New Zunes

[Winnow]

Sadly the marketplace isn't live yet so I have to subscribe to all my podcasts manually. No big deal that one however.

If they get Podcasts squared away I'll take a look again at Zunes. I really want to get away from Apple.

[Animalor]

Oh the podcasts work jsut as well as iTunes. Since you have the marketplace in the US, should should have a whole load of em there.

I also found that on a lot of sites that have podcasts, there's usually a Zune link as well that alsomatically subscribes you in the Zune software.

(Twit.TV for one as Zune as a selection in the dropdown)

[Winnow]

Oh the podcasts work jsut as well as iTunes. Since you have the marketplace in the US, should should have a whole load of em there.

I also found that on a lot of sites that have podcasts, there's usually a Zune link as well that alsomatically subscribes you in the Zune software.

(Twit.TV for one as Zune as a selection in the dropdown)

Hmmm, I checked out a review of the Zune Marketplace and it's not bad:

http://www.zunerama.com/zune-marketplace.php

The color scheme is a little fruity but the podcast support looks strong. I wonder how many podcasts the Marketplace has compared to iTunes. It doesn't matter if the Marketplace allows you to manually add podcasts for automatic updating thereafter. I haven't confirmed that you can do that yet.

[Truant]

I don't know a single person who owns a zune, but if they don't quit playing their fucking zune pass commercial TWICE in EVERY commercial break on adult swim i'm going to fucking snap.

Seriously, who gives a fucking shit about your proprietary service for your third (worse?) rate product.


ps. if you own a zune, I don't really give a shit...so don't bother telling me how fucking glorious it is.



pps. lol.

[Aslanna]

My Zune hate continues. So I agree!

[Boogahz]

I bought a Zune last Fall to see what was so good about it. I hated the marketplace interface. The software seemed to randomly assign images to albums that were in no way related to them. The headphones included were a LOT better than those included with an iPod. Radio was a nice feature, but I mainly listen to XM when I do listen to radio. I almost thought that the interface was cool with the "back" function and menu structure, but a few "accidental" changes made it seem too damn cumbersome.

I got to test one out for myself and I gave it away to a friend that has really wanted an MP3 player. It fits all of her needs too. Win-Win

[Animalor]

To counterbalance the great luck I've had with my 360, my first Zune lasted about a day. On Saturday I wouldn't change at all. I think it may have been a faulty charging circuit cause the thing ran really hot when I did wireless syncs, used the Car adapter or just plugged it in.

The new one I have now does none of those things which is good.

I hated the marketplace interface. The software seemed to randomly assign images to albums that were in no way related to them.

I've found that right clicking on the albums and doing the search gives you a great selection and most of the time(95%), the album information is there and you can assign it properly.

I'm going to have to setup a lot more TV recordings on my media center cause the sync of that stuff and the playback is pretty cool. Might do something like Avatar which I was interested in watching during lunches at the office.

[Animalor]

Winnow - Have you tried the XNA games on your Zune? You havta download Visual C#, .net 3.5, XNA 3.0 ctp and the project files from over at http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/downlo ... games-174/.

Compile to your zune and you've got gaming on the device. The only issue is that once you're done with the game, you can delete the games from your Zune but you can't actually delete the Game menu listing without doing a firmware wipe of the unit and re-initializing everything.

There is some cool stuff up there but the touchpad on some titles seemed a bit finicky. Then again, these are all non-professional efforts in the development stage and amateur projects that people do for fun so stuff like this is expected.

[Winnow]

Winnow - Have you tried the XNA games on your Zune? You havta download Visual C#, .net 3.5, XNA 3.0 ctp and the project files from over at http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/downlo ... games-174/.

I don't own a Zune but that looks interesting : )

[Animalor]

Winnow - Have you tried the XNA games on your Zune? You havta download Visual C#, .net 3.5, XNA 3.0 ctp and the project files from over at http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/downlo ... games-174/.

I don't own a Zune but that looks interesting : )

Oh. heh. I was under the impression that you owned one for some reason. . Nm then =)

[Animalor]

So I filled up my 4GB the other day. Turns out that video files, at ~300mb for a 30 minute show fill up the thing quite quickly. Also, watching video on a small screen like that isn't really the best option.

I had throughts of going to the iPod Touch but having to mess around with iTunes and 3rd aprty software for video conversion of my Media Center content was very unappealing.

MS has confirmed that the 120's are coming soon at the 249$ pricepoint so I'll most likely be getting that one and selling off my 4GB to a co-worker.

Here's a question through, what type of experience should I be expecting from a Disk-based player as opposed to a Flash one? Is there a difference? This would mostly be aimed at people who own the iPod classics and such.

[Winnow]

I had throughts of going to the iPod Touch but having to mess around with iTunes and 3rd aprty software for video conversion of my Media Center content was very unappealing.

Speaking as an Apple hater, the iTouch is amazing. Look for the prices to drop in the near future. The rumor is that 64 and 32 GB RAM versions are coming out with the 16GB dropping in price.

[Truant]

You just have to be aware that the disk based players have moving parts. You don't have to baby them, I sure as hell don't. But don't do anything extreme with it, like mountain biking or something. It won't just fall apart and quit working instantly, you just should try to be a little more careful.

[Spang]

Here's a question through, what type of experience should I be expecting from a Disk-based player as opposed to a Flash one? Is there a difference? This would mostly be aimed at people who own the iPod classics and such.

I will have had my 30 GB iPod for 2 years this coming December. I have never had to reset it, nor have I had to get it repaired.

Shortly after submitting this message, it will explode in my pocket and I'll lose a testicle.

[Animalor]

Looks like Fry's just leaked some of Microsoft's thunder..

Buy from FM - “Listen to your favorite FM radio stations and click to tag the songs you like for later purchase when you sync your device with your PC”

“Device to Cloud” - allows you to use wireless hotspots to update your collection, browse Zune Marketplace, refresh Channels (see below), exchange favorites with friends, or buy songs you’ve tagged from FM radio

“Channels” - these are ‘custom programming stations’ that deliver personalized playlists to your Zune

“Games” - these have been out in beta, and now look like they’re official. In fact, the Fry’s specs say that free games will come preloaded on Zune players, including Texas Hold’em and Hexic.

[Animalor]

So the update came out this morning.

There was a LOT of nice upgrades to the software. Mixview is really nice to quickly browse artists that are related to what you're currently listening to.

The new visualisations are very very sweet. It doesn't work for all the bands obviously, only the ones that Microsoft have created on their end show up and of the music that I have on my PC, ~ 80% of my music had the new visualisations.

The Firmware for the player is really nice too. I now have a couple more menu items in the main menu. Audiobooks is one that only appeared after I installed the Audible Downloader on my PC and downloaded a book from em. (http://www.audible.com/twit2 will give you 2 free book credits and 14 days free trial of their platinum plan. Don't forget to cancel after you've used up those 2 credits).

There's Hexic and Texas Hold-Em on the gaqmes menu but nothing much else there. I think I may just delete those to save the space.

The Marketplace menu item is kinda useless for me since it isn't selling content in Canada.

Overall a really solid update. Props to MS also for upgrading the entire Zune line with the software from the 30GB on.