My Zune Impressions.

[Crippler]

Ok, so I received a nice white Zune for Christmas from my wife. (Thanks pookey.) I thought I'd post up some quick impressions from my first few days with the hardware and software. I never owned an iPod so I can't compare them first hand.

Hardware:
First off, the screen on this thing rocks! Bright and colorful. The feel of the Zune is great. It's like a velvety, yet tough plastic. I like it. No fingerprints show on this thing, which is nice. The earbuds are OK I guess. They sound decent for out of the box. The controls are standard Dpad like. Not a scroll interface like the iPod. There is a Back button to the left and a Play/Pause button to the right of the Dpad. The center of the Dpad also houses the Select button. The GUI is much like Media Center. once into the media areas. You can move through your contents by pressing left and right. Holding down on the Dpad also flys through your contents while also displaying the letter of the alphabet that you're currently at. Nice. Music playback is great as is the video. The Zune only supports WMV so the software will have to convert all your non-WMV content before syncing. Not too bad but it would be nice if it supported more codecs. I haven't used the wireless functions yet. As of firmware 1.2, you can only share between Zunes. Which is better than nothing I guess. But further wireless functionality is suppose to be coming. Let's hope it's sooner than later.

Software:
The Zune uses it's own media software, not WMP11. Don't ask me why. So, using that has been pretty painless. I actually like it better than WMP11 in some respects. It also has specific media sharing built-in for the Xbox 360. Very nice. Works great too. I spent a good portion of the last 3 days ripping all of my CDs to my PC. Finally finished last night. Once done, I synced up the Zune and the software blasted all of my content to the device. Easy. No problems. Right now the Zune software has no built-in podcast updater or podcatcher. But that is coming soon. I still use iTunes to update my podcasts and monitor that podcast folder with the Zune software. The Zune syncs them right up. It will be nice once it is all in one package though. The Zune also came with a 14-day free Zune marketplace pass. It's very cool. It's basically all-you-can-eat music downloads for 14 days. All the content is DRM protected so once my 14-days are up, the content I downloaded will not play. Such is DRM. Now, if there was a yearly fee like Live for $50/yr for this. I'd be all over it. I could see one getting addicted to it. I am listening to music I would never think about buying. So in that respect, the Zune Pass is great. I can just try out all kinds of different music w/out killing my wallet.

Now for the HUGE issue I do not like with the current state of the software. I CAN NOT listen to the music on MY Zune while connected via USB!!! Even the Zune software will not stream the content from the device. I have to physically copy content form the Zune to my PC in order to listen to it. Not cool MS. Not cool. Add streaming functionality NOW. I'm not on my home PC, so dumping 10 GBs of content to the work PC would not go over well. The IT guys would black ball me. That's my major gripe. Vidguy, pass it on baby. Tell them Crippler said so.

I'm done. I would recommend a Zune to folks who are looking for their first MP3 player, like me, or updating from an older, smaller capacity iPod.

[SpOoNmAn]

Awesome. I wanted one this saturday when I got paid but unexpected bills creeped in, it'll have to wait for the next paycheck.

I'm assuming because it currently does not stream to pc, it also will not stream to the 360? Not a biggie seeing as I have all my music on the pc hdd anyways and stream that over, but still......

Thanks for the write-up, I look very forward to getting one Reading this got me more excited!

[Peench]

Thanks for the impressions. Sounds like a blast. Link up some photos from your flickr account bro! You have some sexy ones in there!

[Jon Liu]

thanks for your write-up! I'm not necessarily fond of the Zune look or functionality but, I know it'll please others if they don't like the iPod feel!

Congrats on the cool Christmas gift!

[Crippler]

Spoon, the Zune software DOES stream, like magic, to the 360. It's works great. The Zune also connects and streams to the 360 with the USB cable. What I would like is for it to stream while I have it connected via USB, as if I was going to sync it, to the PC. For example, right now I'm at work. I would love to be able to listen to my content on the Zune through the Zune software without dumping 10GBs to the work HDD. It won't stream off the Zune while connected to a PC. iPods do this through iTunes. I guess I could just throw in the earbuds and listen. But I would like to share my 2 Live Crew with the rest of the office. This is some simple software functionality that somehow was forgotten or left out.

[SpOoNmAn]

Ahh I see, thanks for the clarification. I misread it the 1st time thru.

[Crippler]

LOL. I have a few folks at work that I can share with. Everyone has a copy of Wonder's picture now.
Penny Arcade posted a new comic about the Zune:

[Wondermonkey]

Nice impressions man, that thing looks pretty damn slick I have to say. I'm glad my pics are getting around, this time without the help of Megan's Law. Whoo hoo. I can't wait to touch it though, I need to feel it in my hands before I pass judgement.

Nice pics too

[Crippler]

Yeah, I have to get down to your place. I need to fill Keezy's butt grove on that couch. We can use our Live Vision to make it seem like I'm home. I can just the use wireless headset and keep saying, "Yes dear." That way it would be like I'm home. My kids would totally freak over that. I really think you'll like the Zune. It's a great piece of hardware that isn't being used to it's full potential yet. But that's what firmware updates are for. Wireless connectivity, with the 360, hopefully is coming. Sweet. It needs some software tweaks too. Add podcast support, movie support but that's all coming.