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Diploid
Cuban
Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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Microsoft's Zune Music Player Stinks
#6266590 - 11/09/06 06:50 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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I'll stick with my iAudio X5L. It's not perfect, but I've owned a half dozen MP3 players over the last 10 years or so and although the iAudio isn't perfect, it's the best by far.
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Zune Stinks
You might have heard of the Zune, Microsoft's supposed "iPod killer." The portable media player boasts a larger screen than the iPod, a built-in FM radio, and the ability to share songs wirelessly with other users. It's set to hit stores on Tuesday, and some gadget geeks are getting excited. But it appears they will be sorely disappointed.
Zune I say this having never actually used a Zune, since so far sneak peeks of the gadget appear to have been limited to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. But I don't have to handle a dead fish to know it's going to stink, and to see that Microsoft has made some perplexingly stupid decisions.
Take, for instance, the Zune's highly touted wireless feature. The idea is that the Zune allows you to connect with your friends to trade music and sample new tunes. Microsoft is selling community hard here --the Zune's sales slogan is the enigmatic phrase "Welcome To The Social."
But the sharing feature has been crippled to the point of uselessness. If you get a song from a friend you can only listen to it three times, over a period of three days, before it expires. You can't send it to a third friend. And you can't wirelessly connect to your PC or an Internet hot spot.
The new Zune Marketplace is even stupider. Microsoft is trying to break open Apple's near monopoly of the music market, so they're launching an online music store that competes with iTunes. The only difference here is that iTunes is simple, elegant, and intuitive. The Zune Marketplace seems like the polar opposite. It has fewer songs. No audiobooks or podcasts. It doesn't sell movies or TV shows. And if you actually want to buy a song, you've got to lay out big chunks of cash and jump through more hoops than a circus lion. Get a load of this passage from Walt Mossberg's Journal review:
"To buy even a single 99-cent song from the Zune store, you have to purchase blocks of "points" from Microsoft, in increments of at least $5. You can't just click and have the 99 cents deducted from a credit card, as you can with iTunes. You must first add points to your account, then buy songs with these points. So, even if you are buying only one song, you have to allow Microsoft, one of the world's richest companies, to hold on to at least $4.01 of your money until you buy another. And the point system is deceptive. Songs are priced at 79 points, which some people might think means 79 cents. But 79 points actually cost 99 cents."
Don't feel bad if you have to go back and read that a few times before it makes sense --I know I did. Buying music from Microsoft seems awkward, over-complicated, and designed from the bottom up to squeeze every last cent out of the consumer.
There's plenty more to complain about. Microsoft's copy protection schemes are too restrictive. The Zune is about 60% bigger and 17% heavier than a iPod. It comes in brown. All considered, we could be looking at the biggest consumer electronics flop in recent history here. This is like "Microsoft Bob," only more embarrassing.
http://blogs.forbes.com/digitaldownload/2006/11/zune_stinks.html
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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Ythan
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
Registered: 08/08/97
Posts: 18,817
Loc: NY/MA/VT Borderlands
Last seen: 8 hours, 50 minutes
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Re: Microsoft's Zune Music Player Stinks [Re: Diploid]
#6266648 - 11/09/06 07:08 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Since the Zune was first announced, I've been wondering why anyone would buy one instead of a similarly-equipped PDA. It seems like a crippled piece of junk to me. But that's Microsoft's MO, wait for Zune 3.0 if you want a good product.
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supra
computerEnthusiast
Registered: 10/26/03
Posts: 6,446
Loc: TEXAS
Last seen: 12 years, 11 months
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Re: Microsoft's Zune Music Player Stinks [Re: Diploid]
#6267128 - 11/09/06 09:10 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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shit, you know after a while they will prolly figure out how to exploit the thing, making the wireless more useful, and sharing a definite possibility...you never can tell what exactly the market will do before hand either
peace
ps...i do agree it is probably crap though
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supercollider
superconducting
Registered: 10/13/00
Posts: 1,234
Loc: Waxahachie
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Re: Microsoft's Zune Music Player Stinks [Re: Diploid]
#6267330 - 11/09/06 09:53 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Q: When will Microsoft make a product that doesn't suck?
A: When they start making vacuum cleaners.
-------------------- Supercollider? I just met her!
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EvilEwok
Stranger
Registered: 10/09/03
Posts: 574
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Re: Microsoft's Zune Music Player Stinks [Re: supercollider]
#6267662 - 11/10/06 01:14 AM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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BA DOP BISHHHH
So true though.
-------------------- Now go Home.
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero
Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 1 month, 18 days
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Re: Microsoft's Zune Music Player Stinks [Re: Ythan]
#6267692 - 11/10/06 01:41 AM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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> It seems like a crippled piece of junk to me. But that's Microsoft's MO
Hehe. What really blows me away is how much money MS is loosing on the zune player. They are already going to be selling the player for less money than it costs them to produce it, and now they have announced that they are going to pay studios (Universal at least) a "royalty" for every zune player sold. Talk about desperate. It must be nice to have such a large monopoly helping support a company breaking into a new market like this. I can't wait for the first zune "wireless" virus... I bet it doesn't expire afte three days...
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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ohmatic
searcher
Registered: 02/28/04
Posts: 6,742
Loc: europe
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Re: Microsoft's Zune Music Player Stinks [Re: Seuss]
#6267791 - 11/10/06 02:55 AM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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are there going to be service packs for the zune ?
-------------------- MONOTUB tek HEATBOMB tek RIP #cultivation! ....can't associate? well FUCK U !
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TarMonkey
symmetry isscary.
Registered: 08/11/06
Posts: 55
Last seen: 17 years, 3 months
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Re: Microsoft's Zune Music Player Stinks [Re: Diploid]
#6270817 - 11/11/06 12:01 AM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Everyone shot down the xbox when it launched.
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drtyfrnk
PresidentialCandidate 2008
Registered: 01/24/05
Posts: 2,961
Loc: Ontario, Canada
Last seen: 14 years, 5 months
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Re: Microsoft's Zune Music Player Stinks [Re: TarMonkey]
#6272948 - 11/11/06 05:52 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
TarMonkey said: Everyone shot down the xbox when it launched.
And look at it now, still second place to the PS2.
-------------------- It's Krang, Bitch!
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