Hope he is not joining Apple?

lol, smokie, I don't think so.

Last year, Business Week had a large article praising J Allard, so it's a hopeful sign that he is going to be even more involved in Zune.

J - I hope that your next Zune will be a highly polished flash player. Make it look/act like it's Version 4.0. Make Apple Fanboys cry, rather than laugh.

Well if there is a chance Mr. J (not Mr Jay on America's Top Model) is reading this then I just want repeat a product request that I think has alot of potential.  That is adding Media Center Extender capabilities to Zune.  Turning it into a low-budget standard definition extender will fill a product void, add value and start leveraging your base of Media Centers.  Let XBox and MC partners fill the high-def end.

Thanks for listening

This is good news.  Last public thing Lee said about the Zune was

"There are 82,000 things people want us to do with Wi-Fi," Lee said. "We're going to do some of them, but not all 82,000."

That was a gross exaggeration to minimize the short list of things simple things people want changed on the Zune.  Hopefully J will use more realistic language when describing MS customers.

Did the Zune buy an ipod to smash it at all?

Nice.  J please give us wireless sync with 360, be able to transfer video from 360 to Zune, and have Live Anywhere on it. Yes I am talking about doing all this to the Zune that exists now. :)

Cesar

 Have you heard anything about some gamertags showing up as invalid in the Zune Software?  I called support and was told (by some level 2 or 3 guy) that this was a known problem. He esculated my problem/sent my information to the Zune team.  The only way for a fix is through a software update.  It has been over a week.  I just want to at least hear some kind of update.  Thanks!

Monsieur Allard, may I borrow your Ferrari?

Haha, just kidding.*

Anyhow, after what you all did with the XBox 360 by thinking quite a bit outside of the, um... box, I am really excited to see Zune 2.0

*I'm not really kidding.

So J...

What are you going to do with the zune? Vista & Office 2007 are out so you guys can focus on getting the other areas of MSFT.

Get, Crackalackin!

Man, with J taking over a lot of responsibility now with Zune, and also with the rumors of a new version at the end of this year, I'm thinking I might hold out on getting a Zune...

It would be great to get one now (been trying to sell my iPod + iHome + CD's bought over iTunes to my brother with no luck).

Cesar: I would post this link for anyone on the edge about getting a Zune.

http://www.amazon.com/Zune-Digital-Media-Player-Brown/dp/B000H0QDCC/sr=8-2/qid=1169749231/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/102-6545429-6744904?ie=UTF8&s=electronics

It's only $230 and comes with free premium headphones!!! I really, really, really want to sell my iPod so I can get it for that low price.

I want to extend the warmest thanks to Bryan Lee.  He helped launch one amazing product that I enjoy everyday.  

Two spammers in a row: Iced Eagle with an affiliate link on Amazon, and "vob" with an obvious one.

And J, if you're reading this, let me just say, "I think you're great. High-five?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ha, i see youre really looking for that promotion...

Allard is about a year out from "retirement" himself.  If he can't steer the Zune shipwreck away from the iceberg it's heading at 546 knots he'll be forced out as well.  

He's a bright guy and all, but the Zune roll out really tested his worth.  The space cadet with his nose in a copy of "Snowblind" couldn't cut it against a competitor with their feet firmly planted in reality and their spirit tapped into that of the youth of today.

c0ke, that's Snow Crash.  If your gonna spew some fanboy trash and insult the man at least get it right.

Woo yeah high five lol

c0ke, luckily the market for players doesn't just extend to the image obsessed 'youth of today'.  I bought a nice DAP that's different to anything else on the market and when the next shinier version comes out, I'll buy another.

This 'Zune is dead' crap is just Fanboy trash talk with no substance.  the product has been out 10 weeks, 10 weeks is hardly an accururate gauge.MS have already stated a 5 year XBox style longview, Everyone said MS would not dent the console market and look what happened.  Granted it took Microsoft a LONG time to make a good product, but they did and now they are a force in the gaming market.  I'm no fanboy, the Zune has it's flaws - all of them software based that can be fixed, but flaws nonetheless.  It's not as pretty as the iPod, but I much prefer the interface on the Zune and I always found the click wheel irritating on my Nano.  

Things are easy to do on the Zune but they are different to the iPod and when it comes to DAPs a lot of people are hardwired to do everything the Apple way.  Thats fine, go right ahead, but please stop spewing such bile and garbage whenever someone actually wants something different.

I think J will do great things for Zune, as I've said before - iBoys and Zuners alike shoudl be happy that this product is here to stay - competition will make the products better.  With competition Apple won't sit back and just wait for everyone to replace their players every 18 months when they bring out a new colour or whatever, and Microsoft will have to react more effectively to the market and to their customers.

Viv La Revolution!

One Word...

iPhone

;)

I don't think you'll ever be able to transfer any Xbox 360 media to the Zune, because the 360's USB ports are supposedly "Read Only" which means they can't write anything to the Zune.  I believe they would probably open up Marketplace to expose the same content you purchased on the 360, and let your PC sync your video purchases to the Zune, but it appears unlikely that will happen with the 360 directly.

 J Allard comes from the hardware camp, and I think we all think the Zune hardware is great (Well the majority of us anyway) but the software is lacking.  

 More than anything though, I think we'd all like some improved communication.  If it's supposed to be a "social" community, it would be social of the Zune camp to drop us some hints once in awhile.  Build some excitement.  Right now, it's like a ghost town without the ghosts.

Oh, one more thing.  J. Allard is not a hatchet man.  If they were going to kill off Zune, they wouldn't have put Allard in-charge, it'd be someone with a track record for busting heads.  Allard makes things happen, so don't see this as a negative, it is very much a positive.  

NO.  Xbox 360 USB ports are NOT "read only."  Where did you hear this?!  If that was true, I couldn't save Xbox 360 content on a USB flash drive or external USB hard drive.  I do it all the time.

Admin

You Can't handle the TRUTH!

Do not worry this is my last post.

I'll be on my way.

call me Cesar. Admin is just my stage name :)

ChadAdmin

You Can't handle the TRUTH!

Do not worry this is my last post.

I'll be on my way.

^^^^^^^^

you'll be back...admit it.You love this site

You got me... I do love all of it.

I just can not stomach some of the stupidity.

I'm mean REALLY.... Now the Z-Phone.. UUGGH.

I am all for free market.. But do Zune users realize they are more locked into DRM under the Microsoft flagship than with Apple?

I'm being serious.

Oh, but Chad, why must we stomach your "DRM" and "iPhone" talking points in a discussion of J. Allard's helmsmanship of the Zune project?

Not to fan (pun intended) the flames, but remember how confident Sony was in the console space when the Xbox launched? Think it over.

I'm being serious.

oh boy. . .  be nice to each other. everyone who comments here is smart. Zune is a product that people like, a product we'll continue to work on for many years to come. one or two troll comments on an employee blog isn't going to shut down the Zune operation ;)

ACtually Ron, it comes from the Xbox FAQ and was mentioned by J. Allard himself.  Here's the line I'm talking about...

Q. Can you save your game, or Download contents on to a 3rd party Hard Drive, thumb drive, etc? Updated: Aug 22

J Allard: at present our design for xbox 360 uses the usb ports in a read-only capacity for playing music and viewing photos. if there are other applications that you guys think are interesting then please give us your feedback.

 Now, as you can see, that was dated back on Aug 22nd, so maybe he was just talking about software support.  I've tried using USB devices to write to them, and I have had zero success.  I don't know anyone who has done it.  As far as I understand it, external drive support doesn't work.  What are you saving on your memory cards and USB drives on the 360?  I'm curious, as I'd like to try to do it myself.  I've tried the video content with no luck on three different USB drives.

cesar,

I have to say that I really like the zune.  Convinced a friend in my office to get one too.  But, I have to be totally honest, the wifi is useless with the restrictions.  I like it as a standalone player, but seriously, we do not benefit one bit from the wifi.

I hope better things are to come of this bit of tech.

Question..

Why would Lee leave right after a new product launch? "Probobly not his choice" , but for the record was TOLD to say...yada yada yada...for the press to make hay over and spin til they fall down..

However, he was made out to be a KEY player with the launch of Zune. Somethings NOT Right.

Now they are working on the Z-Phone minus a KEY player of "Welcome to the Social" to compete with iPhone.

I don't care how much $$$ MSFT has they are just not an innovative company..

MSFT is a toll booth collector.

From my vantage point It don't look good for the Zune division. I don't care how smart those guys are....I would not want to be in their shoes.

I think the transition to J is an interesting one because he looks fairly young for someone who has moved that far up the corporate ladder. To me that implies someone who has strong vision and drive to accomplish that vision.

I've heard his name before in association with Xbox but since I'm a PC gamer I haven't be in the loop on his impact within Microsoft.

Personally I can't understand why people are saying the software sucks... I've used pressplay, napster and Rhapsody(i.e. I was a paying subscriber of those services). Rhapsody has gotten the best critical reviews of those services and frankly I found market place to be a refreshing improvement in searching for artists. Its been easy for me to use and I haven't experienced any crashing while using the software.

The biggest thing I'm hoping to get from the zune team is audible support. I don't care if that comes in the form of market place offering their own audio books or just support for audible.

Agree with Chad

Microsoft is a big corporation and this sort of maneuvering is not anything knew to large companies. But the fact that he is leaving for "personal" reasons at a time when the Zune is trying to get noticed & accepted (positively) can't be good. As a (pro)consumer looking from the outside, it seems you guys don't have faith in your own product if a "key" guy is stepping down shortly after launch. Mainstream consumers may not know any better but for a gadget enthusiast like me, why would I buy into the Zune now, especially with an already rough launch? Maybe with the zPhone if true, you guys can go the opposite direction. By that I mean releasing a kick-ass 1st Gen product so other “key” members don’t have to step down for “personal” reasons.

I just thought I'd pop in to mention that we have made the Zune news stories we feature at http://zunearmy.com into a feed that anyone can freely use on their own sites using an iframe. The feed is updated daily, includes screen grabs and summaries and is available at http://wmhq.com/zune/

- Robin.