Zune has been built by Toshiba as Tom said. And I have enormous respect for
Toshiba and their vast R& D resources however, Zune has a panoply of
problems right now and I would respectfully disagree that Zune is superior
to Ipod at all in its current format. I am intrigued that you would think
that, Gene.
Like Aero, Zune isn't bad looking. I don't find Aero amazing or great
looking, and it's easy to save my superlatives as to design aesthetics for
both. It's about the same size as the 80 GB Ipod.
Earbuds are awful; just like Ipod's. Earbuds are worse than nothing for most
people; then don't stay in; they hurt; they don't fit most people's external
auditory canals; and they sound like crap.
The big new feature of wireless transfer bombs because if you play a song
for a second it counts and you have 3 plays or 3 days and that means for
your lecture recording or your own band's music.
It has a fake scroll wheel that simply has 4 buttons under it and doesn't
turn.
Play for Sure bought previously won't play on Zune. MPEG-4 (simple profile
and H.264) and DivX/XviD, higher-res videos (say, up to 640x480) even
though it only has a 320x240 screen won't play on Zune. 320x240 looks like
junk played large. Gapless playback and WMA Lossless formats are not
supported in the Zune but are in the software. This is wrong.
Themes menu makes no sense.
Built in radio is a plus. Ipod needs an adapter. that costs aboout $50.
Zune to Xbox only shows 640X 480 pics. Portrait photos are on the wrong axis
for viewing.
Video can't fast forward or rewind. Ipod has built in calendar and games and
more games can be added. Zunee does not yet. Ipod has a clock; Zune does
not, not does it show time.
Zune hardly uses any wifi capability.Video synching or wireless pc synching;
uh uh.
Long distance Zune sharing or wifi access to the Zune music store;
fugheddaboudit .
You can't stream a list of songs to other Zunesters either in a DJ type
atmosphere.
There is no integration with WMP which is also made by MSFT; nor Napster or
Itunes or anything else that is Plays for Sure. This is because MSFT is
afraid of Ipod; and this is also because MSFT always wants to be in control
of every little micromanaging detail on the planet which often means they
aren't in control of anything. If you don't sell Zunes, then that "Be
Social" slogan falls flat; there aren't going to be other Zunes around.
You don't have to have a Zune to download and use the Zune software.
Album art looks bad.
..jpeg only for photos is ridiculously limiting. .mpg, .png, .bmp and Divix
aren't supported on Zune.
Points for the Zune marketplace should be dollars or Euros or whatever.
The points are about the future capabilities that MSFT plans. They also
need to mesh the movies and TV shows they are selling and renting for Xbox
with the Zune, PC, Xbox, and the cell phone.
Podcasts--not on the Zune. Wow. "Welcome to the Social"-hardly.
Zune has a lot of potential it's not utilizing or realizing at all now,
partly because the girls and boys at Bearcreek rushed it to market for the
holiday season of 2006.
Over 80 percent of 2007 cars will have an iPod connector option -- zero for
Zune.
Right now there's only one Zune model; there's no equivalent of the iPod
Nano or Shuffle.
CH