Zune soon

[clanger]

Strategically timed to coincide with the Christmas shopping spree Microsoft will be unleashing its latest venture into mobile music technology this coming Tuesday.

Microsoft are hoping their $249 30GB Zune digital-media player will find enough buyers to rival Apple's sales of the iPod.




David Pogue provides a thoroughly entertaining review of the Zune for the New York Times.

Trying Out the Zune: IPod It’s Not

[Boris]

...

clanger, that link led to a "temporarily down" page, fyi.

but in all honesty, I "hope" something comes out, be it Zune or not,
that rivals the iPod. it's about time to have some fair market competition.
I love Apple as much as everyone else here, but let's face it - these things
are pretty freakin' expensive and if another company can produce an item
that gives much of the same benefit with a lower cost, why not?

i'm looking forward to that Pogue article coming back up. he's a hoot!

[clanger]

I was having problems with the link. Should work now.

I do get that feeling that Apple's domination of the market is verging upon a monopoly. It would be cool if the iPod prices were brought down to make them more affordable. However I dont think Microfart have a hope in hell.

[kilroydegeek]

On pure specs, Zune looks like a damned good product. The very fact that it has Fairplay playback compatibility makes it the first serious challenge to iPod from anybody except maybe SanDisk (who suffer a bit from build quality issues.)

On principles (and I'm not getting anti Microsoft here, as such...), Zune has problems. From what I've read from a number of sources, the automatic DRM wrapper for ANY song transfered to another zune via the wireless link breaches all the open source and public distributed licence terms out there.

On top of this, the money Macroslop collect to unlock these files may be paid to affilliated labels. Somebody transfers a Paul Brazier song wirelessly from Zune to Zune and the recipient likes it, pays for it to be unlocked and Universal or Sony get the dough.

Now Reuters are reporting that a proportion of every Zune sold will be paid to Universal. This would be like the City of London paying General Motors a fee for every road built, even those rights-of-way where cars are forbidden. Worse than that, the sole reason for this is to make rights negotiations harder for Apple, or indeed any other legitemate retailer of music.

For me, it wouldn't matter if Zune cooked my breakfast, did the laundry and sucked and swallowed, until Macroslop address the rights issues, and stop playing fast and loose with independent and unsigned artists rights, I would sooner put my ears out with a pin than own one.

[clanger]

I cannot even find a release date for the Zune in the UK.. or even Canada for that matter.

There has been a suggestion it may happen in January. In the UK after Christmas and with overspend anxiety? MIcrosoft are off their tiny rockers.

[Boris]

...

MIcrosoft are off their tiny rockers.

please, Paul... watch what you say about tiny rockers.

<img src="http://hem.passagen.se/diomagic/Rjdmagic.jpg" width="200">

[Fosco]

Here here Boris!
Boris said:

clanger wrote:
MIcrosoft are off their tiny rockers.

please, Paul... watch what you say about tiny rockers.

That's right ya big bully

Leave us Hobbits out of it

[ifingers]

They are having a laugh, surely? From Pogue's column:

[quote="Pogue"]Microsoft is starting over. Never mind all the poor slobs who bought big PlaysForSure music collections. Never mind the PlaysForSure companies who now find themselves competing with their former leader. Their reward for buying into Microsoft’s original vision? A great big “So long, suckas!â€

[kilroydegeek]

It is to laugh.

Zune not compatible with Vista.

Imagine the uproar if iPod Video weren't compatible with 10.5

Having spent some time considering the issues (I'm a worrier, I can't help it), I've come to the conclusion that any developer who writes a compatibility layer for Zune to work with iTunes (on Mac or PC) is a filthy worm and should be shot

[Talkin Ape]

How can I protect "my music" from Zune?

I certainly don't want someone else getting paid for it!!!!

Zune and it's makers (of whose name I shall never type again) can go rot.

[Informal]

see also http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/feature/ ... 214869.php

[kilroydegeek]

Seems Macroslop's "iPod Killer" might just be dying a death. Over at Slashdot are some links to some news Macroplop just might not want to read

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/18/1558213

Six separate iPod models now outsell it as well as SanDisk's e250 player.