Filed under: gadgets
Confession time: I’ve never really been that impressed with the iPod. A lot of people have been taken in by the sexiness of it’s form, the novelty of it’s clickwheel, and the catchiness of it’s marketing. But as far as I’ve been concerned the whole thing has been as mess since day one. iTunes is a slow, unnavigatable mess. I’ve never felt the navigation on the device itself was as idiot proof as it should be, either. And then there’s the question of durability; I have yet to meet one person who has an iPod that hasn’t had to send it in for service. Not one! This isn’t exactly the mark of quality you’re looking for in a product that you’re going to drop $300 on.
That being said, I have to admit – there have been times when purchasing one has crossed my mind. There’s one part of me that knows I need a real solution to my portable mp3 woes (the PSP just isn’t cutting it folks – it’s like having a headphone jack on a brick.) And then there’s another part of me that says maybe if I owned an iPod, I’d finally get what all the fuss was about. But then last week, Microsoft stepped into the game and unveiled an mp3 player that I could be proud to call my own, the Zune.
In many ways, Zune is a lot like iPod. It plays video. It’ll have it’s own music store. It’s paid as much attention to it’s form as it has to it’s function. Sure, if we’re being nitpicky we can point out the differences even in these similarities (the screen on the Zune is larger, the form, IMO, is much sleeker), but I’m willing to concede that in a lot of ways, these two are very similar.
But it’s in the differences, the BIG differences, where the Zune really pays off. The music store will allow you to buy tunes on a song-by-song basis OR by subscription. A joystick like control has replaced the awful and annoying click-wheel. Most importantly, Zune will create a community amongst audiophiles in the same way XBox Live has done for gamers. With Zune, you’ll be able to wirelessly send your songs and photos to any other Zune user within a certain radius. Those Zunesters can listen to any song you send them up to three times, and if they like it, they can flag it to grab from the Zune Marketplace at their earliest convenience.
Oh, and did I mention that you’ll be able to browse the Marketplace and download tunes right from your Zune?
There’s only one other feature off the top of my head worth mentioning – FM Radio. Big deal, any decent mp3 player can get FM radio, right? Sure, but can it tell you what song the radio is playing, what album it’s from, and let you flag it to download later? That’s the beauty of Zune.
No official release date or price for the Zune yet, but I’ve been lucky enough to talk my wife into letting me get one of these as my xmas present this year. I’m going with the brown. I think it’s quite hip, and it feels like a great big fuck you to Apple.
(a shiny PayPal nickel to the first comment poster that can tell me what movie inspired the title of this post)
- Read a less biased, more detailed preview of the Zune
- Read how the new iPod pricing is affecting the Zune
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flotsam/jetsam 
GHOSTBUSTERS!
Comment by Tracy September 18, 2006 @ 9:27 pmI want one!
Comment by landry September 20, 2006 @ 9:06 pm