Two Quick Tidbits

re: Two Quick Tidbits

dbro — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 23:44:51 GMT

I love savethesocial's ideas...make it so Cesar!

re: Two Quick Tidbits

DaveWorld — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:26:43 GMT

Shame on them, 30 GB is enough storage for most people.

But if the next Zune came out with a Web Browser, Wifi (ZMP Wifi Store), multi-touch interface, Flick-scrolling, Ambient Light Sensor that automatically adjust to save battery, Accelerometer that automatically rotates the screen, Starbucks/YouTube integration, podcast support, a clock :) all in a very slim-down form factor, no one would care so much about the storage in the Zune, they would toss it out also as a minor gripe compare to the other features. Add to that, flash storage are limited today to only 16 Max, but growing fast. If Zune 2 came out with all these features, I would happily downgrade from 30 GB to 16 GB.

re: Two Quick Tidbits

Malory1 — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:59:15 GMT

EDIT ON LAST POST:

Meant to say: "However, they do make specific mention of the 30GB hard drive as a negative. When it comes the the iPod Touch, though PC Mag simply tosses...etc"

Didn't come out right the first time. :)

re: Two Quick Tidbits

Malory1 — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:28:49 GMT

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2054203,00.asp

"Cons: Small hard drive."

Too bad MS didn't just ship the Zune with 16GB, then maybe it would have been fine.

http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/zune-30gb-black/4505-6490_7-32068976.html

"The bad:...maximum capacity is 30GB."

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/zune.ars/3

"Then there is the fact that it only comes in a 30GB model, making it more difficult to store a the complete music collection and a good video library for road trips or commuting."

So that's PC Magazine, CNET, and Arstechnica. The thing is, they are still pretty positive reviews overall. They do make specific mention of the 30GB hard drive as a negative, though, while PC Mag simply tosses the issue aside and say that the earbuds suck. Of course they suck! Who buys a top of the line iPod and still uses the earbuds?

re: Two Quick Tidbits

Daveworld — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:53:16 GMT

Never heard any bashing on the Zune storage. The only basing is from the lack of basics, lack of updates, features, lack of direction (so it seems especially with the silence).

re: Two Quick Tidbits

Malory1 — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:39:59 GMT

@ Zuneless:

No doubt! Like I said, it's not like the iPod Touch (or the other new iPods) are bad, they have some great features. I was just annoyed that, while the Zune was consistantly put down for "only" having 30GB, an iPod with close to half the storage seems to get a free pass.

re: Two Quick Tidbits

Zuneless — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:33:58 GMT

Malory1 said:

"Every time I read a Zune review, people always seem to bash 30GB as ridiculously small for video. What happens when a true iPod for video comes out? 'Oh, yeah, 16GB is small, but that doesn't matter because of the interface.'"

I stopped by the Apple store the other day just to take a peek at the new Nanos. They come in 2 GB, 4GB and 8GB capacities, and play video on the little 2" screen at 320x240. The screen is absolutely crystal clear, and video was surprisingly watchable. I wouldn't want to watch an entire movie in one sitting, but a podacst or 30 minute television program would be great.

I looked at how much content was on the device, and how much space was free. There were about five videos (a couple of movies and some television programs), several hundred songs, and over a thousand photos. This was an 8 GB Nano. It was about half full. 8 GB seems like a lot of space to me. FWIW, a coworker of mine is going to be getting a 16 GB iPod Touch. He's started ripping some movies from DVD to put on his iPod. Converted to the right size (320x480) and format for the iPod Touch, each movie is a little over 500 MB.

And don't forget, the new Nano, Classic and Touch can all be connected to a big screen TV over component video for full screen viewing. My understanding is that the decoder in the iPods will even decode higher resolution video than the iPod screen is capable of for playing on larger screens. So, you could rip at 720x480 for better viewing quality when running the video to your TV.

Pretty darn cool.

re: Two Quick Tidbits

Malory1 — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:54:42 GMT

That PC magazine ticks me off. Every time I read a Zune review, people always seem to bash 30GB as ridiculously small for video. What happens when a true iPod for video comes out? "Oh, yeah, 16GB is small, but that doesn't matter because of the interface." Give me a break. THEY DON'T EVEN LIST THE LIMITED STORAGE AS A "CON". Please.

I'm not saying the iPod Touch is a terrible device, but come on.

re: Two Quick Tidbits

ZuneToday — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:15:15 GMT

savethesocial.com - great idea!

Sounds a bit like Slacker for the Zune - but I too am lazy and would love for my songs to be updated like that. Plus I am too busy to keep up with whats new.

re: Two Quick Tidbits

savethesocial.com — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:26:18 GMT

Yeah, I can't wait until I get an iPod touch and can go to starbucks and download a song for .99! That'll be awesome! Then I can download another song! Soon I'll have an entire library of songs!

In the meantime, I'll just have listen to all of the albums that the zune shipped with.

Wait, the zune shipped with songs, not albums.

If only there was a place I could get all the albums that have those songs on them...

If only...

if only...

revolution

savethesocial.com

re: Two Quick Tidbits

Zuneless — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:35:15 GMT

PC Mag reviews the iPod Touch...

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2179699,00.asp

...and gives it 5 out of 5 stars.

The bottom line?

"With an excellent interface and elegant design, the iPod touch is simply the best portable media player ever made."

Gotta love an industry with healthy competition. Can't wait to see what Microsoft, Creative, SanDisk etc. release in response!

re: Two Quick Tidbits

Crystal3 — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:47:07 GMT

. . .Still checking 6 times a day for update news so I can return the new nano and resume using my Zune. . .gues not this week!

re: Two Quick Tidbits

Zoa 342 — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:01:15 GMT

Lol, Wait were against Mac's now? I thought it was just the iPod.... Cesar, could you please answer this, has the Zune come up in any of your meetings?

re: Two Quick Tidbits

savethesocial.com — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 05:50:25 GMT

Let's not forget this is about the music. I'll hold off on the diatribes for now.

In the meantime...

Playlist 5 - all the songs from the zune-arts vids

Playlist 6 - the albums that they came from (1)

Playlist 7 - the albums that they came from (2)

I'm just getting started!

Revolution

savethesocial.com

re: Two Quick Tidbits

met — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 04:18:06 GMT

One thing what would help huge playlists like this is if MS allowed a user account to save "star" ratings for songs that have been deleted from the user's local library but are available in the Zune store.