So what happened with Steve’s Zune?
When the Zune first came out I did a review on it, it was a pretty favorable review, with nothing really bad being said about it, and if your interested here is the link. But after a few weeks of owning it and screwing around with it, I started to notice a disturbing trend, it was shutting off on me for no apparent reason out of no where. I even has it shock me through the ear buds once while listening to podcasts at work, wasn’t to thrilled about that. So what I did was I wrote another post about that to see if anyone else noticed a trend like this and this was what I got. But that was the last Zune story that I have wrote and I had a lot of people ask me what has happened with my Zune, so I figured I would write an update on it.So I stuck with my Zune for a couple months because I really wanted it to work but all I was doing was delaying the inevitable, I ended up returning it. It was a several reasons and now I’m going to go into them. First 3*3, the 3 plays 3 days thing is retarded, it really is, if I own the rights to something, ie The XBL Radio Podcast, I should be able to share it as much as I want with the receiver getting to play it for as long or as many times as they want, for MS to put there own drm on my music is a bunch of crap. The fact that I couldn’t share videos was another thing, why does the Zune have Wi-Fi if we can only use it for certain features, the Wi-Fi capabilities was way to locked down. Another Wi-Fi thing that sucked was I couldn’t find anyone else with a Zune to share music with in the first place. Nobody I knew had a Zune except for some MS employees, that was it, everyone I new either had a iPod, Zen or a Sansa.
Another huge issue I had was podcasting, as a podcaster I need to have the ability to download podcasts quickly and easily like with iTunes, and that is so not happening with the Zune. I had to have 2 extra programs running for my podcasts, I used Juice for my audio podcasts, its a pretty good program which allows autotagging and a bunch of other features but it had issues with my video podcasts so then I had used the program called FeedYourZune for my video programs, you can also download audio podcasts with this one but I didn’t like the features on this one too much, plus this was a huge memory hog. So now I have to have 3 programs running at all times for my podcasts to be on my Zune, there was the slow and bulky zune program too. All this to do what iTunes has always done for me.
Now one of my favorite things about the Zune was the large screen, but what good is a large screen if its not being used? iTunes has movie and tv downloads but the Zune, not so much. If you want video on your Zune you have to go elsewhere to get it, not through Microsoft but either though things like video podcasts, direct downloads or by buying video converting programs to get videos on your Zune right. And even then its not always effective. I had many videos that would work on a iPod that the Zune program wouldn’t even put it on my Zune. And while we are talking about buying videos, lets talk about buying other things for the Zune. Lets talk about the Zune marketplace and what a disaster it is. First I friggin hate buying things with MS points, all that does is make you forget that you are wasting real money on downloads, and a perfect example of that is the marketplace for the Xbox 360. Microsoft had a perfectly good music store with there Urge store, they shouldn’t have abandoned that for the Zune, stupid move I thought.
So like I said at the beginning of this post, I returned my Zune. In fact I returned it and I picked up an iPod which I’m very happy with, ya the screen is not as big and it doesn’t have crippled down Wi-Fi, nor fm radio (so far the only thing i really miss), but it does have a brighter screen plus about 12 hour battery life, which is a lot more then the Zune. It had podcast functionality built in to the software and it also allows tv and movie downloading.
There you go, now you all know. And I will not be jumping on the Zune bandwagon again till MS fixes all the things wrong with it and really I won’t even now about it unless they also send me a demo unit because I’m also not spending money on another Zune again. I hope this will help future Zune buyers in swaying there decision as well because I do not want you guys to have to go though what I had to go though.
BTW, do you know that with every Zune sold Universal gets a royalty because they figure that you are stealing music? How crappy is that?
January 15th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Thats a sad story Steve. Almost a Lifetime Movie of the week in the making. If you had only listened to our pre-emptive review on the ZUNE you would have faired better. However I appreciate you taking one for the team. I hope other will head your warning and if the want a portable media player; they will spend thier money on a company with a better track-record for innovation (not imatation).
January 15th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
[…] "So I stuck with my Zune for a couple months because I really wanted it to work but all I was doing was delaying the inevitable, I ended up returning it. It was a several reasons and now I’m going to go into them. First 3*3, the 3 plays 3 days thing is retarded, it really is, if I own the rights to something, ie The XBL Radio Podcast, I should be able to share it as much as I want with the receiver getting to play it for as long or as many times as they want, for MS to put there own drm on my music is a bunch of crap. The fact that I couldn’t share videos was another thing, why does the Zune have Wi-Fi if we can only use it for certain features, the Wi-Fi capabilities was way to locked down. Another Wi-Fi thing that sucked was I couldn’t find anyone else with a Zune to share music with in the first place. Nobody I knew had a Zune except for some MS employees, that was it, everyone I new either had a iPod, Zen or a Sansa." Full Post check out here. […]
January 16th, 2007 at 7:09 am
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January 16th, 2007 at 9:34 am
I feel for you, having to return a product that you invested so much in, but I can’t say I’m surprised. As much as Microsoft might have touted the Zune as the new iPod, it will never be that. That’s the problem with always being second to the table, as MS should know by now.
Putting first-generation hardware against a competitors fifth- and sixth-gen product is never going to end up well. The iPod has now become a mature platform and design over the last five years, whereas Zune was probably doomed from the start. Just think of the PS2 and the Xbox, or more recently (and conversely) 360 and the PS3.
January 17th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Default hmmm.
This story tells me two things.
1. You’re very impatient for videos for a device that’s only 2 months old. Why would you buy a brand new launch mp3 player and expect the marketplace to be netflix?
2. Your computer must be really really crappy. I suggest a buying some ram before you drop 250 on an mp3 player my friend. I run the Zune software, trillian, feedyourzune, winamp, utorrent, and several firefoxes with no lag whatSoEver. Come on now! I really like feedyourzune.com. I think its great software and I dig that it’s totally grassroots.
I don’t understand why somebody would return a zune, which has a superior screen if he’s so obsessed with watching movies.
patience grasshopper.
Acting like mac is for the music public is pretty silly. There isn’t much MS could do to get into this market the way apple has it set up, who just pays each record company seperately. And with the iphone they are trying to make it so you can only listen to your music on mac devices…..crippleware here we come!
As far as the wifi it will be opened up. Downloading movies wireless, unlimited shares for a “friends” list or NONdrm music. MS shipped it simple for a reason and are going to open up the Wifi with new firmware releases. Hell, you can’t even use the wifi until you do a firmware upgrade. Again impatient.
The simple fact is the zune looks better than the ipod, is more durable than the ipod (it’s a titan of a portable device. tuff as nails, it has a better screen and even sounds better with less distortions than the ipod.
To anybody reading this who wants a real ubiased review of the Zune head to extremetech.com.
Thanks!
Locks you out of the social.
:p
January 17th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
I have to agree with many of the reasons for returning the Zune. The WiFi is not really a feature since I too know no one with a Zune. The larger screen is nice but just a novelty that has little use now.
I do like my Zune’s brown color though!
Well what do I do with this. I bought my sister an iPOD for Xmas and as far as useable features and content it is the clear winner. I will keep the Zune and my docking kit ($75) but I do long for an Ipod, probably an 80GB one.
The Zune sounds fine looks good to me. I got it because of the FM radio but I see now Apple has a new FM $49 accessory that would fit my needs.
I will not hurry into a change but I expected more upgrades for the Zune to come out of the CES show. I was disappointed about that. Plus I am getting tired of the music skipping during the first few seconds of play. How did that get past MSFT QA!
May 2nd, 2007 at 6:59 am
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