Zune HD

7:44 May 27th, 2009 | Notes

OK fine! It looks cool.

Here’s why it will fail: no App Store. Without that massive draw card, there is no way it will overtake the iPod Touch.

But good luck to them!

9:53 May 26th, 2009 | Notes

ARGH! I know, it’s a Zune! Don’t worry, I didn’t go out and buy one. I’m in Australia, I can’t. But I did download and try the software on Windows 7! So here’s my short review: iTunes is better. Why you ask? It’s completely the user interface’s fault. You know the iTunes interface as a simple, sleek and highly usable. It’s not cluttered, it’s very unified and everything is going to be where you expect no matter what part of the software you navigate to. I think of the Zune Software like this: it’s fine. Yes it’s totally usable and I could live with it. It has all the features of iTunes (minus the apps and ringtones). It even has some features better than iTunes. The Now Playing window in the Zune Software is pretty cool. Using the Zune.net social network, it grabs data and photos (similar to the Last.fm artist profiles) of the artist you are listening to and turns them into a fantastic screensaver like display. It’s far superior to the iTunes visualizers. The problem I have is that the Zune software window is like a canvas. Any time you click into a new section, the user interface is wiped away and replaced with something completely different. You click from the Artists tab to the Album tab, and everything moves around. This is incredibly frustrating! While the iTunes sidebar is always there, the Browser is always there whether you’re looking at podcasts, music or movies, Zune doesn’t follow a unified browsing UI! To be fare, it’s something that I could get used to. It’s just something I don’t want to. The user interface is gorgeous, I’ll put that out there now. Great graphics, great animations. Herein lies the problem. The animations are infuriatingly bad. Not the animations themselves but the rendering. When ever you change tabs, the UI you were looking at glides gracefully out and the new UI glides gracefully in. But the text! Oh god the text! It’s terribly rendered! The animation is fairly short, but not instant. So when the text is blurry and unreadable for about two seconds while it re-renders properly, I feel like bashing my head against the keyboard. How, after three versions of the software can’t the font render properly? iTunes doesn’t employ fancy animations or transitions, but it is fast and properly rendered! For me, I would gladly ditch the animations and UI of the Zune Software (which doesn’t even follow Microsoft’s design principle) for the ease of use, simplicity and unity of iTunes. Plus, I have an iPhone. I have no choice.

ARGH! I know, it’s a Zune!

Don’t worry, I didn’t go out and buy one. I’m in Australia, I can’t. But I did download and try the software on Windows 7!

So here’s my short review: iTunes is better.

Why you ask? It’s completely the user interface’s fault. You know the iTunes interface as a simple, sleek and highly usable. It’s not cluttered, it’s very unified and everything is going to be where you expect no matter what part of the software you navigate to.

I think of the Zune Software like this: it’s fine. Yes it’s totally usable and I could live with it. It has all the features of iTunes (minus the apps and ringtones). It even has some features better than iTunes. The Now Playing window in the Zune Software is pretty cool. Using the Zune.net social network, it grabs data and photos (similar to the Last.fm artist profiles) of the artist you are listening to and turns them into a fantastic screensaver like display. It’s far superior to the iTunes visualizers.

The problem I have is that the Zune software window is like a canvas. Any time you click into a new section, the user interface is wiped away and replaced with something completely different. You click from the Artists tab to the Album tab, and everything moves around. This is incredibly frustrating! While the iTunes sidebar is always there, the Browser is always there whether you’re looking at podcasts, music or movies, Zune doesn’t follow a unified browsing UI! To be fare, it’s something that I could get used to. It’s just something I don’t want to.

The user interface is gorgeous, I’ll put that out there now. Great graphics, great animations. Herein lies the problem. The animations are infuriatingly bad. Not the animations themselves but the rendering. When ever you change tabs, the UI you were looking at glides gracefully out and the new UI glides gracefully in. But the text! Oh god the text! It’s terribly rendered! The animation is fairly short, but not instant. So when the text is blurry and unreadable for about two seconds while it re-renders properly, I feel like bashing my head against the keyboard. How, after three versions of the software can’t the font render properly?

iTunes doesn’t employ fancy animations or transitions, but it is fast and properly rendered! For me, I would gladly ditch the animations and UI of the Zune Software (which doesn’t even follow Microsoft’s design principle) for the ease of use, simplicity and unity of iTunes.

Plus, I have an iPhone. I have no choice.

5:38 May 12th, 2009 | Notes

Finally, another Microsoft ad!

I’m not going to bitch about this one! I like subscription music services. I wish that iTunes had one. For a poor, poor student like me, paying for every song is impractical and costly (which is what the ad says).

What I find funny is Microsoft saying “Filling an iPod costs $30,000”. Well, technically yes. But let’s look at the other blatantly obvious solution to fill an iPod that cost nothing. It’s going to be the first natural reaction of students to start yelling “LIMEWIRE AND TORRENTS!” when they see this ad.

What Microsoft has done by throwing such a large number at the viewer is remind them that there is an even cheaper way to get music, be it illegally. I know when I was watching this ad I was going “Holy crap $30,000?!” and not “Wow! Look at that! Only $15 a month to fill my Zune”. I was totally distracted by the $30,000 that my train of thought didn’t click over to their product, but went from one extreme to the other; bit torrent.

I admire Microsoft for using this method to try and sell music, but it won’t work. Sorry, My generation has been brought up with the idea in our head that music is just a file on our iPods. Microsoft telling us how much it would normally cost to fill them only ingrains our desire to get music the cheapest way possible.

Oh, and I love how the guy in the ad is labeled, “Certified Financial Planner”. Wow! Now I’m totally reassured!