re: I want a Zune

Quote:
Home DePlace

Have you copyrighted that or anything. I like that. Can I use it ?

Hell, I'd shop at Home DePlace. cool.
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post #16 of 57
11/16/06 at 11:01pm

Re: I want a Zune

More:
1. You can't even use it as a hard disk.
2. It's larger than iPod (dimension wise).
3. Desktop application is highly buggy.
4. Lacks many extra features, such as contact list and calendar.
5. It won't play DRM'd Windows Media files purchased from PlayForSure stores.
6. FM radio reception sucks.
7. Button controls are not consistent.
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post #17 of 57
11/16/06 at 11:54pm

Re: I want a Zune

Wow, a Microsoft product sucks. I'm surprised
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post #18 of 57
11/17/06 at 4:20am

Re: I want a Zune

Quote:
Wow, a Microsoft product sucks. I'm surprised
I bet if Microsoft made vacuum cleaners, they wouldn't suck.
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post #19 of 57
11/17/06 at 10:21am

Re: I want a Zune

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex-C
Have you copyrighted that or anything. I like that. Can I use it ?

Hell, I'd shop at Home DePlace. cool.
LOL - Me too! It sounds so trendy. It's like when people pronounce Target as "Tar'shzay" (or however you'd spell it).
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post #20 of 57
11/17/06 at 10:23am

Re: I want a Zune

Brian --

Ouch. That was pretty damn funny.

Doug
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post #21 of 57
11/17/06 at 10:32am

Re: I want a Zune

pixel resolution of the Zune is 320x240, same as the ipod
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post #22 of 57
11/17/06 at 12:34pm

Re: I want a Zune

Zune sales off to sluggish start
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post #23 of 57
11/17/06 at 12:51pm

Re: I want a Zune

LOL - This part of the article made me laugh:
Quote:
Microsoft has packed Zune with features that iPod lacks, such as FM radio
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.
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post #24 of 57
11/17/06 at 3:30pm

Re: I want a Zune

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.
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post #25 of 57
11/18/06 at 1:12am

Re: I want a Zune

Zune's strange ad campaign "Welcome to the Social", is ripe for parody.
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post #26 of 57
11/18/06 at 11:34am

Re: I want a Zune

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.
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post #27 of 57
11/18/06 at 11:45am

Re: I want a Zune

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/
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post #28 of 57
11/18/06 at 1:10pm

Re: I want a Zune

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.
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post #29 of 57
11/18/06 at 1:16pm

Re: I want a Zune

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.
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post #30 of 57
11/18/06 at 4:31pm

Re: I want a Zune

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

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