Do it. This thing rocks!

http://www.zune.net/

And here is my 3d zune that I made in Modo :)

i just got a 5g ipod (30 gig) for christmas. Not bad

I got a 2gig Nano for x-mas....it's ok, but for the life of me I don't understand why you have to use i-tunes. Why the fuck can't I just treat it as a USB drive and dump MP3's into an fucking music folder? Fuck apple and the proprietary bull shit. That and the thing locks up easier than a Pentium II running Windows ME.

I hear ya Kent...I'm starting to dislike my Ipod as I recently found out you cannot transfer music off of it, you can only add to it. Damn Ipods.

My buddy here at work got one of those Creative Zen players...its pretty slick and blows the ipod out of the water IMO. That Zune looks like it does too.


http://www.dsmregistry.com/detail.php?carid=1185

The Zune is badass. It slays iPods face.

You cannot directly copy music off, but you can change a setting and then open the zune as a drive to copy the mp3 or picture files off it.

It's got a bigger screen and wireless for the same price as an ipod. It doesn't get all scratched up, and I think it looks even better than the ipod does.

Did you get a gift receipt with that ipod? :7

I read that you can install software ($15 or $20) that allows you to "reverse download" music from your IPOD, allowing you to get around all that proprietary barrier junk.

I'm amazed how well apple has marketed these little pieces of plastic, and how many people buy them or several of them, especially when this format is going to be eventually stomped into the ground. shrug

Can you upload mp3's you already had on your computer? or can you only upload ones you get from the zune store? Somewhere i read that its a pain to upload existing mp3's you have...


Evan B
02 Explorer
97 GS- sold
90 GSX-sold
Stamford CT
EvMan2345@aol.com

I know it's a little of topic but I think the coolest gadget is the sony psp. You can store and play music on it just like an ipod, store and play full length movies, surf the internet and play games which have pretty good graphics. There's even a headset to play games like Socom online against other people. Instead of getting a Zune or Ipod i'd rather get a psp.

The Zune also has an AM/FM tuner which is totally kickass.

The Zune is amazing. Apple 5ux0rz!

Originally posted by DanKid
I know it's a little of topic but I think the coolest gadget is the sony psp. You can store and play music on it just like an ipod, store and play full length movies, surf the internet and play games which have pretty good graphics. There's even a headset to play games like Socom online against other people. Instead of getting a Zune or Ipod i'd rather get a psp.

i have a psp. Not as good as you think with the mp3 functionality. Sure, you can do what the ipod and the zune cant, load it like a usb drive and copy music on and off of it relitivly easily, memory is your biggest obsticle. I spent $80 (this was last june, prices have gone down since) and bought a 1 gig memory card for my psp, to use it for mp3's. I had 2 other memory cards for it, and used them to store save data for my games, and used the 1 gig stick strictly for music. I got about 9 or 10 cd's on it. Yea, it does the job in a pinch, but what the psp lacks as an mp3 player is compact-ness. Also, listening to mp3's on it is what lead to a giant (it was like 2") scratch across the screen of my psp. I fell asleep while listening to it and it got scratched during the night. :( the remote that comes with the headphones is nice however. If sony had any sense they'd figure out some way of putting a hard drive into the psp. Then it'd be the "ipod killer" as for now, if you want strict mp3 functionality, try the ipod or the zune...

Originally posted by micyek
That and the thing locks up easier than a Pentium II running Windows ME.

Locks up how? Like you turn it off mid-song, and turn it on a couple hours later and push "play" and it says its playing but nothing happens? i thought mine was the only one that did that. As for iTunes, yea im kinda up in the air... I figured out that "syncing" your ipod was fucking worthless, because if you have mp3s at home, and different ones at work, you can only "sync" your ipod to one itunes library. So that means you can load your work mp3's but you have to erase all of them off your ipod to do it. That sucks. But if you "manage files" you can drag and drop them. Thought i'd share that bit of info. OH, and i found out that its IMPOSSIBLE to change the background on the 5g ipod. Even if you hack it, you can't do it. Cursed with the stark white plain screen. Shitty.

Been looking into the Zune for a few hours, im sold! The thing looks amazing. For 225 shipped you cant go wrong. Thank guys.

edit: "To the chagrin of many Windows Media fans, the device is not backward compatible with WMA-DRM9 (Zune utilizes WMA-DRM9.1)"

What exactly does that mean? Will I be able to download music off internet, say off Ares and upload it onto the Zune?
Also read battery life isnt too great with this thing.

you CAN copy mp3's directly off the ipod. it's pretty easy. the reason they don't let you do it directly is for copyright protection. if it took two clicks to copy your buddy's library into your own the potential for abuse would be ridiculous.

the zune is nice but it'll be several years before it has anywhere near the aftermarket support of the ipod. i like having my ipod integrated into my car stereo system. zune owners will prolly hafta wait 3-5 years (if it even happens). in the mean time ipod integration will only be getting better.

"integration" LOL. my ipod "integration" in the eclipse is a cable that came with my first cd walkman that converts the headphone jack plug into the red and white rca cables plugged into the "aux" port on the back of my headunit. how much more integration do you need?

Originally posted by hazardeclipse
"integration" LOL. my ipod "integration" in the eclipse is a cable that came with my first cd walkman that converts the headphone jack plug into the red and white rca cables plugged into the "aux" port on the back of my headunit. how much more integration do you need?

direct DIGITAL signal to the head unit, full track display on the deck, direct control using your deck's interace, charging during playback with a single connection. i guess to some people these features might not matter, but there's a singificant improement in audio quality when using a digital connection. (yours is analog btw). adding ipod integration to an aftermarket deck or even as OEM equipment in a new car makes a product more appealig to anyone with an ipod. given the breadth of the ipod market this is a very good marketing strategy. i doubt the zune will ever see as wide support by third party prodcuts. it's a good product but i'd rather not wait a couple years until i'm able to buy any accesories for it.

hopefully we'll see some even better stuff this week at CES. ipod integration has gotten significantly better with each passing year.

I have an iPod with that full digital integration into my Alpine deck and it fuckin blows.

Sound quality sucks because mp4 format sucks, almost anyone can hear a huuuge difference A/Bing something encoded max quality into iTunes and the original CD source.

iTunes itself is a shitty program, massive resource hog, the only feature of it that I do like is that it tallies up how many times I've listened to a song. Its like my own top 40! But half the time it fucks up trying to synchronize my iPod to my iTunes and the numbers don't change.

Also, if something goes wrong, my goodness. iTunes will take 30-45 minutes using 100% processing power to recognize what is wrong then another 20-30 minutes to format my iPod and copy the library over again.

Anyway, back to the car integration thing. It takes forever to scroll the song list, I could actually change a CD in less time then it takes to jump to something even if I split it down into playlists of 20-30 songs, sometimes it won't play the right song, other times the iPod will not turn off when the car does, many many times it will not turn on when the car does and I have to do it myself, and other times it just won't turn on period until I plug it into my comp again and get iTunes to spend an hour fixing it.

iPods suck. I am totally getting a Zune and then just using my next car's 6 disc in dash CD changer.

Originally posted by MCubed45
there's a singificant improement in audio quality when using a digital connection. (yours is analog btw).

With blown rear speakers and front speakers that are on their way out, i dont think digital sound would help me out too much...

I have never bought a iPod, but as far as computers you can't beat a Mac. I hate PC. I think that it stands for Piece of Crap. Im not trying to start a war, but I do like apple products. I know the software library isn't as grand as a PC, but I use mine mainly for Photoshop, Corel, and generally graphics rendering, and I tell you what you just don't slow these things down. 800 resolution in Photoshop in nothing on these, and I have an older eMac with a 1Ghz processor. I also think that the UI is tons better.

Has anyone on here seen the iPhone? It sucks that only Cingular has it so far b/c all we have in my area is Alltel and CellOne.

Originally posted by TKI
I have never bought a iPod, but as far as computers you can't beat a Mac. I hate PC. I think that it stands for Piece of Crap. Im not trying to start a war, but I do like apple products. I know the software library isn't as grand as a PC, but I use mine mainly for Photoshop, Corel, and generally graphics rendering, and I tell you what you just don't slow these things down. 800 resolution in Photoshop in nothing on these, and I have an older eMac with a 1Ghz processor. I also think that the UI is tons better. Has anyone on here seen the iPhone? It sucks that only Cingular has it so far b/c all we have in my area is Alltel and CellOne.

Mac's are just shiny PC's with a shiny operating system. It's the same as buying a Cadillac over a Chevy. Same parts, one is shinier and twice the price. My $500 PC runs Maya, Photoshop, flash, modo, just about anything better than my $3500 G5. It's sad.

Originally posted by EvMan2345
Can you upload mp3's you already had on your computer? or can you only upload ones you get from the zune store? Somewhere i read that its a pain to upload existing mp3's you have... Evan B 02 Explorer 97 GS- sold 90 GSX-sold Stamford CT EvMan2345@aol.com

It's actually extremely easy, whoever said that is a liar. I couldn't believe how easy it was actually, and the Zune software will correct all the tags on my MP3's and even download the album art and put it in your library. It's awesome! Once I plugged mine in it took about 45 min to transfer my whole 30gb mp3 folder over with album art and everything.

Once it gets to your videos it will transcode them to the size of the zune screen so it doesn't use too much HD space on the device and that takes a little wile for it to do.