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Zune. The underdog with unfair press?
GoldAgainstTheSoul
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm a Zune lover. I read all the negative press (some of it designed by mac) and flames from ifanbois, or the just rude comments from people who don't know much about the zune. It doesn't bother me, because I know the zune is a better mp3 player than the ipod. The screen can't be beat, it's very durable and stylish, and sounds great. Solid Mp3 player. (It also has a very powerful processor). Not to mention the interface and controls are simple and perfect. I love how the controls feel like an old nintendo controller and the interface is all colour and easy to navigate.
A lot of people have been slamming the zune because of the wifi restrictions, which is very fair. Does it make the zune a bad mp3 player though? Not at all. A lot of people want to damn it because it's not overtaking the ipod (which is impossible in the current state of the market) or because they are ifanbois and want to slam anything that is MS.
Anyway, it gets frustrating because I love this player so much. I think if you compare it to the 360 and how it started out you'll see a lot of similarities. Look at how great the 360 software is now?
Some people just don't get that the zune is an egg just waiting to be hatched (not to mention the hacker potential), unlike the ipod which is a cheaply made fashion accessory.
I ran up on this blog to help illustrate the point.
http://jameskyton.wordpress.com/2007/01/15/microsoft-plans-for-the-zune/
I didn't see any general zune threads (maybe nobody wants to talk about it
) so I made my own.
I think MS would do well to change their ads to focus on what a solid player it is, and back off the "social", since, at the moment it's not that social.
A lot of people have been slamming the zune because of the wifi restrictions, which is very fair. Does it make the zune a bad mp3 player though? Not at all. A lot of people want to damn it because it's not overtaking the ipod (which is impossible in the current state of the market) or because they are ifanbois and want to slam anything that is MS.
Anyway, it gets frustrating because I love this player so much. I think if you compare it to the 360 and how it started out you'll see a lot of similarities. Look at how great the 360 software is now?
Some people just don't get that the zune is an egg just waiting to be hatched (not to mention the hacker potential), unlike the ipod which is a cheaply made fashion accessory.
I ran up on this blog to help illustrate the point.
http://jameskyton.wordpress.com/2007/01/15/microsoft-plans-for-the-zune/
Here’s a list of some of the things planned:
- Buy songs, music videos, movies, TV Shows, etc. from the Zune Marketplace. You’ll also be able to purchase accessories online from Microsoft partners.
- Get a whole range of free content like artist interviews, video biographies, podcasts, etc.
- Get music from independent artists at a cheap price (anywhere from 0 to 50 points).
- Access the Zune Marketplace from your Zune, and buy/download content through your Wi-Fi connection.
- Add upto 5 friends with whom you can share music without the “3 day 3 play†restriction. [not sure if it will have another form of restriction]
- No “3 day 3 play†restriction on music not purchased from the Zune Marketplace.
I didn't see any general zune threads (maybe nobody wants to talk about it
) so I made my own.I think MS would do well to change their ads to focus on what a solid player it is, and back off the "social", since, at the moment it's not that social.
GoldAgainstTheSoul on
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That said, I don't care about zune or the ipod.
I just come here for curiosity.
Also, how long until terrorbyte shits in this thread?
And you go and prove it.
Because it -does- suck right now. It may play music just fine, but it has many, many problems in comparison to the iPod. Sure, they can update it via firmware, but they can't make it -not brown-. They also can't get it to spread nearly as much as the iPod. Go ask your mom about your zune, and i'll give good odds she'll refer to it as "your iPod thing."
The Zune may be a decent product, with room for improvement, but right now, it's just not on par with anything.
And it's brown.
We can only hope that we make it to the shelters in time.
Man, what?
i forget his name but he wrote a totally hilarious BS article about it.
sniper - it doesn't suck at all, the only bad thing about is the wifi isn't opened up yet.
spread as much? peanut butter?
And I'm a Zune.
iPod: Hey how's it going there Zune?
Zune: Oh, just fine, nice and young and peppy. You? Getting old now, right?
iPod: Yeah, but I feel great, and y'know they say with age comes experience.
Zune: You think you're so hip with your white getup.
iPod: But don't you think a brown suit is too formal for what we're trying to do?
Zune: Bah, you don't understand business.
iPod: *rolls eyes*
MAC
LISTEN TO MUSIC DIFFERENT
That said, since it seems the only way to get a widescreen iPod is to get an iPhone, this could still be a possibility for me. Maybe.
I compare the Zune with the first gen iPod, and the just annouced iPhone.
Awesome, but they have a big list of bugs that they need to sort out before they get my bones.
Seriously why would you include wifi and not let you synch it wirelessly? They are nerfing this on both the Zune and the iPhone.
Satans..... hints.....
people are just such mindless zombies.
Care to tell me what these problems are that the Ipod beats it in? Aside from name fame?
Do you have personal experience with both products or are you going by e-hype? Because you know that's a factual source to pull from.
I had an ipod ages ago, and now I have a Zune. From someone who had both-I much prefer the Zune. The size (yes, I prefer girth on something I spent 250$ and don't want to misplace/lose/etc), the color, the screen, zune marketplace.
It will get better because the xbox did, I mean it's just kind of a gimme' to know it will get better. They know they're behind, but that doesn't mean they won't gain market share by throwing a stack of money at it. That's why I know it'll get better-disposable income.
and not many people bought the brown! haha.
the limited pink and orange are pretty cool.
And it's black, not brown.
SniperGuy, what the fuck are you smoking? It comes in three color variants: brown, black, and a very ugly white.
I like it.
I also read that they will be bringing games to it , but not for awhile.
And yeah, I'd get the brown one if I was buying a Zune.
I love it.
I also hate the argument about the permeation of the iPod, because there is no "iPod community" really. I mean, I suppose having an iPod will prevent someone from outright buying a Zune, which is important, but it's not like there's any iPod interconnectivity.
I stopped reading right there.
Protip: griping about "fanbois" makes you sound like a mindless git.
Also, the computer newspapers are printed on has nothing to do with whether or not they like the iPod, you git.
Git.
The only problem I've really had is that sometimes the screen doesn't light up when I hit the back button, but hitting the volume up or down a notch instantly makes the screen light up.
I have a small problem with zune marketplace/transfering songs to the player, sometimes it cuts the cd in half and loads half of it with all the metadata, but leaves the other half without any data. I can solve this manually, but it does kind of consume time. Not a big deal, but it does kind of irk me.
Edit: The above was in re: to Drez, not you Crayon. I hate quoting when it's a relatively slow thread.
No, there really doesn't.
It would be unlikely, though, simply because few devices perfectly match what one desires.
But ah well. I'm happy with my ipod, and the Zune doesn't even work on macs yet to my knowledge, so I'll stick with this thing for now. When/if it kicks the bucket, if the Zune's still viable and works on OSX by then, I'll look into picking one up as a replacement.
Yeah, I got corrected on that. All I have ever heard or seen has been the brown, not any of the other colors.
From everything I have heard, and every look i've had at the thing, I just can't come up with a valid reason to buy one over an iPod. I mean, maybe in a few years, but I can't find a reason. And it seems hard for it to come attack the iPod, and get that off it's throne.
But hey, if you enjoy it, more power to you.
I make a playlist with WINAMP, drag it to the zune software, and hit sync.
that's about all I use it for.
I don't use the marketplace as I am a DRM free consumer
I have used a hack to make it a portable HD, which only really allows you to drag files and store them while the software is up.
I use alive zune converter and don't have any issues with video playback.
I kind of like that there isn't really much instruction when you open it. I had to figure out how to properly turn it off on my own
The battery life is a good 8-10 hours if you turn a lot of the bells down. Like turn off wifi, turn down the screen light, ect.
videos eat the life pretty fast.
there have been some issues with the zune software creating skips/jumps in the songs it converts or songs from the market place. i havent had much experince with it though.
haha being cursed out by an englishman is so cute!
What the fuck?!
the screen and interface sold me.
i hate the wheel on the ipod, it's easy to go somewhere you don't want to go. and i dont like using software based off a mac system.
well that and they are cheaply made from my experince.
However, if you have nothing, or your iPod breaks (as mine did), then there's about equal reason to get an iPod or Zune. Personally, I prefer Zune navigation, particularly directional pad over the touch wheel. The touch wheel is more or less useless in the winter, if you wear gloves. I've had an iPod for years and HATED that beyond belief.
Their are two main colours for wallets Black and Brown. No one goes on about them (I actually have a white wallet but you know that's just me).
Back when the iPod first came out all hand help devices were either black or grey. Everyone made fun of that but it was introducing a new style. That's what Zune is doing.
Satans..... hints.....
Why?
Sure, the Zune screen is nice and big, but larger, crisper album art pictures don't make your music sound better. I guess if video playback is really important to you, the Zune is a no-brainer. But again, that doesn't make it a better music player.
Personally, I have no need for the video aspect (only reason I got a Video instead of a Nano was capacity), but the idea of games on the Zune has me interested. Maybe when the time comes to send my iPod out to pasture, I might look into the Zune. Though, I can see the Zune's interface holding gaming back in the same way that the iPod's interface has.
To make the Zune a decent handheld game platform, they would have to shrink the circle button so they could move the screen over without reducing screen size, and putting a couple of buttons on the other end. As it stands, you'd have to let go of your "d-pad" to perform any actions with the other buttons.
Look, mister OP, there are tons of MP3 players on the market that all play mp3s. In fact, some even have built-in features that the iPod doesn't have, or won't ever had (ogg support, for instance, or more video codec support).
It doesn't matter. There's a reason that people keep buying iPods -- it makes listening to a lot of music stupid-easy. Despite people's complaints against iTunes, for 95% of the iPod owning public, it is a perfect interface for their mp3 player.
Here, think of it this way. You can get *any* mp3 player if you manually create all of your own playlists and generally just listen to albums all the way through. How many MP3 players support "smart playlists," that automatically populate based on criteria you select? How many actually use elements like "times played," "last time played," and "personal rating" to let you craft playlists?
Finally, how many are owned by so many people that it takes the fear of buying technology out of the equation? Ding!
Why do so many people buy Dells? Is it because they always make the best computers? Or is it because enough people have bought them and have positive things to say ("it came fast," "it was cheap," "it's quiet and you can order Office to come on it")? Similarly, why are more and more home users buying Apple computers, but businesses generally ignoring them?
These are all questions based on a critical mass that technology must pass in order to be the next "gadget to beat." And in order to beat that, you can't just release better hardware. Your solution needs to be better in every single way, so that people who own the "standard" jump ship over to your device.
What is it about the Zune that would cause current iPod owners to sell their current iPod on eBay and buy a Zune as a replacement? Well, it doesn't work in iTunes so the Mac market is right out, but let's assume that people let iTunes sort their music library and they used MP3, not AAC. Copying music over isn't a big deal then. Is the software better than iTunes? Mmm, I'd argue it has fewer features and pushes the "marketplace" a lot more. And it uses a clicky-pad instead of a scroll-wheel. The screen is bigger and it's smart about detecting video/picture orientation to play in a way that maximizes the screen. But that's not enough to cause an iPod owner to get a Zune. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of reason why someone would put their faith into a new device rather than the iPod that everyone else owns, unless it has some feature that you obviously need (similar to someone whose entire music library is OGG). Tycho's post about how he really likes it for the music subscription, for instance. But note how he also admits that the major feature of wirelessly transmitting music to other people is basically entirely worthless.
I'm a "best tool for the job" kind of guy, and if any of these other mp3 players did everything better than the iPod, I'd probably own one of those. Personally, I was so pleased with how iTunes handled my music, and how it opened up my library to let me actually *listen* to my music, rather than hunt for songs that I've usually forgotten about, that I actually re-encoded all of my CDs (I had previously encoded them all to OGG, and was on the lookout for a player that did OGG and wasn't super-expensive).
Hey, it's great that your own mp3 player does what you want it to. Yes, in fact, all mp3 players are very good at playing MP3s. But just because it has a big screen and can play mp3s doesn't mean it gets a free pass to "win all the monies." People expect a huge company like Microsoft to be able to invest in some interface and testing people to make a device that thoroughly kicks the pants off of everything. It doesn't -- it's just another mp3 player that isn't the iPod. It has some different features but the only reason it stands out is because it's by Microsoft.
Because it's slow as fuck? Seriously, don't start up iTunes if you have an old computer. You will be sitting there for about 5 minutes.
Satans..... hints.....
Yeah. I'm sure all the guys who took theirs apart (in the fine Internet tradition of disassembling electronics) totally missed the Wifi chipset and the touch screen.
The Zune is a competent MP3 player that has a few flaws. It might get better with firmware/software revisions, or it might not. But it certainly doesn't contain super magic pixie dust that Microsoft is keeping secret. That's almost as bad as the Wii diehards who are still holding out for Nintendo to reveal the "final secret".