Microsoft's Zune Launched today

And I would have never known it :rolleyes: :

http://www.zunescene.com/

If anyone gets one let us know how you like it.

Don't know how biased Newsweek is for/against Microsoft but they gave it a pretty harsh review--no flash memory version, the MS music store is limited in terms of music with no movies, tv shows, etc., they didn't like the asthetics of the thing and it costs exactly the same for the same amount of memory as the ipod...they saw NO reason to buy one at this point...and this was an article posted on MSNBC...not an auspicious start for it...

I would agree. I usually rely on Microsoft because they put out more bang for the buck along with it still being cheaper than their competitor. Their marketing department really messed this thing up IMO.

And because I was looking at Circuit City due to the $40 off coupon that was posted in another thread I saw that Circuit City is discounting the Ipods by like $10, so the Ipod is a bit less than the Zune.....also found out that SOME songs cannot be sent between Zunes by wifi due to "copyright" issues...but exactly what songs are now allowed to be transferred between Zune's is unknown and MS is not detailing...you only find out when you try and transfer a song and then get an error message saying that copyright laws don't allow the transfer of this particular song...Oh...and you have to buy songs in $5 blocks....can't purchase one song at a time perse as you need 79 "points" to buy each song and you can only purchase "points" in $5 increments...some sort of weird Microsoft payment thingy....

As many of you that have participated in the Mac vs. PC threads know, I've always been in the PC camp for a number of reasons - but this Zune thing really highlights everything that's wrong with Microsoft right now.

Overly complicated. Launching without disclosing vital details people care about (song sharing issues). Ugly. And the price is the exact same as the market leader.

If there was ever a chance to put a kink in iPod's armor, it was this holiday season. Apple's touchscreen iPod has been delayed multiple times and forced them to put out an incredibly WEAK "new" iPod lineup for the holidays.

If Microsoft had beaten iPod to the market with a touchscreen, widescreen MP3 player - it could have transformed the entire market. Instead, they give us............this:



You gotta be kidding me.

It's a Microsoft money making, profit taking thingy...

By charging .79 and making you buy in $5 increments there will always be a little bit left over that you can't spend. You have to buy $395 worth of songs (500) to get it to work out just right with nothing left over. So, if you have millions of people with a little left over that means there is lots of extra money that is left in Microsoft's hands.

Compare that to if they only charged .80 at $5 increments. Then it only takes $20 to even it out.

Ahhh...good explanation...I didn't feel like doing the math to figure it out but nice work on your part...Hmmmm...and I wonder if they put an "expiriation date" on those points...that would make it even easier to skim a little bit off the top....

What?! You don't like a big brown piece of poo?? Hmmmm...time for me to dump my MS stock....

That color scheme might have been a big hit right about the time Jack Tripper had to fool Mr. Furley into believing he had a twin brother from Texas (complete with cowboy hat) on the other side of the couch - but nowadays??

I'm betting some marketing wiz came along and said something like "wow...ya know what?? Apple is putting out their ipods in pink and green and silver...we need to distinguish ourselves...ya know what color no one EVER uses on a product?? Shit brown!! Now does that just SCREAM high tech and forward thinking or what?!?!"

re: the brown color - I was actually listening to some "industry analyst" blowhard defend the brown as more of a "corporate friendly color"



Yeah, whatever....

BTW - interesting take . It's about the only thing that makes sense

Come on Doc! Haven't your heard???

Brown is the new black!!!!

(that sounds like something Paris Hilton would come up with)

Just when you thought it couldn't get any stranger:

Gates praises ipod, labels Zune a modest competitor

Brown is the new black - check!

That's Hot!

That's brown!

I think the Zune is a miss.

A decent competitor to the iPod, I think, might be the Creative Zen Vision:M . . .



But I don't see anything knocking Apple off the top of the mountain anytime soon.

Okay, I bought a Zune last week. And you may ask, why not get an Ipod?

Well, I don't like Ipods, I don't like Itunes, and I HATE QuickTime.

That being said the Microsoft alternatives aren't much better.

The Zune software is pretty, it's quick, and simple. I wouldn't touch the store, since I prefer my music non-DRMed.

Now, I still haven't answered the question. It's the hardware. The large screen, the wifi, and of course the nice brown casing.

Sure it doesn't have a click wheel, but what other features does the Ipod have over this? Every one uses their player differently; If I owned a Mac (No interface with mac yet), if I used Itunes (No way to use that, ever), or if I used an mp3 player as an external driver (nope, can't do that either) maybe I'd choose a different player.

What the Zune does it does well. The sound quality is great, amazing actually. The screen is a wonderful size, nearly double the size of a video Ipod. Great for watching video on the train. The music "play" display is much greater than the Ipod, the album art takes up most of the screen.

Two other people in my office have Zunes, so we can easily send music to each other, but of course you are limited to 3 plays/3 day (and people on the same LAN we could simply use that).

And this gives me hope!

It's not the greatest player on earth, but neither is the Ipod, they all have their pros and cons, and the Zune fit my usage pattern the best.

Another fun tidbit...

The Zune is not compatible with Windows Vista.

(Not that they won't fix that...but come on! That shouldn't have had to be fixed in the first place!)

It's not so bad, because only charging $0.79 is still cheaper than $0.99. but it's 79 points not cents. Where one point is worth 1.25 cents, so at 79 points each song costs 98.75 cents. so it's 3/4 of a cent less than an itunes song. So you spend your 5 dollars for 400 points and you buy 5 songs you have 5 points left over, which I'm sure they are hoping is JUST enough to make you want to use. so for ever 5 dollars you spend you have 5 points left over.

typical...