Question: What's a Zune?

Answer: My new favorite toy!

Microsoft released their own handheld media device this season called the Zune. I refer to it as a media device rather than an iPod because, despite the iPod's popularity, I do not think it has been around long enough to be the generic term unlike calling a facial tissue a Kleenex.

Anyway, I have been reading Zune reviews and articles for a few weeks now and most of them simply amuse me. It would appear by most of the articles out there that Bill Gates had a press conference where he touted that Zune was ushering in the end of the iPod and even Apple Computers. Not only have I yet to have seen such a claim, I also have not really seen any advertising at all. Oddly, the Zune hype is building more from those that hate it when compared to their recently purchased iPod. No one wants to be a sucker so everyone defends their personal purchases.

I have nothing personal against the iPod or Mac's. I think the iPod is very slick and sweet looking. I love using a G5 with Final Cut to make movies. But I have always enjoyed Microsoft technology because of integration. I love integration. Whilst Microsoft has its ups and downs with product quality, they are still always finding ways to integrate products seemlessly from Windows to Office to IM. I even own a Suunto MSN Direct Spot watch.

So now I come accross this little fun box called the Zune.
I have seen complaints about the software installation... no problems here.
I have seen complaints about the reformated images for album covers... yes, it does blur them a bit, but I am personally not interested in viewing album covers as much as listening to music.
I have seen complaints about turning the unit sideways to view pictures and videos... I don't even get that complaint...
I have seen complaints about it including wi-fi but not working with non-Zune devices... right now I do not know how two different DRM services would legally share copyprotected music anyway... and I am patient enough to find a small group of people that might want to share their files... and I didn't pay any extra for that feature compared to the iPod's cost.
I have seen complaints about the Zune not being compatable with Media Player... yet the Zune software simply brings over all your files into the Zune player so you can play them in either program. By the way, the transfer time was awesome for me.

Here is the primary point... I've never owned an iPod. I am not used to the interface so I am not trained in one "intuitive" fashion already. There for I am greatly enjoying my navigation experience. I love the four way control and how you can navigate horzontal and vertical menus on the same screen. I love having an FM radio on the device... again an extra feature for the same price.

MS didn't seem to build the Zune to target the iPod owners. It is more like they thought "hey some people are not crazy about Apple products so that is why they either don't own an iPod or buy other handheld media devices." And the Zune was born. Microsoft doesn't have to be popular at this point. Unlike Sony, Microsoft builds products that actually support productivity for other businesses and software developers. Microsoft can afford to just play around and have fun with with a product line every now and then. If it isn't popular, the worst thing that will happen is that the software support will fall by the wayside, but who cares, someone will hack the thing and we will have another kind of fun with it.

I guess in my mind, there is no bad device. If you can take it apart it has a lot of value to a geek like me.

I've caressed a Mac, I've warmed up to Penguins (CPU mag Rocks!!!), but at the end of the day I want to hobby with a Windows registry much like a machanic would rather have his hands on a Chevelle then a Jetta or a Hummer.

Zune ain't for everybody, but Zune is for me.

It took this to bring me out of retirement...

Ok, it has been a few months since my last blog and I probably lost any of the interest I ever had. But I have been shocked into functionality once again.

The subtitle of this entry is "How the grinches stole Christmas".

Now to begin I am not a fan of losing site of what is important at Christmas. But that discussion I sum up in reference to the second chapter of the gospel Luke.

Now I want to discuss the advanced phemomina found in the current generation. The internet, namely e-Bay, has changed the corporate process of Christmas forever (or at least for the here-and-now).

Back in the good ole days, parents waited outside of Sears and trampled each other to get a Cabbage Patch doll for their overspoiled child and that child would be the happiest kid on the block for the next few weeks.

Right now I am counting about 860 PlayStation 3's on sale at eBay ranging from $995 - $20,000. The retail price for the item is currently $599. Quite an incredible markup, eh? I am having a hard time finding out how many units were shipped to the US but the numbers range from 30,000 - 400,000. So it would seem that many of the units sold from stores may have been brought straight home and found themselves wrapped under the Christmas tree, or perhaps they are tucked away in the back of closet to be pulled out as the "big gift".

Anyway, what is crazy is the fact that with tools like eBay, Macy's ain't the only game in town for making money at Christmas time. Now the general public can get in on the action by absorbing the market and taking supply and demand to a tyranical level. That is quite an odd behavior from the same people that complain about the outrageous rise in gas prices. (That makes me actually think that we are better off with the taxes we incur from the government rather than what we would be taxed if we really left it up to "We the people".)

Now 800 kids will not get the toy they were hoping for because someone that didn't want it bought it first and offers it at a premium beyond the orginal price which was bad enough. I am sure that the number of units sold on eBay will climb as the day draws near, and the price will follow suit.

We have gone from commercializing Christmas to re-commercializing Christmas. And at the heart you will find eBay supporting "grinch mentality".

Well, I am off to sleep and I expect to find many people to skipping out on church services tomorrow morning so they can conrer the market on the Nintendo wii which will release for $240, but probably only go for a mere $800 - $10,000 on eBay.