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Microsoft Zune MP3 Player Interface Revealed
bain writes to tell us that iLounge has put up details on the Zune, Microsoft's MP3 player. According to the article, "Zune is a bit bigger than a standard 30GB iPod, and apparently made entirely of plastic." Interestingly, Microsoft forgoes a touch-sensitive scrollwheel in favor of wheel-shaped buttons. Included are WiFi capabilities, an FM tuner, and (in stark contrast to the iPod) a white-on-black color scheme. The 30GB model is expected to sell for $300.
This story selected and edited by LinuxWorld editor for the day Saied Pinto.
Not only does my iPod show up as a mass storage device when I plug it in, it automatically copies over all of my music too. And as 99% of my music is in MP3 (the other 1% being Apple lossless, which is admittedly a minor niggle, though less so since there's no harm in transcoding between lossless formats), I'd say the latter is covered too. Sorry, but your argument flatly sucks. I can put a CD in the drive, iTunes automatically rips to MP3 and tags it, then ejects the CD (or at least I can configure it as such in about three seconds), then I plug in my iPod and the new music is automatically transferred to it. Without a single click. I tried the mass storage device approach - it's nothing short of abysmal compared to automatic syncing. Not to mention ripping CDs was usually a many-step process, and half the time required me to type in all the track listings. With iTunes, I put or plug it in, wait a few minutes, and remove or disconnect it. No work on my part, no thinking, and it even organizes the local files in a standard and logical manner.
I don't quite know how you define 'easy', but it's certainly not how I do, and I'd imagine not very close to Webster, either. I hated iTunes for the longest time, too, but at least I was never in denial about how my old process sucked. I'm not meaning to flame you here, but iTunes has been the best thing to happen to my music library since the MP3 format. Videos are another story, but I can deal with that (or, rather, just avoid it)
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
Say what you want about hardware/software, but Microsoft has made great developments in hardware particularly with their mice and keyboards. I don't know if they *invented* the scroll wheel and forward/back buttons, or the natural style of a keyboard, but they certainly popularized it and brought the price point down so everyone can afford one.
Their entry into the wireless market kinda sucked because they were so late, but had they of tried that a few years earlier we probably don't have Linksys or Netgear anymore.
Oh and, that whole X-Box and 360 thing didn't do so bad either.
-David
YOU are the idiot, clearly with some agenda. you aren't making any sense.
iTunes gives you complete control over what goes on the iPod, what doesn't, and what format it has. Jesus f'ing Christ, try using it once before you talk BS FUD about it.
>new, completely different program
I used iTunes on Windows before I got an iPod because its library is the best. then I got an iPod. then I got a Mac.
>take over their collection
wtf? iTunes is one of the few programs that DOESN'T start scanning my hard drive when loaded searching for content to take over. but you have the option of letting it import you old stuff (any format), and an option of whether it should keep that stuff organised or just link to it in its current place.
>take over ripping
iTunes has optional ripping functionality. oh NOES!!!!11 the horror!!!
>convert everything to its own format
you can choose your format. anything imported can be converted to AAC IF YOU SO WISH.
>and make the decisions as to what goes on the player
iTunes assumes that you want ALL your music on your player. you can make advanced selection of what to ignore so you can keep the benefit of auto-sync.
>Or do you think they want to just take their existing collection and copy whatever they want onto the player?
no I think they (like me) want organisation to be as simple and powerful as possible. you can manually rename, retag and copy files if you want, but I'm constantly making changes to song ratings in iTunes, changing playlists, making new ones etc. etc. and all of it is automatically synced to my iPod.
oh yeah, and it does exactly the same thing with my photos. my entire photo collection optimised for iPod screen and synced. and when I crop an old photo I'm not searching through hundreds of files on my iPod to find which one needs to be replaced.
Finding other idiots on
Duh, patents. They didn't "forgo", they "prevented a giant lawsuit they were sure to lose."
Excuse my speling.
Making The Bar Project
I don't know what the status of the FLAC plugin for iTunes is, but it may just be a matter of selecting the FLAC files and hitting the convert to Apple Lossless button in iTunes and then plugging an iPod in.
Be aware, however, that playing lossless music will reduce the battery life since you have to spin the disk 2-4 times as much. I would quite like to see a music player which would store lossy and lossless versions of the same music and play the lossless version only when on external power.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Losing money also causes the stock price to go down. Sometimes even more than "image" drives it up. Sometimes.
The reason FLAC is not in the iPod is that it is too costly to decode. This is why the Apple Lossless codec was developed; to allow lossless playback on existing hardware (and without reducing the battery life too much).
Sorry, that's crap. FLAC is amazingly easy to decode, as evidenced by the fact that Rockbox running on the exact same iPod WILL play FLAC. The reason iPod doesn't have FLAC is simple - it wasn't made by Apple and it doesn't have DRM.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"