[kingbriani]

Is anyone here getting the microsoft zune? im kinda anti-ipod and think i might pick up the zune. i wanted to know if anyones heard anything about it. i dont think there are any full reviews out for it yet, at least that i could find. im also considering the offerings from creative and iriver. what are your opinions?

[BzsBimmer]

I'd rather be pro-ipod and anti-m$
I think that there are more ipod solutions than that of MS products. If MS can dominate the world market with clever interfaces for it's product, they can really compete with Apple but since Apple has the product and aftermarket dominance, they'll be hard to top. Look at Dell. They came out with a player as well and it fizzled. It's not about the device but rather how many things can adapt to the device to make it more desireable
My .02

[Brunotheboxer]

if the zune is windows based then
ipod has already won the war its just that microsucks wont accept that.

[Ninjaneer]

M$ is playing catch-up. Zune (vs. iPOD), live.com (vs. Google), MSN Soapbox (vs. YouTube, which was bought by Google).

I think the only catch-up item of their's that I appreciated was the XBOX. Time will tell.

[mds82]

They do have an awesome feature where you can share songs wirelessly and be able to play them up to 3 times before they automatically delete themselves

[///Matt]

Avoid the IRiver. It's a subscription based service. When you cancel your subscription, you lose all your music.

[Hunter399]

Ipod is best!

[EOE90]

i believe santa is bringing me a black zune for christmas

[jerrygarcia]

ipod owns, everyone is trying to catch up, and right when it seems they will have something similar to the ipod, apple comes out with something new

[OrangeCounty949]

I might be interested in the Zune if I could hook it up to the iDrive. Does anyone know where I can get the iPod integration kit for a 2007 335i coupe? My dealer told me my iDrive is a new generation and the new adapters are not available yet, inferring that the current kit will not work.

[neuronpetkowski]

avoid the zune this release. it's a samsung in disguise.
wait til v.2

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[calvino]

zune? LOL, wait for the ipod touchscreen, like Bruno said ipod won the war allready

[obLu]

Ugh, you'd consider spending money on that cheap korean engineering sample looking thing over an ipod? Why? Unless they can come up with something seriously cool that nobody else does (highly doubt it) they've already lost.

If you're going to come to market against the ipod, spend some frickin time designing the damn thing!

[OrangeCounty949]

I'm just tired of my iPod going dead. I have had 4 already and I can sense this one being done soon...it is starting to randomly turn off.

[kingbriani]

Originally Posted by neuronpetkowski

avoid the zune this release. it's a samsung in disguise.
wait til v.2

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i thought it was a toshiba??

[kingbriani]

as for the zune being poorly designed, could you give some examples?? i actually like the design. the shell is a rubberized plastic with a matte finish as opposed to the easily scratchable soft plastic on ipods that fingerprint easily. the zune's screen is of much higher quality than the generally poorly thought of ipod photo's screen as well as larger. the twist interface of the zune is praised by critics and its tactile buttons are preferred over the ipods touch sensitive buttons. first-look type reviews of the zune all state that the zune software is highly intuitive and well thought-out. i'm not actually anti-ipod, i just dont like getting something because its "hip" or trendy. i prefer to look at the merits of a device instead, and base my decision on that. besides, the wireless functions of the zune seems to be pretty cool, especially if i can wirelessly link to my xbox360!

[Gripster]

Zune has some nice features and looks very slick with a nice screen and I thought it might have been a sweet little device. Then I did some homework and determined that unfortunately, it is already dead in the water. Apple will release the next iteration of the iPod and then it's all over.

[whippersnapper]

Zune will be a total failure.

It doesn't support Microsoft's existing DRM so it won't play any copy protected content except from their own new system.

It doesn't support podcasts

It is much too thick.

The social networking feautures are okay but useless until there is a massive installed base (don't hold your breath)

Apple is posied to announce the new video iPod in January

It is hard to believe that the same team who did Xbox did this screwup

[- Paul -]

Originally Posted by ///Matt

Avoid the IRiver. It's a subscription based service. When you cancel your subscription, you lose all your music.

Eh? I have an H340 and no subscription Very good player - can be used as a portable hard disk, plays photos, video, text file, can use different firmware etc. Just too large!!

[aljlin]

Oddly Microsoft has yet to make the Zune compatible with Microsoft Vista, even if it isn't out for a month or two, there are beta versions out there that people have installed, and wouldn't they think that if people were that eager to try out Vista RC1 and stuff, they would try the Zune? You can't install Zune onto Vista... http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2237 .. which also brings the question, the Wireless capabilities, Yes in writing it looks good.. but to be honest, Unless u have enough Zune's out there, and you have enough friends out there with the Zune, how often would you use those features? I'm sure once the Zune gains word and popularity, and they work out the bugs, maybe they'll do well, but with such a large market and competitors, and they all still struggle to take a large enough market share from the ipod, not sure how the zune will do, even with the large cash flow behind it. Maybe if they bring out variants it can do better, but we'll see. I think wait a couple weeks or months until you get more word out from users and see how they like it before shelling out the money for it.

btw, engadget just did a review. http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/15/zune-review/ interface pretty good but everything else needs work

[whippersnapper]

The other issue is that when you share wirelessly (assuming you can find anyone else with a zune) the content is automatically DRMed with the 3 plays or 3 days even if it has no DRM to start with (e.g user created content)

[kingbriani]

Originally Posted by whippersnapper

The other issue is that when you share wirelessly (assuming you can find anyone else with a zune) the content is automatically DRMed with the 3 plays or 3 days even if it has no DRM to start with (e.g user created content)

yeah that is pretty gay. i think that, and several other problems will be solved shortly however, as soon as the hacker community has a chance to get their hands on it and make some fixes.