jLp vAkEr0 wrote:Isn't $249 a bit much for a 4gig player?
I gave my old Creative Nuvo to my gf and I'm currently shopping for a new MP3 player.
It's a premium player... if you were happy with the Muvo you can probably do better value-wise. I know somebody who got one a couple months ago... it's a nice little player. I won a Nano at the Christmas party last year and it would be hard to say which is better. I wouldn't really compare it to the Nano though, because it's not a flash player and because of the video playback on the Cowon. It's competing more as a smaller version of the multimedia units. And compared to those, it's very small and slick.
I skipped the part where it read about video playback.
In that case, I think it aint that bad of a price.
Yeah, but video playback on a screen that small isn't really a bonus if you ask me. It's a novelty thing.
As for the comparisons to the Nano, I think they are justified. Both are $250 bucks (4 GB), both are very small...and I'm sure that's who Cowon was targeting as the competition with the player. Sure, it's a little expensive but damn is it slick. It just does a lot more than the Nano...like Kaz mentioned, Video Playback, FM Radio, FM Recorder, Line-in recorder, OTG (USB Host for connecting digital cameras to transfer pics) and of course the outstanding Cowon sound processing.
wco81 wrote:I wouldn't spend a lot of money now. By September, there should be new models out for the Christmas season, including a rumored Microsoft player.
Not to mention, it's been awhile since Apple has made a move... and like them or not, it's wise to see what they have up their sleeves. I agree with this sentiment... as a matter of fact, I say it's a bad time to buy 3 things: mp3 players, HDTVs (confusing, imperfect technologies for the present with superior technologies on the immediate horizon) and PCs (Vista on the horizon, still waiting to see how 64-bit computing will shake out, though I have my suspicions). Of course this gives me more dough to pump into my phone...
"Whatever, I don't know why you even play yourself to that degree,
you laugh at me?" - Del
If you read something like Howard's Mobile Forums, there's always something better coming along in that market too.
Be curious to see if things like Treos or Qs can replace a computer for an extended period (like at least several days). I'm tempted by something like the Nokia E61, which has Wifi so you don't have to subscribe to a more expensive and slower data plan.
But some hotels don't have Wifi so you'd have to pack a router in which case you lose some of the space savings you got by not having to pack a laptop.
Diablo25 wrote:Anyone hearing anything on Microsoft's new MP3 player Zune? I see it is coming out on the 14th. $249...30 GB, etc. Basically MS's attempt at an Ipod.
There have been reviews and impressions up for some time on the WWW, here is one:
Diablo25 wrote:Anyone hearing anything on Microsoft's new MP3 player Zune? I see it is coming out on the 14th. $249...30 GB, etc. Basically MS's attempt at an Ipod.
There have been reviews and impressions up for some time on the WWW, here is one:
Diablo25 wrote:Anyone hearing anything on Microsoft's new MP3 player Zune? I see it is coming out on the 14th. $249...30 GB, etc. Basically MS's attempt at an Ipod.
There have been reviews and impressions up for some time on the WWW, here is one:
To a point... the unit is generally seen as solid, with everything the 30GB iPod has and more (wireless, FM radio). But concerns about M$ points, wireless restrictions, and yet another closed music system seems to bring the unit down. Additionally, the unit is said to lack a certain "wow" factor and is almost bland, but that's pretty much par for the course for M$ products since they're a software company.
"Whatever, I don't know why you even play yourself to that degree,
you laugh at me?" - Del
To a point... the unit is generally seen as solid, with everything the 30GB iPod has and more (wireless, FM radio). But concerns about M$ points, wireless restrictions, and yet another closed music system seems to bring the unit down. Additionally, the unit is said to lack a certain "wow" factor and is almost bland, but that's pretty much par for the course for M$ products since they're a software company.
Well put. I'm due for an upgrade but I don't know if I want to give a 1st gen. digital media player a try.
I'm hoping to snag the Toshiba Gigabeat S 60gig over the holidays. The Zune is based on the 30gig version, but that's just not enough capacity for my liking.
XBL Gamertag: RobVarak
"Ok I'm an elitist, but I have a healthy respect for people who don't measure up." --Aaron Sorkin
Wireless and the bigger screen are the things which distinguish it from the iPod.
But it's bigger, heavier and has shorter battery life. It's also lacking podcasts at the moment, although you can probably manually load the podcast files onto it.
I like the "Preloaded Virus." Only a handful of iPod units went out with a mistake by a subcontractor but they try to make it sound like all iPods have the virus.
As if it's impossible a Microsoft product can have problems with viruses.
Anyways, it's interesting that they're using game stores as a distribution channel. It is from the same team which did the Xbox, after all.
I'm clsoe to replacing my old Archos, so the Zune is coming out at a perfect time for me. I'd like to get either that or the 30GB iPod now that they've dropped the price to $249.
I like the larger screen on the Zune, even thought for the immediate future I'd only use it for music. Still, it's nice to have the option for video.
I would check them out in person before ordering online.
Not that you'd save that much money ordering online, other than tax, probably.
The bigger screen is the same resolution as the iPod. So one review said album covers actually looked worse in some cases because the bigger pixels showed up more on the Zune screen.
Zune online store isn't selling any videos yet. But you should be able to transcode and load your own. I'm sure there will be free software for converting DVDs and probably DVR recordings to fit the Zune format, just as there are for the iPod.
Doesn't look like much of an iPod killer yet. The existing implementation of the Wi-Fi features is beyond lame. I can send a song to someone with a Zune up to 30 feet away, and they can listen to it for three days, with certain tunes non-transferrable because of rights restrictions?
Wow -- blow me away with innovation. I could topple with a feather.
Take care,
PK
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
"First on the throttle, last on the brakes." - @MotoGP Twitter signature
Sounds like MS has some more work to do....nice first effort, but why not go all out in the first effort and do it right? Oh well, I am not Robbie Bach....
Doesn't look like much of an iPod killer yet. The existing implementation of the Wi-Fi features is beyond lame. I can send a song to someone with a Zune up to 30 feet away, and they can listen to it for three days, with certain tunes non-transferrable because of rights restrictions?
Wow -- blow me away with innovation. I could topple with a feather.
Take care,
PK
I can live with that, what's disappointing is that when word of the Zune first broke there was talk of using wireless to connect to the Internet and most important (for me) using it to wirelessly sync with your music library on your computer. But all of this went away... what the hell happened?
Another weird thing is that Zune doesn't even support the Playsforsure initiative that M$ was trying to push. Puzzling.
"Whatever, I don't know why you even play yourself to that degree,
you laugh at me?" - Del
Kazuya wrote:I can live with that, what's disappointing is that when word of the Zune first broke there was talk of using wireless to connect to the Internet and most important (for me) using it to wirelessly sync with your music library on your computer.
Now that would be a hell of a cool feature because you could use a smaller, Flash-based unit with a "virtual" capacity governed only by the size of your PC hard drive.
I'm a real stickler for having a huge capacity hard disk-based player because I like to have all of my music at my fingertips. But if I could easily transfer songs back and forth wirelessly between my PC and player, I could live with a much smaller-capacity Flash player with no hesitation.
Take care,
PK
Last edited by pk500 on Mon Nov 13, 2006 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
"First on the throttle, last on the brakes." - @MotoGP Twitter signature
RIAA probably forced those restrictions on Microsoft.
As an indication of how much leverage the record companies have, Universal is getting over a dollar from each Zune sold. Supposedly, it came down to negotiations last week (Zune launches tomorrow) and MS could either cave in to Universal's demand or don't have Universal content in the Zune store. Universal supposedly has 1/3 of the market.
MS should appreciate Universal's tactic. It used to force PC makers to pay for a Windows license whether or not they loaded Windows on every PC they shipped.
As for wireless, you really don't want to use it any more than you need to because it hampers battery life which is already lower than the competition.
What is the appeal of wireless syncing anyways? You still have to plug it in to recharge the thing so you might as well plug it into the USB 2.0 port once every couple of days or so.
wco81 wrote:What is the appeal of wireless syncing anyways? You still have to plug it in to recharge the thing so you might as well plug it into the USB 2.0 port once every couple of days or so.
Impulse listens of stuff that's not on your player when you're a ways away from your PC.
Kids in school or at the mall, for example.
"Omigod, you haven't heard that song? Let me grab it from my PC at home and put it on my player. Here, put on my headphones."
I think that's what MS is trying to do with the Zune wireless capability, but it's clumsy because both parties must have a Zune. I don't think iPod nation is going to migrate to the Zune just to take advantage of this feature.
Take care,
PK
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
"First on the throttle, last on the brakes." - @MotoGP Twitter signature
You can't access the Internet via the Zune while at the mall.
You can only send songs already sync'd on the Zune to people within wireless range.
It's a similar idea to the Wii and to a lesser extent, the PSP. Will you really go to public places and hook up and play games against strangers or at best casual acquaintences?
If you want to share songs with friends, just burn them a CD with the files (or email or IM them the song, although not the most effective way to send files). Then you won't have any of the DRM restrictions you get with the Zune's wireless sharing, assuming these songs didn't come with DRM in the first place.
I think there is one other company doing wireless sharing and they have similar restrictions so anyone doing wireless sharing, even Apple, probably would have to deal with these restrictions or the RIAA will go to war.
Really the main differentiator for the Zune is the option to do subscriptions from the Zune store. But subscription sites haven't really taken off -- iTunes continues to outsell them by a large margin. MS thought subscriptions and PlaysForSure with players from different manufacturers was the way to go. Now they are copying the iPod model and dropping PFS.
