A Few More in-depth Reviews

re: A Few More in-depth Reviews

ZuneDude — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:55:09 GMT

The Zune device has radio settings to chose North America, Europe or Japan. and what would be the problem if I am in another part like colombia or ecuador can i use the radio too or not

re: A Few More in-depth Reviews

Dave E — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 22:38:35 GMT

I would really like to see Audible support along with Bookmarks. My Zune will never replace my creative Zen until that happens.

re: A Few More in-depth Reviews

Chris — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 04:06:30 GMT

Why did you use those OS X buttons?

Cult of Mac: In Praise of Zune (and other signs of Hades freezing over)

Zune Insider — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 19:18:10 GMT

After writing a scathing article ("It's not cool and never will be"), about Zune Wired News' Leander

re: A Few More in-depth Reviews

TheNumberDevil — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:52:21 GMT

Zune Car Kit -- review

I recommend this highly. The car charger is superlative. All the accessories have the double shot coloring (black with transparent - I would loved the blue double-shot to go with my black zune!!!)

The FM tramsitter works well when you figure out how to use it right! Here's some things to watch out for:

The documentation that comes with it make it seem like you just plug it in, use auto-seek to find an FM channel, tune your Car Radio FM to that channel and go ... not so ...

- The FM channels that auto-seek finds almost never worked for me. I spent some time trying each FM channel in turn to get a list of FM frequencies that worked Good and just OK. This list is invaluable and depends on the FM channels that are available in your area. All FM frequencies near strong local FM stations (before, at and after) were no good. You basically need a set of channels that are away from your local bandwidth. Auto-seek gets confused easily. It needs some work.

- The FM transmitter did not work very well when drawing power from the Zune device. When the car charger is connected it seems to work significantly better. As it happens I almost always charge my Zune in the car now so it's not a big deal for me. Your expectations might not be the same.

I expected this to be better:

The Zune device has radio settings to chose North America, Europe or Japan. I expected the Zune to "talk" with the FM transmitter about this, but, it doesn't. So the FM transmitter steps up frequencies in .1 MHZ intervals even though North American FM channels are .2 MHZ apart. Bummer, but, no biggie.

Suggestions for Zune team:

- The Zune Device can read RDS. Why not add the media information to the FM transmission? This will enable RDS recievers to display the media information. I would be willing to pay $10 more for an FM transmitter with this feature!!!

- (futuristic) More communication between the Zune device and FM transmitter ... you could enter a location profile in Zune software (which has FM bandwidth gap data for the location - entered manually or from a Zune database). This can be then be used by the Zune Device to tell the FM transmitter what frequencies to try ...

re: A Few More in-depth Reviews

Swanlee — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 16:58:48 GMT

You guys HAVE to support some type of Lossless audio before the Zune can be taken seriously. I like mine but it's pretty much a toy instead of a serious piece of audio equipment without Lossless audio support.

re: A Few More in-depth Reviews

Tablet PC User — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 07:01:46 GMT

Thanks for the post. I realized a few things about these reviews:

1- Everyone expected MSFT to come out with a killer device to dethrone the iPod in 1 day. You played it safe instead and people don't want to consider why.

2- Most owners enjoy their zune if they have used or haven't used an iPod

3- The mainstream media wants Zune to fail and hence the reviews are all done with a closed mind.

I was thinking about something else though. When apple came out with the iPod in 2001, it was a critical time in their company. Things were now being stabilized since SJ came back and the company needed something to branch out and bring in sales. What they did was a bold move to go into the music industry. That move obviously came with some risks, but let's face it, APPL NEEDED the iPod to succeed. I'm sure it is easy to say what APPL would be today had the iPod/iTunes not existed - another struggling company with a 4% user-base. They really needed the iPod to succeed and they did everything they could to make it succeed. For them, quality and ensuring a good user experience was #1. The other Plays-for-sure companies all have backup income (Sansa = memory, Creative = soundcards/speakers, Toshiba=consumer electronics, Sony=consumer electronics, Dell=PC sales). So for them, the MP3 market was a nice thing to be in but let's face it, they can all survive without the MP3 market. If the Zune team or any other company wants to compete against the iPod, they have to do things as if their lives depended on it - so start thinking VERY deep and don't be a step behind the competition.

re: A Few More in-depth Reviews

Dan H — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 17:22:11 GMT

Palmer is right on this one.

re: A Few More in-depth Reviews

PalmerDeville — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 10:52:13 GMT

Jivemasta,

Multiply the length by the width to get the total pixel resolution.

320x240 = 76800 total pixels

640x480 = 307200 total pixels

307200/76800 = 4 (four)

640x480 offers 4 times the picture information of 320x240, hence 4x the resolution. In other words, four 320x240 screens will fit in a 640x480 screen.

Palmer

re: A Few More in-depth Reviews

Jivemasta — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 09:29:12 GMT

I have to say it. That guy is bad at math. 640x480 is only 2 times bigger than 320x240. Not 4 times. Other than that it's a really good point by point comparison.

re: A Few More in-depth Reviews

Chris — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 04:02:09 GMT

Nice use of the buttons from Mac OS X

re: A Few More in-depth Reviews

Stephane — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 02:40:51 GMT

Hi Cesar,

Take a look at the list we have made of the <a href="http://www.cliczune.com/2006/11/zune_reviews_10.html">10 nicest things said about the Zune</a>!

Cheers

Stephane

www.cliczune.com

re: A Few More in-depth Reviews

Woody56292 — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 01:05:34 GMT

Hey Shawn, if you don't' mind would you post some comments in our post about zune software/player issues. I am trying to catalog lists of potential fixable problems within the zune software and player. I would really appreciate your input.

Thanks,

Woody

www.zunecorps.com

re: A Few More in-depth Reviews

sportsunit — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 00:40:16 GMT

The review with the legend, green/orange/red symbols was great. It really highlights to the Zune team what's missing from the device. It's wrong to assume that they know what we want. It's seems like they're just playing it by ear. I mean...to launch without things like hard drive and audiobook support, they must really want the users to explicitly state every SINGLE thing that should be included. I just can't wait until the first update. We're either going to be really excited or really let down when we see what will make it into the device. The first update will probably be what decides if people will stay zune users for the forseeable future or go back to their sandisks/ipods/creatives/etc. I guess we'll see next spring.

re: A Few More in-depth Reviews

TDavid — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 00:12:29 GMT

Nice to meet you too, Cesar and thanks for the links. I'm thinking about going up to the XNA Game Express launch gathering Monday night. Maybe if you are a gamer/dev we'll see each other there for a few.