The New Zune - Comments Page 1

Shouldn't "iPod Classic 80MB" be named "iPod Classic 80GB"?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, sorry! Typo fixed now...

a simple error: you said "Apple's iPod Classic 80MB" and meant 80GB.

I have the Zune 30Gb and am VERY impressed with it. Easy to run and does a great job. The only PROBLEM is the software. It is about the worst I have ever seen. I had hoped I'd be able to plug the zune into my 'puter and treat it like just another external drive. Not so. The software sucks. VERY VERY BAD.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I suggest you upgrade the software. There's a link in the article above.

I just bought a refurbed Zune 30Gb for $89 from woot.com's legendary one day sale. Notes:

1. I did upgrade the firmware to 2.2 but still the Zune "Marketplace" software does do some odd things to albums, playlists and such. It even puts a few pocasts into the "music" section, as an album. Compilation "albums" freaks the software out, instead of one compilation album, it breaks down into one album per song. I'd also like the option of having the Zune act as a drive.

2. The FM radio is nice. The RDS display / readout is a unique feature!

3. Do a search for the free Handbrake software to convert your DVD's to MP4's to play on the Zune.

Which big corporate behemoth do you want to hate more -- Apple or Microsoft?

You can hate both but still love the iPOD.
I didn't want to like the iPOD but the software/hardware integration is flawless and the engineering elegant. Apple is used to total control of hardware and software and know how to make both work together. That's why they still sell like hotcakes and remain the #1 player that just gets better with each new version.

The Zune is Microsoft's too late comeback and you think the company that created Vista can get anything right?

This new Zune sounds like a definate improvement. I will probably buy it. It sounds like companies are trying to FINALLY bridge the gap between all the proprietary audio/video formats. I wish they could have bridged the gap a little more though... (ex: able to download any song (regardless of format/legalities) and play it on your "portable player of choice"). I just wish companies focused more on the actual products rather than on limiting their customers.

Overall.... I wish I could wait longer to see the next generation mp3 (audio/video) players, but I can't. Thus, through all my research the Zune or the 160gb IPOD seem like the best buys. So I'm going with the Zune.

P.S. --> I wish the battery life was longer on the Zune. I've heard only 20 hours or so. Meanwhile, IPOD 160BG gets 40 hours!!! WOWZERS.

I love my Zune30. I upgraded the firmware and love the podcast feature. I just use the software on my PC to subscribe to my favorites, when I get home from work at night I turn on the PC, plug in my zune for charging and the program downloads the newest podcasts, removes the ones I've already listened to from the zune and uploads the new ones for listening to the next day. Wireless is kind of useless unless you have a quick picture to download. If you have a video or whole album you might as well just plug the zune in and charge it up and quickly download the content.

One more thing. If you delete files from one of your PC's "monitored" folders, it will delete the files from your Zune, also. As well if you change your monitored folders in any way, such as renaming or moving, the Zune s/w will also delete the files on the Zune. For Instance - I had 25 photos on my PC's Aug-Sep-Oct-2007 directory on my PC. I renamed the directory to Aug-Sep-Oct-Nov-2007 and it deleted the 22 photos on my Zune sent from the original Aug-Sep-Oct-2007 directory.

I've had my Zune 80 for seven months now, having switched from a 4G iPod, and I'm really happy with it.

There were teething problems admittedly, with the Zune software behaving strangely with both my music and video libraries. On the music side, this was down to metatagging and now the software has been patched with a built-in metatag editor this isn't a problem any more. The video library wasn't as problematic, but my filenames still sometimes switch around and there are a couple of problem videos I can't get the software to detect (but wierdly, they're on the Zune itself).

Podcast functionality was a major factor in my switch to Zune and Microsoft have implemented it really well. There's no directory like iTunes has, but you just need to enter the feed URL and it's plain sailing.

Seven months in and with nearly all of the Zune's teething problems ironed out, I definitely wouldn't go back to iPod. Life with the Zune is just such a smooth, seamless experience. Where I was continually updating iTunes and adding music and video to the library manually, the Zune software does it all automatically. I just plug it into the PC when I get home and come the morning I pick it up and it's ready to rock again, all recharged and updated.

The only real negative I have about the Zune is that the battery life isn't the best. It's not so bad as to be a major issue, like it is for my Treo, but if I'm going on a trip I need to make sure I've given it a good charge the night before. The software was shaky initially, but has gotten significantly better with each update (unlike iTunes, which updates every couple of weeks to no discernable effect) and I think Zune version 3.0 will stack up well against the iPod and should improve Microsoft's market share.