Anyone have a Zune media player?

[artdutra04]

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.)

[Tytus Gerrish]

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

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Tytus Gerrish

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

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

[Grant Cox]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

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.)

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.

[Cooley744]

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".

[Deacon Blues]

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.

[artdutra04]

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!

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.

Originally Posted by artdutra04

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.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

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!

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

[Elgin Clock]

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

As new iPods approach, the Zune gets a price cut

On its Zune Insider blog yesterday Microsoft put out the news straightforwardly: Its Zune music player is getting a $50 price cut, from $249 to $199. The price cut starts today. The very same day that Apple is expected to introduce yet more Zune-crushing iPods at its media event in San Francisco -- but that's not the reason for the discount, MS says.
Microsoft says the cut is "part of the normal product lifecycle, something we've had on the books for months." Its statement added: "We just got some research back and customer satisfaction with the 30GB device is really high (around 94 percent) and we expect even more consumers will now want to discover the Zune experience at the new lower price."
At the Apple Store as of right now, you can buy a 30 GB iPod for $249. So, sure, now the Zune looks a bit better in comparison. But only now: In a few hours -- the Apple event begins at 10 a.m. Pacific -- the calculus will change.

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.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

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.

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.

[Kyle Fenton]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

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.

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

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

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

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.

[Fred Sayre]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

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.

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.

[Scott Carpman]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

::sigh::

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

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.

[Squab]

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?