It would be really interesting to have an alternative to iTunes. I own a mac and an ipod, but honestly I would love to see more competition. Regardless of how you feel about Apple, another perspective on how portable music should be experienced is a good thing. It gives everyone options and who can argue with that?

I'd rather microsoft do this anways. It would basically make everything the competitor against apple, because microsoft would have time to work completely on software and drivers. Then we could have guys like Cowan pick up the MS OS, and have both an awesome player and a decent bug-free interface.

Great. Another "platform" along with WMP and Windows CE.

Microsoft needs to do something, fix the system or drop it. If I recall, the original Zune wasn't even compatible with a lot of services offering music using WMA and Microsoft's own DRM. With more and more companies dropping DRM entirely, this isn't as big of an issue, but still, how does Microsoft create a portable music player that doesn't support its own formats?

Microsoft has always been a software company. They just can't compete on the hardware front.

wow this basically tells us that the zune is dead.. it's dumb to voice it because it will kill their sales and it's fait compli.

I dont agree. Aside from touchscreen, the current zune lineup offers an awesome Media player, and one of the very few if any to offer a 120GB players. It's not like the zune is going to suddenly stop working at steve ballmers cue.

i dont know i heard that they all stopped working at the same time... some bug, maybe feature... ;-)

jsloan- lol

I would disagree. The Zune and 360 have had some embarrassing problems, but their peripherals have always been pretty reliable.

How about somethign like iTunes where you don't fucking need to use it to transfer music. I can't stand having to use iTunes to transfer music to my iPod. Another thing Microsoft would need to work on is cables and adapters for car stereos. The only reason I got an iPod is because it will connect to my cars stereo/monito so i can play music and movies from it on my screen and use the touch screen to select what songs i want to hear. I'm not sure if the iPod became popular because of its compatibility with other equipment, or the other way around, but if anyone wants to compete with the iPod they need to get their shit working with car stereos without the need of a fm transmitter, aux jack, or car power adapter. I hate Apple, I despise iTunes, but I love how my iPod will connect seamlessly to my car stereo with one cable to provide digital video, audio and power to recharge along with the ability to display video and choose menu option on my touchscreen. If Zune, Sandisk, or Creative had that ability with a car stereo I would have gotten those, but the fact is many car stereos on the market, and other devices, are designed to work with iPod only. I shoudl also add that i had to get an older gen iPod since the streo would not display video with the new iPod Classic, iPod touch, or iPhone, so Apple may have lost another customer, unless I need to get a new car stereo before I upgrade the iPod. Perhaps by then Micrsoft, Sandisk, and Creative will have gotten their shit together and partnered up with car stereo companies.

omfl think of the children and the harm you have just done!

this being a sophisticated website, why dont' we all agree not to use the following words in our posting


FCC's Seven Dirty Words:

Shit
Piss
Fuck
Cunt
Cocksucker
Motherfucker
Tits

Expanded list:

Fart
Turd
Twat


George Carlin's full list:

"Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, Tits, Fart, Turd, Twat, Crap, Balls, Prick, Asshole, Jackoff, Jerkoff, Scumbag, Douchebag, Hardon, Rod-on, Boner, Stiff, Pisshard, Blueballs, Nookie, Koose, Gash, Slash, Holds, Slitz, Snatchbox, Beaver, Pussy, Bearded Clam, Jizum, Cum, Cream, Juice, Pecker, Peckerhead, Peckertracks, Dick, Dork, Dong, Donacker, Wang, Slong, Slwontz, Pork, Crabs, Ass, Butt, Hiney, Tuckis, Bum, Bungs, Cheeks, Screw, Laid, Diddle, Plow, Hump, Bang, Poke, Batter, Wham, Knock-up, Bugger, Brown, Juggs, Bazooms, Knockers, Knobs, Lungs, Balloons, Dildo, Joystick, Hairpie, Muff, Cornhole, Rimjob, Blowjob, Sugarbowl-pie, Suck-off, Give-head, Sit-on-my-face, Buttfuck, Fingerfuck, Clap, Kleek, 69, 71 which is 69 with 2 fingers up your ass, daisychain, circlejerk, cockteaser, wet-dream, cunt-struck, pussywhipped, short-arm, tuna-taco, group-grope, milking-the-chicken, bulldagger, gangbang, ballbreaker, ballbuster, mircan, bananas and cream, up the old dirt road, around the world, beat-your-meat, whack-off, flogging your dong, pouning your pud, beating the bishop, poontang, dingleberry, sit on it, fudgepacker, milking the lizard, fartface, old fart, farting around fartsniffer, ream, snake, raincoat, quickie, queer, queen, puts, put-out, push, beef-injection, dog-style, pop your cookies, bust-your-nuts, one-eyed-monster, knob, pocket pool, tail, piddle, paddle the pickle, one-man-band, snapper, notch, rod, shaft, stick, piece of ass, god damn it, pimp, fucker, punk, faggot, dyke, lesie, box-lunch, sea-food, hand-job, hammer, hatch, head-job, hot-nuts, hum-jog, prong, jellyroll, jerk-the-gerken, lob, meatwhistle, cheese, scatfan, middle-leg, wanking, booty, love-mussle, snapping pussy, ghost, bitch, bastard, clam, bite the brown, going up mustard road, bone-on, bush, button, cunt-lapper, cherry, tool, dingus, quift, quim, get off, joint, piece, stem, root, crack, cootch, crud, eat me, fuck you, up your ass, get laid, fuck-off, piss-off, piss on you, stick it, stuff it, ram it, jam it, cram it, horny, peter, the one eyed wonder worm, piece-of-ass, little brown eyeball, golden showers, pound cake, boy in the boat, brown eyes, brown nose, sloppy seconds, Mongolian cluster fuck, rod of love, copping a field, copping a cherry, copping a joint, on the rag, flying the flag, riding the cotton pony, dipping your wick, going down on, dry hump, fist fuck, skin-flute, French job, furburger, nuts, get your rocks off, get in, get it up, hung, ginch, gobbel, disel dyke, rubber, shoot, sift, wod, cocksman, tip-fuck, ton, rough-trade, trick, weenie, and yodelling in the gully."

:-)

Woohoo, Zune going the way of Windows. Awesome. I don't want to buy some cruddy $349 Zune player. This is what makes Windows so awesome, I don't have to buy my machine from Microsoft. Can't wait.

oh i see they are licensing it as windows to various hardware manufacturers... now i get it. that's a better idea, i guess i should read more than the title...

I have an 80 gig zune. I compared it to a ipod touch 16 gig. My itunes items have no problem playing on the zune. zune also works without issue with media center. I can fit about 250 hours of video and view it on a 3 inch screen (nice for plane rides) Battery life is about 3 hours. But I bought a 4x AA battery pack for in flight charging for $7. I have never needed to change out the AA batteries. My zune has better features than the ipod for 2/3 of the cost..... A no brainer really. I also rip my recorded satellite radio directly to the zune without problems.

I can use itunes, media player, or the zune software to control my music and videos. The zune software seems to work best.

I think that the zune is just like Vista..... most people that hate it have either have not tried it or are as dumb as a rock.

And I have used an ipod for 2 years prior to the zune.

I kind of like having my favorite TV show sync to my zune as I walk in the door.

Maybe Microsoft needs to make items on marketplace 2/3 the cost of itunes. This would be consistent with other microsoft vs Apple price comparisons.

I think that sharing the zune software with other MP3 manufacturers is a great idea. Maybe they should just include it in Windows 7.

$249 for 120 gig. I like it better and $100 cheaper than ipod..... plus 104 more gigs......

im still happy with my ipod... it's slim... albeit overpriced...

CREATIVE ZEN!!!!!

almost bought one of those, but settled for ipod because of the support for podcasts is second to none.

i have to disagree with that. out of my entire economics senior class in my hs[30 people about], one person had an ipod. i don't know too many people with ipods.. i actually know more people with an itouch, and thats basically for the wifi only, 8gb of non-expandable memory, battery draining music doesn't do much for a person nowadays.

ZEN FTW

Go LINUXXXXXXXXXXX!!!!!!!!!!

its people like that who buy overpriced ipods

I like the sandisk sansa's. Battery life, playback quality, size, and price are spot on for me. If I happen to find the space cramped some day its got an expansion slot.

Then again I don't consider it along the same lines as a zune with 120gb (aka its not really and apples apples comparison). Nor would I really take advantage of zune's advantages over the sansa. /shrug
To each their own. I'm a fan of having options though so any move that increases potential options and configurations to end users sounds peachy to me.

i actually have a 8gb zune and 512mb sansa with the expansion slot. i have to say i like them both equally. as for the ipod, my mother, sister, ex-wife, and neice all have one version or another and they akk have told me the same thing, they cant stand them.

I have also had a 2 gig sansa. It worked very well although I didn't use it for video.

Has anyone used Archos? They have a 5 inch and a 7 inch player. Memory up to 60 to 320 gigs. I might have chose this player over the zune. It isn't that much more but has a nicer screen. I first saw it about 6 months after buying the zune.

Archos might be my next player.

I am not loyal to any brand... as long as it works well with media center or Beyond tv4.

Correct me if I'm wrong but why is Microsoft reinventing the wheel here didn't they already have producers signed up for the PlaysForSure program, and didn't that integate with Windows Media Player.
I'm pretty sure my Creative Nomad syncs with WMP very nicely. Why didn't they just add video and photo syncing to WMP and call it quits?