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I’ve seen a lot of stuff over the past few months about Microsoft’s new Zune being dubbed the iPod killer, and a David of sorts in training for his debut against the mp3 Goliath. But, honestly, a lot of the stuff had seemed laughable. The design didn’t seem that sleek, I’d read an article that said that a Chinese company had beat the Zune to the punch by producing a knock-off before it could launch. And frankly, the name Zune never did for me: It just seemed like a bad science fiction title.
Anyway, all that’s to say, I found this article today via TheRawFeed, and realized that the Zune might actually be a contender. It’s kind of fascinating to see a) that the Zune charges faster than the iPod, b) that it has peer-to-peer wi-fi connectivity so that c) you can share songs and YouTube style videos with your friends (the system lets you listen to a shared song for 3 days before you have to purchase it). Also, d) Microsoft has set up a pretty elaborate shop for Zune customers, and made sure that Apple users can’t operate one without owning a PC. Oh, and e) the Zune is also apparently better for watching shows since the screen is slightly larger, and can be turned horizontally to watch programs in wide-screen. In any case, it seems like Zune has a chance at shaking Apple’s grasp on the market, which means the guy on the left might suddenly start looking a whole lot more attractive.
Comments (7)
Comment
Zune: Hurts Microsoft and Partners more than Apple
posted by mchummer on 9-29-2006 at 12:59 pm
yeah, the pricing, and the look of it were mostly what I’d heard about before on tech blogs, and part of why I had such a poor response to it… I think what I was most surprised by in the other article was the wi-fi capability (which is pretty darn cool), and the idea that the store will charge a $15 monthly fee where you can get as many songs as you want (I guess it’ll be like what Napster was trying to do once it started charging). In any case, I’m a loyal Mac fan (in a household full of PC fans), so I’m just trying to give the devil his due. Thanks for providing the link.
posted by Mangesh on 9-29-2006 at 1:11 pm
Hey, that’s John Hodgman on the left! I’m a Mac fan but don’t be cuttin’ on John; he’s awesomely funny and he’s a FOJS (friend of John Stewart).
posted by Mary on 9-29-2006 at 4:50 pm
heh… I just meant people would find PC’s more attractive. I’m, of course, a big fan of hobo matters, and many of his areas of expertise.
posted by Mangesh on 9-29-2006 at 4:54 pm
Bah. The only way the Zune will outsell the iPod is if MS prices it like they did the XBox, and sell it at a loss. And I’d hate to see the ipso factos and quid pro quos in the ULA for any music you get through MS.
Excuse me, but what about the Intel Macs and their ability to run Windows XP? Kinda makes that a moot point.
posted by Dave on 10-1-2006 at 3:08 am
I’m surprised theres so much hype or interest in the Zune. It isn’t really improving on anything, and the only “innovative” feature (wi-fi) is one that has not only been rumoured to be on the next gen of iPods, but is a pretty logical step foward, which is why I don’t consider it innovative at all.
• The screen size is only 0.5″ bigger, but features the same resolution as the 2.5″ iPod screen (which as anyone with a video iPod would know, adding 0.5″ won’t make watching 40 min TV shows any more comfortable - the beauty is carrying the shows around to be hooked up to a TV at anytime and look good even on big screens).
• Battery charges faster, but has 2 hours less playing time then the 30gig, and 8 hours less then the 60/80 gig (oh yeah, no 60/80 gig Zune). I didn’t think the iPod took that long to charge anyway, and I’ve only run the battery dry once.
• Worst of all, the DRM on the Zune is more restrictive then the iPod has ever been. It will automatically apply DRM to everything you put on the Zune, even if you own the CD, even if you wrote and recorded the track in your garage or (ironically) using GarageBand.
posted by serotonin on 10-3-2006 at 1:20 pm
I’m pretty underwhelmed by the wifi capability, actually.
You can’t:
* Connect to the internet.
* Download songs directly from the Zune store via WiFi.
* Sync to your computer via WiFi.
The only thing the wifi can do is connect to other Zunes to share music files that can be played 3 times. Pretty lame, in my opinion.
posted by Garrett on 10-10-2006 at 9:38 am