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Thread: Microsofts Zoon vs. Ipod

  1. #1
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    Microsofts Zoon vs. Ipod

    Ok i want to buy a mp3 player with video and am stuck between three choices.
    1.Microsofts Zoon
    2.Apple Ipod
    3.Creative Zen

    All three have video and radio expect for the ipod which doesnt have radio. All cost about the same ($250). I dont know which to get so if you have ne ideas/suggestions please post them. Thanks.

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    ipod, hands down, best player out there. while the zen has some good features, ipod is the best and the original mp3 player that got everything rolling. and i refuse to belive the zune is real.
    Last edited by apt403; 11-15-2006 at 05:26 AM.

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    Yeah, haven't heard anything too positive about the Zune. It's thick, made of cheap plastic, and the battery doesn't last too long. Get the zen if you're willing to deal with Creative.

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    Zen Vision > Zune > Ipod

    Until I see more from the Zune anyway. It definetely looks promising.
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    Quote Originally Posted by apt403
    ipod, hands down, best player out there. while the zen has some good features, ipod is the best and the original mp3 player that got everything rolling. and i refuse to belive the zune is real.
    you live in a bubble.

    Im not advocating the zune or anthing but iPod was NOWHERE NEAR being the first mp3 player. Take Steve Job's kaka outta yo mouth when you speak, kid.

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    i didnt say it was the first, i said it got everything rolling, meaning that it was insanly successful and gave the mp3 player market what it needed to win out over cd players and the like.

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    Here, just read this
    http://www.zunescene.com/comparison/

    btw apt, the zune came out yesterday, so it is real
    Last edited by Sertainment; 11-15-2006 at 06:44 PM.

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    the ipod has a preloaded virus?
    yet another reason to my list why not to get ipods....
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    eh, its a windows virus and my ipod is synched with my mac, so ive got no worrys. i still hope my 80gig doesnt have a virus on it though.

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    And still the battery life is TERRIBLE.

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    Zune.exe uses ~150MB of RAM. I think that's the synching program alone.

    Zune's screen, though larger, has the same measly resolution.

    Zune's user interface is wonky at best....read about it at engagdet.

    Zune doesn't work with Vista.

    Zune does nothing better than the iPod and nothing better than the Zen.

    I was so hoping the Zune would be great, but MS really just couldn't make it work simply or well.

    So in iPod vs. Zen.....I'd go with the iPod, it's thin, very good screen (albeit slightly small), extremely easy to use and more than intuitive. It doesn't have a virus (that was just a small batch it seems....and the McDonalds give-aways). Zen, however, is a PlaysForSure device, which is useful for people who get music legally via subscriptions. iPod is snazzier....Zen has radio (I think). Between those two, it's whatever you want....they are quite different.

    iPod battery life is not terrible, btw. It can go for more than half a day without a charge while playing music.....terrible is a few hours.

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    Quote Originally Posted by HungryForHertz
    And still the battery life is TERRIBLE.
    thats why you crack it open and replace the battery with one of the cheap taiwanese knock-offs that get twice the life.

    heres what i did with my old 30gb ipod after it took a dip in orange gatorade. if i ever get a zune its going to suffer a similar fate, only its not going to be an accident...


    taken with the crappiest camera ever, a macbook web cam.

    Quote Originally Posted by Vapor
    iPod battery life is not terrible, btw. It can go for more than half a day without a charge while playing music.....terrible is a few hours.
    my 80gb get great bettery life, about 14 hours with enough left for a couple more podcasts, my 30gb got about 30 minutes a charge though...
    Last edited by apt403; 11-17-2006 at 05:20 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Soulburner
    Zen Vision > Zune > Ipod

    Until I see more from the Zune anyway. It definetely looks promising.
    Agreed. This deserves a big, bolded QFT.
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    apt403--30 minutes? Whoa....something was wrong there, even before the Gatorade.

    And for people wondering about the Zune....it's nothing special at all, unless you're talking about short-bus special. Go read engadget's little preview....read about the user interface and how it doesn't work, read that the display is just a stretched out iPod display with relatively low DPI....the Zune is a great first stab at the market, but it's not gonna get the heart of the market, it hit the big toe....maybe.

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    The Zune was probably the biggest disappointment ever, at least in my opinion. I guess I was blindsighted and only saw the good in all the previews and gave Microsoft the benefit of the doubt. I figure that even though their step into the wireless home networking was a flop, that even their stupid xbox became popular, so they should be able to do the Zune right. I even placed a preorder on amazon and was about to ebay off my 5g 30gb. Only I found out target was selling it with a $25gc. So I went to see it first, and it was game over right there. So unfortunate

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    Quote Originally Posted by ziddey
    The Zune was probably the biggest disappointment ever, at least in my opinion. I guess I was blindsighted and only saw the good in all the previews and gave Microsoft the benefit of the doubt. I figure that even though their step into the wireless home networking was a flop, that even their stupid xbox became popular, so they should be able to do the Zune right. I even placed a preorder on amazon and was about to ebay off my 5g 30gb. Only I found out target was selling it with a $25gc. So I went to see it first, and it was game over right there. So unfortunate
    How about you tell us what you didn't like about it? Many of us would like to know.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Soulburner
    How about you tell us what you didn't like about it? Many of us would like to know.
    Well, I knew to expect that it was bigger than the ipod. However looking at the specs online, it didn't seem to be that big a difference. And according to the previews, the difference in thickness and everything was said to not be a big deal. I guess I held on to those words with all my might because I was really fed up with ipods. But when I got the best buy to see their live model, it really was just too big of a chunk. And from the thought of it, the scroll wheel is really one of the only ways to be able to control the pace of scrolling at your own demand. Hitting buttons and letting it scroll for you doesn't come close. I've thought about it and someone could design theoretically something that used spinning dials like in car radios to be able to scroll at your own pace, but that wouldn't seem feasible in a portable media device. The overall feel of the Zune was really cheap. I was expecting the heaviness to be more of a good weight, like on a Nokia Series 60 phone, but it really just felt cheap. The overall vibe you get from the Zune is really just "knockoff" like all the other hard drive based players out there.

    The UI of the Zune actually didn't seem all too bad. I feel like whoever msft employed for that did a decent job of coming up with something smart. It didn't really lag either. However, the appearance of it seemed really barebones. Like it lacked the creative design department of it. Felt too raw for a supposedly finely finished product. More like something I could have coded up.

    And then my friend got one. After loading up his songs, he said he noticed a bad noise and vibration from it, like that of his ipod before the hdd died. I must note at this point that both the ipod and zune use toshiba based hdd's so it was probably more of a design thing than anything. But I figure if you can feel it like my friend says with the zune, then it must have even worse shockproofing for the hdd than the ipod. With that in respect, the hdd can't possibly last long under everyday usage.

    Battery life is also abysmal. Sure I knew going in it wouldn't be good. But to not hold a charge through a morning commute to school/work, a bit of playing during the day, and the commute back is just absurd.

    And then my friend said that after loading songs and playing for a bit, there was the annoying lag pause like in the ipod, but worse and much sooner than in the ipod. Defragging didn't seem to even help much; not that it's much in the ipod, but still noticable.


    Anyway, hope this helps more than my prior post

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    Dont even think about getting ms Zune. Its garbage.
    The ipods good, but the Zens better at my opinion.
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    Things I dislike:
    iPod - iTunes, iTuneshelper, small screen, scratches easily, the old iPod Mini is now the new redesigned iPod Nano, refresh every 6 months (or it seems like it)
    Zen - Creative software (enough said)
    Zune - battery life (so I've read), 30GB

    Things I like:
    iPod - 80GB, supports Mediamonkey (go to hell iTunes), battery life
    Zen - battery life, large HDD, I've seen a Zen Touch go through hell and survived, no scroll wheel to break
    Zune - larger screen, direct iPod threat (force innovation, not regurgitation), Microsoft support (like MS or not they do support their products), hopefully seamless integration with Vista (like I said hopefully)

    I'm in the same predicament, I want an MP3 player but don't know which one to get. Several members of my family own an iPod of some type and others own Zens. I know there are more out there but for the price and support you get the options seem limited.

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    narrowing the field..

    Ok ive thrown the Zune out the window and pushed the ipod aside for a bit with the zen and am now looking at the Sandisk Sansa e200. I has all the figues i want
    1.Radio
    2.Video
    3.Large Storage

    and its less exspensive then the ipod. What do you thing?

    http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Cata...3_Players.aspx

  21. #21
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    8GB is a lot? I need space to convert my HTPC recordings over to a player for road trips. Granted Futurama might look like crap on a screen that size but it should keep me entertained. For the same price you can get the 30GB iPod and Zune.

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