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Microsoft Zunes Committing Mass Suicide
jddeluxe writes "There are multiple reports springing up all over the internet of a mass suicide of Microsoft 30GB Zune players globally. Check Zune forums, Gizmodo, or other such sites; the reports are spreading rapidly, except apparently to the Microsoft official Zune site."
It's already kind of lame when someone spells it M$ or Micro$oft in a comment but... in the summary? Childish much?
My 0.02 cents
Nice to see the editors are on the job.
"No one likes working in a hamster wheel, and your shop smells of cedar shavings from here." - TaleSpinner
...but it doesn't tell me what's happening, sounds sensationalist, and actually uses "Micro$oft" - who types that???
Anyone else think the comments just weren't rendering right before they turned off ABP and saw ads?
So when my insides stop working correctly and I die that will be considered suicide?
--I'm not talking about dance lessons. I'm talking about putting a brick through the other guy's windshield.-
Except that, if it had been a Creative Zen or an iPod, you'd still have it to play your favorite music. No big loss? Come on... You now HAVE to buy a new one.
And here's to Microsoft recognizing the problem (they didn't yet) and fixing it.
Of Code And Men
Never blame on malice that which can more simply be attributed to programming error. Occam's Razor, and all that.
I feel sorry for MSFT.
Really? You have a broken player and they have your money, but you feel bad for them?
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Boy, this site has really started to slip, quality wise. The Zunes have failed, stopped working, anything but committed suicide. Jeez.
Have to say though, I'd hate to be MS Zune support at this point - most of the staff will be off or in serious party mood, not what you need when something this big happens.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
My 8gig Zune works just fine.
I wouldn't go that far.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Actually that's "30Mb", 30 megabits, or 3.75 MB.
You just got troll'd!
If that were the case you'd think somebody would have noticed that their Zune said it was 3/1/2008 on the 29th of February.
It should have happened in 2007 then:-) 0x07 is the most you can store in three bits. I guess it's something much more sinister.
Anyway, you didn't just lose $50 - you lost $50 plus the cost of eventual replacement, which you shouldn't have needed. The only way you've only lost $50 is if you never replace your broken Zune.
Um. You seem to lack a basic grasp of economics, goods and their values. For example, do you believe that anytime you get a paycheck, say $200, these are money your employer lost? If yes, please let him know of this fact.
Think the following scenarios about the GP:
I speak England very best
then why didn't this happen in 2004 - there were Zunes then (weren't there?)
You joke about this, but Microsoft actually has the best track record for non-designed obsolescence among all the digital audio player manufacturers out there. When they came out with new generation Zunes, they rolled out all the updates to older generation owners as well.
These updates were also free, unlike the updates for the iPod Touch (interesting how some companies supposedly have to charge for updates with new features under accounting rules, and others don't).
I don't approve of a lot of things Microsoft does, but I have to say that objectively, they've been a real class act as far as supporting older Zunes goes.
Xbox 360 - RRoD hardware failures
Xbox 360 - DVD scratching and destroying game discs
HD-DVD - Dead format
Zune - Bricked by poorly written firmware
Worst Console Ever.
Dead Movie Format
and a dead 'iPod killer' with a stupid brand name
It's hilarious in a pathetic sort of way to know there are huge numbers of diehard Microsoft fanboys out there who are actually dumb enough to own all three of those Microsoft turds.
If it started in 2000, a 3bit year would overrun in 2008 not 2009..
This kind of things can happen to every company, true. However, this seems to happen to Microsoft a lot... And in many of those cases, it was proven that Microsoft knew about the issue but decided to release the product anyway: the bugs in Windows Vista, the Red Ring of Death of the Xbox... Please note that is not a criticism of the Microsoft employees but of the corporate cultural at the executive level that lead them to those issues.
Nobox: Only simple products.
It's 2008/2009, right?
Please explain to me how Microsoft bungles such a simple thing. Do they really not test this crap or what?
I mean, it would be one thing if it was some unknown, unforseeable bug -- but this is a fucking leap year problem. Hell, we studied that problem back when I learned Cobol. In 1991.
So again, how does this happen this day and age? Even for Microsoft, this is so far below "acceptable" that I can't believe it happened.
I own 2 of the 3.
Xbox 360 - mine did the RRoD after almost 3 years of fairly heavy use. Guess what? Microsoft replaced it no questions asked. I'm no Microsoft fan, but that was great customer service. When I bought my 360 originally, I was actually pretty anti-Microsoft (Linux, Mac, yadda yadda). But at the time, I considered it the best console for the money. It was good enough that even if Microsoft hadn't replaced it (and after 3 years, I didn't expect them to), I'd have bought another one anyway.
HD-DVD - just bought my HD-DVD add-on for my 360 about 2 weeks ago. Why? Player is dirt cheap, and there's still a ton of HD movies/TV shows out there. Since it's a "dead" format, most stores are clearing them out DIRT cheap. I picked up 10-15 HD movies the other day for an average of $8 each (brand new, not the used ones Blockbuster is selling). That's way more attractive to me than the $30 average price for the BlueRay stuff (which I also buy for my PS3).
Yeah, I know you're trolling, but take it from someone who owns all three major consoles (360, PS3, Wii) - the 360 is a great console (though I'm not thrilled with the new Dashboard look) and holds its own against the PS3 in every place it matters - performance, graphics, game selection, etc. Sure you can beat it up on tech specs these days, but I still probably play it 2:1 over the PS3.
-- "Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?"
I think lost is what is spent to restore a working music player, or, if not restored, the functionality of the Zune.
The concept that he is out $50 is a direct, easy, way to think about it: spent $50, now useless, out $50. Digging deeper to discern true cost only adds to the time cost. It just isn't worth the effort to account for everything involved with a broken machine -- unless you are somehow rewarded to figure out a "true cost."
There are many factors to include in such an accounting: the music gotten out of the Zune before it froze, the time to find a replacement and restore files to the new player, the $ spent on a new player, new features in a replacement, $ spent on transportation to/from store or shipping, the bad air breathed due to the manufacture and delivery of a replacement, ...
My reward is merely in taking part in this conversation.
I don't approve of a lot of things Microsoft does, but I have to say that objectively, they've been a real class act as far as supporting older Zunes goes.
You're right, MicroSoft has been a class act. That "Plays For Sure" thing has sure worked out great for their digital music customers.
That was too good to be posted anonymously.
ur doin it rong.
There's a difference between spending money and losing it. If you go out in the street with $50 and get robbed, you lost it. If you spend it on a terrible meal, then you might assess the cost-benefit to be that you traded $50 for a meal only worth $20 (lost $30). If you had a decent meal worth $50, you lost nothing. If you had a great meal that would've been worth $75 to you, you gained $25 in utility. In all of these meal examples, you're putting a number on utility, though.
In terms of hard assets, if you trade your $50 for a trinket that you could buy new somewhere else for $10, you lost $40. If you buy a brand new Bentley for the $50, and you could immediately turn around and sell it for $355,550, you gained $355,500. Good job! If your new Bentley gets jacked just after you buy it, you netted a $50 loss that day. Still economically the same as getting your $50 robbed directly, but this would feel much, much worse because of the brief moment you were flyin' high with that pimpin' Bentley.
but have you considered the following argument: shut up.
You'd have a huge post on Apple support forums, with no official postings by any employee. Attempting to speak to Geniuses or tech support will only yield a, "huh, I've never heard of *that* happening before" as they replace your player for you.
A few weeks later, a firmware update containing many bug-fixes magically happens to fix this one too, and it's never spoken of again.
Microsoft has a lot of problems, but I am *so* glad they actually admit when there's an issue and not just sit on it like Apple in the hopes that it will go away.
HD-DVD isn't "dead", it's dead.
It's as dead as VHS. There are no new releases on either.
Just because you find discs around you can buy doesn't mean it isn't dead. Also, my understanding is Blockbuster's HD-DVDs aren't used. The ones I see at Fry's sure aren't. If I wanted leftover older movies at $8, I'd be gassed with HD-DVD I guess. But I don't really. The good movies (like Hot Fuzz) sold out quickly when HD-DVD was killed, and the rest are dregs. BTW, dregs aren't $30 on BluRay (except for from Fox), they are $14-$18.
I've had my 360 die 4 times. The last time, MS wouldn't replace it (optical drive went bad, long story but they screwed me, IMHO). Good customer service is no replacement for making a product that actually works.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
First of all, I'm not an alarmist or a conspiracy theorist. I don't generally believe that anyone is out to get me. I run Vista on my laptop (and Linux on less important hardware).
This, however, is making me think seriously about the need for open source hardware.
What's happening to the Zunes (even though I'm sure they'll fix it shortly) might be the tip of the iceberg for what might happen to the rest of our hardware, either through design or negligence.
I've never seen the firmware running my computer's BIOS, my cell phone or my car. Normally, I wouldn't bother to look. But the fact is that 99% of the hardware we rely on is capable of doing the same thing, with much worse consequences. None of us know what kind of backdoors or bugs exist.
This is not good.
The bad thing is, I don't see many alternatives out there. Android is a good start. The Arduino board seems like a nice toy. What else can we do? Is there a viable way of setting up incentives so that the big manufacturers start releasing open sourced firmware?
RMS, where are you???
"... may experience issues ..."
Is 2009 going to finally be the end of all bogus customer facing 'care' that people (not just MS) pass off good?
Like the poor saps on the phone who are given a script and parrot out "First, sir let me apologize...". I always ask if they were responsible in some way directly for my 'issue'. Obviously they never are and I give back a "You didn't do it, so please don't apologize for it. If you want to give me to someone that actually made such and such a rule or designed the Xbox 360 to overheat and have them apologize to me- then we've go something. Till then tell your supervisor I am insulted by you being forced to apologize."
quis custodiet ipsos custodes
Obviously the ones with Marilyn Manson on them are still working. It was the good Christian Zunes that were taken in the Zune Rapture.
Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment