Here Comes The Zune

[Paul Tao]

Microsoft has almost officially announced their "iPod-killer" MP3 player, called the Zune. Check out the teaser site (http://www.comingzune.com/) and note Regina Spektor (http://www.absolutepunk.net/reginaspektor) in the background.

[emerson1892]

Sweet, can't wait to plug in to the little bunny looking thing

[atticusfinch]

Wtf microsoft. That was so random.

[rhinitus]

interesting article on the Zune:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ByteOfTheApple/blog/archives/2006/07/microsofts_dang.html

[SwedishHeat]

What a wonderfully informative website.

Hopefully, this causes a price war and this time next year 60GB iPods will be $100.

[Brianfarg]

What is going to make this so much better than the iPod?

[kissbangkill]

i love regina spektor. one of my favorite songs by her.

[DeadCityScars]

I'm staying on the iPod side. Fuck Microsoft trying to dominate every possible market.

I'm sure this'll just make the iPod better in the long run, with the competition and what-not.

[SwedishHeat]

What is going to make this so much better than the iPod?

It will probably be cheaper. It is imposible to create a product better than the iPod, so Microsoft will probably charge less for the unit and hope to make up the difference in singles sales. They might be tempted to charge $1 instead of 99 cents for a song, I'm not sure.

[blimpcityhero11]

I still prefer XP to OS X, but I don't see how anything can top iPod/iTunes.

[JohnDorian]

What does a rabbit and a tiny man have to do with an MP3 player?

[TheGoodnightMoon]

That was random as hell. And no matter what they do, it's not going to topple the ipod.

[Julia Conny]

What a wonderfully informative website.

Hopefully, this causes a price war and this time next year 60GB iPods will be $100.

that would be amazing. im keeping my fingers crossed.

[straylighthaste]

well, i'm sold. my ipod's battery is slowly dwindling... :(

[itsjustadrian]

It will probably be cheaper. It is imposible to create a product better than the iPod, so Microsoft will probably charge less for the unit and hope to make up the difference in singles sales. They might be tempted to charge $1 instead of 99 cents for a song, I'm not sure.

Creative's Zen Vision:M is a better product than the iPod. So is the Toshiba Gigabeat.

[Hidenothing27]

I'm sold on the fact that the 2 ipods the i owned in the past and would always love to break on me and piss the daylights out of me. But come august 8th I'm betting Steve jobs will revere what i cannot wait for.. the 3.5 touch screen ipod..

[PEPSI]

"dude brb, gonna put some new music i legally purchased from microsoft on my zune" - gay

[LMB]

Can we introduce another word to describe odd and strange things other than "random"? "Soooo random" almost pisses me off as much as "OMGZ THAT SONG IS SOOO EPIC", even though the emohipstershitbagkid is TALKING ABOUT A FUCKING PANIC AT THE DISCO SONG. FUCK.

Don't mind me, I just have to put up with this shit in person e v e r y f u c k i n g d a y .

[rr_thecrowing]

I'm sold on the fact that the 2 ipods the i owned in the past and would always love to break on me and piss the daylights out of me. But come august 8th I'm betting Steve jobs will revere what i cannot wait for.. the 3.5 touch screen ipod..

Actually, everybody's betting the Apple WWDC is going to be for just Macs, and there's not going to be any iPod announcements...those usually come a month later or so ;)

The Zune is supposed to be a family of products released by Microsoft, the first one should be this fall (the Zune Player), and it's supposed to have WiFi connectivity. Know what that means? Expect it to have much shittier battery life than the iPod.

And speaking of which, I've never had any problems with battery life on my iPod. I charged it up for a whole 24 hours the first time I plugged it in, and I've never looked back. Some batteries are defective, but if you know where to look, they're cheap and easy to replace. I've played with Creative players and some RCA players too, and none of them can top the iPod.

[rhinitus]

Creative's Zen Vision:M is a better product than the iPod. So is the Toshiba Gigabeat.

ive heard nothing but good things about the newer zens...almost bought one. however, i just got one of those alpine head units for my car with the ipod hookup...cant really change now...

"dude brb, gonna put some new music i legally purchased from microsoft on my zune" - gay

wtf? have you ever said "dude brb, gonna put some new music i legally purchased from apple on my ipod"? does that somehow roll off the tongue better?

[Buried A Lie]

im excited to see what it has to offer, i've been using my Dell DJ for a while now and i love the thing. its so compatible and so easy to move music around and share music.

[rhinitus]

Actually, everybody's betting the Apple WWDC is going to be for just Macs, and there's not going to be any iPod announcements...those usually come a month later or so ;)

The Zune is supposed to be a family of products released by Microsoft, the first one should be this fall (the Zune Player), and it's supposed to have WiFi connectivity. Know what that means? Expect it to have much shittier battery life than the iPod.

And speaking of which, I've never had any problems with battery life on my iPod. I charged it up for a whole 24 hours the first time I plugged it in, and I've never looked back. Some batteries are defective, but if you know where to look, they're cheap and easy to replace. I've played with Creative players and some RCA players too, and none of them can top the iPod.

word is they're hittin some snags with the revamping of the ipod and it wont be coming out for awhile. apparently you can anticipate another generation of a video ipod before the "real" video ipod comes out...im guessing we shouldnt expect it this year. i believe i read that on engadget or thinksecret...

[zerock]

"One iPod to Rule them all"

[zerock]

word is they're hittin some snags with the revamping of the ipod and it wont be coming out for awhile. apparently you can anticipate another generation of a video ipod before the "real" video ipod comes out...im guessing we shouldnt expect it this year. i believe i read that on engadget or thinksecret... but if they just update the capacity and battery i would still get it , if it was 100GB =P

[CHRISRIPPEDOUT]

its fucking ugly
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2006/07/player_zune_.jpg

[emerson1892]

I've gone through no joke 15 i-pods over the course of 1 1/2 years, yett after they wouldnt take my lasted busted i-pod in exchange for a new one i went and spent 500 bucks for the slim 60 gig, I guess I owe them after exchanging that many i-pods. If the new touch screen pod comes out and is windows compatible, sadly i'll be at the front of the line, apple owns me. Although I hate all the pretentious hipster asshole csm's in their store. Furthermore if the new "zune" is the next big mp3 player how will people mkaes jokes about it? No more "he lives an iLife, or "this is the new iGeneration" or this is the new "iWanttokillmyselfcauseimsoemoandawh ineylittlepussyheresmyblogthemusicy ouhearinthebackroundisbrighteyesand gotosaintroseinalbanynywaaaaaaaaa"

[underthetalking]

Unless this MP3 player gives me sexual favors, I doubt it'll top the iPod.

[underthetalking]

I've gone through no joke 15 i-pods over the course of 1 1/2 years, yett after they wouldnt take my lasted busted i-pod in exchange for a new one i went and spent 500 bucks for the slim 60 gig, I guess I owe them after exchanging that many i-pods. If the new touch screen pod comes out and is windows compatible, sadly i'll be at the front of the line, apple owns me. Although I hate all the pretentious hipster asshole csm's in their store. Furthermore if the new "zune" is the next big mp3 player how will people mkaes jokes about it? No more "he lives an iLife, or "this is the new iGeneration" or this is the new "iWanttokillmyselfcauseimsoemoandawh ineylittlepussyheresmyblogthemusicy ouhearinthebackroundisbrighteyesand gotosaintroseinalbanynywaaaaaaaaa"

You're fucking stupid.

[CircaEnder]

This is so last week... haha, no but really..stick to music updates :).

Its going to have Live anywhere, which is awesome for 360 owners. Its going to have a zune program like i tunes, They are going to sell movies and shows on zune later and..... well, my ipod breaks all the fucking time..i have a 6 year warrenty but...its too much trouble to get it fixed all the time.. ill have to wait and see what apple is going to do..but i might get a zune if i can find a way to convert my i tunes songs over to it..i bet bill gates and his team will leak some programs out to do that... thats the only way they could really win at this point.

[LMB]

This is so last week... haha, no but really..stick to music updates :).

Its going to have Live anywhere, which is awesome for 360 owners. Its going to have a zune program like i tunes, They are going to sell movies and shows on zune later and..... well, my ipod breaks all the fucking time..i have a 6 year warrenty but...its too much trouble to get it fixed all the time.. ill have to wait and see what apple is going to do..but i might get a zune if i can find a way to convert my i tunes songs over to it..i bet bill gates and his team will leak some programs out to do that... thats the only way they could really win at this point.
Seeing as though this is "sooo last week" to you, you should have known about this:

"To attract current iPod users Microsoft is going to let you download for free any songs you've already bought from the iTunes Music Store. They'll actually scan iTunes for purchased tracks and then automatically add those to your account. Microsoft will still have to pay the rights-holders for the songs, but they believe it'll be worth it to acquire converts to their new player."

http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/06/microsoft-planning-wifi-enabled-portable-media-player-working-o/

Anyways, here's the zune in action:

http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/07/zunesirius.jpg

[myfirstpunksong]

ive heard nothing but good things about the newer zens...almost bought one. however, i just got one of those alpine head units for my car with the ipod hookup...cant really change now...



wtf? have you ever said "dude brb, gonna put some new music i legally purchased from apple on my ipod"? does that somehow roll off the tongue better?

Fool. You can put mp3s from anywhere on an iPod, not just legally purchased ones from iTunes. This thing sucks, people can only put music they've bought from their application on the player (right?), what are people going to do with the thousands of mp3s they already have?

[relevanceof27]

My ipod I've had since January has had zero problems. How the hell do you go through 15 of them? They're not clay pigeons, you know..

[akster]

Found this on cnet about the new "Zune". What a lame name,

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-6553513-1.html

[NicoleC]

that video was adoooorable

[SuperJoe]

It will probably be cheaper. It is imposible to create a product better than the iPod.

um, wrong

ipods success is directly attributed to ingenious marketing. love or hate those dancing commercials that were all the rage a couple years ago, they did wonders for ipod sales that year. they have appealed to all the right demographics with a product that is aesthetically hip and appealing. however to say that you can't create a better product is asinine. of course you can. for starters, how about one where you can change your own battery without having to send it back to apple? how about having a battery that actually lasts how long it's supposed to? i've had mine a couple years and *knock on wood* hasn't broken yet, but it seems to be a common trend among people (in apple's defense, people could just be oblivious to the fact that they're holding a hard drive in their hands...not the most durable thing in the world... but then again, build a better casing).

[Evolution Kid]

i've never had problems with my ipod which i bought in december. the only reason i'm on my second ipod is because i jumped into a pool with it. i'm just thinking of selling mine when whichever next gen version comes out, ie touch screen or 100 gb and simply upgrade to that.

[Rise]

Why does every hipster newyorker/los angeles wannabe, think ipods are the saviors of portable music?

Get real, the battery life on those catastrophe's are horrible. For the price of one unit, they sure give you shitty headphones. I've never bought an ipod but through freeipod.com I did manage to weasel myself a free one and immediately hated the thing especially the headphones.
never had I been so unsatisfied with a product ever...

Endnote: ipods are horrible, almost as horrible as many of the kids on a well noted "punk" website with "absolute" news who feel the words "pwned" and "owned" are proper english...

[make_this_hurt]

$50 says it fails.

I've had 2 ipods and never had a problem with either. Had my 20gb for 2 years without a problem and have had my 30gb for 6 months or so without a problem.

[idobi]

Why does every hipster newyorker/los angeles wannabe, think ipods are the saviors of portable music?

Get real, the battery life on those catastrophe's are horrible. For the price of one unit, they sure give you shitty headphones. I've never bought an ipod but through freeipod.com I did manage to weasel myself a free one and immediately hated the thing especially the headphones.
never had I been so unsatisfied with a product ever...

Endnote: ipods are horrible, almost as horrible as many of the kids on a well noted "punk" website with "absolute" news who feel the words "pwned" and "owned" are proper english...

You got a free iPod but couldn't shell out for better headphones?

[cahrishurr]

Why does every hipster newyorker/los angeles wannabe, think ipods are the saviors of portable music?

Get real, the battery life on those catastrophe's are horrible. For the price of one unit, they sure give you shitty headphones. I've never bought an ipod but through freeipod.com I did manage to weasel myself a free one and immediately hated the thing especially the headphones.
never had I been so unsatisfied with a product ever...

Endnote: ipods are horrible, almost as horrible as many of the kids on a well noted "punk" website with "absolute" news who feel the words "pwned" and "owned" are proper english...


it seems this site is entertaining enough for you to have posts in the double digits...
if the site is so horrible...then dont log on and post dumbass
no one claims to speak proper english...i mean if you wanna get technical you didnt even have a single period or comma in your entire post
but honestly who cares about proper english on a message board?

[rr_thecrowing]

Originally Posted by Rise
Why does every hipster newyorker/los angeles wannabe, think ipods are the saviors of portable music?

Get real, the battery life on those catastrophe's are horrible. For the price of one unit, they sure give you shitty headphones. I've never bought an ipod but through freeipod.com I did manage to weasel myself a free one and immediately hated the thing especially the headphones.
never had I been so unsatisfied with a product ever...

Endnote: ipods are horrible, almost as horrible as many of the kids on a well noted "punk" website with "absolute" news who feel the words "pwned" and "owned" are proper english...Eh, I won't bother with that one. Sounds like flamebait to me.

[rhinitus]

i'll try to cover all this in one post, as i've been away at lunch for the last hour or so...

I've gone through no joke 15 i-pods over the course of 1 1/2 years, yett after they wouldnt take my lasted busted i-pod in exchange for a new one i went and spent 500 bucks for the slim 60 gig, I guess I owe them after exchanging that many i-pods. If the new touch screen pod comes out and is windows compatible, sadly i'll be at the front of the line, apple owns me. Although I hate all the pretentious hipster asshole csm's in their store. Furthermore if the new "zune" is the next big mp3 player how will people mkaes jokes about it? No more "he lives an iLife, or "this is the new iGeneration" or this is the new "iWanttokillmyselfcauseimsoemoandawh ineylittlepussyheresmyblogthemusicy ouhearinthebackroundisbrighteyesand gotosaintroseinalbanynywaaaaaaaaa"

how did you convince them to give you a new one every time? this is something i need to know for the future. and havent the 60s cost 399 since inception?
This is so last week... haha, no but really..stick to music updates :).

...i have a 6 year warrenty...

how did you get a 6 year warranty? does it transfer to your family in case you die in that ridiculous span of time? but more importantly, everyone needs to shut the fuck up about what the news people post on this site. this DIRECTLY has to do with music, and will undoubtedly affect a great portion of this sites users, so i fully support it. i think this site is mostly about music but there is also a very big lifestyle element to it, so why limit posts to "you can view pictures of hawthorne heights in the studio here"?

Fool. You can put mp3s from anywhere on an iPod, not just legally purchased ones from iTunes. This thing sucks, people can only put music they've bought from their application on the player (right?), what are people going to do with the thousands of mp3s they already have?

uhhhh. wrong. you just wont be able to put songs from napster/itunes/etc on it, although it will scan for your itunes tracks. all that music from your cd collection and that you stole from your bald neighbor will be uploadable. and im still trying to figure out why you said "fool" in the beginning because that would imply that you were actually referring to something that i actually said...which you didnt...
um, wrong

however to say that you can't create a better product is asinine.

finally! someone who realizes how things have worked since the industrial revolution. how many times have i heard "no one could ever top the ipod."

let me digress into a little story. i dont remember if ive told this on this site or not. the creator of FedEx created the service for a project in grad school. he got like a D on it or something. the professor said that "no one can ever compete with the postal service." fedex posted net income of just under $1.5 billion last year.

Why does every hipster newyorker/los angeles wannabe, think ipods are the saviors of portable music?



wait, so hipster newyorker/ los angeles wannabes purchased 42 million ipods prior to 2006?

[vegasbabyvegas]

My ipod just erased 58 gigs worth of music. Sweet....

[make_this_hurt]

My ipod just erased 58 gigs worth of music. Sweet....

That's why you back it up. No electronic device has a 0% fail rate. So... that's def. your fault.

[PassedOut]

im so confused....

[rr_thecrowing]

So much hate and discontent in this post.

It's not gonna be impossible to top the iPod. Hard, but not impossible. I love my iPod, but it certainly has its setbacks.

[xPaulWallx]

Creative's Zen Vision:M is a better product than the iPod. So is the Toshiba Gigabeat.
i had a creative mp3 player, i think the 10 gig, a lloooooooonnnnngg ass time ago when noone had mp3 players and it was a POS. it ended up just dyin on me outta nowhere for no reason. so unless they really changed their shit up in the past few years, then i stand by my feeling that creative products just look good on paper but once you buy them you find out how shitty they are. ill stick with my ipod and i cant wait for the price to drop once the new microsoft comes out.

[cahrishurr]

im so confused....

what are you confused about

[TheGreenSeas]

seriously everyone should check out the Creative Zen Vision: M
you have no idea how good this thing is...
it is incredible...in my opinion, so much better than an ipod

people don't know what else is out there...
it's just very sad that everytime everyone else thinks of an mp3 player, they refer to it as an ipod
(kind of like how people refer to tissues as kleenex...)

[ilovebsb]

this sounds pretty cool :)

[Adrianduh]

So wait. With this microsoft thing can i play video games on it and go online or not?
Because if i can fuck the sidekick.

[lftcoastenvy05]

sorry, im happy with my ipod, i dont need to waste my money on a zune

[traumalikerain]

ive watched this video at least 10 times, and i love it.

[Moatilliatta085]

ive watched this video at least 10 times, and i love it.

hahah
....anyway, so does anyone know if it's actually gonna be able to play the mp3/4 collection from you computer or just wma's? cuz it sure would take a while to transform like 20 gigs worth of music to wma

[N8IVIin0rity]

You got a free iPod but couldn't shell out for better headphones?
hahaha. dang. RISE got pwned.

[REO LAGWAGON]

The best thing that could come from this would be a third party competitor that says, "Hey, my player will play all protected and non-protected formats."

I want something that is more like a portable hard drive with a media player on it that has the capability to play just about every format imaginable. Seriously, no one wants to be limited. You can be loyal to Pepsi but every now and again you will be somewhere and only Coke is available. You are going to want something to drink!

[emerson1892]

[quote=rhinitus]i'll try to cover all this in one post, as i've been away at lunch for the last hour or so...



how did you convince them to give you a new one every time? this is something i need to know for the future. and havent the 60s cost 399 since inception?


You need to buy the protection plan, its only like 40 bucks, if youre a student. My batteries kept burning out on me and the hard drive would crash. I figured out the reason to be the plug I had for my car made by some shitty company jumping on the iWagon was frying them, but also I had an old car with with a bad alternator. So I came to the conclusion that this is what was frying my ipod. I recently bought a brand new Honda, haha but I opted for the one with a tape player not a cd player because I just have the tape with the wire conecting to my pod. I havent had a problem yet. Lastly the reason I had to buy my new ipod was because the morning it burned out I tossed it down my fire escape, remarkably it only scratched it, then I was determined to bust it so I ran it over a few times, that worked. Apple wouldn't give me a new one "after it fell down stairs at school"

[Moatilliatta085]

You need to buy the protection plan, its only like 40 bucks, if youre a student. My batteries kept burning out on me and the hard drive would crash. I figured out the reason to be the plug I had for my car made by some shitty company jumping on the iWagon was frying them, but also I had an old car with with a bad alternator. So I came to the conclusion that this is what was frying my ipod. I recently bought a brand new Honda, haha but I opted for the one with a tape player not a cd player because I just have the tape with the wire conecting to my pod. I havent had a problem yet. Lastly the reason I had to buy my new ipod was because the morning it burned out I tossed it down my fire escape, remarkably it only scratched it, then I was determined to bust it so I ran it over a few times, that worked. Apple wouldn't give me a new one "after it fell down stairs at school"

LOL

[chchchuckdeth]

dumbest thing ever