I checked some features about Zune from http://www.zunevideoconverter.com but don't know which player I should purchase. iPod or Zune?

Ok here is the deal i bought a Zune last night from Walmart just to try it out buying something from Walmart does not set anything in stone you can return anything there any ways I was all about the Ipod its a great music player and i think that is one of the best things apple has done in a long time I meen go anywhere and see if you can look around a store and not find something for your Ipod but my point is when i went to Walmart and droped the 249.99 down on the Zune I did it only to test it out and see how many real big changes there was between the Zune and Ipod there really was and after using it for a day im real impressed with MS new toy its going to give Apple a run for its money the FM radio is nice to have when bored of hearing my same old music over and over gives me something to play with also the Zune software makes the transfer of pics video and music fast and easy yes Itunes can do the hole music and photo but when it comes to video on the ipod it lacks plus the Zune battery is sick where if i was using my Ipod I could get only part way done with a movie before my battery was ready for a new charge the Zune allows you to not only finish your movie but still have time to do other stuff sense the battery lasts 12 hours for music and 4 and a hafe using video Ill be honest with every one I love Linux and would ues Linux all the time but there are just some stuff you cant do with out MS so I had to check what i thought would be a very sad joke of an mp3 player made by them but after using it im having A real hard time deciding if I still want to take it back of keep it the sound is great could just be the set of headphones that comes with it but it seems so much more crisp and the screen is so much nicer then the Ipod there are things that every one will hate about it and same for Ipod but not every one can use Linux and not evrey one Can install doom on there Ipod ya know so what MS has doen is made a very nice music player with a great battery and and nice screen and made it easy for people to use also the ugly shell every one is talking about is what in the long run will keep the Zune playing longer then the Ipod the plastic shell is nice and will take agood beating so for once im giving MS hats off for this one.

FAO: StUmBliNgBl0ck

You may find people actually taking time to read your opinion if you can first master the art of writing in sentences, with appropriate punctuation and double line feeds.

Otherwise, I suspect most will look at your post as the deluded ramblings of a bigot, spammer or troll.

Just a thought..

Aires asks: (And "full-length samples" - what does that mean?!).

Full length samples is a euphemism for data that automagically self destructs after 3 plays or 3 days on the device, whichever comes sooner..

DRM at its fugliest!

Because I already have an iPod I won't be looking to buy Zune. But when I come to replace my iPod it will be with another iPod. The simple fact of the matter is that even if Zune performs brilliantly - so does the iPod. And what's more is that Zune has the appearance in looks of a prototpye - it just doesn't look finished.

EDIT:
And if I can add - I don't think the anything-but-iPod crowd are going to be in sufficient numbers to make this a success either unfortunately.

(And "full-length samples" - what does that mean?!).

The sharing part sounds kind of cool, especially if the firmware can be hacked (maybe put Rockbox on?) so that you can just transfer files without any restrictions.

I saw it. It's big. It's not bad. It's got a fancy UI... and frankly, it deserves a big shrug. Nice; better luck next time.

I think they couldn't have sold these at a profit and maxed out sales... maybe I'm wrong, but this thing should have been below $200.

iPod Killer? I think not!

Even if Zune cost $49, people would still buy more iPods. Better luck next time MS.

It's a shame that M$ is wasting their chance to enter the market with success.
Another DRM infected player (actually worse than iPod)...
wi-fi is pretty limited: Come on guys. If you include such function I expect to transfer whatever I want from any device that support the same standard, not only what YOU want for a limited time and only with the same player...
I also expect that YOUR media player support YOUR product. Why you have to install just another software? Isn't media player capable to do the work? I don't like iTunes, but at least it does everything I may need, with or without iPod.
"Bigger screen" in Zune means more pixelated screen as resolution is the same as the iPod video.
And you can't use it as hard disk? What the hell is going on with you? After playing music, the best feature I find in my iPod is to use it to transfer information on it. I have a portable Thunderbird, a portable Gaim and 8000 files that I use often. I can't do that with the "new" Zune... I know M$ never heard of portable anything. To install any M$ product you need 4000000 dlls and 40000 registry keys... Maybe you can learn something now you bought Systernals... Let's see if you do.
I like competition, not pathetic attempts of. Back off M$ and your crappy product.

What happened to PlaysForSure? Um.. MS just rendered it obsolete, and screwed a whole bunch of OEMs in the process. Not to mention the consumers of the media, non-transferrable to the Zune..

All cosmetics aside, Zune is just a lame attempt to re-engineer the DRM argument in Microshaft's favour.

Microshaft wants "in" on the media distribution, be it videos, music or you eyespace for adverts. And the Zune is their hope they'll win the battle for control of media distrubtion through consumer-unfriendly DRM-controlled content.

If a device has wireless, I want to swap whatever I choose with whomever I choose. Anything less is not only a compromise, it's also a sellout to the very concept of DRM.

If I pay for media, I should be free to do with it what I choose, in the same way I can lend a friend a CD.

Do what your conscience dicates.. personally, I'd rather chop off all my fingers than support this craven attempt to rip off Apple, primarily, and the consumer additionally.

Well I bought one today, all I can say is WOW!

Don't bash it, til you try it, Apple you have your work cut out for you!

Competition how sweet it is.

Great job Microsoft.

I was an I-Pod user til now. and believe me more will switch over.

Lets face it the i-pod feature set really sucks always has. With the Zune in play now Apple will need to sit up and make some changes fast.

Remember when Palm was sitting where Apple is today no one thought Microsoft could take any market share away from them with the pocket pc.

Palm is nearly dead in hand held arena and Microsoft is on top.

Oh yes competition.

I'm sure Apple will makge changes - they have demonstrated that they are very good at reacting quickly.

I have to admit the Zune player with all it's features is not a bad player at all. However, i think the name "IPOD" is set in stone and nothing will change this even though Microsoft has 10 more features in it's player.

Competition is very healthy and will ensure Apple doesn't just bring out new colours for their Ipod's :)

http://www.metallica-central.com

Hello people! please read up before you comment.

The Zune's WiFi cannot be used except in conjunction with an internet enabled computer.
You CANNOT transfer music over WiFi. It is only for transferring from your computer. The WiFi is very limited and is just a marketing gimmick (look at all the suckers that already fell for the marketing hype here)

where Microsoft hopes to attract consumers is Zune's wireless capabilities. Friends can share full-length samples of select songs, homemade recordings, playlists, or pictures among devices.

These samples can then be bought from the Zune marketplace, which includes about two million songs.

"Zune would be updatable, and sources say new features are already in development that would be added in the coming months."

In other words, since we rushed this thing out the door, we're working on service pack 1 for Zune.

I do like the large screen and WiFi ability. I think it has promise. They need a huge marketing push though to get people out of the ipod mode. Perhaps, 2 million song downloads for free? They also need an easy way to get TV/Movies onto the device.

Why do people are so negative when it comes to MS. Apple release update for Ipod all the time. So as Iriver and other mp3 players.

You should be glad that company continue developing for their finished products.

I posted positive comments as well. Did you not see those?

ZUNE!!!

:-)
'bout time
not a bad price either.

"the goal was not to create another digital music player but a whole new experience altogether"

this is exactly what i mean about MS.
we'll just have to see if it's a "whole new experience". (got my fingers crossed)
:-p

What new experience? what are they talking about? its just another music player like all the rest. and guess what, it is going to play music!

Apple should fight back by releasing OS X for sale to anyone with a PC right before Vista comes out and rain on their Vista parade :)

Rain on their parade? You mean damage Apple's profitable hardware sales as people buy or build non-Apple PC's to run OSX? Then Apple can deal with the inevitable fallout of unhappy OSX users because of poor hardware support. Apple want's people to use their hardware above all. What Apple should do is start selling high end Windows machines with the appropriate buttons and keys.

That's a bad idea. First of all, Vista is already RTM'd. Secondly, do you think OSX could possibly support a fraction of the PC hardware that is out there? I don't think the OSX driver model was designed to support hardware like Windows can. I think we'll need to wait for OSXI for that. Even if Apple does update the driver model, I doubt you will see many device makers building OSXI drivers. I don't think the market share is there to justify development and support. I'm fairly certain that OSX's sub-3% total share will actually get lower the next 2 years.

Apple doesn't make much money (if any) from software sales. Their revenue comes from itunes and hardware. As someone else stated already, do you think Apple is going to give up hardware revenue?

Get your facts right.

Last time I looked, a few months ago, Apple had 4.6% market share and was growing at 15%/year. Looking again, I see that their share is now currently estimated at 5.8% and growing at 30%/year

Source:

http://www.macworld.com/...index.php?lsrc=mwtoprss

--->I'm fairly certain that OSX's sub-3% total share will actually get lower the next 2 years.

You have to get your number right. When they say they are growing 15% a year. It doesn't mean existing market share * 1.15. It just mean existing Mac * 1.15. At the same time, total computers can grow another 50% due to upgrade or 1st time buyers.

I am always wonder how they measure this.

I have a hard time believing that OSX has a near 5% market share on operating systems. Regardless of numbers, I stand by my theory. (Which was the point of my post)

Apple just had its second biggest quarter in its history. Beleve that.

Yeah? Well, some people have a hard time understanding that the world is round. The data is available. Don't be like the intelligent design people - if you have a different theory, then put forth your EVIDENCE to justify it. I've no doubt you stand by your theory but so what, if it's wrong!

Exactly Xy.

I don't understand why its always go to be Apple vs. everything....good grief. It sure doesn't take much nowadays to get the apple cultists going.
Furthermore, who cares? If you love a PC, love it...if you love a Mac, love it - who cares what anyone else thinks? and who cares what dominates what? Whatever the facts are, I happen to agree with the theory that OSX for 'the masses' wouldn't be a good idea for Apple. First of all, it would suffer the same fate as XP64 and Linux to some extent (not enough market share) and so, none but the biggest of hardware manuf. would make hardware and drivers for it. Secondly, it would crash alot more because of the 'variety' of hardware and the myriad combinations of them. Finally, no cultists = no real money for Apple. They'd get little to nothing (only from curious PC users and tech-heads) and end up spending lots on new software designs, training new tech support and whatnot to handle non-apple designed hardware combos.
Personally, I can admire the Apple OS and computers - they're stable, unique, sexy, innovative and secure. I wouldn't spend my money on an Apple computer (maybe a very cheap intel-mac, someday). But I admire the MS OS more (even with ALLLL the quirks) because after everything is said and done, it does the 2 most important things that OSX can't - it's the only OS that all your hardware and software will work with, and it's so easy to use. That's a feat. If OSX could run all my hardware and software (and allowed me to do whatever I wanted with my PC), would I buy it? Ofcourse I would! Hell, I'd possibly even buy an Apple system if OSX could do these things. It's a good OS! Looks aside, I do believe that because of the unix infrastructure it's slightly more secure inherently than any MS OS has ever been. Alas, the negatives of the OS too far outweigh the positives and it's not an option for me right now. I'm spoiled on my freedom.

As for the topic at hand. This MS venture is going to fail. It's not going to lose money, but it's not going to kill the ipod/itunes or even merely compete. It's a bad market model to follow and it's just sad that they even thought they could copy Apple because as I mentioned before, Apple has a real cult following: Apple users buy Apple products, and that is that. They're a minority that have been so used to being locked into no choice when it comes to their computers that it's become a way of life for them - If every person who owns an Apple wanted/buys an mp3 player, what do you think that player will be? That's right - it's going to be an Ipod for sure. MS doesn't have anywhere close to this kind of loyalty. I use XP and will use Vista because it gives me freedom - freedom to choose my hardware, freedom to use my software, and freedom to buy and use things made for it. And that's how the majority of people that invest their money into XP/Vista or a computer with this OS will think as well.
But that's a blessing and a curse from a marketing perspective - I'm free to NOT buy a Zune, I'm free to NOT HAVE to use the Zune Marketplace - Apple users can't say that - they have 3 choices, buy from Itunes, buy the CD and rip it or steal the music. Apple is VERY smart. They've captured a part of the market that will almost never look at any alternatives.
MS OS users have many choices, buy from any of the dozen or more stores out there, buy from dozens of players to choose from that will run the music from these stores, buy the cd or steal the music. Hopefully MS will come to their senses sooner than later and firmware upgrade the zune to be playforsure friendly.

"http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/10/19/marketshare/index.php?lsrc=mwtoprss"

I'm not saying your wrong, but that is coming from a Mac website. I would guess they would be heavily biased towards Mac's.

Well, I guess their figures were a little off.

If you go to Gartner, another extremely well-known analytic firm, they are indicating that Apple is over 6% already (and growing at 30%)

Huh? My Mac runs all my hardware and software!

--->[Microsoft's OS] is the only OS that all your hardware and software will work with,

Yes, thankfully Microsoft has not crippled their OS so it only runs on one manufacture's hardware like Apple has with OSX.

"Microsoft Aims for Apple..." from 20 miles away and only enough to launch 10 miles

Ok here is the deal i bought a Zune last night from Walmart just to try it out buying something from Walmart does not set anything in stone you can return anything there any ways I was all about the Ipod its a great music player and i think that is one of the best things apple has done in a long time I meen go anywhere and see if you can look around a store and not find something for your Ipod but my point is when i went to Walmart and droped the 249.99 down on the Zune I did it only to test it out and see how many real big changes there was between the Zune and Ipod there really was and after using it for a day im real impressed with MS new toy its going to give Apple a run for its money the FM radio is nice to have when bored of hearing my same old music over and over gives me something to play with also the Zune software makes the transfer of pics video and music fast and easy yes Itunes can do the hole music and photo but when it comes to video on the ipod it lacks plus the Zune battery is sick where if i was using my Ipod I could get only part way done with a movie before my battery was ready for a new charge the Zune allows you to not only finish your movie but still have time to do other stuff sense the battery lasts 12 hours for music and 4 and a hafe using video Ill be honest with every one I love Linux and would ues Linux all the time but there are just some stuff you cant do with out MS so I had to check what i thought would be a very sad joke of an mp3 player made by them but after using it im having A real hard time deciding if I still want to take it back of keep it the sound is great could just be the set of headphones that comes with it but it seems so much more crisp and the screen is so much nicer then the Ipod there are things that every one will hate about it and same for Ipod but not every one can use Linux and not evrey one Can install doom on there Ipod ya know so what MS has doen is made a very nice music player with a great battery and and nice screen and made it easy for people to use so for once im giving MS hats off for this one.

Downloaded and installed the Zune software. Dissapointed there is no Jazz category in the marketplace and my tastes are relagated to a portion of the 89000 hours of the MORE genre.

While I'd love to buy a Zune, it appears it's not going to be enticing to me until they cater to "non-social" tastes or they allow me to use my very satisfying URGE subscription.