I’m Beth. And I’m a frustrated iPod user.
Sure Apple has some great technology (no, I don’t own an iPhone… yet) but they aren’t perfect and I tend to think that they release products before they are well-tested (joining Amazon’s Kindle and Microsoft products in that category).
Despite my frustrations with the iPod itself, however, is the simple fact that I’ve always wanted a radio connected with my music player so that I can listen to This American Life or The Splendid Table when I’m working in the garden or out for a lovely spring day walk.
So, I gladly agreed to review the Zune 120GB from Microsoft which integrates an MP3 player with a radio as well as many other features.
The Zune didn’t quite give me what I had expected to be a quick turn-power-on, upload-tunes and begin-listening experience but I eventually got everything sorted out.
I was able to easily set up a Zune account and get started uploading collections directly from the Zune store using my Zune Pass. By the way, this pass allows you to download as many songs/CD’s as you like each month for $15. You can then test drive these out and choose 10 songs to keep. Forever. Pretty cool way to sample if you’re in doubt about a purchase.
Their user-interface is a bit, hmmm, well not immediately user-friendly. I know, read the instructions, Beth. But who bothers with THAT these days. Isn’t that why most products come with a quick start-up guide? The Zune didn’t. So, I had to muddle through their Help area, which didn’t really answer my questions very well (like why weren’t the files on my external hard drive being recognized by the Zune?).
Luckily, a little Google search and some email exchanges with my MS contact sorted out my issues.
In the Help area, the buttons and scrolls in the Zune software (not the device itself) are so tiny and thin that it’s hard to keep your mouse on them. Almost as if they don’t really want you to move around.
While I do the majority of my work on my PC laptop, most of my media is on my Mac and thus not compatible with the Zune. I do, however, have much of my MP3 collection (10,000 songs) stored on an external hard drive. It took a couple of restarts to get the Zune to recognize the hard drive but once connected it really only took a couple of hours to complete the upload. The Zune pulls album covers, when possible, which is a nice feature that my older iPod doesn’t support.
In addition to the radio, there are some other cool features. The one I like best is being able to subscribe to Channels. These are self-updating playlists. You simply subscribe to the genre(s) that you’re interested in and you’ll have weekly updates added to your Zune. I’ve got a couple of world music channels already picked out, but there are lots of options.
The Zune also has the ability to store and playback video, photos and podcasts, too. I’ve had a couple of language learning video programs just waiting for a way for me to watch them so I’ll be reporting back on these for you.
It also has wireless capability. While you can’t connect to the internet, you can share music wirelessly with other Zune members. My recommendation is to not leave the wireless feature turned on as it zaps the battery life pretty quickly.
Now that I’ve had the Zune for about 6 weeks, I’ve fallen into a really nice rhythm with using it. It’s now my MP3 player of choice that comes to the gym with me. Mostly because of the radio but also because, even at 120 GB, it’s smaller than my older 80GB iPod. Can’t wait to take this on the road – it’ll slip easily into my daypack and will be a nice companion on long flights.
The 3.2 inch screen is really sharp but the unit doesn’t come with a holder/protector, so you’ll want to pick one of those up PDQ before you scratch up the device.
I will say that if Microsoft wants to pick up more of the marketplace, they’ve gotta make the experience a whole lot smoother. Something as simple as a 2-page start up guide would have made the experience a lot easier for me. Otherwise, I can see how users who are less persistent than I might abandon using it after just a few tries.
Travel Well!
Beth
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