ZOMG New Zunes 358
BarlowBrad writes "From PC World: "Microsoft announced a new slate of Wi-Fi-equipped Zune players today, including $150 4GB and $200 8GB flash-based players, and a $250 80GB model that's slimmer than the original Zune. All of the new models feature touch-sensitive controls and wireless syncing with your PC, a much-demanded feature that Microsoft will also make available on the original 30GB Zune when the new models debut in mid November."
Wireless. More space than a Nomad. But draw your own conclusions."
Congratulations Microsoft... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Microsoft releases iPod killer. However, the new Zune was designed to kill the last generation of iPods - not the currently released iPods."
Microsostrich (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, it's not the player - I still can't believe people are missing this. It's the synergy of the player, the music, the store, the industrial design, the marketing and the ubiquity. MS have just changed maybe 2 of these (the design looks to be better). That's not sufficient.
If you saw any of the zune V1 adverts, I think you'll agree they were just plain weird - Apple's promotion of (ahem) a *music* player was to show people enjoying their music. Microsoft's approach should be a case-study in how not to market stuff -
Let's see if they do better this time around. I think they will, marginally. I still don't think they have a world-changer on their hands, and that's what they need - in the same way as Apple need a world-changer to upset the MS hegemony in the PC sphere; even with steadily increasing monthly saled percentages (far better than the zune is doing), a Mac is still very much a second-tier choice.
So - nice try MS. Must do better.
Simon
The interesting thing (Score:4, Insightful)
Buhuhuhu. (Score:5, Insightful)
I've never got the point of wireless synching... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Refresh my memory... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Refresh my memory... (Score:5, Insightful)
By the way, given the headline, shouldn't Zonk have posted this story?
Still not clear whether they have fixed Wifi (Score:3, Insightful)
Can I access the store and buy music DIRECTLY ON THE DEVICE?
Can I download free MP3's available on the Web DIRECTLY ON THE DEVICE?
Can I listen to online streams? (including the BBC, so realplayer may be needed)
Does it have a PodCatcher, or can I add one, so that I can download podcasts DIRECTLY ON THE DEVICE?
Can I use it without ever synching anything with a desktop?
These are the features that could set the Zune apart (yes, even from the iPod) It isn't clear that they get it yet.
Re:Refresh my memory... (Score:2, Insightful)
Truly, AC, we shall swim in a sea of moderation points and live on brownies alone. Well, forget that last part. That was a bit much on my part. I apologize.
Re:How dare they (Score:2, Insightful)
- Scott
Re:Refresh my memory... (Score:5, Insightful)
You can rip your CD's, or get Mp3's or whatever from elsewhere that don't have DRM built into them, and it'll never question where your music came from. It's had a nice form factor and disk space for the price. Had a nice looking screen, and built in FM.
A DRM-gimped wireless music sharing feature that no other device really has anyways? OK, so don't use it.
Re:The iPhone/touch is new, remember... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Congratulations Microsoft... (Score:3, Insightful)
So, basically, it's just like any other Microsoft product compared to an equivalent Apple product.
Re:But... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The interesting thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple has backported a lot of features, but not all are possible to back port due to hardware limitations. It's like asking Sony to backport your cassette based walkman to play CD's.
Double standard (Score:3, Insightful)
When the Zune came out, everybody lambasted it for not having wireless syncing, even though it had WiFi (come on, this is a "duh of course you should have it" feature). Yet the iPhone came out and it didn't have wireless syncing EITHER. But nobody complained, heck nobody even MENTIONED this. AND... the Zune didn't have the capability to be used as a storage device (e.g. usb drive). Guess what? Neither does the iPhone and iPod Touch!
I'm not a Microsoft nor Apple fanboy (heck, I have an iPhone myself!). But I'm curious as to why no one's complaining about the lack of wireless syncing with iTunes with either the iPhone or iPod Touch. Seems like a... "duh of course you should have it" feature.
(I do know that at least one review complained of the lack of use as a disk drive - iLounge's review).
Re:Microsostrich (Score:1, Insightful)
100MB is about 1/10th what firefox uses on a good day, and IT's pretty fucking useable.
Wha wha, look at this new music store, "iTunes is a rip off". What did you have BEFORE iTunes nimrod? Fuck, every time Walmart drops the price of a bar of soap, we don't bitch that the pre soap price was a rip-off. That's healthy competition.
Go buy a stick of RAM, and remove your head from your asshole, the iTunes/iPod/ITMS experience is still king.
Winamp... what a douche.
Re:Refresh my memory... (Score:5, Insightful)
What defines inferior. WiFi sync, WMV support and FM are useful features to me, and the fact i don't need to run the hideous iTunes Win port is yet another great feature.
The second generation of Zunes looks quite promising (the first didn't quite) both as form factor, weight, battery life, features, capacity and price. And the 80 GB model has real earbuds, not the garbage shipped with iPod which you throw away and buy 3rd party ones.
I don't have too much love for Zune, but it's a nice product in its second generation. Don't forget Microsoft always hits a homerun on attempt 3
Last question: Do you always hate inferior equipment? Why on Earth *hate* it? Ignore it, dismiss it, not buy it, tell your friends it's not a good buy sure. But hate it? Someone has issues.
Re:Refresh my memory... (Score:2, Insightful)
Even if it's total bullshit!!!
Even if it disses things that this does better than the comparable Apple product!!!
But don't diss the Apple product or you'll be modded into oblivion ZOMG!!!!
Sorry, but someone has to say this, what a pile of fucking crap.
There is absolutely NOTHING mentioned that isn't the same or WORSE with the iPod, and yet that is gold plated and shit-stain-proof isn't it?
'sloppy you'll-take-what-we-give you attitude?'
WTF? People read that and take you seriously?
But if you post it about apple it's PRAISE of course!
Rational? Around here? When discussing anything MS or Apple related? Not bloody fucking likely.
But my favorite part of course is the gamers like you that just live to rack up those predictable +5 posts based on piling on the bullshit.
*Note that I have not once stated one way or the other about whether the Zune is a good product, or god forbid, compared it in any way to an iPod, other than to point out the complete and utter bullshit presented by the parent poster. But I'm sure to get modded as if I'm a MS zealot and Apple hater. Have fun with that! ZOMG!!!
Re:what about the DRM "feature"? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think part of it is a feeling of MS being dishonest. It feels like they are trying to "cheat" the users, to cheat me. "Here is what you want, but not really, so why don't you buy our crippled product."
It ALSO feels like it carries a certain mental baggage. By accepting that someone else can only play it 3 times, I am buying into a system that thinks DRM is a good thing in a very obvious way. With the iTunes/iPod connection, DRM is still there but it is not nearly as blatant. Basically, Apple doesn't get the same grief because the are better at seduction then MS. Apple is the smooth talker that just says, "hey baby, marriage just is not for my thing. Maybe it will be someday." While MS says, "I could give you what you want but I am not going to. Deal."
It is a strange situation. We geeks often hate MS and love Apple. Both are not giving us what we clearly want, but one is more upfront and honest about it. You could also say blunt even. Which, if either, is better? Personal choice I think. Some of us prefer the pleasant lie, some prefer to take whatever we can get right now.
Re:Partly wrong (Score:3, Insightful)
"Being able to buy songs right on your device is a more powerful form of sharing,"
sounds like spin out of the MS PR department: "Paying a license fee to see our source is more powerful form of open source because you know what you're getting is supported code"
Just admit its a better feature than the iPhone/Pod and move on with it. You'll still get into Apple Heaven when you die, and be greeted by a hundred user-friendly black turtlenecked angels blowing their iTrumpets.
Not Mac compatible (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously - if Microsoft wants people like me (and the other 2 million people in the last 4 months that bought a Mac) to consider their products, step 1 is making it compatible.
This is a singluar reason why iPod is crushing Zune.
3 play limitation kills feature, MS doesn't get it (Score:3, Insightful)
Firstly, how are the 3 plays counted? What if I start listening to the song while working, but then I take the headphones off while a coworker asks a question? If I forget to hit pause, the song will finish playing, but I won't hear it. What if I'm scanning through songs on shuffle in my car, I hear this song come on, but 30 seconds into it, I decide to keep scanning. Does that count as a play? Who knows? There is uncertainty.
So if someone transfers me this song, I have to WORRY about pausing the song before taking off my headphones, or WORRY about not accidentally playing it and "squandering" a play? It's like having a text editor with no undo. This is worrying about stupid stuff. Who the heck wants to worry? I want to listen to music. I don't want uncertainty.
Secondly, people don't simply evaluate music by listening to it X number of times. Often, when listening to music, we may not be concentrating on it, or we may not WANT to put in the effort to think about it. It's the nature of portable music players: we don't have that "I'm in a store, evaluating things" mentality while using them. Yet, the 3 listen count forces that upon us. Listening to a song 3 times in a music store is enough to evaluate it, but that just doesn't fit the casual listening environment of a portable player.
So of course nobody really cares about this squirt feature.
Re:Microsostrich (Score:2, Insightful)
Either you are full of crap or you've had a great deal of user errors. iTunes uses 72 megabytes of memory for my 15,000 song library and 77 megabytes for the data files. Including downloaded artwork.
iTunes is a rip off. Apple would have you believe that they are doing eveyone a favor of "fixing" the price of music at 99 cents.
Holy Super Atomic Hyperbole Batman! A 10% difference in price is a "rip off"? Since when? Apple makes next to no money off their music sales - the vast majority of the price goes to the music and credit card companies. You want to throw a fit, throw it at Mastercard and BMG.
Re:Woud be better if not constrained (Score:3, Insightful)
1). 0 plays on an iPod is rediculous. I can't even hear the song once!
2). Both of you need an ipod!
Of course, if iPod did have this feature I'm sure they'd do it in a better way, but DRM doesn't seem to be one of those things that's up to Apple (see iTunes and pricing schemes for DRM free music). I don't own a Zune or an iPod, but I'd probably go with iPod just because they seem to be a better overall experience from trying them in stores. But either way, my whole point was defending something as "well, it sort of has that which is better anyways and is another form of" makes you sound like a frothing zealot. Just concede the point that "yes, it has crippled sharing, so what?" and move on. Its the same arguments with arguments like "Wii has worse graphics which actually makes it better because...because...because of the wonderful things it does!"
Anyways, we've strayed to offtopic and I think I'm just procrastinating doing work!
Re:Woud be better if not constrained (Score:1, Insightful)
Oh, and you can also listen to your friend's Zune to hear a song.
Just give it up, you're making yourself look like an idiot.
New Zune in time for x-mas... (Score:2, Insightful)
It's going to be equivalent of the bunny suit from The Christmas Story.
Re:Draw your own conclusions... (Score:3, Insightful)
That would require people to own Zunes, and therefore care.
But more seriously, remember that Steve Jobs talked about the iPhone running OS X. Most people, quite reasonably, interpret that as meaning that the iPhone is more than just a phone, or a smartphone, it's a small computer.
For technologically adept people (ie Slashdot readers) in the market for an advanced mobile phone/tiny computer, you bet we'd like to use it for more than just what the manufacturer wants us to.
And we all like our computers (tiny or otherwise) to be at least relatively open, and able to run third party software. (Note the criticism MS is rightly taking over Vista's closed driver model for DRM).
You're certainly right about the N800 though. Great tool, and very hackable.
Holmwood
They need to castrate their marketing director (Score:3, Insightful)
Music and entertainment, your way. Learn more.
Burger King's slogans:
Have it your way.
Your Way, Right Away
I propose the following for the new 3rd gen Zunes (when they get here):
We do music right.
Finger Lickin' Good
Microsoft Zune. We're Hot and on a Rock 'n Roll.
Zune. Squirt fresh
and... Zune. I'm McLovin it.
Hmmm... Maybe I should trademark those now...