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Friday, May 18, 2012

Zune 2.0

Dec 6

Written by: Joe Brinkman
12/6/2007 9:17 PM

While I was in the Netherlands for OpenForce Europe, I had the misfortune to lose my original Zune. I thought the Zune software was ok and the player was so-so. I really liked the promise of having integrated wi-fi, but found the initial implementation to be a bit lacking. I was forced to go back to using my old iPod Mini.

Now for all of you Apple Fanboys, I think the new iPod touch is awesome (if a little overpriced), but I am not a fan of Apple software at all. I have way to many crashes with the Apple updater service. Since I was back to using my iPod Mini, I found a new appreciation for some of the things I liked about the Zune. For all of the useability press that Apple gets, I just don't get the controls on the iPod. It displays a vertical list (menu items or songs) and then requires me to make a circular motion to move up and down. That is not intuitive at all. This is one of those little things that made using the Zune much easier for me. I wasn't forced to remember - do I move clockwise to move down in the list, or counter clockwise? How do I change the volume? With the Zune it was press up to increase the volume, press down to decrease. Press left to move left. Press right to move right. My hand motions matched the visual cues I was being provided.

Well, after a lot of waiting and searching, I was finally able to find one of the new Zune 80's last week. I like the Zune 2.0 software better than the 1.0 software. The player is also a big improvement over the original. It no longer seems like I am carrying around a brick. It is kinda like the difference between cellphones that were offered in 1997 and those offered in 2007. The ones in '97 seem so large by comparison. Anyone, the new player has a larger hard-drive but is much smaller than the original 30GB version.

Not only did Microsoft make a lot of improvements to the hardware, but they also completely rewrote the firmware. The new firmware is much more intuitive and has a cleaner design. When paired with the Client software and the Zune Social site, I find that the Zune presents a much more integrated experience than it did before. I think the Social site adds a unique twist to the Zune. This is a great opportunity to see what others are listening to and opens me up to new possibilities. If nothing else, it gives me something else to discuss with my network of friends. The fact that it is tied in with my Xbox Live/Windows Live account allows me to start bringing my various social networks together and finding new commonalities with old friends.

Well, being the DotNetNuke geek that I am, I knew I had to create a DNN themed background for my zune. I have posted the image on my flicker account (just click on the image below). The white letters with the red background is a great contrast.