http://playlistmag.com/news/2006/11/24/ ... lsrc=mwrss
* Hardware issues. Users and reviewers are discovering that the Zune is a little too bulky and heavy. As Palm discovered long ago, a large device can feel smaller if the designers round off the edges. Microsoft ignores this lesson of gadget history, with its boxy, blocky design.
* Wi-Fi is nice, but you can?t connect to anything but another Zune.
* Compatibility issues. Zune will not work even with the vast majority of Microsoft?s own operating systems?forget about Mac, Linux, Unix or any other operating system. At the moment, Zune works only with Windows XP. Microsoft promises full support of Vista by January.
* Zune doesn?t support PlaysForSure, Microsoft?s own certification standard for music files, and it is incompatible with common media formats such as DivX, OGG, protected WMV and WMA-DRM9. It plays movies, but you can?t buy them from the Zune Marketplace yet. And Zune isn?t ready for podcasting. You can?t, for example, use Marketplace to subscribe to podcasts via RSS and have them automatically show up and sync. Marketplace at deadline had no podcasting section.
* Usability issues. The Zune software installation process needs a lot of work. Like Xbox Live and many other Microsoft consumer media products, the out-of-box experience is ruined by endless screens demanding personal information and Windows Live ID membership. And the whole Microsoft Points thing represents more needless harassment. Why can?t I buy a music player without being dragged into a Windows Live membership and forced to use Microsoft?s weird Monopoly money?
* Zune stops playing current music during Wi-Fi, peer-to-peer music transfer, so you sit there in silence while waiting for the download.
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,100 ... 77b,00.htm
http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/zun ... 217175.php
"These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it," said Doug Morris, CEO of Universal Music Group. "So it's time to get paid for it."
Well, Morris is just a big, clueless idiot, of course. Do you honestly want morons like him to have power over your music player? Then go ahead and buy a Zune. You'll find that the Zune Planet orbits the music industry's Bizarro World, where users aren't allowed to do anything that isn't in the industry's direct interests."
On Moral Issues:
"Throw in the Zune's tail-wagging relationship with music publishers, and it almost becomes important that you encourage people not to buy one."
More inside.
On Compatibility:
"Zune is incompatible with Windows Media Player, the familiar hub of the Windows desktop media experience.
The Zune app doesn't even have as many features as WMP. And why (for the love of God) doesn't it support podcasts? That's pure insanity."
Sun-Times Prediction:
"Result: The Zune will be dead and gone within six months. Good riddance"
Ok, so the Zune is probably not a good buy. Beware, yadda, yadda. First generation devices are a bad buy, regardless. So why are we writing about it? Obviously, we just wanted to run this picture again. Zune, so frustrating, you'll put your eye out. ?MEGHANN MARCO
http://www.christianmontoya.com/2007/01 ... -the-zune/
http://www.cliczune.com/2006/09/top_6_things_th.html
etc etc etc.
Basically, the Zune is a crippled gimp of an iPod. Had potential before the lawyers and the RIAA got control of the device.