From the New York Times: Trying Out the Zune

[azande]

Full article here (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/technology/09pogue.html?ei=5090&en=09a2b6e6ca30bd50&ex=1320728400&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1163086144-2aKFiyQkclvccD0Q26qt1A)

[Dreadful Scathe]

sounds like a terrible piece of rubbish :) you can wireless connect, but only to another zune and although you can send music to that other zune it expires after 3 days. You can never send the same music again to the same zune. You also cannot use it as an external hard drive. Obviously to combat the ease of use of iTunes they tied it in with Media Player..ooops no they didnt, theres yet another piece of software you need. Its also bigger, uglier and less functional than the iPod. For all Ive criticised the Ipod in the past (style over substance and a price to match) you know what you're getting and you pay a bit more for it - like the MAC itself in fact. MS are trying to compete at the iPods level with an inferior product.

Another case of MicroSoft coming along late, stealing others ideas and implementing them badly. Like they did with windows, internet explorer, the xbox, cleartype, file formats, media player, the Lit ebook format...er...hang on..i nearly listed every single MS product ever ;)

[Warwick]

Full article here (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/technology/09pogue.html?ei=5090&en=09a2b6e6ca30bd50&ex=1320728400&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1163086144-2aKFiyQkclvccD0Q26qt1A)

That's a pretty comprehensive tearing apart. I'm not a fan of the Ipod anyway since it strikes me as a bit of a victory of style over substance but the Microsoft product seems to be an utter failure to even emulate the best features of the Ipod. With the limitations, it doesn't even have the capabilities of a basic MP3 player.

[pmjd]

Just to add to the comedy factor, the Zune isn't compatible with Vista (http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2237):rofl: