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Zune questions (hope i'm not beating a dead horse).

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well, I had the chance to play around with one of these.. besides it's size, it's actually kind of neat and the 3" display isnt too shabby.

NOW, I have a 30 gig ipod with all sorts of tunes on it as well as my itunes library. Am I able to transfer all this (as well as album covers) over to the zune software on my Powerbook? Is the zune even compatable with a Mac?

Also, will the zune fit in the "iHome" speaker setup I have for my ipod? or no?

Thanks guys and gals :)

also, should I just stick with the 30gig video pod?

:spook:
 
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zune? with a mac? wow...
 
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the zune is not compatible with macs.

the zune is also not compatible with vista.

how funny is that?
 
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i would say just to stick with the ipod...
 
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The Zune will not read music from the iTunes Store, however, i understand is possible to turn those files to MP3, which the Zune will read.
About the album covers it will depend on how do you add those to the Zune. You can recover all the artworks from your iTunes Library, as they are JPEGs you can use them anywhere.
There is some guy that connects his Zune to his iBook, follow the link:
http://www.zunescene.com/zune-on-mac/
The Zune doesn't use the same connector that iPod uses, thus any accesories that relly on it will work, in short, no you cannot use the iHome with the Zune.
Finally, just as a personal opinion, if you already have an iPod, the Zune won't give you any benefit or improvement, even worse, since you already have accesories and songs that are designed for your iPod you will be loosing a lot. Unless you live in an utopical place where everyone has a Zune with the wireless on and is willing to trade files with a extranger, the Zune offers no benefits over you current iPod.
 
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M
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sticking with the ipod.

Maybe I'll get a Zune for my brother (a PC user) for christmas.
 
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If you still have questions, PM me, I have one, so do a couple of my friends.
 

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rememebr, there are plenty of other offerings from manufacturers besides apple and microsoft. some of these don't require ANY proprietary software to use...
 

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Since you already have the iPod Video, I see no need to get the Zune or any other ipod type player unless you need more space to store music or yours is dying. Also since the Zune is not compatible with OSX and Macs and you love your Mac, I would stay away. I am not saying the Zune is a bad system, in fact I think it's very nice. I just like the controls and feel of the Ipod better and want full compatibility with my macs and the ITMS. Otherwise the Zune is nice. I used one and except for my PERSONAL grievance with the controls, I liked it a lot.

For your usage, stick with your iPod till it dies or gets out of date. Maybe by then the Zune will be more compatible with OSX.

I have to check out that URL about the iBook dood getting a Zune to work on a Mac. Sounds interesting.
 
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Some people have pointed out 2 significant advantages in the near future for the Zune:

1. Price. Right now you can get a Zune from Amazon for $229 and it isn't a month old yet. Since Microsoft has the money they can low the price of the product, plus the Zune is made by Toshiba, and you can find similar products by Toshiba that are (a lot) cheaper.

2. Microsoft software. We all know how easy to hack Microsoft software is, if this means a disadvantage in Windows, it could mean an advantage for the Zune. After one week it was released, people already found the way to cheat some restrictions from the sharing feature.

I have to admit i considered buying a Zune before they released it, i like the GUI a lot more than the iPod's, plus i don't buy music online, i like to buy CDs. However, last week i finally had a chance to see one in real life and i got very dissapointed, it looks much better in pictures.
 
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the zune is also not compatible with vista.

how funny is that?

where did you find this at? Is there an article on it? I find it hard to believe.

I would say wait until the next gen Zune comes out. It has a lot of potential the the next gen will probably take advantage of that potential, like using WiFi to make it a truly stand-alone product. with that and making it a little thinner/lighter as well as less restrictive will put a Zune in my pocket.

If the next gen iPod comes with WiFi, get ready for MS people to come out and criticize Apple for copying MS. Sure it was done by someone else even before MS, but that didn't stop Apple people from complaining when the tables were turned. Actually MS people have been pretty cool in the past and never kicked and screamed when Apple did something that had already been done by MS.
 
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It works, just not out of the box.

I suspect the Gen 6 iPod(s) is/are going to be a bigger jump than just WiFi, but only time will tell.

myara said:
1. Price. Right now you can get a Zune from Amazon for $229 and it isn't a month old yet. Since Microsoft has the money they can low the price of the product, plus the Zune is made by Toshiba, and you can find similar products by Toshiba that are (a lot) cheaper.

While MS does have the ability, or chooses, to lose money to gain market-share, I don't think your going to see their prices go much lower. I'm also not convinced as to how much of an impact the makers has on how Amazon sets their prices in cases like this. Amazon could have done it on their own, or MS could have paid them to do it, in which case MS lost even more money on the deal.

EDIT: This was written a few weeks ago, but may be relevant here:

I had the chance to play with a working Zune today. The store had all 3 colors and I have to admit, the brown one does look like a turd. The blue ring around the edge looks especially crappy with the brown, no pun intended. I thought the plastic casing looked rather cheap, more like a toy that a $250 electronics device. I kept wondering what would happen if I bounced it off some concrete once or twice. The iPod looks rather fragile with the chrome and the shiney face, but the Zune looks like you could chuck it a brick wall 5 or 6 times, although I suspect doing so once would have the same result as if you chucked an iPod at a brick wall.

The interface IS slick, but not enough to to "WOW" me. Navigation was smooth, and one would hope that third parties start making better themes than the 3 lame ones included. It highlighted the difference between it and the iPod and made appreciate the iPods clean and uncluttered background, a lesson I have learned with my Palm Treo 700P recently too. I always sort of thought a background image on my iPod or Palm would look cool, but after trying it on my Treo and on the Zune, I'm glad the iPod doesn't have it. In short, the background on the Zune didn't endear it to me and simply, again IMHO, made it look more cluttered.

I don't see the up and down scrolling as any more intuitive than the iPods scroll wheel, but I don't find it any less intuitive either, it would just require some getting used to after an iPod. I found my self continually trying to scroll it though. I don't like turning it sideways to watch video, I found it somewhat uncomfortable as the ergonomics of the grip change and the control buttons are now turned the other way around and you have to know where they they are or you end up searching for the right one either randomly or by turning the unit upright. That would take some getting used to as well. That's likely not a huge show stopper, but something that could be overcome by having a virtual touch screen interface that would reorientate the buttons when you move the unit between positions. The screen color was nice, but not any nicer, IMHO, than my iPods screen and I didn't see the larger screen as a real bonus, again because of the ergonomics of holding the unit sideway.

On as side note, a buddy of mine was with me. He also has an iPod that he recently purchased. He was looking at one of them and I asked him what he though, he said he thought the Zune was nice but still said he was happy with his iPod. I asked him why and he said he really liked his iPod because there were a TON of accessories for it, everything he could imagine. His next comment was what sort of made me stop and think. He said that this was the same reason he had not yet switched to a Mac. I asked him what he meant and he said that he was still using Windows because there was just so much stuff for it. Everywhere you go, there are Windows programs and games but you have to go to certain stores to find anything for a Mac. Now as a long time Mac user my initial thought was, yeah but a lot of that Windows software is crap to begin with. I didn't say it though (which IS odd for me), as he had wandered over to a 20 inch iMac and started playing with it.

His comment got me to thinking and made me wonder if maybe, just maybe, Apple had "out Microsofted" Microsoft in the DAP market? I mean, there are going to be some who find the Zune an excellent player, and there are many fans of Creative and Sandisk, among others, but if an average guy (my friend) simply thinks that the best thing to go with is the one that has "the most stuff" can MS or Creative or anyone really catch up? Does the iPod have the momentum to simply remain the standard because of so much 3rd party support? Sure there are cases for Creative products, just like there are for the Zune, but how many get made will be directly related to how many units sell. If Creative sold more, there would be more "stuff" for it. The same is true for the Zune. Now to be honest, I'm not sure if I believe that Apple really has "out Miscrosofted" Microsoft in the DAP market, but being a long time Mac user and an early iPod adopter, I had never really looked at this from my friends point of view. Zune sales over the upcoming Christmas season and the next year or so will tell us more, especially when Apple releases "the next big thing".
 
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Most of the people I know with Zunes are getting them for the Zune Pass music subscription and the Xbox 360 compatibility.

Although this looks like an advantage, this actually makes the price of the service a bit higher than other services. Songs cost more than $0.99 and if you want to subscribe you need to buy more Microsoft money than you actually need.

where did you find this at? Is there an article on it? I find it hard to believe.

I was trying to locate the article, i believe the guy at Engadget tried to install a Zune using Vista and failled, when they called technichal support they guys there told them that Vista wasn't even beta yet and that was the reason.

I suspect the Gen 6 iPod(s) is/are going to be a bigger jump than just WiFi, but only time will tell.

There isn't much to change in the iPod (or even the Zune) that either hasn't been done or that would have the same impact as the first iPods had. IMHO, DAP have reached the top of their development, that is without going beyond the "family" name, that is becomming video players, PDAs or cellphones. Touch screen, WiFi or any similar way of "sharing" or even a bigger screen, those things will only increase the price of the product or decrease the battery life.

His comment got me to thinking and made me wonder if maybe, just maybe, Apple had "out Microsofted" Microsoft in the DAP market?

Yes! and that is funny!
 
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Although this looks like an advantage, this actually makes the price of the service a bit higher than other services. Songs cost more than $0.99 and if you want to subscribe you need to buy more Microsoft money than you actually need.

I am afraid I don't follow your argument.

You don't have to buy Microsoft points in order to subscribe to Zune pass, it simply charges your credit card for $14.99 per month of service.

If you choose to buy songs, you do have to purchase Microsoft points, the smallest denomination you can buy is 400 points for $5.00 USD. This means a point costs $.0125. A song costs 79 points, which translates to $.9875.

Unfortunately, unless you buy a large number of songs(790 I think), you always have a small balance of Microsoft points in your account. Example if you bought 400 points, bought 5 songs, you would end up having 5 points left. If you never ended up using those points, then effectively those 5 songs cost $1.00 each, so in a way they could end up costing barely more than iTunes' $.99 per song.
 
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It was interesting that when I searched the Zune/Vista topic, I got an avalanche of Apple sites and forums, and that they were at least a month old. But after cutting my way through all the Apples, I found more recent sites showing that it can be compatable and will definitely be when I get Vista in the first quarter. However, I still won't get a Zune until I see an improved 2nd gen.

and one would hope that third parties start making better themes than the 3 lame ones included

How can somone who favors iPod complain about the included themes when iPods have none, no matter how bad they are? (unless there have been upgrades I'm unaware of)

asked him why and he said he really liked his iPod because there were a TON of accessories for it, everything he could imagine.

That was a major part of the genius of iPod; getting people to buy all the accessories. But the first iPods of course didn't have all that, or the market share. Which is why I can't understand why people are ragin on Zune for having no accessories or the market share to make the Wifi more usable. Did you really expect 30 million people to go buy them in a month??? As with iPod, as sales go up, more accessories will come and Wifi will be more handy.

Apple did more or less get in on the ground floor similar to Palm and PDA's. One of the reasons Palm OS has been able to hold market share is because there wasn't much competition and they had a lot of apps to root them in the market.

I don't like turning it sideways to watch video,

I feel sorry for this guy, because if Apple wants to improve screen size and keep portability, their going to have to follow suit, unless they make the entire UI widescreen, which would unfortuantely decrease your menu viewing realestate. And I think a touch screen plus video-watching is a very bad idea unless you're wearing gloves.

I suspect the Gen 6 iPod(s) is/are going to be a bigger jump than just WiFi, but only time will tell.

What kind of jump are you thinking? Other than WiFi, about the only thing to do, in terms of connectivity, would be some kind of cell phone technology, which would have to be paid for monthly/yearly.
 

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