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Why Microsoft's Zune Scares Apple to the Core
BoredStiff writes "Computerworld has an article examining Microsoft's plans to launch a competitor to the Apple iPod, the wireless media player called Zune. The article lists five reasons why Apple may fear the Zune, and why it won't be as easily smacked down as the dozens of mp3 players before it have been. The Zune isn't just a music player, the article argues. Think of it as a portable, wireless, hardware version of MySpace. With the Zune, Microsoft is trying to launch a consumer media 'perfect storm.'" From the article: "Microsoft will make the movement of media between Windows, Soapbox and the Zune natural and seamless. The Zune interface is just like a miniature version of the Windows Media Center user interface and is very similar to some elements of Vista. Apple fans are overconfident in the iPod because Apple once commanded 92% of music player market share, a number that has since fallen to around 70%. About 30 million people own iPods. But Microsoft owns more than 90% of the worldwide operating systems market (compared with Apple's roughly 5%), representing some 300 million people. The company expects to have 200 million Vista users within two years."
While playing songs you got from other Zune users may be time limited, my guess is that if this is a typical Microsoft product, the goatse image you picked up from simply walking down the street will be nearly impossible to get rid of (both from your brain and your new Zune).
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
All it has going for it over the iPod(except the lovely brown color!) is the filesharing thing, which not only is poorly concieved to begin with, is locked down with overrestrictive DRM and won't even be any useful until there's enough people with the Zune.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
They might have my interest if there was an AM tuner alongside the FM one. Why would Microsoft in its infinite wisdom decide "let's put a RADIO in it" and only end up including half a radio? As I don't care for an FM tuner (I don't get music from the radio anymore), the iPod comes out looking good here.
Where were you when the voynix came?
What will ZUNE do that the Pocket PC / Windows Mobile platform cannot do? There are Windows Mobile devices out now for little more than $200 with built-in wifi. They ALL have QVGA screen or better, except for a few 240x240 square screens on some phones. Some are cheaper than the Zune!
Why would Microsoft all but stop its interest in the pocket computing field that is totally capable of everything Zune can do, then build an entirely new device on a new platform? The only thing todays Pocket PC's don't have that Zune does have is the new software and a large harddrive. How hard could it be for M$ to add some software and bigger harddrive support to the already wonderful existing line of Pocket PC's? Plus, Pocket PC's can even have VGA Screens!
Forget the Zune and it's "consumer media 'perfect storm'". Microsoft is recreating the wheel again just to try to squash competition. With it's interest on market share instead of true market need, this product will not live up to their expectations. Apple isn't the best out there. But they lead the market because they simply give a product that fills most consumer needs.
Funnypics
I don't know that that's really what they want, although supposedly that's what they're shooting for. MySpace had it's 15 seconds, and IMO is heading out the door. I don't know that you'd want to take a brand new, unbranded product and slap a "It's like MySpace, only you carry it WITH YOU!" label on it.
If MS really wants to scare Apple, they need to come out with a way to make it cooler than Apple's product. MySpace ain't it.
As a proud owner of a MacBook, this is the funniest thing I've seen on Slashdot in longest time.
people somehow rooting for Microsoft. When you're that big, do you really need a fan club on slashdot?
Well, with the brown version it's certainly got the 'ugly colour scheme' aspect of MySpace down perfectly!
There's one major difference between Zune and MySpace, though. MySpace's underlying 'philosophy' is basically "Check out what I'm into!" Zune's is "Buy what I'm into... from a major corporation!"
You must think in Russian.
The Zune isn't just a music player, the article argues. Think of it as a portable, wireless, hardware version of MySpace.
You mean it looks like crap and is completely inane? I'll pass, thanks.
Push Button, Receive Bacon
So I guess Apple will again be out of business by the end of the year. I bet they get tired of packing and unpacking.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I think the article is somewhat too nice towards the Zune, eg they do not mention the problem that even your own unprotected recordings will be forced into a DRM wrapper, preventing them to be shared after three days. That might even make it a breach of license agreement for creative commons licensed music, because they demand that if you give a track to someone else, that person has to be able to pass it on, impossible with the Zune.
But more interesting the five points why Apple should be scared:
1. Microsoft is hatching a consumer media "perfect storm."
The argument is that Microsoft will leverage any installed base they have (Windows, Xbox, Soapbox) and due to a similarity with the Windows Media Center user interface and Vista will have a strategic advantage. Also their 90% share in operating systems vs 5% for Apple [I think it's even less than that] 2. The Zune is social and viral.
The article claims that the world has changed since the introduction of the iPod, obligatory citing anything with the Web 2.0 label as social and viral and therefore claiming a demand by todays youth to be able to share immediately anything, making Zune's WiFi hip and the iPod old fashioned.
I guess that is the only real argument here, but nothing new. Microsoft failed to leverage their installed base before, eg with Smartphones, where they failed miserably even though the syncing with Outlook is so important. And the 5% of Apples market share does not seem to be a problem, the majority of iPod buyers already use it with windows
Maybe, but I doubt it. Let's remember that P2P was big long before the iPod and iTMS, they introduced a business model that got accepted by people that were used to get everything for free due to it's ease of use. Due to Zune's DRM restrictions there will be no widespread sharing on school yards, so even if the world would demand to return to the early Napster days, the Zune will not allow this.
3. Zune may have more programming.
The pick on Apple launching with videos only from Disney as a sign that Microsoft has more support from the movie industry. But as was discussed earlier today on slashdot, this may be simply due to Walmart and soon be a problem of the past. Even worse, if Apple made a deal with Walmart, they might try to push the Zune out.
Concerning other media formats like music and TV shows, as far as I understand basically everybody is currently trying to make deals with Apple as fast as possible to take their share of the cake.
4. Zune's screen is better for movies.
No doubt, that is true, and it will play into Microsoft's hands. There have been a lot of other media players already featuring larger screens, so this alone does not seem to be a reason for customers to switch. But more important might be all the signs indicating that Apple already has a full screen video iPod in the pipeline (their patents for the virtual scroll wheel), so this advantage for Microsoft might soon be gone.
5. Zune is actually pretty cool.
This boils down to taste, and from what I've read in a lot of forums (with a lot of not Apple friendly users), the design, color, DRM are not as cool as computerworld claims. We shall see.
memomo: free web based language trainer DE-EN-ES-FR-IT
In a world where half of corporate America uses Windows 2000? Sorry, please try again.
Illegally using a monopoly position to expand into other markets.
Wonder if anybody will do anything about it this time ?
Yeah, not at the prices they are going to charge.... other than cool do-dads and whiz-bang, vista doesn't have any major functionality changes besides their search function that will compel most businesses to upgrade.
They talk as if Microsoft having 90% of worldwide OS market is the reason why Zune beats iPod.But does it matter much? iPod has 70% of the mp3 market anyway even without the 90% OS share that microsoft enjoys.
Why should OS mkt share matter to MP3 player mkt share,unless microsoft does something to hamper the working of iPod on its OS - something it hasnt done till now.
Wincopy
"There are technical reasons that an AM radio can't be done--specifically, it has to have a much larger antenna."
I have a shortwave radio that is smaller than any iPod except for the Nano (and Shuffle). Along with the many bands it receives, it gets AM. Almost all of the case is taken up by the speaker, the visual tuning hardware, and the batteries. I have not opened it up, but I am guessing that the antenna hardware is smaller than a cap to a ball-point pen. Time to turn off the ol Philco in the wooden case. News in from Tokyo: there are miniature AM radios now.
Where were you when the voynix came?
I'd say the only thing about the Zune that should scare Apple is that the Zune can be integrated very tightly with the most popular operating system on the planet.
I doubt the user experience will be better than the iPod though... so hopefully the quality of the iPod set up will win out over the coercion behind the Zune.
Of course this doesn't affect those of us who don't use Windows.
FTFA: More importantly, it can be turned sideways for a wide-screen movie experience, which is vastly superior to watching movies on an iPod.
You can just turn screens sideways for wide-screen movie experience? Why didn't anyone tell me?! Boy did I ever get snookered when I bought my widescreen HDTV. I could have just turned my old TV sideways!
-- Cameron
It's always startling when I see the supposedly huge numbers trotted out by industry, then I think about the size of the total population, and I think...pfui! Like platinum records in the US represent sales of 1 million albums. Big deal - 1/300th of the U.S. population bought your album! Whoopee! *Everyone* loves you, don't they?
Or these numbers for Microsoft. So the worldwide operating system market is 300 million copies? Holy crap! Given work computers and all, we're talking about only 200 million people who use computers in the whole world!
Besides, the planet does have 6 billion people, so again, we have a small, niche market. And all the noise that's made over it!
It just always amazes me when I see these numbers and realize what a tiny proportion of the population is buying a given shiny-object-of-the-month, yet it's all over the news as if every person everywhere on the earth were buying it.
My guess is that the success of the "Zune" (can someone come up with a funny wordplay on this, please?) depends mainly on how quickly the public learns that the much-hyped "wireless sharing" is in fact so crippled that it's almost worthless.
You see, the whole "storm" and "viral marketing" thing is dead in the waters already because a song received wireless can't be retransmitted. In other words: Actual exchanges will be very limited to single songs and local-only. No "spreading". Well, not for songs. I'd be very surprised if it takes more than a month for the first wireless Zune virus to appear.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
They didn't say "200 million customers".
"Why should OS mkt share matter to MP3 player mkt"
Are you sure iPod has 70% of the mp3 market? Or are most users using it to play proprietary iTunes files? With the ZUNE for sure, the main thing Microsoft is pushing it for is NOT mp3 files, but MS's own DRM formatted files.
Where were you when the voynix came?
First of all if Vista is even out by their predicted date I'll be surprised. But then what makes them think they'll trick 200 Million people into "upgrading" from XP Home or Media Center, when most peoples' PCs are already adaquate for the tasks they are doing. Are people really going to be such raging computer whores to buy that much Vista Microsoft DRM junk in such a short time period? I mean it's not exactly the leap from 2000 to XP even.
Oh You POS
i am in the market for a new player and was actually considering this, until
"At least in the initial release, Zune's Wi-Fi won't connect to a network. It's peer-to-peer only." would they really ship this thing with 802.11 but not allow me to manage the music on it using that connection?
If this is the first salvo in an Apple-MS war, with MS threatening one of Apples biggest profit and publicity engines, will Apple finally be moved to market/license it's OS to other hardware vendors/the public?
It has been speculated on for years if not decades, but since it is already running on Intel chips....?
Mike Elgan is a technology writer and former editor of Windows Magazine.
Theres about 200 million computers sold each year nowadays (http://www.pegasus3d.com/total_share.html). Take away a few %s for Macs. Take away a few more %s for linux users. And a few more for companies that aren't looking to use the latest OS. So even if half of that number comes with a Vista OS preinstalled, they're about on target for 200 million in two years.
And thats not counting over-the-counter, just-the-OS sales.
I'm not saying these numbers are scientific, except for the 200 million new computers sold, but its definitely a goal they can obtain.
Because it is FM sound quality thats useful for music.The sound quality of music on AM is very inferior compared to that on FM .
Wincopy
Think of it as a portable, wireless, hardware version of MySpace. With the Zune, Microsoft is trying to launch a consumer media 'perfect storm.'"
Start believing this and they won't see it coming, the day they discontinue some of these "features" because they just aren't that good and there's not enough demand for them. Like that ESPN Mobile thing that began it's death throes yesterday. Just give the people a portable music player that's easy to use and they'll be happy.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"... the "Zune" (can someone come up with a funny wordplay on this, please?)"
I think that Microsoft came up with it because so far the word appear resistant to spoof and mockery. Like you can't find a word that rhymes with orange.
Where were you when the voynix came?
Is Apple, in fact, scared of the Zune?
Or do Microsoft (and Microsoft Blog Relations reps like Zonk) simply wish Apple was scared?
I note that integrating wifi into a music player is a really pretty good idea. I also note it isn't what Microsoft's done here. All they seem to have done is create a feeble, heavily restrictive music player equivalent of the DS's "pictochat" feature-- which, as any DS owner will tell you, never, ever, ever winds up getting used. If this incredibly limited player-to-player transfer feature is all the Zune has to differentiate itself from the rest of the crowd of mp3 players right now-- and to judge from the lack of even attempted hype over other features, it apparently is-- Microsoft is in big trouble here.
To look beyond the marketing FUD, I hope that the author is right and that the Zune does scare Apple. If Apple is scared then they may just dip into the candy box to add some new treats to the IPOD. I have no doubt that every feature on Zune has been discussed, designed and discarded by Apple already. I particularly like that Zune is taking playback on external devices (ie TV) seriously. We've almost arrived at my dream device now. When I can connect with my portable device over a remote wireless network to my home media (ala slingbox) and plug that into a plain old television set to watch the latest Sopranos streamed from my TIVO, then I'll buy. Meanwhile, I'll wait to get home and jog with my $39 mp3 player.
"Don't you know you're going to shock the monkey?"- Peter Gabriel
Think of it as a portable, wireless, hardware version of MySpace.
Well, that doesn't fill me with the "I must go out and get one right now" feeling so much as a "Run screaming with vengance into the night to fomemt up counter-revolutionary terror" feeling.
It could just be me, though.
"Because it is FM sound quality thats useful for music.The sound quality of music on AM is very inferior compared to that on FM."
Why use the FM radio for music? That's what digital music files are for. I'm interested in the local drive time/etc talk radio programs found on AM radio, not the typical "Classic Rock on KTYQ 'The Weasel'!!!" station that has fewer songs that you find on an iPod Shuffle that they play over and over and over for years.
Where were you when the voynix came?
So much for honest competition.
...you find it causes rips in the fabric itself by applying viral DRM.
>> The Zune is social and viral.
:)
The whole problem with the Microsoft "experience" is that their products are viral---not in the social engineering sense, but from a security standpoint. If it is as viral as Windows, I'll gladly pass on
Thought I'd like to point out that Zune probably isn't going to "steal" any iPod customers away. They may be able to get some people that are about to enter the DAP market, but not the ones that are already invested in iPods. The biggest reason, music collection and familiarity with iTunes. iPods don't do so well because of iPods. iPods do so well because of iTunes. You underestimate the ease of use of iTunes for people that are not so computer savvy. Do you honestly think they're going to be able to convert their iTunes collections over to the Zune format? (I believe M$ is offering up some tool to rip off the DRM from iTunes and apply their own DRM. Don't quote me on that. ... And ummm ... wouldn't that be a violation of the DMCA? :) But that's for another day)
.. I just *downloaded* it off iTunes" .. I was like, "downloaded eh? don't you mean, *bought*" .. she didn't understand the difference? :) She obviously doesn't know how to pir8 things, but this is GOOD. It helps legitimize the electronic distribution of music! I freely admit downloading songs all the time. In fact, I have 5 or so CDs on my bookshelf that are UNOPENED, because I've already downloaded the album. I still support the artists by purchasing, and I like to have a hardcopy of it. But no one's gonna stop me from using it the way i want to use it. (You hear me RIAA?)
:) The zune doesn't have much to compete with. However, I am betting they release it in '07, just after the zune launches to quiet them once and for all :) Apple's got some crazy ass distribution and integration going on with their iTunes/iPods/and soon to be released iTV!
I don't personally use any of these music services. I use my treo600 for music still, cuz it's more than enough for me. However, I do have a bunch of non-computer people, and they will not budge from their iTunes addiction. They even buy music off of it.
I had this one friend, we're talking about some song, and she said "Yah
Anyways, yah, my point was, iTunes users are entrenched, and it's a very tough sell to try to switch them. And honestly, there's no feature in the Zune that really is worth making that big switch.
Side note: I'm betting that's why Apple didn't rush out the widescreen iPod video player. They didn't need to.
Exciting times!
AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
If it's anything like the XBox 360, you can just forget that piece of junk. One thing about Apple is that they always produce a quality product.
Does anyone know how to pronounce it ?
is it ZooNee, which rhymes with looney, which is the type of person who wants all the security experience of microsoft leveraged in a mp3 player with a wifi connection ?
is it Zuny, which rhymes with dummy, which is what I think of the people claiming this will get great battery life ?
Is it just plain Zune, which rhymes with doom, which seems to be the fate of many would be killers of the iPod ?
"Side note: I'm betting that's why Apple didn't rush out the widescreen iPod video player"
Or maybe the world is not quite ready for a portable media player that's 40 inches wide.
Where were you when the voynix came?
I have purchased 3 iPods, one for me and the other two for my daughters. I have a huge mp3 collection, but I have also spent at least $300 on the iTunes music store. My Daughters have purchased much more than that. Why would I want to buy another almost $300 music player and re-purchase all those tunes? When my iPod dies, I'll buy the next ipod, the one with the features apple has added to stay competitive with microsoft.
By the way will you be able to move the music from one device to another and burn an unlimited number of CD's? My music is on DVDs, my laptop, my desktop and my iPod. On iTunes all you have to do is change the playlist. In my experience with windows media formats they aren't nearly as unobtrusive as AAC. I can't see apple losing their portable music throne until someone produces a player that is vastly cheaper and doesn't get in the way of reasonable fair use. Apple's advantage is really theirs to lose. But they would have to read from Sony's playbook to do that. Poor quality, lack of features, high prices and restrictive DRM would do it. But I don't see apple commiting suicide anytime soon.
Just though I'd mention...
But will you have to be a goon to buy one? Or will the Zune be a boon? It depends on how the device is hewn, and will MS promise the moon? Will sales fit in a spoon, or will the consumers swoon?
And so on...
Seeing their reasons are "it's cool", "the screen's better", and my favorite, "you can program it", I think they haven't thought this through. Add to that a rosy outlook on Vista's market penetration, and it seems like any relation of the article to actual events is purely coincidental.
(Rant: And if you care for my opinion, the portable media player is not the key to the entire consumer media market, even with the most sophisticated of DRM technology. Would consumers be willing to use their portable device to store content for their living room set-top box? Would they buy a movie if they can't watch it at a friend's house? I believe people like their entertainment hassle free, and they like to have a physical item they can identify. No menus, no dialog boxes, just pop it in and play. I simply can't see millions of consumers running Vista Media Edition or iTV in their living room, downloading movies to their Zunes or iPods and streaming them to their televisions.)
You expect massive numbers of people to suddenly stop buying computers?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Just junk food for thought...
mySpace doesn't come with a $249 price tag to join the club.
I owned several mp3 players including Archos Gmini, Samsusng YH-920 and Ipod.
Tiny 20GB Archos Gmini is certainly the best when it comes to the price and features. It also works with GNU/Linux out of the box, without any special drivers and/or software.
I said "zuuun", ("zuen"? Not much idea how to phonically spell words...) You know, long U, just like how English dictates it be pronounced.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
Everytime Microsoft bursts into a new area, there are lots of "will they crush the current leader?" articles. They are here with Zune. They were there with both versions of the X-Box. I distinctly remember reading a large number of articles seriously suggesting that Microsoft would replace the Internet when MSN came out. Not just AOL- the entire Internet.
So if I were Apple, I might be a bit concerned, but I would not be that concerned. And given MS's track record of security, I would start a pool to see how long it takes the first Zune virus to pop up.
The article lists five reasons why Apple may fear the Zune, and why it won't be as easily smacked down as the dozens of mp3 players before it have been.
The Zune interface is just like a miniature version of the Windows Media Center user interface and is very similar to some elements of Vista.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
*wipes tear from eye*
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Good one!
meh...
Actually, in the US the 1 million mark is referred to as "gold". It takes sales of 10 million to go platinum.
These thresholds vary from country to country.
See the wikipedia article for more detail if you like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_album
Zune will probably never reach the heights of MySpace which is essentially free for all the minors that have made it so big. Mom and dad pay for the Internet. How many kids are going to afford a 300 dollar MySpace device? How many parents are going to buy their kids one when they probably already have a iPod?
No sig for you!!
Am I the only person who can't stand the DRM crap that Apple's ITunes shoves down your throat?
It seems as if Zune is just a clone of the Ipod with some limited features that few users would want to use. The article doesn't even discuss the sound quality, which is probably the only reason I ever considered purchasing an IPOD.
After doing some research I found an MP3 player that I can just plug and play in my USB port like a flash drive, copy MP3's on, no DRM garbage, in a smaller package with a UI that's just as easy to use and arguably better sound quality than an IPOD. And I didn't have to pay for a name like IPOD or now ZUNE (check out JetAudio IAudio U2).
You killed the Newton and its $100 dollar laptop-like brethren. You refuse to produce a reasonable tablet, in spite of many pros (people willing to spend lots of money for one) wishing that you did. Sketchbook Pro, take a look! 13 inch MacBook Pro without a keyboard... The iPod has improved, but no leaps in functionality have been really made. The MacBooks still don't have a Core 2. I'll buy one, promise! I'll even buy a 13" MacBook Super Pro. The MacPhone is somewhere in the ether; hopefully it will work with the Mac or even better Google Calendar in cool ways.
The world is moving to devices that work together. The only cool thing about the Zune is the wireless, but not for sharing. I want to run web based widgets so that the thing becomes a pocket post-it note. Hell, put a tablet there! Zune isn't getting anywhere IMHO... But Zune 2.0!
and its brown?
*dives for cover*
The Zune interface is just like a miniature version of the Windows Media Center user interface... I've used Windows Media Center, and it sucks... I'd have to imagine a miniature version of it would suck even more. iPod has absolutely nothing to fear. At least Apple didn't name their media player after a hebrew word for a sex act!
Somehow I managed to mess up the formating of the first two arguments at the last second. It should have read:
1. Microsoft is hatching a consumer media "perfect storm."
The argument is that Microsoft will leverage any installed base they have (Windows, Xbox, Soapbox) and due to a similarity with the Windows Media Center user interface and Vista will have a strategic advantage. Also their 90% share in operating systems vs 5% for Apple [I think it's even less than that] will force the Zune into the market.
I guess that is the only real argument here, but nothing new. Microsoft failed to leverage their installed base before, eg with Smartphones, where they failed miserably even though the syncing with Outlook is so important. And the 5% of Apples market share does not seem to be a problem, the majority of iPod buyers already use it with windows.
2. The Zune is social and viral.
The article claims that the world has changed since the introduction of the iPod, obligatory citing anything with the Web 2.0 label as social and viral and therefore claiming a demand by todays youth to be able to share immediately anything, making Zune's WiFi hip and the iPod old fashioned.
Maybe, but I doubt it. Let's remember that P2P was big long before the iPod and iTMS, they introduced a business model that got accepted by people that were used to get everything for free due to it's ease of use. Due to Zune's DRM restrictions there will be no widespread sharing on school yards, so even if the world would demand to return to the early Napster days, the Zune will not allow this.
memomo: free web based language trainer DE-EN-ES-FR-IT
Z: "Hi i'm a Zune"
I: "And i'm an Ipod"
Z: "Nice to meet you"
I: "Hey i've been meaning to ask you.."
Z: "Shoot."
I: "Whats with the brown color?"
-awkward silence, toilet flushing in the background-
I: "Ohh..... duuuuuuuuuude..."
You expect massive numbers of people to suddenly stop buying computers?
Why yes. Yes I do.
Not that it has anything to do with a nuclear war with China over the invasion of Iran...
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
The Zoo-nee competes with the ipp-oh-dee, which synchronizes with it-you-ness that runs on macko-sex on my pee-ow-urb-ook.
For more information, click here.
Keep in mind that the Zune store isn't even launching with any videos (music videos/TV/movies) for now. Apple has had music videos for quite a while, TV for a while, and has had movies since 9/12. They've already gotten in good with the TV companies, less so with the movie studios, but that's coming. To say that Zune "may have more programming" is a pretty lame piece of conjecture.
I don't know the media center interface, but similarity has not always worked out for Microsoft. The first generations of WinCE PDAs were more or less unusable, partly because the standard windows start menu simply took up ways too much screen estate. Only when PDAs got larger (in pixel) displays, it became acceptable. But still the Palm OS interface is much better suited for mobile operation, so no guarantee that the media center interface has any use on a mobile media player. Maybe even the old people that are familiar with the interface will despise it on the Zune.
memomo: free web based language trainer DE-EN-ES-FR-IT
it is still only QVGA resolution, so, like iPod, widescreen movies will be letterboxed.
It's funny how making a "tallscreen", then advertising that you can turn it sideways is a marketing bullet point. I guess the iPod camp can argue that in its default "tall" (portrait) state, the Zune is even worse than the iPod, since there's all that extra space on the top and bottom if you're watching a widescreen movie.
yea, in the article it states that soapbox is the youtube killer. there is a link to a video about sharing, see it? yea, its youtube.
oh well. just one flaw.
1) Zune will not play back PlaysForSure media.
Rather than build on the 20%+ marketshare of consumers that have PlaysForSure-compatible devices, Microsoft has decided to claw their way back up from a zero percent market share by refusing to implement their own standards.
It boggles the mind. Even if they insist on introducing their own Super-Zune DRM for this device, what reason, technical or commercial, could they possibly have for not playing back PlaysForSure media as well?
There is going to be a great deal of consumer confusion and backlash when people find out that the Microsoft-DRM music they have purchased won't play back on their Microsoft Zune device. Especially after Microsoft spent all this time assuring people that they can just buy PlaysForSure, and not have to worry about confusing codec-DRM issues.
Why Microsofts marketing poeple should be blocked from submitting Slashdot articles. This post reeks of wet astroturf.
FIRST
I would like to point out an ERROR in the article. Apple NEVER said they had 92% of music player market. A while back, they said that 92% of new hard drive-based MP3 players being sold were iPods. They recently said that they had "70% of the market for portable music players."
I would rather have 70% of the market as compared to 92% of the hard drive based market.
SECOND
It's been proven (a number of times) that simply having more features DOES NOT guarantee success.
The wi-fi feature sounds interesting, will non geeks "get it" in the same way they get the iPod? In response to the 5 reasons given in the article:
1. Microsoft is hatching a consumer media "perfect storm."
Perfect storm? Please show me the proven Microsoft Media Store? Where is the proven iTunes equivalent? Where is the range in the Zune product line (from a $79 player to a $300+ player)?
2. The Zune is social and viral.
Call me an Apple zealot, but how ISN'T the "listen three times... before you buy" scheme going to sound like a scam? If my iPod had such a feature, I would never use it, and I have three friends with iPods. The wi-fi feature for sharing music seems like a gimmick.
3. Zune may have more programming.
I'll believe it when I see it.
4. Zune's screen is better for movies.
Today... that is true. One iPod update and that's no longer true. If you notice, the top of the iPod offerings is considerably lower than it has been in the past.
5. Zune is actually pretty cool. So is the iPod... in fact, it's been cool for about 5 years.
"The iPod is the soul of Apple's entire business."
Bull... Yes, it's a BIG chunk of the company, but the computer business is still strong (accounting for 60% of all revenue). People aren't buying computers ONLY because of the iPod. I'm not saying it has hurt business, but OS X on NICE hardware is appealing to customers tired of their Windows 98 and Windows Me virus ridden computers. Windows 2000 and XP solved many of the problems, but that doesn't erase the fact that many people are willing to look to different options.
Dude, most funds are transmitted electronically these days. Those boxes of money prolly do get heavy, though. :)
I sold my iPod 4G over a year ago due to disuse since I work at home and don't get out much except for meetings or for nightlife, and an iPod is useless in a restaurant or a club.
Anyway, I was looking into getting a 6G in the next week or two and read up on Zune.
I had to say that even though it's a non-starter because it's PC only and wont work with iTunes or the iTunes music store, I found it very compelling.
First off, it has a big screen.
This is huge! One of my gripes and the reason why I never went in for the 5 or 6G with the photos and video stuff is because the screen is so frakkin tiny.
I mean WTF? How could Apple, the kings of quality UI think that was sufficient? I know I'm not the only one, either. Remember the fake iPod mockups we saw online claming to be the 6G iPod, half of them showed a vastly increased screen size. Apple failed to significantly alter the display, ignoring the obvious flaw.
Wireless!
I can't tell you how annoying I always found it to have to take my iPod out of it's cradle that was jacked into my Home Theatre and have the music stop just so I could add some tracks/playlists to my iPod. With Apple having Airport/Airtunes and bluetooth it just seemed logical to converge that with iPod.
Instead, Apple decided to go the cheap route and not include that sort of functionality. I mean, imagine a wifi or bt enabled iPod... sharing photos and files with other iPod users or those with BT enabled cellphones/handhelds/laptops. You'd think Apple would have seen the value in that.
So it's good to see MS coming out with a strong offering in the MP3 player market. Apple needs a good kick in the pants to wake them up from their warm after sex glow they've had since taking the market by storm.
It worked for IM, after all. They just had to change the name to Text Messaging, and they can actually charge 10c per IM, because people think it's something new.
So they just have to convince everyone that it's not MySpace, and they can sell the same shit to us all over again.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Marketing
you are neglecting that many users may use one installation of Vista. For example, on account of a rather freewheeling philosophy toward downloading warez, my roommate's WinXP box now has at least 26 different users, most of whom appear to live in Ukraine.
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
Nonreplaceable? Is there any justification for making it nonreplaceable other than to try to force people to buy a whole new unit when the battery conks out?
You expect every person on the planet with a personal computer to buy a new one within the next 2 years?
Developers: We can use your help.
Dude, you didn't even read the link that you posted. If you did, you would realize that you were wrong.
I don't disagree that Microsoft may be launching the first portable music player that can truly compete with the iPod, but this is far from something that will kill Apple.
Microsoft can push Vista out realistically because hardware vendors will bundle it. That is the only reason most people will ever run it, it offers no compelling advancements and a lot of annoyances to current xp users.
Microsoft can't push the zune the same way. Yes, they may do some clever marketing to scoop in a good market share, but they'll have to actually EARN it by making a better product. It can be done, they might do it, I sincerely doubt it though. Apple has years of head start, and can compete with them every step of the way.
You provide a link that shows in the US gold = 500k, platinum = 1M, so the original poster was correct
Seems to me the standard pronounciation would be as in tune or punic. To be standardly pronounced as tsu:n it would have to be written Zoon as in toon, boon, harpoon.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
If you read apple rumour sites, a new ipod is coming down the works. It will have a display on the front with Touch screen controls that appear only when a finger is near the screen.
That will be the real video ipod. And unlike MSFT Apple won't release it until they have at least the majority of the bugs worked out.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Apple fans are overconfident in the iPod because Apple once commanded 92% of music player market share, a number that has since fallen to around 70%. About 30 million people own iPods. But Microsoft owns more than 90% of the worldwide operating systems market (compared with Apple's roughly 5%), representing some 300 million people. The company expects to have 200 million Vista users within two years.
:) ] but we have way too many oranges c. our one will be the winner since so many people use our other product ? This is stupid. And I won't even go into detailing the really bad drm-infecting behaviour of this world-conquering new MS player since we have already talked and read about that one for a while now.
Erm, excuse me, it's just me or this "reasoning" has, well, about nothing close to even start to convince me about anything at all ? This just smells so typical: we make a colution, then we try to create a problem for it, and try to convince the people that they have the problem so they will want our solution for it. And the main arguments are that a. the other major player's fans are overconfident b. they have many apples [
It's so simple: if some player is really better than some other, people will buy it. Not because they are some not yet existant hypothetical Vista users, and not because they are overconfident in anything. But, if it will suck, then it will fail.
One more thing, I'd really like to see a context like: try to guess which company's product is a text about, even if it doesn't directly mention the company. Too bad everyone will guess MS right all the time.
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
1) how many of these computers are going to businesses? how long will it take IT departments to break away from XP and go to vista?
2) will the generic computer makers like dell adopt vista immediately? i don't know. will they force you to use vista? if they give consumers a choice between xp and vista, how many will pick vista?
3) will vista hit its current release date of "early 2007"? i don't really know. probably, but perhaps not. don't forget its still a few months off, so "within two years" means less than two years of actual sales.
is it possible for them to meet their goal? sure. but imho, to do so, they'll be forcing it down people's throats, not making legitimate sales/conversions. they could get 200 million users by giving it away for free, or pushing it through windows update (kidding, but you get the point).
Actually what I fear is that i won't be able to get rid of the bsod's XD
The tiny screen was sufficient... for a music player. No need to have a huge, battery-sucking screen to see the currently playing track information. The 5G (There is no 6G yet, the recent Apple anouncements were for minor revisions to the 5G, a la 5.5G) is an iPod with video capabilities, but as the rumor sites have been spouting for months now, the "True Video iPod" is still coming around the corner. Battery life, I believe was one of the major issues with it, and I'm sure some of the improvements that have gone into that found the way into the 5.5G. There will be a bigger screen, it was in the works long before the Zune nonsense was a rumor.
That's great! It's too bad the Zune isn't using wireless for syncing, or for wireless music shopping. It's only for sharing music between Zunes. Good luck with that one.
Actually, in the US the 1 million mark is referred to as "gold". It takes sales of 10 million to go platinum
Check out the chart on the page you linked to. It is 500K for Gold, 1 million for Platinum, and 10 million for "Diamond" (which I had never heard of before) in the USA.
'Your brain is God.' -- Dr. Timothy Leary
I'd wager most corporate purchases won't include Vista for a while. I don't know how many of the computers sold each year are corporate, though.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
There is no "Dana". There is only ZUNE!
Who ya gonna call??
"The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been wide
... know why they won't have a 2nd zune (zoune) in their pants, or one for the gals... if you got two players, that will be a bi-zune? exchanging stuff? arg!
... or many other products name... this one is really funny...
Is there any french canadian marketing at Microsoft who seen that product name ?
Just like the Buick 'La Crosse'
For the others... "zoune, bizoune, bisoune" all sounds like zune... which is a childish name for penis.
That article was terrible; it was like a camp director desperately trying to convince the mosquito-bitten, wet, cold, bruised, dirty, and sick campers that camp is really fun, despite all odds against it. I mean, look at some of the arguments:
"Recipients of these shared songs will be able to play them three times for up to three days free, after which they'll have to pay to listen. Songs received wirelessly can't be shared."
Three times? You can play the songs three times? How worthless is that? I know that in the ideal world, users would then go to the Zune Market Place and purchase it for themselves, but let's be realistic; what songs will they send? Songs they downloaded through bit torrent and the like. This "social" feature will become little more than an annoyance and people wonder why they purchased a player that has such an arbitrary limit.
"The Zune PC connection software requires Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista, so Macintosh owners can't use it. "
I'm not going to touch on the stupidity of this.
"The company expects to have 200 million Vista users within two years.
Apple faces the prospect of competing not with the Zune alone, but with a mighty Windows-Soapbox-Xbox-Zune industrial complex."
I lump these together because they both make incredulous assumptions. There will be 200 million Vista users in two years only when all of the programs are made for Vista only. But that's not the issue I have with this statement. It's the assumption that people are going to switch to Microsoft's version of *__Insert Product__* when there are already perfectly good versions of that product out there. The author assumes that users are going to get a Zune because...well, there is no reason. In fact, all he says it that it does everything that the iPod does, but a little more. It's cool; why? Because he says it is.
What the article doesn't address really is the simple fact that...30 million people own iPods already. Why would they buy another player unless it had some spectacular feature that they NEEDED? Nothing the Zune does cannot be done in some way on the iPod video, save wireless, which doesn't look to be an appealing feature. Nothing but spin here...the Zune will have to prove itself as a product; hype alone will not work.
Give me a break. When has Microsoft made any user experience seamless?
What should give Apple a shiver, however, is the WiFi connection. Though I think the song-sharing idea is DOA, but what if you could power up your Zune to reach an iTunes-like site that lets you buy music whereever and whenever.
You're watching "The OC" (or whatever kids watch these days) and as some cool new song plays, the credits roll, "Zune now to buy this song" and sure enough, when you flip on your Zune, the WiFi Zune store is featuring that song.
As the ring-tone business has shown, you can get a lot of impulse buys when the price is low and the availability is high.
yea you know it. if the Zune can "share" music wirelessly, then if i had one and my good friend had one filled with tunes...i would "share" with him his entire collection...and upload it to mine. if there is some sort of licensing thing that will protect one from sharing "illegally" (as the RIAA puts it), then so be it but, i know there will be a way around it and, who's to say microsoft will become another victim of the RIAA because of it's "file sharing" features lol. i can't wait to see the posibilities of that while Apple keeps that crap out of the IPod n keeping legal :)
"In the kingdom where everything dies, the sky is mortal."
It's not like it costs them $450 to put a single DVD and cardboard box on a retail shelf, so maybe they're planning to bundle Zune with each purchase of Vista Ultimate. You heard it here first!
There's more to it than that. Part of it is consumer needs, but part of it is consumer desires. Apple has succeeded in creating an identity for and making the iPod desirable, even if some people that use it (of whom I know a few) don't understand what it does at all. At its core, what is it? A screen and a hard drive with a rom chip that knows how to play music files stored on the hard drive.
Do you remember when the walkman first came out? Do you realize that most people now call any portable tape player (Panasonic, Sharp, Pioneer, whatever...) a Walkman even though it's the Sony brand? Sony did a remarkable job of taking a bunch of parts of a dictaphone and putting them together to create something ubiquitous. The also completely created the market for it from scratch. They packaged it in so many different forms that it became desirable to everyone. To see what I mean, check out this book. It's short but it's a really good history of a game-changing product, even if it was 'just a tape-player'.
Apple has their iPod, which is just an mp3 player. That's it (at it's core, forgive the pun there). What they have done though, is take a mp3 player (nerdy gadget) and make it desirable to the masses as an accessory, just like Sony did with the Walkman. They're even updating it like Sony did, small changes with the same base. How much different was the last walkman from the first one, really? And apple is getting flack for minor updates to a successful product. Anyways, it will be interesting to see what Zune does. Is Microsoft going to take a bite out of the market that Apple created or will gaining adoption be difficult or will it fail to create its own identity and become a Microsoft iPod (like a Panasonic Walkman)? Too many bells and whistles can take buyers away if they only really want one thing: play their music. Same problem applies to most technology. So much technology is returned because users just plain can't figure it out.
In the end I don't think it's so much about Microsoft trying to crush competition as about Microsoft trying to add a product to a successful market. It's not up to MS whether it will succeed though, in this case it will actually turn out to be a cultural decision!! (read the book, hehe).
The whole article was kind of believable. Up to the point where he described comingzune.com as "cool marketing".
I read TFA, and noticed one sentence that stood out:
The Zune PC connection software requires Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista, so Macintosh owners can't use it.
It's funny what a difference that one comma can make... maybe it should be removed to show the true intentions behind the Zune.
...if i can get mine in an ugly brown color.
I can? Really? Look out Apple! Microsoft is going to unseat your dominance.
I hope the Zune has Ctrl-Alt-Delete buttons...
Zune only works with windows.
Ipod works with the 2 most popular OS's Windows and Mac. It will work with linux too, if you don't want to deal with itunes.
The Zune is all about keeping consumers from swithing off windows, thats why they sell it so cheaply with no way to make the money back, except from keeping people buying into the windows family. Thats got to be MS's motivation, since the web and firefox make which platform you are running less and less relevant.
Microsoft doesn't need to destroy the iPod-economy with one blow, it can keep releasing failures for five or six years. Each time it releases a failure it takes a chunk of the iPod market away. Pretty soon Apple only has 50% or less of the market, then MS can concentrate on picking up the shattered pieces and taking another 15% or 20% away from Apple. All it needs is >50% and the market is theirs.
Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
The thing about the Zune is that it's made by Microsoft. This is what is causing the stir in the community. It will succeed too. Microsoft has options available to them that other companies can only dream of. All in all Microsoft is lacking on innovation compared to other companies like Apple. Why might you ask? Well, there are many valid explanations for this from the fact that they have to support legacy hardware to the fact that they must worry about how they implement things in their operating systems so they don't destroy the competition.
I believe it is evident that Microsoft is capable of releasing a great piece of hardware. Look at the Xbox360. And for those running Vista, well, it has it's quirks but all-in-all is a fantastic operating environment. The Zune is something new and while I'm not crazy about the design of the device it functionality is where it shines. I personally will not buy one for myself, but I can easily see my wife picking up one of these. One last note about the design versus the iPod. The iPod looks great out of the box, but look again in 2 or 3 months. That design really means nothing.
If Microsoft can incorporate the Zune with the Windows media center environment (Vista Media Center or WMP 11), I forsee the Zune being a beautiful success.
Microsoft has proven that being first and best at something means nothing. Microsoft's word beat Word Perfect. Microsoft's Excel beat Quattro Pro. Microsoft's XBOX introduction into the market place. Microsoft's Internet Explorer crushed Netscape. Microsoft has often come into the game late and used the hard lessons learned by the competition and their own market presents to dominate the area. It often the case that someone comes into game late and is just dynamic enough to quickly takes the lead. In Microsoft's advantage is the large amounts of money they are willing to lose to gain the market share and drive the competition out of business. Then Microsoft has no issues with using there new found position to keep competition out of the market place.
My Sig indicates the end of the comment I posted.
The ideas behind Zune are cool. There ARE cool people at Microsoft, sure. Except people in DRM-department. They idea was to let people share music - good idea, that would make Zune the most wanted music player at school... but with DRM??? All your stuff, which you upload to your Zune player will be packed into a DRM-container, weather it is WMA or Mp3 does not matter. People who receive music via wireless connection between Zune-players are only able to play the shared songs 3 times within 3 days. No more coolness....
I think everyone here at Slashdot recognizes the dangers that these new DRM-infested devices are introducing into modern culture, and I think we can all agree that we would prefer companies to stop producing products that restrict our freedom.
Imagine what would happen if a company produced a portable MP3 and video player, similar to the Zune, that had P2P WiFi-connectivity, a BitTorrent client and possibly a scaled-down version of the Democracy Player . This might just cause the RIAA and MPAA to lose the ability to monitor file sharing and make it impossible to stop (unless the RIAA hires a bunch of thugs to sit in every subway car and bus across the country).
I call on us to figure out how to produce such a device. We need to send a message to companies like Apple, Microsoft and Sony that we will not accept devices broken by DRM.
Is anyone out there interested in helping to start a project to build and open-source piece of hardware to accomplish this?
Thanks to everyone who caught my error!
Windows media player will kill the Zune even if it is decent player. As a compotent Coward, who runs iTunes on my Windows box and mirrors it on my debian box, I can only walk away from any attempt at using Windows Media Player (9 or 10) with frustration and rage. /his own/ movie onto an Archos video player via WiMP. After trying to figure out why we kept getting errors, we traced it to the fact that our firewall was blocking calls to some MS service that would verify that he was allowed to copy what he had made and owned onto the damn thing. Even once that was resolved we were stumped by the fact that WiMP consistently converted to a format that the Archos could not read unless we used a certain WMV format for the /source/ material. A format and compression that took 360x longer to compress to than MP4,Quicktime, or DivX. Never mind that neither of us could figure out how to start WiMP in 'sync' mode except by pluggining and unplugging the Archos.
I spent 2 hrs this AM trying to help my roommate transfer
Presumably the Zune will resolve some of these issues as it will be super-glued to work with WiMP, but there will be an AMAZING amount of confusion caused by the crap that is WiMP and it's DRM madness.
PS we suspect that WiMP hides flaws in the windows compression algos on hicontrast shots by blurring the image by 1 pixel.
I think this going to drive a stake into all those microsoft partners that paid for play4sure licences. I would imagine they are not so impressed with this announcement and that microsoft is going to compete with them even at a loss on hardware to take market share.
The five reasons cited are fluff. If Zune kills iPod it will be because, "Vista isnt done, till iTunes wont run".
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I'd be honored to be the first among slashdotters to welcome our first Navajo code talker poster!
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
The argument is that Microsoft will leverage any installed base they have (Windows, Xbox, Soapbox) and due to a similarity with the Windows Media Center user interface and Vista will have a strategic advantage. Also their 90% share in operating systems vs 5% for Apple [I think it's even less than that]...
Yeah, so Microsoft will try to leverage their monopoly yet again to try to force consumers to use their products... I don't think people will necessarily buy Zune for that, but of course Apple should be scared of it. We all should be.
My question about this is, at what point is Microsoft's metaphorical center of gravity on the other side of the fulcrum? I mean, think about the word "leverage". Lever. You have Windows, which Microsoft has leveraged into a sort of monopoly of Office, and Microsoft has in turn leveraged both of those monopolies for all sorts of other products, many of which have failed or lost a lot of money. So if Windows and Office are the weight on one side of the lever, pushing everything else up, how much weight can they put on the other side of the lever before Windows and Office aren't enough to keep them afloat?
I don't think we're at that point yet, but sheesh, "leverage" isn't infinite.
Online citizen journalism from the inner city: The View From The Ground
I just can't wait to have the same audio player as Steve Ballmer's kids.
The last sentence is the key (to the Zune's loss of potential).
If songs received wireless cannot be shared, then it cannot be viral. That is a huge limitation that will bite them.
If it really were viral, it would have some tremendous potential to change the music scene. A small, unknown band that has a rabid fanbase could start sharing their songs. If people like it, they would share it with their friends, etc. A previously unknown band could suddenly be a hit (assuming the music was good enough to spread) and be on everyone's music list.
Requiring people at each level to buy the song before they can share it will severely suppress the spreading of new and interesting music.
But apple will survive. They can keep selling their computers, and although apple can never dominate the market, they can keep their fans happy and thus stay in buisness (which is all they were before iPods).
The Gospel according to lolcat
I would love to see the Zune do well in the marketplace. Best thing about the Zune is that Apple freaked out and cut prices by $50 on the new line of ipods. $249 for the new 30 gb model, and $349 for the new 80 gb model.
Maybe the Zune will do well with the social-networking crowd (read: kids), and the ipod will remain the holy grail for purists.
While I'll never buy a Zune, I love the competition. It keeps Apple honest, and could create a push for new features, like, I dunno, an FM tuner, bigger screen, more customizability of the menus, and PLEASE someday: wireless connectivity with my network. I would love for my iPod to be able to update itself, sitting out in my car, whenever I have itunes open on my PC and the iPod turned on. Seems like a nobrainer feature to me, but it would probably be expensive, heavy, I don't know. But very very cool, a killer app for mp3 players.
("never", meaning "probably never". I've explored other players that had more features and lower pricetags... they all had a fatal flaw that showed up within a couple of days. When I moved to ipod, I completely fell in love with the thing and I don't WANT to consider anything else.)
Cheers.
... but has anyone considered how fucking cool this will be when people start hacking it and running homebrew apps on it? If we're able to turn an xbox into the amazing machine it is with XBMC, imagine how cool and powerful this device could become. And again, the more portable media players that enter the market, the better they're all going to become.
Mike Elgan is a technology writer and former editor of Windows Magazine.
I'll wait for a neutral review from a expert who reports on the players from all manufacturers. I'd also like to read a disclamier about what stocks the author might own (be it Apple, Microsft, Creative etc).
Enjoy,
It's just the normal noises in here.
Disregarding the premade conclusion here that Zune will mysteriously capture mind share and marketshare, if anybody's doing the price squeezing, it's Apple, whose lowered iPod prices caught Microsoft off guard. Apple has the established relationships with manufacturers and the cheaper contracts as a result, and they're not selling each iPod at a loss. Every step of the way is an uphill battle for the Zune.
"Sufferin' succotash."
TFA links to a site, called "Coming Zune", which suggests that it's just "zoon", to rhyme with "soon".
After having browsed it for 30 seconds I decided that if they can't explain what they do plainly, its probably of no use.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
"[...] Microsoft fans are overconfident in the Windows OS because Microsoft once commanded 92% of dekstop operating system market share, a number that has since fallen to around 70%. About 200 million people own Windows PCs. But Apple owns more than 90% of the worldwide music player market (compared with Microsoft's roughly 0%), representing some 30 million people. [...]"
Microsoft!!! The first thing that will happen is some clueless parent will buy his or her kid a Zune for Christmas to replace an overstuffed iPod, and after an hour or two of trying to get the kid's DRMed iTunes music to play on the thing, it will be "what the hell good is this?!!!" Rather like trying to install those Word for Windows floppies from work on your brand new Mac back in the early 1990s.
And? So what if Apple only has 5% of the opertaing system market, the iPod is compatable with Windows too, and using it is just as easy as using it with a Mac!
So what we really have is Microsoft's Zune is compatable with 90% of desktop computers and the iPod is compatable with 95% of desktop computers (not counting the Linux users who use third party software to use iPods).
I wonder what the battery life of a Zune player is with wireless enabled. Some sites are reporting 6 hours without wireless. Users could save battery life by manually turning the wireless on and off. What about authentication? Does each user have to authenticate every other user? What about free loaders? I imagine a scenario where users meet and start pulling out their Zunes to turn on the wireless, then start asking each other what is your Zune called? 'I see ten on my list and there are only 4 of use here? Are you 'fluffybunny' or 'sk8ergirl'?
Also given M$ history, how long before users start getting their Zunes hacked.
Who cares how many Vista users there will be? iTunes will still run on it. Plus the Mac. So iTunes > Windows.
The DRM in Zune is also unacceptable. Restrictions on ripped music? I don't think so.
Wireless is nifty, kind of like what we have with airtunes but portable, but not compelling.
I just don't see it making any converts. Might suck in some new users. But too many cluefull will avoid it.
1 - bazillions of dollars
2 - virtual monopoly
And perhaps #3.. patience.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
u people are absolutely crazy. in terms of market share and size and monetary value (and, for that matter, anything else that matters at all) myspace owns and so does microsoft. the haters out there need to just get over it. apple was cool when they were the only ones making a portable music player. ipods are stupid because they practically necessitate ITunes (the biggest piece of crap software ever made) and since everyone already has windows zune will be a breath of fresh air for the, what, 90% of the market that own a windows pc... hope you all enjoyed the "apple is cool and different" phase, cause its about to be overrrrrrrr "ah, nuprin. little. yellow. different" -wayne's world
"i stand on the edge of destruction" -shai hulud
Let's see. If Microsoft made an ipod without the godawful itunes tie-in, and with better build quality, I'd be interested. Hell, I'd pay more than what an ipod costs for it. But they won't. Their aim is, apparently, "natural and seamless". But this is Microsoft we're talking about, who for all their UI research can't get it through their skulls that more is not better. Even Apple has been seduced by the dark side, and has photo and video and PIM crap and such clogging up their interface. And yet, they still can't play audiobooks decently without some fancy software hack.
Microsoft is going to look at the ipod and figure it out completely wrong but they'll charge forward boldly in the wrong direction with a bag full of Microsoft 1st generation product goo. Then the second generation will fix some of the problems of the first while continuing not to get the point. Call me in 2010 when maybe someone will be making an audio player that plays audio just right. It can be done. I have faith. I've used software where features that I think should exist do, and they're readily findable. It's wonderful. Someone fetch me this piece of the future and I will pay. Please.
High-speed Road Trip (18.000KPH)
I'm sure a mod will be made in no time which would allow copying of files between Zunes without DRM. Who would prevent it? Not Microsoft, since they'd benefit most. Of course they can't ship a player without restriction on file sharing and still keep the music companies on board. They can however sit back and watch once the damage is done later.
true. I mean, maybe it's just me, but I sort of expected to learn something about zune by going to the website... um... but I did see some birds go psycho and dance around while on fire! can't say I expected to ever see that, in life.
But while I DID like the psycho bird video, I still don't know anything more about zune.
73% of the MP3 player market overall.
90% of the hard drive based player market.
Yes that is of all "MP3" players.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Microsoft has 90% of the worldwide OS marketshare...
And iTunes runs on ALL of those desktops!
That's why the OS share really does not matter, as Windows is just another enabler for ITMS and the iPod.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
All of this is about to change. Microsoft is going to make its restrictions apparent to everyone who uses Vista OR the Zune. For example, every time someone receives a song on the Zune wirelessly, and tries to listen to it more than three times, she will realize that 1) this restriction has been built into the unit, and 2) this inclusion was a conscious choice by the company that designed it. The restriction may frustrate her, or it may not, but what matters is that DRM has entered the awareness of the general public.
What many Slashdot readers may not realize is that many of the companies who negotiate DRM contracts have little control not to do so. Most music studios would probably not have approached the iTunes music store if Apple had not assured them that their DRM would keep their profit margins safe. Similarly, while Microsoft is a large company, it cannot force contracts with media studios. It must negotiate just like everyone else. The tradeoff they decided to make was to integrate DRM into Windows Vista (decreasing its value) in exchange for contracts with studios to make it possible to launch the Zune and play music on it (increasing its value).
This decision will significantly affect the world of computing in two related ways:
Come on guys! We have to deluge anyone who makes a technically wrong argument with redundant ego-inflating corrections! Is this not /.? I want 6 or 7.
And by the way, 1+2=4.
Because the device itself is also larger. Generally people prefer smaller devices over a slightly larger screen. Look at the evolution of just about any portable consumer electronic device, they all have gotten much smaller over the years.
I actually do not know for sure if the Zune has a larger screen because the device is larger, or if they made the device larger to accomidate a larger screen. But either way the end result I don't think will be desirable for a lot of people when they can buy the smaller iPod.
It would be a somewhat different story if the resolution were higher.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I would be far more interested in listening to short wave than any American FM station, and really it seems like that would be a great radio to have in an emergency.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I notice you're getting downmods for absolutely no reason. Apparently, these mindless Apple-haters don't even care when a Microsoft advertisement piece, which this article is, doesn't even use correct statistics. The iPod hasn't lost marketshare a single year since its release. To claim it went from 90% to 70% is a complete, flat-out lie. Sorry, Apple-haters.
"Microsoft will make the movement of media between Windows, Soapbox and the Zune natural and seamless. The Zune interface is just like a miniature version of the Windows Media Center user interface and is very similar to some elements of Vista"
Windows Media Center?? Who uses this - no one I know or even don't know has ever said PEEP
about their cool new windows media center box! Tivo on the other hand.....
Bottom line here is that Zune will fail because M$ is not cool, I repeat, MICROSOFT IS NOT COOL.
They and their products are nerdy, stuffy, and buttoned up just like Bill Gates.
Zune is a stupid name, the product does not look, and will not look or be as cool as an iPod.
Who buys iPods, KIDS - WHY? Because they are cool. Other people have iPods, but the mass marketshare
are kids and parents buying for their kids. Wearing an iPod is cool, the iPod is just cool - whether it plays
movies, music or transfers files is not the point or the issue. It's a fashion item, not technology.
Parents who buy their kid a Zune this xmas are going to be hated when the kid comes home after being
ridiculed and asks why they didn't just get the an iPod!? The zune will be dead by next xmas.
Apple will never be scared of the tiny share of people that think M$ is cool.
While it's not wireless, the current iPod dock includes S-Video and mini stereo jacks on the back and an IR receiver on the front, and comes with an IR remote control. There are a couple of TV shows that I get off of the iTunes store, as well as videos that I've imported into iTunes from other sources. To watch them on our TV I skip the computer entirely. I just dock the iPod and watch. I only watch a few shows, so it's actually cheaper for me to buy individual episodes than to pay for cable TV.
The connection is clean so I lose no fidelity, (either video or audio). The dock itself is tiny and sits out of the way on top of the entertainment center.
Boundless Expansion, Self-Transformation, Dynamic Optimism, Intelligent Technology, Spontaneous Order- BEST DO IT SO!
Anyone notice how MANY times the writer references MySpace?
He is trying to RELATE zune to MySpace which has become a tremendous hit among teens and youths. By repeating the references throughout the article, he is making that invisible connection in the reader's subconscious mind.
This is DEFINITELY a PR piece written by Microsoft PR group.
I guess this is one of the first salvo, before they launch the product.
There will be more like it... and we will be inundated with these opinions from these so-called tech gurus....
After reading a dozen such reviews, the teens will think that zune probably is good.
Jester
PC sales are expected to decline through 2007. On the other hand, Mac sales are predicted to increase.
As for Zune, well, absolutely nobody wants one. Even the name sucks. "Zune?" It sounds like a yuppie protein drink. iPod is at least evocative of computers and the internet, with the "i" prefix.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Microsoft doesn't need to destroy the iPod-economy with one blow, it can keep releasing failures for five or six years.
Or ten, or a hundred!
Each time it releases a failure it takes a chunk of the iPod market away.
Or possibly just all the other HD based players in the market with the iPod marketshare continuing to eat into that meager pie.
Pretty soon Apple only has 50% or less of the market, then MS can concentrate on picking up the shattered pieces and taking another 15% or 20% away from Apple. All it needs is >50% and the market is theirs.
Step 1: Capture 50% of market.
Step 2: Profit!
I'm glad we've eliminated any question out of the formula. It seems so obvious now, to win, you must first win!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
... that myspace costs zilch and has little barrier to entry. Zune costs $249.99 and definitely isn't as "cool" as an ipod (there's your social barrier). This article is pure FUD.
"Zune marketing looks cool, too."
i am sorry but i would take a Ipod ad over any of those any day. the 1st one made me say WHAT THE F&$% and then the 2nd one i was waiting for either the guy to smash the little guy or the bunny to eat him or something after the 2 birds on fire what was the 1st one... it doesnt even have the product in the video at all... so how are the Ad's cool? if any one else thinks they are cool let me know cause i would love to back hand you!
(yes i know i suck at spelling fell free to correct my grammar and/or spellin i dont care, im still not going to change
That is how I say it, rhymes with tune. Zune.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
OOH Cheeper iPods!
Thanks Microsoft!
Hoo boy, yeah. You could give QuickBasic to a syphillitic chimpanzee and he'd come up with something slicker than Windows Media Player.
I don't like MS (I hate apple too, so don't get me wrong) but I think knowing how well MS can dominate the desktop, their Zune could succeed. They can easily push the Zune with advertising and would have little trouble in simply winning with bundled software.
People put way to much faith in what marketing can do.
Are you yourself so easily swayed? No? Now multiply that by EVERYONE. Marketing is not what is selling iPods at this point. It's what gets you the first ten percent of the market who are then your judge and executioners.
Bundling Windows Media Player does not help them really because people still have to buy the device. It's not like the browser whre you could bundle it and you were done. It also does not help because a lot of people already use iTunes and will install it to support iTunes they already have, which perpetuates the sales.
Making it so WMP could sync with the Zune out of the box would be good. They could also temporarily sell for a loss to knock out Apple.
Oh they are taking a loss - on each player, and on the conversion of every song in an iTunes library into Zune files at Microsofts expense!
As for syncing with WMP, it probably will - oh except for those "PlaysForSure" WMP files. Not like that's confusing or anything, I can just imaging the support calls "but te only files that will not play say PlaysForSure!".
They can take losses, Apple can't.
Apple has a few BILLION dollars in cash sitting around, and the majority of the market. Apple does not have to take a loss, they could just trim margins a little reducing the price of the iPod and watch Microsoft squirm. Oh wait, they already have.
Also how much can Microsoft continue to loose on Zune while they are also supporting XBox losses? Remember they are a public company.
But apple will survive. They can keep selling their computers, and although apple can never dominate the market, they can keep their fans happy and thus stay in buisness (which is all they were before iPods).
That violin has been playing for a long time now but at this point it's kind of out of iTune.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Am I the only person who can't stand the DRM crap that Apple's ITunes shoves down your throat?
Yes because the rest of us realize we can simply use MP3's with the iPod, and encode video ourselves to play on it.
Apple does not "shove", they "tempt" (which is ironically fitting for an "Apple"). You don't have to go there.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Has wifi. More space than a Nomad. Awesome.
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
Of course we'll bundle our MorganNet software with the new network nodes; our customers expect no less of us. We have never sought to become a monopoly. Our products are simply so good that no one feels the need to compete with us.
Where's the information for that? I'm wondering because neither the Zune or iPod is being promoted for its MP3 file abilities.
Yes but they and the market they are in is still widely referred to as "MP3" players. Otherwise Zune would have 100% of the "Zune market" which would be madnesss.
I got that figure a bit wrong, it was over 75% (as of 2Q 2006). There are other studies as well.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yes. No one has ever survived believing prerelease product information from MS. Ever. Whatever they tell you about what it's GOING to do is wrong, incomplete, a future statement or a lie. The fact is that Zune will be a 1.0 product. It will be incomplete, broken or worse. MS really doesn't care about the Zune because Zune is no more than a temporary 'product' that's meant to slow Apple down and no more.
I think you pronounce it like "tune". You know, the whole fucking reason why it's called "Zune"...
'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
'Sacred burial grounds of articles touting a new iPod killer' and be done with it?
To make it complete, Slashdot will have a script that will regurgitate all these comments so that we can move on with our lives.
Oh, and technical writers? Try to avoid the buzzword 'seamless'. The last time it was used correctly was back before the product came out of beta, and one techie said, 'Transferring from Zune to Zune seemed less troublesome during our tests...'
Bring it on!
"First off, it has a big screen.
This is huge!"
Sounds like someone has fallen for marketing obfuscation.
iPod is 2.5", Zune is 3.0", both have a 320x240 resolution. That's a half inch difference and the resolution is the same, so the Zune has chunkier pixels and cannot display any more information.
Also, neither are optimal for extended movie watching. The PSP's 4" screen at 480x272 (16:9) resolution is about the smallest size that is comfortable for a 2 hour movie (aside from the fact that Sony in their infinitely stupid wisdom have hobbled it regular MPEG-4 movie have to be at 320x240 or 368x208 resolution, making the movie less sharp due to upscaling).
OK,
first of they're more interested in DRM rather than delivering media.
Secondly, look at their attempts at media management on PCs...
The mighty Windows Movie Maker which can't even burn a DVD.
The mighty WMP which weighs about a ton of RAM and makes you do the "wtf, where did that title bar go?" twist every time you use it.
Their awesome solution towards digital photo management-- google picassa.
The simplicity of importing video and photos into your computer "Please insert the driver disc"
And once again, let me mention the allmighty Windows Movie Maker which cannot burn your movies to a DVD!
WTF?
And what of their Media box? Any of your friends with careers excited, or talk about the PC in the middle of the living room that manages their media?
Yes, Zune has a pedigree of a 2nd rate dog (Xbox) and a 3 legged mutt (MS.)
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
The Zune will sour people on any product that it is remotely like. Microsoft will never get a significant market share, but they will poison the market. Thus far it is Microsoft who has been squeezed on the pricing front.
"1. Microsoft is hatching a consumer media "perfect storm.""
If a perfect storm is when hot air meets vaporware.
"2. The Zune is social and viral."
So is herpes. The difference is that while herpes is "the gift that keeps on giving", Zunes tunes won't spread far.
"3. Zune may have more programming."
The world may end tomorrow, but neither is likely.
"4. Zune's screen is better for movies."
Better, but completely inadequate.
"5. Zune is actually pretty cool."
Brown is soooooo cooooool!
The US government have made it clear that we have no inalienable rights; any we do not defend vigorously will be taken.
Yeah, with Apple having ONLY 75% of the market share for portable music players, I'm sure they're just absolutely terrified.
"That might even make it a breach of license agreement for creative commons licensed music, because they demand that if you give a track to someone else, that person has to be able to pass it on, impossible with the Zune."
Zune doesn't give tracks to anyone, what it gives is a limited preview. In order to give the track to someone, you have to use a different method. In any case, the burden is on the user.
"Due to Zune's DRM restrictions there will be no widespread sharing on school yards, so even if the world would demand to return to the early Napster days, the Zune will not allow this."
I agree with this. What kids want is unlimited sharing. Zune's version isn't appealing to them.
"There have been a lot of other media players already featuring larger screens, so this alone does not seem to be a reason for customers to switch."
Yes, but all those players are significantly bigger than the iPod. Zune is the same size but with a bigger screen. Watching video on an iPod does suck pretty much so a larger screen would be welcome. I'm not convinced it is larger enough. I sure don't want one.
Zune is BLOAT, ipod is mainly a music player.
....
...
...
:)
I even feel the ipod is a BLOAT, especially with iTynes piggybacking on it, but hey, it is small, has decent battery life, and plays my electronic tunes while I am running or lifting weights....
A Zune? I wanna see the battery life, and the size of that box. For sure you won't run with that strapped onto your arm and sweat into it like a pig
as a media player (for video and all that) maybe it rulez. For a music player: it just sucks probably.
I do not want to see 5-inch size movies, I just need MP3 so if apple wants my opinion: i keep my ipod and do not care for zune.
On the other hand as soon as it crpas out I just get something half the size of an ipod, with twice the capacity, for 75% of the price with a 100% better software. Something that works on linux and does not need 2 upgrades of 80megs a month twice
just my 2c. Run and buy the bloat box if you want
I'm not defending it because i don't agree either, but Apple succeeded with iPod against entrenched competition partly because of it's superior integration with it's computers. Remember that the 1G iPod did not support Windows and Apple marketed it specifically as part of the "mac experience". Not really that much different.
Does anyone else think that Vista may have a lot of "problems", at least at first, with iTunes support?
Does anyone else think that Vista might have some "problems", at least at first, with iTunes support?
Effectively doubling the resolution and quadrupling the number of pixels?
(With video now coming at 1.5Mbps.)
Or is that just what they output through the AV jack?
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
Your roommate, huh?
When has Microsoft ever made anything seamless?
-- Cerebus
honestly.... if the iPod (or some future iPod killer) had AM and/or FM radio in it i would think a good chunk of the motivation would be live info you could not have synced at home. something like weather updates, or sporting events (scores?). really most all of that is available on cell phones now.
personally i listen to the radio a lot, but it's a local non-commercial college station or NPR and that's it. i used to listen to an extinct local FM talk radio station, and since its demise i have not found any other talk station that can keep my interest. i suppose a part of me would like a radio tuner in my iPod, but not enough to buy a different device, or one of the after market FM tuner things (if they still exist?).
other people made good points that, for example, many local commercial stations have less songs in rotation that you could fit on an iPod shuffle. with the internet, radio is not as important as it used to be for exposure to new top 40 hits. a lot of the reason i listen to college radio is to learn about music i didn't know existed.... not to just hear my favorite songs that i already own. i know i am a minority in that one though.
Think of it as a portable, wireless, hardware version of MySpace. With the Zune, Microsoft is trying to launch a consumer media 'perfect storm.'
I love the smell of fresh FUD in the morning.
You just got troll'd!
if Apple was really scared... wouldn't they do something to protect their iPod's popularity? wouldn't that be even worse for MS? right now MS has matched the 30 gig iPod price. i would bet their pricing has more to do with the price of the iPod than any other business and manufacturing formulas for profit margin. i am sure they hope to make money on the subscription service too.
to fight back..... Apple could just make their 30 gig a 40 gig for the same price and that would hurt MS (right?). they made the 60GB an 80GB AND lowered the price by $50. so, the new large iPod is 80 Gigs. a few weeks ago they offered 30 and 60 gig models. one can guess the 60 has twice the platter of the 30, so there may be the half-sized drive of the 80 GB model around the corner. just a seemingly logical guess?
"the company expects to have 200 million Vista users within two years."
a conservative expection I'm sure...
You expect every person on the planet with a personal computer to buy a new one within the next 2 years?
No, only about 400 millions, and yet that's a slightly conservative estimate.
You just got troll'd!
The irony of this name will surely come to bite M$.
When people find out it does not, the DRM gremlins will turn people against it.
-Jay
>>>The Zune isn't just a music player, the article argues. Think of it as a portable, wireless, hardware version of MySpace
yuck!!.. where can i find a nearby toilet so i can barf up my intestines.
Um, What is Apple Scared of? And how did this tool of a writer make that determination?
I fail to see how someone can make a statement about a company's opinion without asking them.
Perhaps someone should write a counter article about how M$ is scared that Apple
spent time developing products that people wanted to buy and use.
I think they might also be a little scared that Apple is selling a quad core workstation
for less than their nearest competitor.
Once again, the M$ and ComputerWorld relationship has shown it's true colors.
I'm getting tired of reading articles from publications that have idiot writers
that fell in love with Microsoft right out of college (or High School), and
that their main advertising dollars are tied to products spawned from Microsoft.
I think Computerworld should consider firing that writer for Marketing for
a particular company, and providing a one sided biased opinion
of how a company "feels".
Avg. Live Expectancy of a SysAdmin, 45 Years.
"There is no data...only Zune."
Bemopolis
"I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
The damn thing isn't even out yet and it is already the headline of every other article at tech news aggregators. I'd say Microsoft has done a good job astroturfing thus far. But that doesn't have jack shit about the long term survivability of the product. My guess is that it will put the squeeze on the other competition and approach parity in the market with Apple. When the iPod came out nobody had a fucking clue it would be so succesful, even the apple zealots hated it (zomg its not a iNewton). Give it six months.
Technically, it appears to be a functional and solid player and seems to be equivalent to an apple player in most respects and even includes some cool new features. Of course, I "have never seen a checkbox I didn't love." I'd consider buying one when my current DAP reaches the end of its useful lifespan.
Apple doesn't fear inferior products from an inferior corporation. Besides, Zune is easy to beat. Nokia 770 (or similar device) + Ipod = Zune Killer. And I don't mean by putting iTunes on Nokia 770. I mean a converging of technology to build a new device. So, Apple isn't sared. They can do better then Zune. The question is when.
\
The Zune interface is just like a miniature version of the Windows Media Center user interface
That will keep my money in Apple's pocket.
And I don't want wireless. I don't want FM. I don't want games.
I want to play mp3 files. That's it.
In a year or two, many players will have some form of wireless: Bluetooth, WiFi, and/or wireless USB. Apple will probably include something like it in an upcoming iPod and it will be slightly less crippled, and people will ooh and aah about how "open" Apple is. And then you'll see a huge number of cheap MP3 players with wireless that really do come without all those annoying restrictions, and those will be the good ones to get.
In relevant news, Microsoft owns more than 99.99% of the worldwide computer virus market (compared with Apple's roughly 0%), representing some 4 million viruses. The company expects to have 3 million Vista viruses within two years.
Was there anything really different or insightful in any of that, or are you trying to set a new record for "Number of words wasted to say 'Windoze is teh suXX0r!!11'"? Same shit, different CID.
This sig intentionally left blank.
When you hear radio you are already hearing light, albeit a very low energy light (long wave length). And we can already "see" all the highier energy wave like IR, Visible, uv, x ray : just use a spectrometer and instead of having a visible spectra transform it in corresponding vibration. Et Voila ! You hear light. Alternatively for visible light you could use you eyeball to just plain see light...
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Was there anything really different or insightful in any of that,
Well, yes, I made a well cited argument that 200,000,000 Vista users in two years is bullshit. It was based, mostly, on XP uptake and current usage.
or are you trying to set a new record for "Number of words wasted to say 'Windoze is teh suXX0r!!11'"? Same shit, different CID.
No, it's easy to say every version of Windows has sucked. Above I say that users have noticed that no "upgrade" has ever made things much better and that bodes poorly of Vista sales. It's part of my overall argument against insane Vista sales predictions.
As for the same shit different CID, I'm afraid I've only heard one tune from you Kieth. Of the 24 posts currently on display on your user page, 10 are devoted to M$ defense and trolling Twitter directly. One or two of the others are crap fillers in the same treads, which basically say nothing.
Such individual attention is flattering, but Kieth Russel, you are a Microsoft loving troll.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
fisrt of all apple said its self that it owns 72-74% market share so get your facts right also i own an ipod mini but i never felt like buying the ipod video plus ever since but Zune with its big screen seems like it might be worth watching movies on, also apple ever since its 2-3 generation ipods have not added a single feature ok sure they added video playback and pictures but these features are now industry standard. Now in a time when every mp3 player has more features then ipod it just feels stupid to buy another ipod, yet all apple wants to do is make its ipod smaller soon they will be invisible but features will be the same. Where as zune will give a lot more features i.e bigger screen, fm tuner, music sahring and you gussed it for the same price. so i think its time for the apple cult to take off their blind folds and start looking at things from a objective point of view. Finally apple has lost its cool since when u go in a bus or train or gym or anyother place and see every one using ipod you fell like using something else. Too much or nothing is good.
For example, is the "conspiracy" responsible for the moderation on fantastic post of yours? Or did you just sort of forget that anyone can look at your posting history?
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
I'm sure a mod will be made in no time which would allow copying of files between Zunes without DRM.
Doubtless a hack will quickly appear. However, nobody will use the hack unless they're already using the Zune and are excited about the sharing capability. With the DRM as an initial barrier, that's just one more reason not to even buy a Zune in the first place. Ostensibly the song sharing is the killer feature.
But it's born with a built-in ambiguity. Will I be able to share songs without limitations using some hack? Will MS plug the hack? Will I have to keep screwing around with my Zune to make this song-sharing thing work? Geeks may enjoy modding their Zunes, but regular consumers won't.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Microsoft's biggest problem in the mp3 space is very similar to their biggest problems in the gaming space, portable telephone space and other spaces where they haven't had a monopoly for 15 years: Legacy, baby.
I personally have nothing against Microsoft products. Indeed, I use Windows all day at work and am fairly happy with it. I really hate Microsoft's business practices, though.
But Microsoft suffers from the fact that people who have invested heavily in other products will not be likely to change to an unknown, start from scratch device that offers me no benefits above my iPod. I have spent some $300 on the iTunes Store and even though MS says I can get that all from Microsoft (I'm still waiting for the smallprint on that one - Does Microsoft allow me to burn the stuff to CD or keep it for even if I decide Micorosoft are a bunch of lying fuckers and stop paying?)
Make no m istake, Microsoft will throw money and time at this until it does get a marketshare, much like they did with PDAs (which are now more or less irrelevant), mobile phones (people don't want a fucking start button on their phones you dumb bastards), or game consoles (Say thanks to Sony for fucking up, it certainly wasn't due to your talent you useless bunch of shits)
..."Apple is scared" which he sets out as truth when he has absolutely no proof.
The clue is right at the bottom of the page.
"Mike Elgan is a technology writer and former editor of Windows Magazine."
No bias here. He probably has the sort of mindset that can't even conceive living outside the sort of headspace that Microsoft has so carefully constructed to build its monopoly.
Nobody seems to get it. The reason why Apple hasn't done wireless in the past is because it sucks up too much battery. I know this from speaking with one of the guys in the small core iPod team: they have an ultimate constraint for any feature that uses too much juice. If it reduces hours, it won't get implemented. Period. Wait until there's more battery friendly wireless, then see what Apple does.
Seriously. "Zune". . . someone at MS wasn't thinking when they it that.
(Not that I'm surprised or anything, MS just has craptastic stuff I guess, like their bot that indexed my site 46 times in about half an hour yesterday. Good thing it's running Linux.)
www.linuxpenguin.net
Thank You! I haven't had such a good laugh in a long time. I wonder how many of your readers missed the irony in the article and thought you were actually saying the Zune would succeed because they keep invoking that lame MySpace everyone is getting bored with. Your glowing description of the Zune's "bigger screen" was great, too. You could also have pointed out that though Zune and iPod both have 320x240 pixels, that Zune's bigger (and cheaper) pixels make theirs fuzzier, with less of that annoying image sharpness. And of course your comment that Zune's 4x3 screen (when sideways) is much better for widescreen movies than iPod's 3x4 screen was hilarious. Your restraint in not trying for easy laughs about the Zune's color scheme and nonfunctional nav wheel is admirable; it would have been a cheap shot. And the way you were able to actually write "the Microsoft consumer media juggernaut" without mentioning Bob or the many other Microsoft media successes is a masterpiece of subtlety. Anyway, my congratulations. I can't wait to read what you have to say about [hasta la] Vista.
"When you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform." - Mark Twain
Ah but have you ever seen a shit brown Pocket PC? I think not!
www.linuxpenguin.net
Apart from building a music store into Xbox Live Marketplace that I wouldn't use I don't know what integration they could offer that is better than what allready exists for my iPod. Without any updates I just plug my iPod full of standard MP3s into my 360 and I can use the xbox menu to play any music with visualisations it's pretty cool. I can just have my iPod plugged in all the time and use the Xbox IR remote to browse my whole music collection. I prefer leaving the game's music on, but you can replace this with music from you iPOd if you want. I guess the Zune could do all this wirelessly but what's the point? It would just eat the batteries and the xbox is just sitting there.
I'm not seeing how that Wired blog supports your statement. It makes no statements whatsoever comparing the Windows to OSX version in terms of ease of use by design. All it notes is that iTunes 7 has issues, and iTunes 6.0.5 is the most popular download on Apple's site right now. Not only that, the post's conclusions are presumptuous and illogical.
From that article:
The download stats say that iTunes 6.0.5 is the most popular download, they don't differentiate between the Mac and PC versions, so there is nothing to prove that the high popularity of version 6.0.5 is attributable to Mac users or PC users, just iTunes users.
Also, the timeframe the downloads are counted in is not listed. iTunes 6.0.5 was available for how many months before iTunes 7? Everybody on the planet is not going to upgrade in the first 24 hrs (I haven't). Unless you want to buy video content or want gapless music playback, there is little reason to download this upgrade. Add ot that people who are avoiding this version because they don't like the interface changes and people whe always wait for the
iTunes 6.0.5 has had a little more time to rack up download stats and will not be unseated until at least that many copies of version 7 are downloaded.
Frequently, they'll also use the headphone wire. At least, that's the way I remember things. :) It's been a while since I cared enough about radio to be sure.
Press Release: Dino De Laurentiis and Microsoft present Zune
The movie continues the dry multimedia experience that fans of the original 1984 movie came to appreciate. Spice production has resumed when another previously unknown world has been ArrakaFormed to allow reintroduction of the Wurms necessary to the process.
Tagline:
It is by Zune Alone I set MS in Motion
It is by the DRM that Lawsuits acquire speed, Music acquires Stain, the Stain becomes a warning.
It is by Zune Alone I set MS in Motion
The Slashdot Preview word for this post is bastard.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
... were in any way connected to the "Plays for sure"/"Urge" things (or any other earlier MS effort in the music/movie/content field);
(and)
if the Zune Player had some noticeable hardware advantages over the roughly comparable iPod models;
(and)
if it weren't Windows users who are probably 90% of the iTunes/iPod users and have been for years now;
(and)
if any of the MS content formats (like WMA, WMA plus, "WMA super DRM", whatever they are pleased to call it) had been established in the market in any significant degree;
well, then - and only then - the Zune gadget would represent a strong threat to the iPod gadget.
As long as not a single one of the above conditions being clearly in a "true" state, the Zune will just be a good way for MS to sink some big heaps of money they cannot invest anywhere outside their Windows/Office core business returning a raw profit margin of 80%.
There is a market for this device. People who hate Apple's smugness and are willing to use sub-standard devices made by anyone else. I know two Apple haters. One has a Creative and the other is salivating for the Zune. Maybe they'll both run into each other one day and can share a song or two.
Microsoft has a long history of creating over-hyped versions of already existing products and then realizing there is no money in it or people do not want their poorly designed product.
My first example is what I believe was Microsoft's first attempt at moving into the media content market. Some may remember the Microsoft Ultimate TV DVR which was actually a really nice product which they stopped developing or supporting about the same time as it hit the market. Now all that is left is the rather annoying and horribly bad Comcast DVR that runs Microsoft's guide which was reused from the Ultimate TV minus the stability, cool features, speed, and functionality.
Then MS decided they wanted to try it again in the same market and introduced Windows Media Center Edition. Windows MCE was and still is a poorly conceived product. It doesn't support native use with any Cable or Satellite provider or have the ability to use cable card. It's interface is piss-poor and missing many simple features built into any mainstream DVR at a fraction of the cost. The only advantage it has over any other DVR on the market is it's ability to work as a regular PC connected to your TV. Has anyone really used one of these to surf the net or write a letter. MCE since it's much touted launch has been withdrawn to another failed MS product.
Question: After all this work is there an MS DVR product on the market thats worth anything? NO. Why didn't they take what they learned and roll it into the Xbox 360 and capture some of the DVR market along with the game console market? The hardware is more than adequate and they have all of the software developed already.
Answer: Microsoft is too large and lacks any clear direction. They lack cohesive interaction between development teams and are too busy trying to patch up and build on their existing virus ridden software foundation. Microsoft's software products have grown into what can only be compared to a skyscraper made of playing cards and gum built on top of a moving car with two flat tires thats traveling downhill at 100mph towards a cliff with a drunk Paris Hilton at the steering wheel.
This is only one example of Microsoft's full hearted attempts to move into markets where there is room for success and they fail. I'll bet they stop trying to produce updates to the Zune before Vista service pack 1 hits windows update. More than likely the developers and designers for the Zune are already standing in line at the Indian unemployment office.
Before you know it someone will be on slashdot saying the iPod is dead because Microsoft is releasing a portable Xbox that plays music and videos and has some lame implementation of that the PSP and iPod doesn't have.
The "limited" in preview is exactly what the CC license forbids. You may add DRM to a track, but you may not pass that track on to anyone if it does not have the same rights/license as the track you received. A track someone got from another Zune via WiFi would have these restrictions, so it is not allowed to pass CC licensed songs (beside attribution licensed) from one Zune to another, unless the DRM is removed. Since the user initiates the transfer, it is always the burden of the user, who is the one who agreed to the license.
memomo: free web based language trainer DE-EN-ES-FR-IT
Someone please get Bill something for his diarrhea. I'm really getting tired of him launching turds in public all the time. And while your getting bill some diapers could you please take the lighter away from the author of this article. Bill keeps insisting he light everything that comes out his ass.
there you go.
He was referring to YOUR troll post there - are you implying that by questioning your bullshit FUD-laden posts he's somehow "loving" Microsoft? WTF??
In the real world, kids have already a MP3 player. They play MP3 songs, without Digital rights management, and this with whatever player, mostly using itunes to put it on the player.
Welcome monopolist to a late and mature market. Without real file standard monopoly. Your player must be a heck of a lot better than the competition.
I see them only win if they give 3 years warranty instead of 1 year like the others.
sam
... is it just me or are there very few points that actually makes any sense in the article - aside from the support from more movie and TV companies, I really see no valid points there at all. And, let's be honest here, who actually uses their mp3 player primarily for movies?
... why would faster recharges be a selling point for the average consumer? Maybe there'll be a few people who charge their mp3 players on the train or on a plane or whatever, but I'd imagine that most people just plug it in and charge it overnight.
.jpg photos) with up to four other simultaneous Zune users within Wi-Fi range. Recipients of these shared songs will be able to play them three times for up to three days free, after which they'll have to pay to listen. Songs received wirelessly can't be shared.
... traditionally you just put on the song and give one of the headphones to the other person so they can listen. Or you huddle up so that you can see the picture on the screen. Is there any point to this feature?
The initial version will sport a 30GB hard drive, peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connectivity, a 3-in. screen (320-by-240-pixel QVGA viewable in either portrait or landscape mode), an FM tuner that will display song information from stations that broadcast a Radio Broadcast Data Standards (RBDS) signal and a built-in nonreplaceable lithium-ion rechargeable battery that will probably deliver about 12 hours of music or about 3.5 hours of video on a single charge. It won't last as long as the iPod, but it will charge faster.
Looking at this, the Zune is superior to the cheapest iPod video (in that it's about the same price and has the Wifi, a bigger screen and FM radio) but has worse battery life. The FM tuner is nice, but not anything essential, ditto the bigger screen. What worries me is that this is the ONLY model (effectively giving Apple an advantage in the "I have more than 30GB of music" market) and the battery life. It's hardly a significant difference - taking the Zune to be competing with the 30GB iPod but
Zune will connect to an iTunes-like music store called the Zune Marketplace, which will offer millions of songs, according to Microsoft. Music will be available for 99 cents per song or via an "all-you-can-eat," $14.99-per-month subscription package called a "Zune Pass." Movies and TV shows will become available on the site sometime next year. Marketplace will work with the Microsoft Points program -- Xbox users can spend Points on Zune media and vice versa. Each song on Marketplace costs 79 points. (For instance, 100 points equals $1.25).
Although the subscription method is an improvement from Apple's model, I don't really see Apple NOT enacting a similar scheme if it's a success. And I don't really see why linking to the XBOX will be a huge boon for the Zune - anyone able to get onto the Marketplace already has broadband of some description and I'd imagine that most people don't get broadband purely for the XBOX, and they probably have a PC anyway. Maybe it'd help it sell for people who have Macs but also have XBOXes but surely Mac-people would be more likely to use iTunes anyway?
Zune will come preloaded with yet-undisclosed songs from DTS, EMI Music's Astralwerks Records and Virgin Records, Ninja Tune, Playlouderecordings, Quango Music Group, Sub Pop Records and V2/Artemis Records.
Unless they're exclusive tracks or ultra-uber-rare tracks, I don't see why this makes a difference. I don't think that anyone would buy an mp3 player for preloaded songs.
Best of all, Zunes will be able to connect to one another wirelessly, letting people share songs (as well as playlists and
Zune software will import audio files in unprotected WMA, MP3, AAC formats; JPEG photos; and videos in WMV, MPEG-4, H.264 formats. Microsoft has hinted that it will support other media formats, but hasn't specified which ones. Zune will import songs from Apple's iTunes "as permitted by the online service f
Haha, I saw this and thought, surely there must be a lot of content at Zune.com, right? Surely, there'll be lots of information, a way to preorder it maybe, just like Apple, since no company generates a ton of buzz without, y'know, trying to benefit from it in terms of sales. Um, THE PAGE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION! Apparently Microsoft doesn't own Zune.com, which is a pretty pathetic situation in my book, up there Nissan now owning Nissan.com, because they let some guy in Michigan get the drop on them, then spend the last decade trying to threaten and sue him rather than NOT working it out, as any reasonable company should. (I have tried to work with the Nissan.com owner in the past, giving him the information he needs to contact President Goshn directly rather than dealing with the local Nissan USA lackeys, but he's not exactly a "problem-solution" oriented person, and neither is Nissan.)
Sigh.
You've got a friend in Japan: http://www.jlist.com
That extra 0.5" diagonal translates to 44% more screen space (if my math is correct). The iPod's 2.5" 4:3 screen has an area of 3.0 square inches (1.5" x 2.0"). The Zune's 3.0" diagonal 4:3 screen has an area of 4.32 square inches (1.8" x 2.4"). I haven't visually compared the two screens, but I think 44% more screen space would be a significant improvement over an iPod screen that's too small.
Also, the iPod's screen ranks very low in photo/video quality comparisons like this one: MP3 and Portable Video Player Picture Quality Shoot-Out
I'm still not convinced that watching videos would be a good experience on a 3" screen, but I think photo viewing should be significantly better on the Zune than the iPod.
TO START
PRESS ANY KEY
Where's the 'ANY' key? I see Esk, Kitarl, and Pig-Up...
Does anyone else find this disturbing? I work in a school and first, the second one of these is seen in a classroom it will be confiscated until the end of the day and second, should be be encouraging kids today to screw around in school instead of studying? And how long is it before we see the /. article about parents complaining that other kids at school shared porn with their kids via the Zune?
Great that's just what we need. Am I the only one who doesn't care for MySpace? Is that really where web design is headed? Every site will be 1 page with as many animated gifs, pictures, comments, videos and a background that makes it inpossible to read any of the text?
So? iTunes seems pretty seamless to me and I can run it on Windows or a Mac.
I realize this is an opinion piece, but really did the writer base any of this on fact? Go ahead and call me a fanboy. I admit, I like my iPod. If I want a FM tuner, I can get one pretty cheap. If I want movies from all the major studios, I just have to wait. Just like the TV shows, movie studios will eventually sign on. My Opinion, is that the Zune won't be around next Christmas.
Oh okay. That's not a long u, though. ;) Sorry for being a pedant.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
"The Dead Zune"
"The "limited" in preview is exactly what the CC license forbids."
Sure, but the question is whether it matters in a "preview". The purpose of the DRM is to assure that the shared tracks don't constitute "distribution". If that isn't the case then Zune has a far greater problem than the CC license. If it is the case, the Zune has no problem with any content including CC licensed stuff.
Ultimately, the question will be whether a user has a right to limited sharing of copyrighted content without the consent of copyright holders. In Zune's case, it's not only the DRM that limits the sharing to 3 views or 3 days but also the device itself that limits the sharing to 4 other users at any given time. IANAL so I don't know where MS got these numbers from, but I do know that the CC license is not the concern for them; general violation of copyright is. If they can get around that then CC licensers will have no complaint. Frankly I think they have only the slightest complaint anyway, since after 3 days or less the content disappears along with any possible violation.
"Since the user initiates the transfer, it is always the burden of the user, who is the one who agreed to the license."
I believe that's right. I made that point only because people insist that Zune itself will be in violation of the CC license when I don't believe that would be the case. It ultimately doesn't matter because the feature is worthless if it can't be used.
I was going to do a point-by-point rebuttal of that shitty misrepresentation of my posting history. But I realized it was all redundant. Everything comes back to this point.
TRUTH. I'm through trying to be nice, or polite, or rational in an attempt to counterbalance your insanity. There's a reason some AC continued to post excerpts from the Linux Advocacy HOWTO after I first replied to you with it: Because you have no fucking clue what it says, nor do you care. You don't care how much of an asshole you are, or how poorly you reflect on this forum, or how poorly you reflect on Linux, the operating system you worship.
You hate Microsoft so much, you'll stoop to anything -- lies, slander, defamation -- to respond to any post that even slightly implies any form of sympathy for your devil.
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As far as I can see, the biggest thing working against MS here is simplicity. The ipod is extremely simple to use, and load songs onto (for those people who are less tech-savvy than the average reader of slashdot), I can't see MS (or anyone else for that matter) being able to produce something as elegant and easy to use as Apple's wheel. Until they can market their mp3 player as being as easy to use as an ipod, I can't see anyone being a real competitor to Apple, even given the ipod's current "failings" (screen size etc).
I was going to do a point-by-point rebuttal ... TRUTH. I'm through trying to be nice, or polite, or rational in an attempt to counterbalance your insanity.
All you need to do is explain why half of your posting time is devoted to harassing Twitter, but you can't. You stalk high and low scoring posts, so random chance encounters are impossible. Kieth Russel is a stalker account, representing a good portion of someone's life, devoted to harassing Twitter.
There is nothing truthful, nice, polite or rational in your posts. They are baseless, insulting, rude and intentionally stupid. Every attempt is made at misdirection and insult. It is only rational in it's deliberate attempt to disrupt honest conversation.
Oh yeah, fuck you.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
My friends Bah-lee and Da-nee will buy the Zoo-Nee :P
We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
Yes, jb.hl.com, you have already admitted to being a stalker. I'll catalog now how dedicated a stalker your account is. Of the 20 posts visible in your history an astounding 13 are dedicated to bashing Twitter. The rest are the usual "I hate Slashdot" troll talk. Do you have a life outside hating a single Slashdot user?
It goes on and on. If you don't work for Microsoft, you waste a lot of time hating without compensation. How pathetic.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I'm through arguing
I hope so, but I'm not that lucky. When I see more of your insults and bullshit, I'll just post the above. It looks like you need another account to fuck with Twitter and I'm sure you have a dozen of them. It's too bad you squandered such a low user id like that. It must have cost a lot of money, one way or another.
But before you go, does someone pay you to spend half of your time harassing Twitter and the rest Slashdot in general, or are you just a fuck head with nothing better to do?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
***This is DEFINITELY a PR piece written by Microsoft PR group.***
Here's why I wrote this piece: I have noticed my fellow iPod enthusiasts "pointing and laughing," as I put it, at Microsoft's entry into the media player market (on blogs, in articles and elsewhere), mocking Microsoft's futile attempt to enter into the media player ring with Apple. In stark contrast, I've also noticed that Apple is taking the Zune very seriously as a potential threat.
One role of columnists is to seek out popular myths and misconceptions and provide insight and argument to dispel them. That's what I did in my article.
One such myth is that the Zune's customization of colors and backgrounds, etc., is either irrelevant or bad (because people make bad decisions about colors, etc.). My very simple and obvious point was that real people in real life like to customize things. I used MySpace as an example of that fact.
I'm not out to make "invisible connections" in people's minds. Jesus. I'm just making a point.
- Mike Elgan
You're asking for a pune on Zune?
*ba da boom*
Bleck, they teach in school "add an E on the end, makes the vowel long" (they don't specify WHICH vowel...) so I figured, "tune" has an e on the end, so that U sound must be the long one.
I do not do phonics. Semantics is cool, but phonics are irritating!
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
I am done with you because I did pray on this, and realized three things:
Go in peace.
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Now, KeithRussel has a UID under 5K, and his first post was probably in early '99 or so. He's posted just over 1,000 comments. Assuming 7 years to date that's just under one post every four days, on average.
If you're not too fucking cheap, splurge $5 bucks on the website that seems to be the center of your sad life to go through Keith's posting history. If your "theory" of that account having been purchased somehow is correct, that means that his posting pattern must have changed at some point. It doesn't. But you can figure that out for yourself if you're interested. So since his first reply to you appears just a few months ago, that means that someone was mental enough to "buy" this account and keep it dormant until 90 days ago just for the purpose of giving you a hard time. Is that what you're implying? OK then, prove it.
Prove it. Or, go ahead and prove that something I pointed out above is wrong. I dare you. Maybe this time instead of just slithering away or using that infantile "I'm laughing at you" smegma you'll develop some balls? It's already bad enough that you refer to yourself in the third person. What the hell is wrong with you? You must be a Microsoft-sponsored troll in Indonesia designed specifically to make the free software community look stupid. There's no other possible explanation. There's no way in hell that a person so utterly screwed up exists anywhere except in the mind of some evil PR astroturfer expert.
And finally, to your "whenever I see more of your insults and bullshit" point, how about I post this every time I see your "insults and bullshit", eh? Oh, wait. Someone already does, every time. Funny how that works. But hey, I can always help if needed.
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
I don't know if that was sarcasm or not, but in case anyone's wondering, that was a (imo pretty funny) reference to the Paul Simon track Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes, from his '86 release Graceland.
Good album too.
Breaking news! /.ers are even sneering at 'Myspace'
Thosands of slashdot users eschew the MS Zunes! Microsoft is
terrified, as iPod sales continue to creep up by the hundreds.
The haughty
Meanwhile, millions of teenyboppers, teenagers and twentysumpins
are busy logging into Myspace, including my three kids and
ALL their friends.
And, when queried, they ask "Huh? Whats a slashdot?"m as they busy
themselves trying to figure how to integrate their new Zunes
with Myspace.
As well, millions of them are also asking "Whats an 'eschew'?"...
.
- aqk
F U
They don't get that smaller devices need to have intuitive UIs specifically designed for the medium or you end up with user frustration from poor usability.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
XBOX.
MS powered PDAs.
That is what.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
PC sales are expected to decline through 2007. On the other hand, Mac sales are predicted to increase
But macs ARE PCs. Look up PC in the dictionary!
For those of you who wonder just who little twitter here is, a synopsis:
This is the original confirmation of his real identity. We've had that suspicion for quite a while but there was no way to prove it for sure. He reacted predictably enough instead of just ignoring the post.
Here is further confirmation. And this. As you can see, this guy is just insanely retarded - all he had to do do was just ignore the posts and we still wouldn't know for sure. He didn't reply to this, but by that time it wasn't necessary. Someone (not us) then posted this as well. We think that was the same person who registered this account, but we're not sure. He also has another lame home page. And this is his Cox page.
As for his sockpuppet account, here's some dialectic proof (you can see the 'twitter' oozing out of there well enough), along with mention of "nuclear power", a topic which he claims to know about but is just generally ignorant about (as with everything else). Here's one where he mentions the BRLUG. A message was posted to the BRLUG (see "Willy evangelizes" thread here) for further confirmation, which he graciously provided.
For those of who are new to the twitter experience, here's a thread that distills the interaction between KeithRussel and twitter: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=195829&cid=160 48784. Wow.
And finally, some great twitter material:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=88413&cid=7656 803
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=77588&cid=6896 690
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=73226&cid=6595 921
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=71864&cid=6492 229
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=69025&cid=6312 196
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=49657&cid=5011 656
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=180946&thresho ld=1&cid=14972959
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=129735&thresho ld=5&cid=10823036
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=112229&cid=952 1025&threshold=5
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=137420&cid=11
Hey, I looked it up and have to apologise - tune actually can be pronounced tu:n (or "toon"), rhyming with rune. The pronounciation I'm familiar with it is tjun (or "tyoon"), which is the British variant. What's worse is that the u is considered long in both cases, although it doesn't seem very long to me in the British case. I like phonetics incidently, but it's quite hard to get it right, transcribing stuff into the phonetic alphabet is notoriously difficult.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
Remember people, Zune's wireless DRM wrapper wraps everything, including CC and free licences, a clear breach of these licences. I for one know that if I find one of my songs has been zuned, I'll be going microsoft for huge damages and theft.
"I hope you like Guinness, Sir. I find it a refreshing substitute for, er... food." Col. Jack O'Neil, SG-1
It's a skanky woman feeding a guy with a moustache with droppings from her rear end.
In that times, you could watch images download, or just while they were slowly loading to memory, and the gross part was in the last lines of the picture. Tell me about surprises.
Some silly troll pointed out:
Theres about 200 million computers sold each year nowadays
As if that would make any difference. How many years did it take XP to cross the 50% line? Five years on it's barely crossed 80% of the Windoze market share. IDC estimates there are only 400,000,000 XP users today. [wikipedia.org] Each new version of Windoze has taken longer to penetrate because each has been that much more outrageously bloated than it's predecessor. If nothing else has changed, it will be shocking to see so many Vista users in two years.
Changes make their target even less likely. M$'s established users have had enough of the upgrade train. 95 to 98 was bad, 98 to XP was worse and XP to Vista is freaking impossible. You can only fool people so many times and they have plenty of options now. Free alternatives are not only good enough, they are better in many ways. Even if you don't want to go free, you can go Mac and not spend as much as Vista will require. Worse for M$, a large portion of the new computer market is going to come from Europe and the developing world and free software enjoys tremendous advantages there. M$'s language support can't hold a candle to free software even where people have the money to be owned by a US company. Where people don't really have money to waste on basic operating software, free software rules. M$'s growth potential is strictly limited and their user base will collapse soon after Vista flops. The monopoly is based on lies which will vanish in two years.
It's all downhill for M$ now. Most people realize the M$ monopoly is in trouble. It's supposed strength is not going to sell Zune, which will be yet another failure of theirs to own the entertainment market. That failure is another punch to the M$ monopoly myth. It can't happen soon enough.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
zune is pronounced exactly the same as the dutch word for 'kiss'
but m$ doesn't seem to understand the KISS-principle, the ipod does
M$ tactics say:
Embrace, Extend, Extinguish
but it seems they made it:
Embrace, Zune, Extend, Extinguish
you may start laughing now...
Twitter was modded down to -1 Troll for more or less exactly the same post (he changed "So what?" to "As if that would make any difference" here). He has reposted it, as he has done before, in an attempt to recover some karma.
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
Why are you posting the same thing again? Because you were modded down to -1 as troll?
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
Yeah, but what would they do then? If they let people wirelessly share songs without the annoying DRM restrictions the Zune has, wouldn't the music companies stop working with them on iTMS?
I think wireless music sharing will only work with no-name Korean MP3 players made by companies who don't care about the music industry getting upset at them.