ZUNE- a report after a month of ownership

*long read*

ok. i have had ipods for the past 2 years. it started with a 3rd gen, which i loved. then i got the video when it first came out. those things sucked. with the ipod becoming less "high end audio equipment" as it became more mainstream, the quality of them has gone from insainly nice and durable (3rd gen) to absolute crap in the 5th gens. ive been through 4 of them, and on the 4th replacement, i said fuck it, and sold it. i will say however, that Apple has been excelent about replacing them. needless to say, i loved the ipod (when it functioned). so i will try and keep this as unbias as possible.

well, i got a white Zune to replace my ipod, and i am incredibly happy with it. first off, it is noticeable bigger than an ipod. but if you ask me, its a good thing. with that size, you get an amazing screen. when viewing pics and movies, it orients itself horizontally, which is sweet. However, there is currently no way to switch the screen orientation (like when its docked in my car). not a big problem, slightly annoying thou. plus, you can change the background image. overall the opperating system is stellar, easy on the eyes, smoothly animated, and while searching through list, the first letter is always displayed in the background, and its a much better system than the ipods.

other awesome features, the radio. so nice to have something new to listen to. i dunno if it does it everywhere, but here in the city, most of the big radio stations have tags, so itll dispplay the station name and even the song artist. thats fuckin dope right there. the radio quality is supurb as well.

the wireless is a cool feature, but i havent been able to play with it too much, as noone else has um yet! it can be turned off to save bettery life, which is also AMAZING. it also appears that battery life isnt as affected by the cold as much as ipods.


now, the MP3 player itself is awesome, but many people were concerned about the uploading system. no worries. first, it opened up, and had literally cloned itunes, in the sense that all my playlist, ratings, etc etc had transfered seamlessly. SICK. for the most part, its pretty much identical to itunes. things are very well layed out and easy to get around. prolly the BIGEEST plus, is say goodby to converting videos, its all seamlessly done as the Zune is uploaded. if you have a pretty big video library, it still takes some time to convert, so plan having it set up and working for a day or two straight.


ZUNE High points
-awesome screen
-widescreen movies
-radio
-customizable display
-lots of awesome movies and music included
-good interface program with easy video conversion
-wireless
-tough case that doesnt show scratches like ipod
-stellar battery life, not affected by the cold
-TOUGH! it just feels well built.

ZUNE annoyances (pretty much the things i liked more with the ipod)
-no clock, calander, notes, or games. not a big deal if you got your cell phone. but i did like having solitaire on my ipod.
-no way to change screen orientation with videos
-size

overall, i DEFINATLY reccomend it. way way nicer than my ipod. i freakin love it.