Comments on: Microsoft Zune Official: Wireless Sharing, Pre-Loaded Indie Music

By: Music video news » Blog Archive » Microsoft Zune Official: Wireless Sharing, Pre-Loaded Indie Music

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 09:57:30 +0000

[...] Visit original post by Peter Kirn [...]

By: Valis

Valis — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:44:49 +0000

Apple may not strictly lock you into their player, but having to funnel everything through itunes software is close enough imi. I second Peter’s comment about being able to sync manually, I can’t stand the way itunes has a tendency to magically reorder compilations into separate folders per song, etc. Apple has always tried to make the nuts & bolts irrelevant, but you’d think with BSD behind the scenes now they’d adopt a friendlier attitude towards users who want to manage their directory structure by hand.

I also recall when itunes took 30% cpu on my g4 laptop. The same era PC winamp used 3% and sonique etc ~7%.

By: rigel

rigel — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 16:52:28 +0000

i’m guessing this is going to be an xbox-style loss-leader for MS. so my plan is to wait for the FCC photos to show up. if it uses, for example, the portalplayer chipset, then it’s a go for rockbox to pick up. and when they release new firmware for it that allows you to play every format known to man AND SHARE WIRELESSLY SANS DRM, then i will have a little packet of MS-subsidized joy.

By: Andrew Swihart

Andrew Swihart — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 16:32:07 +0000

Any word on the converters used in this thing? That will have a big part in my decision for a new media player, for sure.

By: bliss

bliss — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 13:37:04 +0000

Who would want to buy that thing? So it comes preloaded with music. What if one doesn’t like that music? Then how attractive would it be? Which it is not anyway. Why would someone buy something that is going to tell them what, when and how much they can do something? Especially when they can do those things ad nauseam, ad infinitum through other means? Pure buffoonery. And even with the sharing limits of this thing it doesn’t prevent anything! If I share a tune three times with three different people and others share the tune three time with three different people each – it will go on and on forever. This scenario is a lot closer to how sharing is actually done. So what’s the point? I agree with Anders, “totally useless product.”

And can somebody please tell me what the hell this means: “Inspired by the vast and varied community of music fans, Zune focuses on helping emerging artists shape the digital canvas.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard a worse credo.

It’s a good thing that all of this points to better ways of doing things.

By: masterslave

masterslave — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 02:45:34 +0000

Sounds great! We can now put start putting bets how long it will be before hacked firmware is released bypassing protection and playing all formats known to man!

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 02:37:27 +0000

Thanks, David! That’s good to hear. That would mean we only have to slap Microsoft. (this time, anyway)

Actually, I realized I was confused … I think the sync service in iTunes 7 is limited to iTunes-purchased media. And apparently it’s also limited to Macs only. Too bad, as I’d like to sync my Windows and Mac machines and their copies of iTunes. Then again, with non-DRMed music I can just sync the old-fashioned way and use whatever player I want.

By: David

David — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 23:20:03 +0000

The concept of a peer-to-peer music marketplace is a good one, but DRM simply kills it.

It appears that the Apple box they’ve codenamed iTV will stream anything it gets from your home network. The current AirPort Express is capable of acting as an ordinary 802.11g wireless router plus it can stream music to the local subnet. The next step is to add video streaming.

Apple would LIKE you to buy all your music, TV and movie content from them, but they still make most of their money from hardware. Making the iTV a general purpose router greatly increases their sales opportunities.

By: Jaymis Loveday

Jaymis Loveday — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 22:15:11 +0000

All of them. Line them up, in a line, faces presented, then run down that line, palm out, delivering a slap to each as you run past.

I think the biggest problem with DRM is what it does to the people who don’t understand it and don’t even know it’s there. (Uneducated) People will buy Apple or MS player, because they think that’s the only real choice. They’ll take it home, and it won’t do some things, so they’ll think that’s the norm.

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 21:21:13 +0000

UGH! Okay, I hadn’t heard that. Let’s hope there’s time to fix that before the product ships … ahem … Microsoft. Thanks, Adrian.

This hot on the heels of Apple announcing a $300 that apparently streams stuff you buy from them but not anything else (even if it plays in iTunes). (I’ve got that right, yes?)

Brilliant.

Who do we get to slap?