arstechnica.com — "Even the current Zune could turn out to be something really special if updates are made to the firmware and software package on the PC. But if we have to judge the Zune as it exists today, it can only be in words more commonly used to describe Greek tragic heroes: flawed, but close to greatness."
Nov 16, 2006 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountNov 16, 2006
Desperation makes you laugh? While we're sharing, I enjoy seeing you and flag going off on your two-man Apple-fanboy-slay-a-thon. You two should meet up for tea. Or maybe someone just has two accounts. Then its tea for one.
slovenian6474Nov 16, 2006
Wikipedia quote""Fanboys" remain loyal to their particular obsession, disregarding any factors that differ from their point of view. They are also typically hateful to the opposing brand or competition of their obsession regardless of its merits or achievements."The reason most people hate fanboys (either side) is because of the hate towards the opposing brand, not because they have an opinion. When they state their opinion as fact and call other people's opinions false, that's what annoys me. Fanboys don't realize that people have different lifestyles, needs, and wants than their own.
slickrick2k1Nov 16, 2006
My first player was a dell digital jukebox, DJ 15, which I bought during the XMAS of my first year in college (2001). I saw a friend who had it, thought it looked simple enough to use, and that was that. The only way you could move stuff to it (without a special driver) was thru Musicmatch Jukebox: a buggy proprietary bundled-in software (never heard of those before, right?). I loved that little guy. It was a horse. I swear I must've dropped it 10,000 times in the five years I've owned (pwned) it.The little guy's hard drive finally crapped out on me in September, which puts me in the market for a new player. I'll tell you why I went out and bought a zune yesterday. Personally, my experience w/the larger capacity ipods has been terrible. My younger brother went the ipod route, and one year + THREE replacements later, he quit. My roommates also have had their ipods crap out on them. In short, I have seen w/my very own eyes that IPODS are not infallible. Nor should one expect them to be. But man, when you go to an Apple store and the majority of people there are taking a number to talk to a tech guy, it raises a red flag.Here's my two cents. When something is as dominant and pwns the market like an Ipod, or windows for that matter, it leaves itself open to a lot. The more people that own it, the larger the voice for that prodouct. In the case of windows, i think it has always taken an unfair amount of abuse for being extremely prone to security problems. What the hell else is there for hackers to do? Windows is everywhere; of course spyware/hackers are gonna target their energies at it. Any small problem will be magnified ten times, because there are so many of them.My brother was one of millions of Ipod owners. I understand that he is not the majority. He understands this too. Despite his problems w/an ipod, he still bought a mac this summer as he intends to go to school and needed a laptop. My point is: don't knock one or the other because of anecdotal evidence. I bought the Zune, and I swear man I have had no problems w/the player or the software as of yet. When and if I do, I'll attribute it to being an early adopter, and I'll come on here and bitch about it.Stop being fanbois.
sambekzxNov 16, 2006
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sambekzxNov 16, 2006
Perhaps we'll see the rise of CD sales due to the Balkanization of the online music industry. What an ironic twist that would be!
nofxjunkeeNov 16, 2006
Any comment I had thought to post here while reading the article was mentioned in the conclusion. (syncing doesn't work? ouch, my nuts!)Ars scored again with this review. It was objective and laid everything out without being afraid to criticize or praise both Apple and MS with what they got right and wrong. In fact, despite the negative points about the Zune (it's only a 1.0 release, it can't be said enough) it made me like the Zune more. I have an iPod and use Macs and Linux mostly, so the Zune isn't a viable option for me right now and I'm not in the market anyway. If I didn't already own a player and used Windows as my main desktop I would buy a Zune over the junk that's available from Creative or whoever else. (okay, recent creative DAPs are decent but I'm still scarred from my experience with an early Nomad Jukebox)
rasterbatorNov 17, 2006
A zune will look great in your man-purse.
ducksofanaheimNov 17, 2006
I havn`t experienced any of the bugs he talks about. Also , the Market place is FASTER than itunes in my experience because it caches locally. The brown Zune reminds me of real hifi amplifiers I grew up with that had rich wood veneer on the cases like Marantz used to do. Also..."real" instuments like those used in an orchestra remind me of a Zune-type design. ipods look like a kiddie-toy designed with that "Disney" look ; you know , all that shiny plastic and jellybean colors are getting old and remind me of something made in Japan. I can see a lot of people switching over as there is now more choice in the market.
kilraqNov 21, 2006
Decent review, Ars always tends to TRY and take a biased but still fair review. I think the reason it got the score it did is, much as he said in the article, it has "potential" goodness. For the markets sanity and for general competition, I hope MS upgrades this product to fix many of its issues and troubles. It was only brought out now so they'd be able to "TRY" and make a dent in the holiday iPod extravaganza selling that is about to occur, nor could they miss the chance TO sell.As a loyal Apple and iPod (Still loving my 2nd generation 15g one) user, I WANT MS to do well. Cause if there is anything to keep a market fresh and healthy, its competition. Will I ever buy a Zune? Not bloody likely, cause MS will likely NEVER make it compatible with OS X. But I see what potential this has brought out and I think were on the edge of another apple upgrade that's going to blow things out of the water BECAUSE such a threat can now exist.But back to the main point, great review Ars. Keep up the article and I just hope someone at MS READS your review.