More Zune

[mmaestro]

Great, lengthy, detailed review of the Zune on Fox News (I know, I was surprised too) here. In many ways, I found the most interesting comment to be about the much maligned (let's be honest, everything about the Zune has been maligned in the press) points system:The points thing is an issue with some people. Why not just use regular regional

Comments

[itchyfidget]

C said something similar the other day, that he'd read somewhere: namely, that Microsoft don't make good first-generation products, but their second/third generation stuff is usually pretty good. It takes them a long time to tweak everything. It may also be down to "pressure to ship" and so on (you know, having a specified release date as opposed to a release specification).

So I hope they get their act together on this, because it could be great.

[mmaestro]

The thing I find most interesting about the Zune is that I think it is a good first generation product, insofar as the hardware is fantastic. What needs to change is the software and firmware on the player. But because that's the problem, it should mean that the early adopters won't get left behind. I think unquestionably, it was shipped too early to meet the Christmas rush, which in many ways is a shame, because the first impressions are so unfavourable.
On the flipside, you could say the same thing about the X-Box, and it's now the ascendent games system (in the week of release of the PS3 and Wii, it outsold both systems).

Apple are really going to have to play catchup on this one, I think. I've heard rumours that a media system dubbed "iTV" is going to be coming, which might do the same sort of thing, but they'll be fighting about the fact that millions of households already have an X-Box 360, and replacing your iPod is a lot cheaper than replacing your X-Box.

[mmaestro]

I use Pocket Tunes, which came free on my Palm. I upgraded to the deluxe, paid version because we'd ripped most of our music to wma because it's got better compression than mp3 and it's a format supported by Bethany's digital music player.
I don't get many problems with skips, but occasionally when my palm accesses the memory card for another application, or wirelessly connects with another device. Occasionally when I open another progrem it skips for a moment, too, but that's pretty rare. IIRC, your problem may be more due to the OS - Palm's never had true multitasking, and as far as I know the implementation that it does have gets better through the more recent models, so it may just be that your zire is running an older version of the OS. But you could download the trial and at least find out.

[skington]

As it happens, Apple gets round the issue of paying credit card fees on 99 cent transactions by waiting a while to see if people buy more than one song, and then bundling all of their purchases into one. You've got roughly 2-3 days after you authorise someone's card (i.e. check they're good for $10 or whatever) to actually charge it, and you're allowed some leeway - basically so hotels can cope with room service and other variable and unpredictable charges. If the client only buys one 99 cent song, well, Apple have to eat the charges, but in practice they'll buy more, at which point we get out of the arena of micropayments and into something more like a regular credit card purchase.

On a related issue, here's what

[skington]

Bah. This is what I meant

[mmaestro]

That's interesting. Seems like Apple are heading in the same direction, and given the market saturation Apple have in media players vs. the significant dent Microsoft has in home entertainment systems, they may be evenly matched here. It'll be interesting to see which advantage puts which company out ahead. Still, even being on a level footing with Microsoft is a huge coup for Apple, so it'll be interesting to see how that develops.