Click to viewZune 2and its batch of newfangled feature are finally upon us , bringing raw players and an entirely new experience . On the gimmick side , there ’s 4/8 GB flash - establish and 80 GB grueling parkway - based Zune with fancy form constituent and increase storage , as well as new microcode for your old first - gen 30 GB players . On the software side , the functionally rich ( but passably clumsy to use ) Zune entourage is gone and is replaced by a beautiful , but hollow successor . say on to find out how Microsoft has supervise to switch a sight on the one hired hand , and very little on the other — then see how the Zune heap up against iTunes and iPod .
The Software : Large icons , bright orange and pinkish colors , and lots of small ( but tasteful ) animation welcome you when you initiate up the Zune rooms . Gone is the obscure MTV Urge - based Zune 1 that take care like a mix between iTunes and Windows Media Player . But that ’s not all that ’s gone — Microsoft took out a bunch of features in the name of making the experience a lot wide-eyed to use .
First off , there are no drama counts and the rating system has been re - tool around to just a heart , a unkept ticker , or no military rank at all . If you ’re wonder how that will affect your fresh play list , well , there are no voguish play list anymore . I can only talk for myself when I say I fuck making chic playlist base on song that I ’ve play the most or rated the highest , so this move hurts like stealing confect from a diabetic Sir David Alexander Cecil Low on pedigree saccharide .
What they did add , beyond the tastefully animate and skinnable user interface ( you make it you ! ) , is quite skillful . you could now wirelessly sync to your Zune , which can be initiated from either your figurer OR your Zune . Once connected , you could drag song or play list onto the Zune icon in the bottom left . Fairly straight , and in spades easier to translate than the iTunes / iPod ’s “ pick out which things to synchronize ” for a beginner . This “ make things loose for the casual user ” motif can be assure in all of Zune 2 ’s changes .
Other increase we like :
• There ’s a little ikon next to each runway that shows whether it ’s on the twist or not .
• Podcast funding is quite nice and is divided up into picture or audio podcasts , and but television podcasts ask to be converted . It acquire about 30 - ish minutes to convert 6 podcasts from ten - sport and Attack of the Show on a low - oddment Pentium 500 machine in the backdrop while we scoped out the rest of the Zune stuff .
• television receiver Shows sync fine , but also need to be converted from Windows Media Center ’s DVR - MS formatting . This also takes a bite of clock time depending on how fast your computer is and how long the show is .
• Windows Media Lossless is now supported .
• The video playback cover is squeamish , big , and full screen .
• The Now act sieve when play music has a huge wallpaper of your album covers .
• Marketplace has been cleaned up to match the rest of the Zune UI .
Other complaint :
• You only get two thought , one where there ’s a huge list of artists on the side , the other a gigantic two-dimensional list of all your songs that you may sieve by artist , album , or genre . Again , simplified to the point where innovative users would miss some functionality .
• Searching does n’t find stuff while typing .
• No edit screenland to edit ID3 tags . No aggregate / multiple item edit . All you get is press out F2 and editing the artist name , album name , or track name . You ca n’t even change the running numeral . This have it hard to edit track details .
• Synced photo are aliased compared to the first Zune software . We ’re not certain if this is because each picture is synchronize full - sizing and then resize on the fly ( for better squirting ) , but it ’s noticeably bad .
In the closing , despite a in writing redevelopment that added centre confect , the features Microsoft left out make us wishing for the onetime Zune suite back . We ’ll definitely say that what ’s left is very urbane — but like a statue that ’s been over - polish down to a affected lustre , it ’s missing crucial characteristic . And we ’ll take feature article over a glossed - up user interface any day . Let ’s add together back the features in Zune 3 .
vs. iTunes : What used to bequite a closing curtain matchbetween the Zune retinue and iTunes has turned into a one - sided first rotund knockout for iTunes . Apple ’s changed iTunes very little since a year ago , but Microsoft has completely re - vamped their offering . We ’d rather them Delaware - vamp this , take a looking at iTunes , and add back impudent playlist , song rating , play count , metadata redaction , and everything else that get to iTunes the good medicine manager software on background — Mac or PC .
https://gizmodo.com/itunes-vs-zune-software-whats-right-for-your-music-215000
The Player : While Microsoft changed a whole good deal on the background side of the Zune experience , the player side in reality changed very little beneath the big - lettered facade of its front screen door . It ’s honest that the menus are large and in your face , but the now playing screen is basically the same as in the first variation . The same goes for playlist persuasion , the call list , genres , album , and artists . Only flimsy navigational change ( such as more horizontal scrolling ) and presentation secern this variation from its forerunner , as you could see in the TV above .
We suffer our hands on the8GBZune and proceeded to shove it into our pants — this time for scientific reasonableness .
https://gizmodo.com/flash-zune-hardware-gallery-and-test-tight-jeans-size-321362
Videos and picture show still expose the same — pitch to the left hand in landscape mode — but the addition of podcasts is very welcome . They ’re separated between audio and TV , and video podcasts meet precisely like a received video . The whole part is nicely integrated into the Zune experience .
The biggest modification is the wireless sync , and to Microsoft ’s reference , it works beautifully . Dig into the options menu , under wireless , and you’re able to trigger a manual wireless sync . get in touch it to a mogul source and it will automatically synchronize after a min ’s worth of idle sentence . The setup process to join to your wireless point is simple-minded as well , but take you to connect your Zune ( via USB ) to your microcomputer . There might be a problem if your computer ’s out of Wi - Fi compass , but otherwise it ’s pretty much painless .
Some things , like podcasts and video , are too large to sync quickly over Wi - Fi . This mean you should synchronize with USB if you ’re in a hurry . Other than this , we do n’t have any complaints about Wi - Fi backup . They ’ve finally delivered on a feature masses have been asking for for a class . This is on the nose why this Zune 2 firmware update experience more like a maintenance release than a feature article acclivity — which makes us understandwhy Microsoft is give it off for costless to old customers .
https://gizmodo.com/first-gen-zune-getting-all-the-new-features-this-is-ho-306422
vs. iPod : Have wechanged our recommendationfrom last year ? Yes , thing are quite dissimilar now . The iPod itself did n’t get many fresh feature , but the presentation of the iPhone means you ’ve get something else to consider now . Then there ’s the iPod Touch , which has the superpower to provided both medicine and internet features , and more when chop . You do n’t need to have to manage your medicine program library in both iTunes and Zune , which slant the weighing machine in Apple ’s iPod classic ’s party favor .
https://gizmodo.com/zune-vs-ipod-the-final-word-on-who-should-get-your-mo-215107
However , for make Modern customers that have n’t dip into either company ’s ecosystems , the Zune player seems to have slenderly more feature . Both iPod and Zune bread and butter music , video , TV Out and podcasts , but the Zune still has FM tuner and it still has the Zune Pass subscription service . Add to that the commodious wireless sync , and you ’ve got an pass that ’s quite tempting . Despite these plusses , the child - like software that limits what you’re able to do with your music really hurts . In the end , it seems that Apple has keep the delicate Libra between preserve functionality while making their software useable , while Microsoft has fall off the fencing and landed on the side of over - simpleness .
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