arstechnica.com— The first batch of apps for the Zune HD can now be freely downloaded from Microsoft, and they come with an unexpected "present": static and video ads that play during launch.
Sep 16, 2009View in Crawl 4
If you're willing to sit through a video ad for something as silly as a chess app then more power to you I guess. However I think if Apple had tried something like this upon a relaunch of a relatively unsuccessful product (and the original Zune can hardly be considered otherwise) you would have been laughing your ass off at how lame it was
Microsoft and its affiliates usually manage to astroturf any anti-MS digg stories and comments. Not this time. Looks like their "product awareness" budget is finite after all. It's an absolute pleasure to see a story like this and the objective comments it deserves. f**k you, Microsoft
Zune HD -- now with lots of ads before you open your free apps which takes from 5 to 9 seconds. And the ZUNE HD screen in the bright picture of the calculator is very hard to see. It looks like a black mirror.
morcheebaSep 17, 2009
"Launching the calculator takes about 9 seconds"wow... and that's without ads.
macparrotSep 17, 2009
If you're willing to sit through a video ad for something as silly as a chess app then more power to you I guess. However I think if Apple had tried something like this upon a relaunch of a relatively unsuccessful product (and the original Zune can hardly be considered otherwise) you would have been laughing your ass off at how lame it was
cbeachSep 17, 2009
Microsoft and its affiliates usually manage to astroturf any anti-MS digg stories and comments. Not this time. Looks like their "product awareness" budget is finite after all. It's an absolute pleasure to see a story like this and the objective comments it deserves. f**k you, Microsoft
linageeSep 17, 2009
What if your phone played a video ad before every phone call? Sure it would be annoying, but how many people would stop using their phones?
Closed AccountSep 18, 2009
One of the nine is a version of the old 'shell game' which makes it completely worthless.
dreambrother808Sep 18, 2009
Why is there no mention of this on Engadget and Gizmodo, both of which have been promoting Zune HD so heavily? I smell some shills...
Closed AccountSep 18, 2009
JESUS CHRIST NO
ren1999Sep 20, 2009
Zune HD -- now with lots of ads before you open your free apps which takes from 5 to 9 seconds. And the ZUNE HD screen in the bright picture of the calculator is very hard to see. It looks like a black mirror.
ren1999Sep 20, 2009
I'm over on Engadget and it is quite sad to see every slightly negative Zune HD comment ranked low.
tweeSep 23, 2009
or they could just be running a windows mobile emulator while they actually develop a real SDK for the device.