Microsoft unveils details of its upcoming Zune media player

Still no digital radio?

Huge UberColossal *YAWN* I just bought an iAudio X5 and see nothing in Zune that would cause me to do it differently, *especially* WiFi. The last thing I want is 1) DRM and 2) WiFi critters crawling into my player. What I want is capacity, FLAC lossless support (not proprieary WMA Lossless or ALAC junk), true UMS that doesn't require an app to load or remove music and firmware that can't spell the "D" in DRM. The *lack* of support for a download music service is a definite selling point. I also want high quality DACs that beat the crap out of the standard Apple fodder and just about anything else because if I pay that much, it damned well better sound GOOD. Oh, and construction that while small reminds one of a battle tank. And I got all of that in the iAudio and given that it's Korean, I got a buck and a half of player for each buck I spent (Korea is on a "take over the world" binge right now in many markets and underpricing to beat the band). In the face of this, Zune is... Gonzo. I'm sure it will sell very well though because after all it has the MS logo on it and God knows there are enough little lemmings out there with more money than brains as evidenced by Apple's success with the iPod. It'll be the hit of the holiday season.

Just because something has the MS logo, is no reason to "rush to judgement" one way or the other. I'm looking for an alternative to my dying iPod, and Zune will be a definite consideration if it delivers. BTW, a friend of mine has an iAudio X5 and he's not thrilled with its PC integration and terrible navigation.
[edited by Bobverens on 15.09.2006 15:41]

x5 is good player, but you dismiss zune all too easily, and for all wrong reasons too. 1. Did you know x5 also supports janus DRM? DRM support is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as the player allows you to play 'unprotected' formats. If zune allows you to play regular mp3's I don't really care if it supports drm or not. 2. As far as I understand zune will support encryption so nobody will be crawling on your player. And I'm pretty sure you would be able to disable wifi if you wanted to, enabling it only while you're at home to transfer the music. 3. Flac support is good, but lets face it, it is not necessary because you aren't going to benefit from lossless format in a noisy train/bus/street. 256kbps for a portable player is probably an ideal choice. This is the point where you start having trouble hearing the difference between it and lossless, but it takes significantly less space and it's much easier to decode so you get more battery life. 4. I don't see how support for a download service is bad either as long as you have an option not to use it and I'm pretty sure you won't be locked into it. Besides, download service has nothing to do with the player, it's the app that will be installed on your computer and which will download music from webstore to your PC, it has absolutely nothing to do with the player. As for x5, I think it's good, but could definitely be improved. For one, I'm not a big fan of a joystick (clumbersome to use and too many reports of failure after 6-12 months), a scrollwheel with a set of buttons would probably much better. x5 screeen size and resolution are getting outdated, there are also smaller players now. And for the love of god, get rid of that damn "color" lettering on the left side of display. Anyway, it's supid to dismiss a player such as zune, especially since it hasn't been released yet and we really don't know anything about it yet.

1) Re: Janus DRM - yes, if you're stupid enough to download the firmware that supports it. I'm not. 2) I'm definitely going to trust MS security practices. Yup yup yup. I also bought beachfront property in the High Arctic and will be opening a Five Star tropical-style resort there. 3) Dead wrong. Shure E2C or Sennheiser CX300s. 'nuff said. 4) Idiots buy from download services. Yes, idiots. Why are they idiots? Because they're paying MORE for LOSSY content that is of lower quality than the content that they could buy in the store for LESS money AND worse yet, they aren't allowed free reign on what they can do with their purchase. I personally don't condone the concept of organized theft and ripoffs so I'm glad when products do not include them. Regarding shortcomings, I know of folks who have had their X5s for over two years with no issues. Guess you have to not treat the joystick as a video game controller. Screen size? Just right. I view people who watch movies on small screeens as twits with more money than brains who are easily impressed by glitz, fads and gadgetry (PS3 buyers, anyone?). I didn't buy the X5 for movies - I bought it for music and if I could have gotten it without the movie capability for less money I would have. The lettering on the display is neither here nor there for me - but then again, I'm not stupid enough to be trying to watch a movie on a hand held so screen real estate ain't that big a deal. I will admit it has one annoying drawback though: It doesn't do seamless / gapless playback of audio files. I'm lobbying with the devs to add that to the firmware. The other serious drawback is that like many another American fornt company, they're too stupid to support Canadian buyers in their online store ("we don't ship to your location - we're Americans and view people on the same continent as INTERNATIONAL"). BTW: PC Integration? perfect. You plug it in and it becomes a hard drive. What more do you need? Tell your friend to buy a Mac - it'sd a machine designed to hand hold users like him (or her) through the oh-so-tricky procedure of plugging the USB cable into the machine. Real Nuclear Scientist stuff.
[edited by Roj on 15.09.2006 19:04]

Regarding Zune. Maybe you are stupid enough to buy a product that flags a song as being played three times via WiFi and then nags for purchase but I'm not. There's better hardware out there without the gotchas.

1. The newer firmwares support janus DRM, but they do not prevent you from listening to mp3 or flac music, so I don't know why you see it as a negative point. 2. So you don't use Wi-Fi on windows machines at all, Wi-Fi is reserved strictly for linux? 3. AFAIK neither of them provide sufficient insulation from street noise. 4. Nobody's making you use those services. Player will work just fine if you opt not to use them, so once again I don't see it as a negative point. 5. I didn't know about being able to play music from wi-fi from other devices. Personally I see it as a positive thing. It lets you listen to a song you've never listened before three times. You got something for free, how is that a bad thing? At worst, don't listen to it more than three times. Or if you're afraid that you somehow will go over three times limit, don't listen to music over wi-fi at all. What's the problem here? As I see, you interpret every optional zune feature negatively. The thing is all those features are optional and nobody is forcing you to use them. Just use it as a music player and that's all.

1) don't want it or use it so prefer it not clutter up my firmware. 2) no, I don't use WiFi 3) they block a LOT of street noise, enough to matter. 4) It's a principle thing. I hate companies that steal from consumers. 5) It was all over the press release. Most of those optional features are the golly-gee-whiz selling points so if they all suck, why waste the money. Buy better for less.

sadly, given M$ rush to kill fairuse the drm stripper for the computer windows media player, and push it out ahead of all other more urgent and more critical updates from windows 2000, ie6/7 etc, this baby is gonna be laced with more drm firepower than the new navy stealth class destroyer being built literally! further changing ipod's accursed dying li batteries, is truly a pain in the backside!, and as for the factory charges at one time it was almost as dear as buying a new model, and that was just for a new battery in less than 18 months of continuos usage! any music laced with drm, will reduce playing time by approximately 25% or so! a linux hacked firmware version with zero drm could be useful if it comes with warmboot, but if replacement battery packs which normally tend die after 400 cyles are either overpriced or require major unit surgery, forget it big time! oh well, in the end it be your choice, and one can only offer condolences, if they be drm turkeys!:c