Ars Technica reviews the Zune

[Nostromo]

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/zune.ars

The good:

* Great interface
* Elegant design
* FM radio support
* Well-implemented ecosystem
* Gorgeous display
* Zune Marketplace
* Xbox 360 support

The bad:

* No variable bit rate encoding support in the Zune software
* The social isn't quite here yet—WiFi functionality is lacking
* Software bugs and sync problems
* Can't import music from other music services
* Can't use the Zune as a portable hard drive
* Compression artifacts in album art

The ugly:

* The realization that the Zune can't play any of the DRMed music you've purchased until now

[Eroberer]

Wow! That thing blows! "Welcome to the ****box," is a better motto!

WHY can it not work with "Playsforsure"? What a load of crap. It makes ZERO sense that you can't port your iTunes music over to this device. YOU'VE ALREADY PAID FOR IT *******S!! All of Apple, MS and the content industry are to blame for this.

Anyway, all the more reason for me to keep downloading free music. If they already think I'm a thief, then by golly I'm gonna be a damn thief!

[Eroberer]

Best of all, this thing's going to flop, and people who bought all those songs won't be able to use them anymore. ...or maybe that's not a "best" thing....or maybe no one from these companies gives a sh*t whether it is or isn't.

[DaShi]

Well-implemented ecosystem?

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by DaShi
Well-implemented ecosystem?

Yeah, i loved that line ... wtf does it mean exactly???

[Nostromo]

He's refering to all the other stuff around the player, stuff like the Marketplace, the Media Player...

[Nostromo]

Anyway, all the more reason for me to keep downloading free music. If they already think I'm a thief, then by golly I'm gonna be a damn thief!

No, its all the more reason to keep buying CD's. By downloading "free' music you're not only stealing, but most of the stuff you find online sounds bad.

[Datajack Franit]

The realization that the Zune can't play any of the DRMed music you've purchased until now

This line is enough. iTunes just killed this newborn baby

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by nostromo
He's refering to all the other stuff around the player, stuff like the Marketplace, the Media Player...

That is not an ecosystem. That is software, or perhaps a community.

Ecosystem is recycling and stuff like that

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit



This line is enough. iTunes just killed this newborn baby

Asher in 5 ... 4 ...

[Verto]

I can understand not playing iTunes-purchased songs, but who thought it was a good idea not to allow songs purchased through other Windows-partnered services?

[thesilentone]

Re: Ars Technica reviews the Zune

The bad:

* No variable bit rate encoding support in the Zune software
(so use some other software, i use dbpoweramp, it's awesome)

* The social isn't quite here yet—WiFi functionality is lacking
(isn't that just a criticism like "noone else has a zune yet"?)

* Software bugs and sync problems
(it's new, it happens, it will get fixed)

* Can't import music from other music services
(mainly due to apple not allowing their version of m4a to be licensed?)

* Can't use the Zune as a portable hard drive
(genuinely bad, my creative zen micro has been useful in that respect)

* Compression artifacts in album art
(more a criticism of jpeg? but yeah, dunno why they couldn't use bitmaps or png's or whatever, the screen isn't some uber high def thingy)

The ugly:

* The realization that the Zune can't play any of the DRMed music you've purchased until now
(again, blame apple, microsoft lets anyone license their .wma, apple restricts anyone who competes..)


Oh, and i'm perfectly happy with my zen micro, but if I were in the market i'd consider a zune right now. Purely because I like the screen. The wifi seems pointless to me.

EDIT: they don't let other DRM than apple to be played too? Yeah that is a bit weird... Lucky I don't have any DRM'd music i guess

[Provost Harrison]

Arse Technica?

[Adrian Hon]

Re: Re: Ars Technica reviews the Zune

* No variable bit rate encoding support in the Zune software
(so use some other software, i use dbpoweramp, it's awesome)

- The entire point of having a piece of software like Zune or iTunes is that it can do everything. It'd be a real pain in the ass to use another encoder all the time.

* The social isn't quite here yet—WiFi functionality is lacking
(isn't that just a criticism like "noone else has a zune yet"?)

- No, it's not. That's part of it, but it's mainly 'even if everyone had a zune, you wouldn't be able to do a lot with the wireless'.

* Software bugs and sync problems
(it's new, it happens, it will get fixed)

- True, but from the point of a consumer, why wait?

* Compression artifacts in album art
(more a criticism of jpeg? but yeah, dunno why they couldn't use bitmaps or png's or whatever, the screen isn't some uber high def thingy)

- The iPod doesn't seem to have this problem, so it shouldn't have been difficult for Microsoft to figure it out.

[LordShiva]

What a PoS. I'm going to stay as far away from it as I've stayed from the iPod, and continue to use much better but less well marketed MP3 players.