20061117
Did anyone else in NYC buy a Zune?


The Zune is an iPod-competitor released by Microsoft this week. I purchased one because I am interested in its sharing feature. Users can send photos and music to other Zune devices in the immediate area via Wi-Fi. If you have a Zune and live in the city, please let me know. I would like to arrange a meetup so we can experiment with the community capabilities of these things.

Reactions after 24 hours:

Cool
  • The brown color. Bold move, Microsoft.
  • During installation of the Zune software (analogus to iTunes), it auto-detected my iTunes library and copied over my playlists, album artwork, and ratings.
  • The big beautiful screen. Video looks great.
  • Device customization. Like a cellphone, I can make any photo of mine the device's background image.
  • FM-radio. Basic, but convenient. Who needs recorded podcasts when you can listen to live NPR just as easily?
  • The finish is durable and less scratch-prone than an iPod.

Not-cool
  • It is clunky.
  • The device scrollwheel isn't actually a scrollwheel -- it's a quad-directional keypad. I suspect Apple has a patent? Either way, the fake-out is annoying and probably an intentional design deception.
  • Despite the Zune's big beautiful screen, the Zune Marketplace (analogus to iTunes Store) doesn't sell video content.
  • A solid first attempt, still the Zune desktop software is slow and unintuitive. And there are a few little things that annoy the hell out of me. Example: when playing an album, the sidebar shows the artwork and underneath a link reads, "Buy the CD." Uh .... duh? I'm playing it.
Posted at 10:18 AM.
6 Comments:

Matt said...
My iPod died this morning. Is this worth getting over the new iPods (and their already present support network)?
10:54 AM  


Zach said...
The jury is still out ...
11:20 AM  


Chet said...
i read that when you share a track with someone, that person has three days to listen, and then they are provided a link to the microsoft store. if that is true, that'd have to be slapped on the "not-cool" list.
2:43 PM  


Zach said...
I think it's a fair compromise.
3:03 PM  


Scott Greider said...
The NYTimes had an informative review the other day. I read the whole thing, even though I wasn't even tempted to get one.
3:21 PM  


Anonymous said...
Zune gets you laid.
3:40 PM  


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Hi, I'm Zach. I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana and graduated from Wake Forest. After college, I moved to Manhattan to get serious about a company I ran with friends. We sold it to Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp in 2006. I just wrapped up with a project I co-founded called Vimeo and left CV to focus on being a twenty-five year old.

I have another blog called Copy and Taste, where I post about learning to cook.

I live in Brooklyn now.


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