Zune or Ipod?

I LOVE my iPod. But I'm a dedicated Mac user, at home and at work, so having a Mac MP3 player made sense. I also have a Monster cable so I can listen to my iPod in my car. This was definitely worth the price! I have a 4G mini - in pink. Might not matter to a lot of people, but I'm an artist and art educator, and I want color.

The sound is great. However, definitely upgrade the earbuds to get better quality - Apple saved money by using mediocre earbuds. (And get some over-the-ear buds, so you can dance to the music.)

Both are losers. Drop it once and the hard drive is toast. $250 gone. Best to get a cheapo flash-based player - it breaks, you toss. Sync'ing via WMP 10 is painful to learn but flawless once configured. I rip 'em to the PC and then sync what I want to the device. No backup issues because everyone backs up their PC rigorously - right?

I received a Zune for xmas from my wife and I love the player. I bought my wife a iPod for Valentines Day last year and she has yet to use it (it is too difficult use). I know how to use but compared to my Zune the iPod is much more difficult to use. The Zune is easily manipulated. Songs, pics and video files are added and removed from my Zune very easily. My wife's iPod needs a 3rd party software to remove files and iTunes totally messes with my computers. Buy the Zune, it's a better unit!

How do you pronounce Zune? like Tune with a z or zooney or zooney like money?

I like the FM radio, I listen to NPR when I am walking. I still cant get the hang of the battery, it runs out in 2 or 3 hours of listening. The problem maybe I dont know if it is on, standby or completely turned off. Just because the display is blank doesnt mean it is off.. right?

EDITOR'S NOTE: It's prounced ZOON, like Tune. Not sure about the battery issue, maybe someone else can chime in on that...

While both of these mp3 players are fine choices, what about the Creative Vision:M series. I have a 30Gb version that cost me $180 (significantly less than both of the discussed choices). My Vision looks great in black although they offer other color choices.

This unit plays plain old mp3's without conversion to proprietary music formats. It also has an FM tuner, plays videos (although I have not tried this feature out) and will display all of my jpg picture files (they look great on the 3" screen). The Vision is also Audible compatible so I can

listen to audio books in my car.

The interface is intuitive and simple to use. The only thing that I do not like about this unit is the adapter block that plugs into the base to connect the unit to USB, a DC converter and audio output. This seems to be a liability to me and I think these connections should have been integral

to the unit.

There is a reason the iPOD has sold 10 million and the Zune has trouble taking off. Apple integrates hardware and software perfectly. I'm no fan of iTunes store for the price but its so easy to use. I rip all the CDs I have and use Emusic.com store.

You also did not mention how PODcasts integrate into iTUNES and make FM Radio obsolete. There are millions of podcasts that YOU pick. Why listen to FM radio with constant commercial interruption? iPOD sells smaller Flash drives as well as the bigger hard drive models. and go read on the web more before you buy. "Each of these iPod flavors individually are outselling Zune. iPod models also holds a total of eight slots in the top 25."

Have to agree with Bill McCormick - the Creative Zen Vision:M is a more than satisfactory alternative to either the iPod or Zune. And it plays videos like a dream. I'd also put in a plug for the bundled software - easy to use, and doesn't try to be more than it needs to!

I'm another one who agrees with Bill McCormick. I love Creative products (they're the ones who make Soundblaster, and I've been using Soundblaster for a decade and a half). I have an 8GB Zen MicroPhoto, and it happily plays WAV, WMA, and MP3 files with no problem (and the sound is awesome, too). Another thing I like about it is the accessories. I travel internationally, and they sell a universal charger at a decent price which can be used anywhere in the world. Finally, I *love* the fact that Creative's tech support is right here in the good old USA, instead of being outsourced to India or who knows where. Yes, you pay toll charges for the call, and there can be a long wait, but it's well worth it.

I love our iPod! :) Though I can't speak on the other players out there, it is extremely easy to use and has fantastic audio output quality.

Having an iPod totally changed the way that we listen to music. I almost never listen to radio anymore since it's great to play music on my car stereo without commercial interruption and also great to listen to informative podcasts ranging from every topic under the sun. Of course, you do not need to have an iPod to listen to podcasts since it will work with any type of device.

I have bought my sister a nano for her birthday and my nephews each a shuffle for Christmas. Everyone is estatic with them and keep telling me how much they enjoy them and their music. I wouldn't switch to another device for anything.

For my needs, my Treo650 and RealPlayer does just fine. It accepts SD cards up to 4GB in size so I have more space for music and I don't listen to music much unless I'm in my car where I listen mostly to CDs anyway. I have no need for an iPod, or a Zune, or a Creative. I prefer to carry just one device and Treo650 does everything!:)

u can have your ipod i thinks its crap its to slow for one if u want a good mp3 player buy an iriver its the way to go it takes forever to respond when you have it full of songs i had 5000 songs on it and it was really slow so i got rid of it and bought a iriver

Creative Zen Vision M Blows them both OUT of the water. So many features that the music listener actually USES! Fully customizable from menu items to desktops to types of video files that will play on it, I don't know why this player gets overlooked so much. 30GB can be found around $200 right now, 60GB $240... It doesn't try to be more than it needs to be, but is almost everything you'd need.

I passed on these and other high performance players for simple practicality. I bought an Emprex MP3 player at Fry's Electronics for $14.95 (now down to $9.95). It uses SD cards. I bought a 1 GB for $15. The player is not much bigger than a pack of Dentyne gum and uses a single AAA battery. It only shows track # but who cares, right? For less than 40 bucks, I have not bad of a player that will hold hours of music. Save your $$$$$!

I prefer ot have the large storage space of a hardrive. I borrowed a 60G Ipod for a month and a Zune for a few days. I preferred the iPod. I haven't tried the Creative yet, and I haven't committed with my money yet either. I'm still using a little shuffle for day to day use.

Phyl, you should know that Creative is not an american company, It was founded and still headquartered in Singapore, I bet that their CS is in asia too.

I have a Zune. It is a really cool device but it has issues. Microsoft has already replaced my original Zune for defects. The Zune is great if it is working. One problem I continue to have is that when you turn the Zune off and lock it, it continues to drain the battery. This is very aggrevating since I run every morning and most of the time it is dead. The other factor is that once it goes dead like this it has trouble charging. It always says "Connect a Zune Device" although it is connected. Frustrating at best!

Definitely going to go with everyone who said ditch those two losers and buy a Creative Zen. Not only is the Creative Zen a better product, but it's still possible to buy their mp3players that DON'T play videos. Not all of us want videos, thank you. Some of us just want to take our music around. It's only possible to retail buy a ZenTouch, which is a mp3/picture device, but mine is reliable as the Rock of Gibralter.

Also as sturdy as, too. You could drop this sucker and not have to worry at all. You can't buy music from Creative, but they don't try and pull all that bull with AAC and DRM. Die, Apple.

I wonder how you can even suggest that the zune is innovative?! it isn't selling because it's obviously another worthless microsoft product, not to mention it wouldn't exist if the brilliant ipod had not graced us with it's presence years beforehand.

EDITOR'S NOTE: So you're saying that any product that is not first to the market cannot possibly be innovative? Consider this... the Japanese didn't invent cars or televisions.

the zune is great. it does everything i want it to do. i've never had a problem with it. actually i don't think you could go wrong with either an ipod, zune or a creative. it's just a matter of taste.

The Ipod is junk.

I bought one, followed the instructions(such as they are) and was never able to get any use out of the POS.

Nothing!

I returned it, got another, thinking it may have been defective.

More nothing.

This is a complete waste of time and money, avoid any contact with this item or any other Apple product, unless you just have to waste your time and money.

Richard Eline,

I agree, nobody should buy Apple products because they just don't ever work.

My motto is if I cannot get something to work then the produce is worthless and no one should ever get one cause if I cannot make it work then no one else can make it work.