Instant. Design. Classic.

[Jim_Campbell]

You gotta love those design guys at Microsoft ...

"Well, gee ... how do make our new Zune MP3 player different from the iPod, then?"

"Say, I've an idea ... the iPod is cool, right? So why don't we make the Zune, well, not cool?"

"Good thinking! We can make it in white, grey and, umm ... brown!"

Mmm. Nice.

Cheers!

Jimhttp://images.appleinsider.com/zune-official-glamour-shots.gif">

[The Amstor Computer]

So it's basically a msPod, then?

[Jim_Campbell]

"So it's basically a msPod, then?"

Apparently, it has a built-in FM radio tuner, and will connect wirelessly to other Zunes so you can stream your music to someone else's player (although if the other player stores it, surely that's a copyright infringement?) ...

Price point, allegedly, is $299, which, with 30Gb of storage, makes it both more expensive and uglier than the equivalent iPod.

The screen's bigger, though.

Cheers!

Jim

[Art]

As mediaplayers go it looks better than average. I guess that's not saying much.

Apparently, it has a built-in FM radio tuner, and will connect wirelessly to other Zunes so you can stream your music to someone else's player (although if the other player stores it, surely that's a copyright infringement?)

The Wi-Fi concept is kind of interesting, though DRMed. According to Engadget:

you can share a full-length track with a friend, and they've got three times to listen to it over a three day period, after which they can flag the song for purchase on the Zune Marketplace -- unless they're an unlimited "Zune Pass" subscriber, of course. You can also share playlists and pictures with your buddies, along with what we suppose are "unprotected" homemade recordings.

I suspect peer-to-peer youTube style clips might be one of the imagined killer-apps.

Did Microsoft run over your dog or something?

Link: http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/14/microsoft-launches-the-zune/" target="_blank">http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/14/microsoft-launc

[Bico]

Like the Xbox, it seems to be designed to be idiot-proof, but not pleasing to the eye.  Black and green - the perfect coupling of colours!
And that three days to purchase thing seems like a sop to the anti-piracy brigade, which is probably a mis-step, as the ability to listen to songs you don't own is a big draw for mp3 players in general.  I'm oversimplifying my arguement there, but you get the general idea - "here's a version of something that lets you play stuff you've downloaded off the internet for nothing, but you can't play stuff you've downloaded off the internet for nothing on it.  Or stuff that your mate bought and paid for and wants to send you a copy of."
Mind you, Microsoft has deep pockets when it comes to pushing tech.

[LARF]

This year chocolate, or brown to the rest of us, is the new colour for phones etc. so they are just jumping on the band wagon of er, taste?

TBH - if Apple don't sue I'll be surprised, but then again it looks cheap and hey Apple has iTunes what could we call our music database guys, come on think...

er hey how about Bunes?

nah sounds like Bones

Dunes? - taken, although we could change the original context, nah...

Cunes? - no whay guys

Funes - 'Your mobile Fune - could work', Gunes, Hunes, Junes, Kunes, Lunes - hey crazy, Munes, Nunes, Punes, Runes - mystical shit, nah, Qunes, Sunes - Hmmm getting there, Tunes - whoa I like it, what it's taken oh shit, Vunes, Wunes, Xunes or maybe Zunes...

Zunes, hey that's catchy take off the s and make it 'Zune'.

OK Zune it is!

(sign of relief as the rest of the dev. team stop trying the create a new alphabet to carry on from Z*)

* and that's Zed not Zee

What a load of jumping on bandwagon bollocks. Once again Microsoft hover over products like corporate vultures ready to snatch a market share once ther idea's been created and then try to monopolise on the market but creating inferior versions at less cost in order to trap gullible purchasers.

Microsoft create something original. Nah, let's just copy someone else...

[Matt Timson]

It pains me to say it, but didn't Apple nick the iTunes interface from Microsoft?  Either way- this looks shit.

[Art]

IIRC theres been several lawsuits over patents for the iPod and iTunes, most of them deeply silly and treating established pre-existing conventions like hierarchical lists as something new just because they've been applied to music.

Link: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/21/apple_sued

[Matt Timson]

Duff link.

[Art]

Link: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/21/apple_sued" target="_blank">This sort of thing...

[Matt Timson]

Hmmm... 404 page not found?  Do you have to be signed in or something?

Hang on, isn't it the middle of the night where you are?  Go to bed, man!

[LARF]

"It pains me to say it, but didn't Apple nick the iTunes interface from Microsoft? Either way- this looks shit"

Hey, didn't Microsoft steal the whole idea of a visual icon based operating system from Apple in the first place?

Horses for courses.

:-)

[Art]

Apple actually stole that from Xerox.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/gui.ars/3" target="_blank">Xerox Parc

[IndigoPrime]

One of the biggest pieces of wrongness in IT industry "history" -- Apple did NOT steal anything from Xerox. Xerox was in fact well aware of Apple sneaking a peak, because they let them AND Xerox ended up with the option to buy one million Apple shares prior to the company going public. The later lawsuit happened because Xerox didn't think they'd been properly compensated, despite the fact that what Apple came up with was a long, long way from Xerox has created (far more, say, than the difference between Mac OS and any flavour of Windows).

As for the iTunes UI, I think Apple's now in the situation where it just pays off companies rather than bothering with court, because it's cheaper in the long run. The fact that there was a pre-existing patent for hierarchical lists in screen-based UIs says more about the stupidity of the US patents office than it does about Apple.

As for Zune, it'll go one of three ways. The first is that Microsoft crushes Apple, which will then end up in trouble again. I'll be surprised if that happens. The second is the most likely scenario: Zune eats into Apple's market share, but unfavourable comparisons mean it'll be unlikely to take the lead. The third possibility is the equivalent of what's happened to Xbox in Japan: Microsoft sinks millions into the product, only for it to fail utterly. In that situation (or even the second, where Microsoft will still likely be running a loss-making division), I'm sure Apple won't care -- after all, iPod remains very profitable, and Apple seems to understand that it's profits that matter, not turnover.

[opaque]

Unless the Zune is a lot cheaper than iPods they're not going to beat them.
And I mean a fair bit cheaper as well, not just a few pounds. Otherwise whats the point?