jupitersolo

For the first 3 years ipods were only Apple compatible. That left a very LARGE part of the population out of their customer base. So the who did what first it not valid. Rio was just not some itty bitty company.

Siddig

First of all, apple wasn't nearly in the financial glory that are basking in today back when the ipod first made its stance.

Creative Labs was/is a very big company having had made a name for themselves with their Blaster series of sound cards and computer speakers, etc.

When the Diamond Rio came out people knew what it was, and it was sold out a lot. It was affordable, groundbreaking, and worked. Rio survived for quite awhile until the ipod came out and then rio got bought out some company that just nose dived.

There are several imitations of apples designs and interface.

What made the ipod popular was a device that had a great UI and worked really well. Apples usually forefront of design and style helped shoot the ipod in the mainstream. and then, bam it became popular.

Speaking of learning to read, I never said anything, anywhere bad about the zune. Nor did I say the ipod was the greatest thing in world. But I personally, think its pretty damn good.

Buts its cool. You can keep trying to school me on a subject that you were what? 14/15 when it all happened.

Siddig

Not to mention the 1st generation of ipod was strictly firewire, and therefore once gen2 came none of the accessories were compatible.

slayer202

i'm sure Apple didn't mind that. they fuck you on everything they can.

have fun with your ipods though, but i'm going to buy a new zune or a sandisk because they both look nicer, have more features, and are cheaper

Beelzebub

I am waiting for both.

a new 8GB Sansa View and after the new year a 80GB Zune.

I have had an iRiver H120 for 3 years and loved it, but they never contiued the model and the newer ones aren't rated as high.

jupitersolo

So does that mean they're cooler? j/k

#1 STUNNA

Zune has good battery life too

Scottman111

I think this is what I will do as well, but I'm going to do a lot more research before I buy anything.

I was highly disappointed with my Creative Zen Micro (multiple hardware and software problems), so now I'm in need of something new. So far the 80GB Zune is in the lead...


And thanks to everyone in this thread for the helpful reviews and updates. Keep it up

#1 STUNNA

The new Zunes come out tomorrow and MS has something cool they're offering for free if you get your zune from www.zuneoriginals.net (the site won't be up until tomorrow)





I thought this was neat too



Here's a couple reviews of the new Zunes that launch tomorrow
http://www.zunerama.com/
http://www.cnettv.com/9742-1_53-31412.html

#1 STUNNA

here's the rest of the designs

Scrib

$10 and my right nut this flops as well...

Moog-Type-S

#1 STUNNA

that's what people said about the xbox and now look at the xbox 360. Yes I know the iPod has a bigger market share than sony did with the ps2 but just an example of what MS can do when they put the money behind something just like they're doing with the Zune. This Zune and it's cool advertising program is gonna do pretty well this season. Will it beat the iPod this season, no. but is it possible for them to take the #2 spot, yes. I think it's a good goal for them to set, IMO they have the best mp3 players in their respective price range add to that an all out blitz of a hip marketing campaign and that's a good combo. That's exactly how Apple did it, if Apple had crappy marketing they wouldn't be anything like they are today. They've always been cool looking products and have had great ads, even though I hate those stupid dancing shadow commercials with crappy songs!!

Here's info for people interested in mac compatability for the Zunes
http://www.zune-online.com/mac-and-linux.html
http://www.zune-online.com/news/zune...and-linux.html
http://www.zune-online.com/news/zune...mac-ibook.html

Moog-Type-S

Apple wins because of iTunes.

#1 STUNNA

The new Zune software is supposed to be really cool too. Have you seen it? I posted info about it earlier in this thread and here's a brief walkthrough of a few of the features, it doesn't go into the social aspects of it.

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6COs8bPKizw&rel=1&border=0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6COs8bPKizw&rel=1&border=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

Python2121

you =

#1 STUNNA

HAHA!!

Did you hear that this guy is seriously trying to change his name to Microsoft Zune!!

For the record I don't even own a zune or an xbox 360. I'm keeping this up to date cause people told me they appreciated it. So I'm doing this as a favor for those that appreciate it.

Moog-Type-S

...and right off the bat his album art is all messed up

rise

Thanks I appreciate the info!

#1 STUNNA

just likes it's always been with my album art in iTunes it has the exact same problem

Moog-Type-S

....but M$ has to have a superior product to gain on Apple.

I'm no Apple sheep by any means...but M$ has to have a product so vastly superior to iTunes and the iPod line-up to even remotely grab market share from Apple.

Coming close or slightly better, will never win the battle for market share.

#1 STUNNA

I think that's where a good marketing campaign comes in. Also MS is banking on this new social idea of theirs. It's kinda like a myspace-ish thing where you can see the music your friends are listening too, and what's cool and most poplular and you can recommend artist to your friends, etc. I'm think I'm too old to appeal to that but the teens might like it and that could help it take off. "Welcome to the Social" is it's laughable tagline. Plus the music, picture and video sharing is cool. MS is trying to create this sort of happy peaceful perfect world ecosystem where everything is sunshine and rainbows for their Zunes user to enjoy and well see how it goes.

Moog-Type-S

^^ That will fail. It's the product that must be superior. The Zune unit and software must be superior than Apple product. If you base your entire product line on just "great" marketing, and the product is not up to par to vastly beat the competitor, you will fail.

#1 STUNNA

Umm the product is better. Wireless syncing, and sharing, bigger screen (on the zune 80), glass screen instead of plastic, ability to take your recorded TV with you on the road without havig to pay for every episode, plus all the features the iPod has. I can't say anything about the new software as I haven't used it and you can't say it's worse either. What's going against the Zune is it's 3rd party accessories aren't as many and it's not available outside of the US, not even Canada. The reason that is because MS doesn't have a Zune music store in othe countries yet. Apple released the iPod in other countries even though they didn't have an iTunes store there at the time, I think MS should do the same thing.

Beelzebub

here is a good page on multiple reviews.

#1 STUNNA

Thanks for the link, the review seem very good overall. IDK if I'd trust so much what Dean Takahashi says since he's seems to be a big MS fan. He's the guy who gets all the inside xbox info and they exclusive interviews with Bill Gates, etc.

on a side note:

who's the hater!! seriously!! I've gotten two anonymous neg reps today for posting info about the zune. Why? I'm glad most people here appreciate what I'm doing but to go and neg rep someone!! If you hate the Zune for some unknown reason than don't read about it.

#1 STUNNA

here's a good overview of the new software from gizmodo.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/microsoft...are-321605.php

#1 STUNNA

gizmodo isn't too thrilled about the new software, they say it's cool and easy to use but you lose some of the feature that used to be there before.

Scrib

I can't say I'm a huge fan of iTunes, but that Zune software looks awful. Hopefully it's a skin rather than a pink/orange color scheme.

#1 STUNNA

pink isn't my favorite color, but they'll prolly release new colors for it in the future.

Beelzebub

I don't trust Dean either, too much of an MS fanboy.
But the others I would.

stangg172004

i think im gonna have to upgrade as soon as they come out with a brown 80gig, thanks for the updates guys

#1 STUNNA

here's a comparasion between the zune flash and the iPod nano.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/zune-tigh...pad-321362.php

cliff notes:
they like the Zune pad over the nano click wheel!!! Wow, I wasn't expecting that.
they think the nano is more pocketable than the zune.

stangg172004

does anyone know where old users can get the new firmware?

Beelzebub

I think Microsoft will post it after they release the new Zune tomorrow.

stangg172004

gotchya

#1 STUNNA

it should come out tomorrow when the zunes launch.

stangg172004

i assume you need to get the new desktop software first? and then itll update to firmware 2.0?

gonna try this tonight...

#1 STUNNA

I just came on here to see if you've upgraded yet. Let me now how it goes. You probably do have to get the new software in order to use the new firmware, the old software probably isn't compatible. I hope these things take off so that someone will make a nice car kit for it so that I can get one of these things.

wackjum

I've upgraded.

In general, I like it. Podcast support plus wireless sync. But wireless syncing is slow and eats up battery if you're doing big podcasts. Wireless syncing does have convenience uses though.

The Zune software came with pretty fruity colors. Luckily it was just a skin. I like the new interface vs the old. It seems to be a more refined and stable product now.

One issue with the UI on the Zune player itself is that the title screen's fonts are huge. So huge they can't fit the entire menu on the screen. Pretty annoying. Maybe a fix will come out soon letting you choose sizes. There is still no track repeat option either.