Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

I fell into the woot.com pitfall yet again and purchased one today.

I tried the Zune out at a concert I went to and they seemed pretty cool, and the price was right at the time today. (I also have a 4GB iPod I bought a few months back for comparison)

Anyways, now the big question remains.

Anyone have one?
What did I just get myself into in this iPod dominated world of ours? lol

All comments welcome!

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

I hear that it is the best system if want to do stuff. You can easily put Linux on there and mod the file transfer expiration date thing. But besides that I have no idea.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!


/me gasps


AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

Yeah, I think Joe Matt pretty much summed up that one.

Zen Vision:M for the win

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

Ok you... and your Apple loving self. I know Windows makes the color Blue the new rage with it's BSOD, but the Black apple I've gotten on the iPod is def. catching up to that in terms of frequency. :p

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

I have one, black, and for what I've used it for (music and occasional video) it has been great. The screen is great for video, and it gets decent battery life.

It also had the advantage of irritating my brother, who's an anti-Microsoft guy.;)

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

I think I'd hold off on any portable hard-drive type music player purchase for a few months. Apple is due to update their iPod Videos soon, and they'll most likely be have a larger [touch] screen like the iPhone. After they come out, then I'd compare the two and make a decision from there.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

I'm really a fan of the Zune or any other MP3 player that isn't an iPod. I have a hatred for them now since I've gone through five of the things without any significant stress put on them. Creative has some good options too. The thing I like about the Zune is the Zune software - I don't own a Zune, but I can stream any .mp3, .m4v, .wmv, etc. files straight to my Xbox360 from my computer. It's pretty handy.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

I still have my Iriver H320 which is still barely kicking but is getting it's job done with a new permanent residence in my vehicle =) and I got my Zen Vision:M doing a similar task which is currently sitting by my PS2 =). Forgot one little bit My Zen freezes more then anything else and if you hit the reset button it takes forever for it to come back to life.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

my brother has one. it freezes and crashes alot

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

I have had trouble with my mom's Zen Micro before, but hardly any with my Zen Microphoto. iPod's are pretty nice and reliable. The only disadvantages are the prices (not uncommon) and the internal battery (only when it get wet, you can't remove it, but the battery does last long). And besides the fact that Apple is ruling the world, I would suggest and iPod. I still like a variety of decent mp3 players, though.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

I echo Art's comments, wait till the new iPods (late October latest) come out, wait for everyone (not just Apple) to price drop/release new players/whatever.

Wait till Nov unless you need one now.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

Sounds like the best idea.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

Actually from what I have heard, the new leak is still a regular trackwheel. Instead the interface has had a dramatic improvement. The best part is that with the interface leak, Apple has finally started removing them, but only this one, so maybe this is the real thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnE_1DXfJkA

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

::sigh::

Does anyone actually have a Zune that can contribute any worthy information to this conversation?

Aye...

I already have an iPod.

Horray for topics going far off topic on the internet.

YAY INTERNET! :rolleyes:

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

There was a time when I used to get the black Apple (it wasn't that often, but it was enough to remind me of Windows) on my Ipod Nano a while ago. It really bugged me, but I tracked it back to my former habit of not using the Eject iPod button. After I started using that button every time a few months ago, I've never had a single black Apple screen.

What it really comes down to is anything electronic can and will crash if you don't use it right. (Although from experience, I've found it harder in general to [un]intentionally crash Apple products.) Not properly disconnecting it from the computer, trying to do stupid things with it, etc. all help cause more crashes.

(That, and un-necessary feature/coding bloat also adds in more chances for crashing. It's like the KISS principal for robots. Sometimes it's hard to overlook the glamor of tens or hundreds of features in devices, when in the end you only use two or three of them.)

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

i was just using my brothers while i was riding my bike last night. IT Freezes constantly.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

Mine's fine... so far.
But you have to realize that the Zune and the larger capacity iPods (30GB & 60GB) have internal hard drives which are subject to shock.
Unlike flash based media devices (iPod 4GB Nano, shuffle, etc..) which don't care about shock cause it has no moving parts inside.
(ie: A friend of mine dropped and ran over her flash memory based iPod Nano with a go-kart while racing, and it still works fine. Try that with any hard-drive based media player and your results won't be so nice.)

Just something to consider.

So far my Zune is great. I was going to buy another one just for holding music I actually have CD's of and not mp3's.

But... during the woot-off yesterday, it was just bad timing with having no funds for that at the time. Gotta pay the bills first. lol

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

As much as I hated my photo iPod, I do have to give it some respect in the fact that the thing was an absolute tank. I treated it like crap, dropping it, leaving it in my backpack, pockets with other things in them, etc and besides a few scratches on the chrome it stayed completely intact. I understand the theory about moving parts vs no moving parts, but I just wanted to throw that out there.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

My friend has a zune and I've seen her drop it like 4 times. (from really far up). It works fine. It's like a substantial brick. Maybe the technology isnt the best, but its sturdy and has a hard "outer shell".

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

I've heard good things, nothing like all the talk of crashing in this topic. But I haven't personally owned one so I'm only speaking off of what I've gathered on LL.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

At their special "The Beat Goes On" keynote event (which is live right now), they just released their new iPod Touch with a full touch/wide screen, Wi-Fi, Safari web browser, built-in YouTube, Coverflow, and a 22hr battery for audio! :cool:

And to up the ante on storage space, their iPod "Classic" is now available in 80g and 160g hard drives. The new iPod Nanos are now capable of playing video, and the iPod shuffles are now available in more colors.

Since the event is still ongoing, there may be even more new features they have yet to release. ;)

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

...and the base model has only 8GB of storage. Lame.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/09/05/zune/

I still got mine for cheaper than that. 30GB for $155.

Zune vz iPod. Who will come out on top in the end? Zune had Wi-Fi even before iPod thought of putting it on a media player fyi... & to top it all off ,the source code for the current Zune shows capabilities yet to be even used with the current hardware/software combos.

Looks like Apple has some serious competition, and with the next generation of Zune out soon MS vs Apple will take on a whole new twist.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

I hate sounding like a Apple fanboy*, but I like the facts. Apple had filed for patents using Wi-fi and similar wireless music sharing capabilities months before the Zune came out. And with the new iPods running Mac OS X operating system, there's plenty of capability there for new applications and features.

Before Apple came out with their new iPods, I would have agreed that Microsoft was ahead of them the hard-drive-music-player market in features. But now it looks like Apple has leapfrogged ahead again. But in the end, all that really matters is the intense competition between the two, because that ensures that each side will constantly keep innovating to make better products. (Regardless of which of the two one may prefer.)

The last thing I'd want is to have another [practical 100% monopoly] Microsoft (from about 2000 until 2004), before Mac OS 10.3 had begun to set the bar higher for operating systems, before the easy-to-use Ubuntu Linux had been introduced, before OpenOffice has begun to take on a double-digit market share in the enterprise and business markets, and before Mozilla Firefox had shaken up the browser market. As long as no company controls more than about 80% of the market for a particular product/service, the intense competition will usually ensure lots of innovation.

* I generally like Apple products, but I'm not fanatical about it. I don't raise bias towards Apple to an zealous art form. If there is anything that I could be called fanatical about, it's robotics and FIRST. :)

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

I believe that this is a common misconception of many people in the technology sector. More features doesn't necessarily means a better product. The features has to be something that is simple, reliable and something the consumer will use. I believe that a better UI and easy to use product is the more essential focus. This is why Apple employs a minimalist and easy to use form factor. This what makes consumers choose iPods instead of competing products. For example, the Zune's wi-fi capabilities. What can it do? The only function it could do is to transfer songs from another Zune. What is the chance of that happening in the wild. As Steve Jobs said "Its quicker and easier for someone to share their earbuds with a friend." The new iPod touch wi-fi capabilities include a web-browser, youtube, etc. This is something that a consumer will use. Also the Zune has an FM tuner, which the iPod has been blasted in the past for not having this feature. Well in order to get good reception you have to have a decent antenna sticking out. Also who listens to radio any more? The radio stations these days are usually 75% advertisements. This is an example of what consumers don't want these days.

Besides features, another downside to the Zune is the Zune marketplace. Microsoft, who is well known for over-complicating its products have done it once again. They make their consumers buy bulk points (to save $ paying the CC companies for every transaction), which many consumers hate (especially first time consumers). They also try to make it appear that there songs are cheaper by only charging 79 points. But in reality they are the same price of ITMS, $0.99. Music companies, especially Universal, like these types of tactics in order to squeeze the most money out of consumers. For years they wanted complicated things like subscriptions, variable pricing, forced bulk purchases, stricter DRM, etc. Apple, being the leader in digital music downloads, have been able to keep the music companies under control. For example they have had consistent singles prices, flexable drm, and easy to figure out pricing. Apple has been able to find that sweet spot between the business wants, and the consumers wants.

My point is that Apple's music success comes from the fact that they have built a massive infrastructure that all work relatively easy. This includes the iPods, iTMS, accessories, etc. Most consumers want to spend there money on products they enjoy using, and apple (so far) has been providing that.

Microsoft on the other hand, has its user base of Wintel PCs. They could integrate the Zune in their OS, which could make it an attractive buy

Who knows

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

And if it had a HD you would complain about battery life. If it had a bigger battery you'd complain about it's size. If it had 30 gigs of solid state you'd complain about the price.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

Actually, I don't think she would complain about the larger battery - she is known to cart around her large old ipod and the brick that is the 17" dell 1705 everywhere she goes :)

Obviously you can't have everything you would ever want for free, but sometimes a particular requirement falls short in a new product. If people want the latest and greatest features with a focus on capacity instead of physical size for their money then they probably shouldn't buy an ipod. I didn't for the very same reason. She is not bashing apple, she wanted to buy one. They just unfortunately didn't address a diverse enough crowd with their latest release.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

I got the 80 gig Zune as a Hanukkah gift a few weeks back. So far I have nothing but good things to say about the machine. It holds its charge well, syncs with the software rather quickly and has an easy user interface. The touchpad is easy on the fingers and doesnt require circular scrolling to go up and down a list (huge plus over the iPod). I can't wait to try out the Social and see how this wireless sync works with other Zunes.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

does anyone have any Zune hacks? i just got a 30 gig i love it but i was wondering if anyone had some like hacks or apps. you can run on them?

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

Zune is easily the better choice.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

i Have a Creative Zen V plus (8GB)
and it has never locked up
though the screen is too small for "true" video watching
short clips play just fine

the Zen V plus also has an FM tuner that can be recorded from and a mic
and line in to record from.

though if you are still shopping for a portable media device i recommend the new
Creative Zen 32GB(i have a lot of music)

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

I recently bought a 30GB Zune about a week ago, and i think its the best mp3 i have ever gotten. All i know is that u can change files to make the Zune come up as a USB stoage device.

Ill post the link when i find it again.

Re: Anyone have a Zune media player?
 

My only music playing devices have been my computer and my beautiful* voice:D .

But I have heard good things about the Zen, only good things (but very little) about Zunes, and mixed feelings (from adoration to hatred) when it comes to ipods.

*may not be considered beautiful by anyone in the near vicinity