notic

here's a video of the zune using its wifi connection to share music

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Alfie

Wow, that's agreat function! I could really use that.

RikfromBelgium

It would have been a great tool, if the songs didn't delete themselves after they've been played 3 times That's just morronic

do like the way you can use wallpapers and stuff to adjust the screen. Big thing that's missing with the I-pod.

Choleric

What a crazy world we live in... Apple mainstream now, I remember when it was a cult

Osnabrueck

The success of the iPod and iTunes has always been the ease of the entire user experience. Everything is pretty straightforward and laid out for you.

You buy something on iTunes and it behaves just like anything else you've bought on iTunes. There's no special rules or surprises. I smell trouble when wired songs self distruct after 3 plays. If this is the sort of mentality that permeates the Zune experience I don't think it'll have a chance.

Microsoft uses brute force to enter markets, and this is no different. The only thing that will propel Zune further than the competition is a stratospheric marketing budget that'll probably be impossible to ignore during the holiday season.

I guess what could really take the wind out of Zune's sail is the simultaneous launch of the next generation iPod and/or an Apple cell phone. I don't see an astonishing wow factor in the Zune player and the irrational pull of a new Apple device is difficult to contend with.

In any case, I'll be happy if Zune poses a threat to Apple's monolitic dominance of digital music sales. There's bound to be downward pressure on the iTunes store, and maybe we'll see prices on albums fall to reasonable levels. I'm sick of seeing the same bargin-bin Fleetwood Mac or Frank Zappa album selling at full price just because digital is a new medium. If it was crap for $2.99 down at Tower Records, it ought be crap for $2.99 on iTunes damnit.

Centurion

As you mentioned M$ astronomical advertisment budget is what's going to make this player hot. MS advertisement for Halo 2 resulted in the game launch being the biggest one ever. If we are to talk figures on the launch date Halo 2 sold for over 200 million dollars. all that thanks to heavy advertising.

At the moment I'm rocking an iPod photo 30gb. I like it but at the same time I hate Steve jobs and his crew. I'm unhappy with the bas response, unhappy about the EQ, me not being able to move songs from my ipod to my computer and lastly that apple refuses to update older ipods with new features.
I'm ready to buy a new mp3. If Zune turns out to fall into my liking I will probably buy it. right now I'm waiting for more specs and some reviews.

Mirage77

The iPod/iTunes setup isn't working very well with Windows. It's in Apple's interest that this is happening, but I don't want to live under that. I just got a new iPod and the transfer & validation process is a nightmare. I have to update my iPod along with iTunes 7, that's a 30MB download, then transfer of songs take ages, and then WMA files will conflict and converting will take another century. I say, bring on Zune.

Gene

Ah but you forget something about iTunes, Apple and special rules or surprises - You buy something on iTunes and it only works on ipods, and no other player or device. If I buy something I want it to work on anything damnit, not just an ipod.

Apple have done the exact same thing with the ipod. There are consistently superior products to the ipod from smaller dedicated companies like iRiver, which consistently provide better sound quality, and better functionality. The only thing that ipod may possibly have been better at in the early stages of the MP3 device development is the UI, but after using an iRiver yesterday, that is far from the truth now. Without Apples marketing budget, the ipod simply wouldn't have taken off like it has, simply because there is better stuff out there.

Unlike the belief of many, Apple isn't this go-happy company that looks out for the consumer's best interests. The above is an example of how they are trying to monopolize the MP3 market just like MS did with Windows. And don't get me started on Apple Hardware - Thats right, if I want to use Mac OS (Which is a great OS I must admit), I have to buy a special Mac hardware (which is exactly the same as PC hardware) except Mac put some code in their OS to make sure it won't work on any old PC hardware.

I'm not saying that Microsoft or Apple is better. I just had to add the counter-balance to Osnabrueck post, which seemed ever so slightly pro-Apple and anti-Microsoft (No offence Osnabrueck, I know your love for apple, but someone has to do it).

If I were to lay down my money, I'd forgo both and get an iRiver.

siko

I'm pretty sold on the unit... the IF is great and the WiFi is a great bonus!


For letter word: hack

Gene

I have no doubt someone will hack it. But it'll be a tough job. Microsoft are most probably using Trusted Computing to enforce this, which utilises hardware to help with DRM (Digital Rights Management) and security - supposedly the be all and end all of security and DRM. I have no doubt that it can be hacked, but the hacking will be only for the experts and semi-experts (e.g. soldering on a bypass chip directly onto the Trusted Platform Module on the motherboard).

It'll be interested

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