I want a Zune (1 Viewer)

[Ed B]

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

 

[MarkHastings]

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!

 

[3rdStageNavigator]

^^ 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.

 

[Scott L]

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?

 

[Chris]

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.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

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

 

[Yee-Ming]

FWIW, read this:-

http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/13/i...e-zune-sucked/

 

[Scott L]

dayum! And I thought iTunes was already a clunky mess

 

[MarkHastings]

Holy!!!!......They may as well include the EE of one of the Lord of the Rings epsiodes to watch during installation.

 

[MikeH1]

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

A clone without software

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

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

 

[EugeneR]

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.

 

[3rdStageNavigator]

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.

 

[David Williams]

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.

 

[Alex-C]

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

Hell, I'd shop at Home DePlace. cool.

 

[Phil Kim]

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.

 

[Ravi K]

Wow, a Microsoft product sucks. I'm surprised

 

[BrianW]

I bet if Microsoft made vacuum cleaners, they wouldn't suck.

 

[MarkHastings]

LOL - Me too! It sounds so trendy. It's like when people pronounce Target as "Tar'shzay" (or however you'd spell it).

 

[Doug Miller]

Brian --

Ouch. That was pretty damn funny.

Doug