BF2S Forums Zune

I honestly believe Apple has one of the most offensively aggressive advertising and product placement schemes in our media. That's what their doing right. People have gone from not knowing shit about computers to -still not knowing shit about computers, but they know Apple is better.

I was quite sure windows media player and windows based players and play-lists were where Apple got their idea for the portable mp3 player, as for years they were not portable on PCs. They invented a need for itunes, and pod-casts. Your right, Microsoft were late to capitalise on the industry, but they obviously had no major interest in serious competition, as you said MS just cashed in on what they could. Where microsoft excels at, in a portable industry they aren't commended for is mobile phones. Nokia's software being notoriously the best. They are essentially a software company, where Apple isnt.

Every 2ND major Sony innovation gets out done instantly, laser disk for example or mini disk MD players, most people were still using a diskman, it was long overdue no matter who was bringing it out. ( mp3/4 players)
The Zune didn't get good reviews,  The share issue looks to be as if it was toned down to the 3-day trial, the machine itself had the potential. Its a piracy issue.

I know kids would have skinned their parents alive if it wasn't iCool for xmas. I personally got a 512mb zen, and you know what , pink was the only one they had and i couldn't care less, nor was i walking out without one making my one trip out the house a month pointless.. dont get a zune or ipod for that matter.. but get hippy and hate some corperate motherf**ers for toying with our lives.

Last edited by OneSixty (2007-12-08 16:01:38)

Uzique wrote:

My cousin got a Zune as soon as they came out, just as I got my 60Gb iPod Video. There was a lot of 'Zune vs. iPod' fanboyism around for a while, but eventually the iPod came out as the top winner. Want to know why?

Essentially, all of Zune's selling points are moot when it comes to the mp3 market. The Zune is, at basic level, Microsofts' cash-in on the iPod phenomena. iPod was the 'must have' gadget of the year, so Micro$oft made a clone, added some other marketable features and then squeezed it out as their own bastardized version. First up, is the ability to 'match' the iPod on videos. The Zune has a lower-quality image than the iPod, because the iPod has a smaller screen with a higher image quality. Microsoft went with the wide 'panorama' style screen, and the quality is terrible. Also, that big snazzy screen drains the batteries a whole lot quicker than the iPods' conservative high-quality version.

The 'share' part is also a lulz-worthy marketing gimmick. You can 'share' a song with another Zune-user, and they can listen to it. This wifi ability is cool - in concept - but Microsoft also included the little complication that is DRM. All songs that are transferred are DRM-encoded, and you can only listen to them about 2 times, then you have to buy it yourself from Microsofts' version of the iTunes Store. This is not 'sharing', as marketed, this is 'testing the goods before deciding you want to give us more money'. The 'sharing' feature of a Zune becomes an advertisement tool for Microsoft's pockets. I'd ultimately use this feature almost never if I had a Zune.

There's also other features, such as a radio, which would be cool if you are the sort to listen to radio a lot. Admittedly iPods don't have this, but they have podcasts- which are the 'new' radio broadcasts, in a sense. Microsoft's Zune do not support podcasts, surprisingly, so these 'next generation' Zune Mp3/Mp4 players are actually missing out on a huge portion of the next-generation experience.

To be honest, they're a poor imitation of an Apple product. I abhor Apple and all of its' pseudo-profound marketing gimmicks, their stupid fashion-based accessories, and their ridiculous overpricing of products, but the iPod is the pinnacle of the mainstream mp3/mp4 player market, and at least they're doing something right.

My $0.02.

1st: its an mp3 player. sure your gonna have the same features as an ipod.
2nd: THEY HAVE THE SAME RES SCREEN. And both the ipod and the zune have the same battery life.
3rd: drm is there because everyone would bitch out at microsoft
4th: Podcasts now work.. You can take out that paragraph about it.

Thank you to everyone so far, still open to suggestions, and still undecided on iPod Video and Zune

Creative Zen, as creative will and always will be the epitome of audio technology in home PCs. They are well renowned for high quality components as well. They are a major reason why things are cheap and high quality,in PCs, they were one of the very first aftermarket PC part brands, and definitely on par with a company like Apple production wise.
Just no product placement, so YOU'll have to be the one to convince your friends its cool.
What do you need a 1 inch screen for anyway? Do away with it if you ask me.

Audio engineers cant pick the frequency differences kids claim to notice on mp3s compression sometimes. And realistically if you don't notice how shit mp3s sound in general, you've been listening to them too long. Its a lesser form of music quality no matter how you look at it, its like trying to polish shit to me.

I do know first hand that Sound-blaster aren't even considered low level in the music industry. Although they do have Asio 2.0 which is all that counts as far as drivers, its latency that creative loose on for 24 or less track recordings.
Not that having a mbox is any better, its just a packaged external usb m-audio card. ( but has protool lite =P. whoohoo)

I called creative as a business the epitome, so to speak, meaning the sound-blaster obviously in the PC gaming world..  Not just because they are a good card, or always had been, but creative was/is an aftermarket company, that not only releases a top quality sound card ( standard setting in-fact ), they were competitively priced in comparison to anything else available. Not over priced unreasonably. Forcing other lesser company's to drop off the market or raise the standards of overpriced cheapo cards. Its a business etiquette, IBM PCs back in the day were IBM this IBM that, want ram, IBM ram only, IBM HDD, IBM everything. The aftermarket companies soon learnt how not to do business.

Company's like Intel amd, ati and nvidia are around because of these open patents and trade agreements. IBM not is almost non existent as the home PC in the 2000's because we just couldn't afford them, and they weren't worth it either.. Now Apple are trying it ( and Sony on that topic ) Apple iseat, Iattitude, isummerholiday, everything has to be Apple.. Its cool when you got your parents buying it for you, but as i said in a previous thread, you'll be paying 40,000 when you kids want a gameboy at this rate. I remember being sold an IBM Pentium 1 (133mhz) and hearing how "pc compatibles" or " IBM compatibles" would never take off, and your better going with the quality brand. In the end you weren't, and it was one of the greatest things in our computing retail history to have this competition and rivalry. We're fucked with one and not the other.
 
  I wouldn't buy Creative speakers, but then i haven't tried them at all either. Anyone using speakers for prolonged hours should be using Audio monitors, not "speakers" . I recommend Tannoy Reveals or any Krk's if your interested. Big differance in sound to std mid field speakers.