Dear Microsoft

[Eihwaz]

Dear Microsoft,

Hi. How's it going? I just wanted to say some stuff about the Zune. First, let me admit that you guys have made a pretty damn excellent iPod alternative. I love the interface (as it beats the everliving shit out of iPod's back-and-forth-and-back-and-forth clusterfuck), the matte back (yay, I don't need to buy a case), the superior glass screen (ditto on the case issue)...I could go on and on. I don't know how it ranks up against the iPod Touch, but I think in the HDD-based MP3 player market, it's pretty sweet.

However, there's a few things that need some work. My only real beef with the actual device is the fact that it doesn't come standard with a charger. I don't really like spending an extra thirty dollars so I can charge my Zune when I'm away from the computer. No, my main issue is with the software. I thought iTunes had grown annoying. At least I could edit the song data with that! Look, you guys have made an all-around excellent media player with an intuitive and useful library system. You can instantly download your media information from a variety of services (including ALL MUSIC GUIDE!) for free, while Apple requires you to have a iTunes Store account to access song information.

Then we have the Zune software. First, editing song information should never be this restricted. I have to switch to List view to even EDIT song information, and even then, it's on a field-by-field basis! iTunes at least makes it easy to force-set the data for a selection of songs.

Also, I really wish Zune supported the same feature you have available in the (free-to-download) WMP 11: synching with AMG. Nope, if the song data's goofy, I have to edit it manually, which is quite painstaking. This is frustrating when your stupid piece of shit software things that Nine Inch Nail's new song "Discipline" is by King Crimson for some fucking out-of-this-world reason. Yes, King Crimson have an album named "Discipline", but I have no fucking clue why your software would reset the artist value of my song.

So, in conclusion, please provide some way to integrate Zune with WMP 11. I know you're proud of your Zune Marketplace, but is there some reason you can't integrate that with WMP? Then, hey, maybe people who don't use Zune will have reason to try some of your somewhat innovative features available under the Zune Marketplace!

But yeah, the Zune software sucks a whole fucking lot.

Love,
Wazzy

EDIT: Hurr, I'm a total moron. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Eihwaz on 2008-05-04 19:13 ]</font>

[McLaughlin]

I'm inclined to agree, but I don't usually have to fiddle with the song data (rather, my friend doesn't. I don't have a Zune yet).

[Blitzkommando]

The only other complaint I have is that the Zune software for some silly reason breaks compilation albums into separate albums if the songs are by different artists. Meaning, a 20 artist album becomes 20 albums at some random point in the future and is painstakingly difficult to fix. So, yes, software needs work (and Unicode support for fuck's sake!) but aside from that I'm glad to not have the iAmDifferentLikeEveryoneElsePod.

[washuguy]

My psp owns...

[Eihwaz]

On 2008-05-04 20:34, Blitzkommando wrote:
The only other complaint I have is that the Zune software for some silly reason breaks compilation albums into separate albums if the songs are by different artists. Meaning, a 20 artist album becomes 20 albums at some random point in the future and is painstakingly difficult to fix. So, yes, software needs work (and Unicode support for fuck's sake!) but aside from that I'm glad to not have the iAmDifferentLikeEveryoneElsePod.


Yeah, that's another issue that I (thankfully) haven't dealt with yet, but would be extremely problematic should I pick up several of the movie soundtracks I've been thinking of buying.


On 2008-05-04 21:03, washuguy wrote:
My psp owns...


http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_disapprove.gif x10,000,000

I'm a hardcore music dork. I haven't the slightest desire to try to listen to music on something where listening to music isn't the main goal. This is also why I opted for something with a hard drive.

[Solstis]

On 2008-05-04 20:34, Blitzkommando wrote:
-...- but aside from that I'm glad to not have the iAmDifferentLikeEveryoneElsePod.



I do not base my purchases off of what people will think of me when they see them. Such thoughts are trivial and illogical.

Just kidding! I hate waving around my (aluminum, last-gen) iPod Nano, and tend to keep it in my pocket if on the go, or in my bookbag/item holder if I'm listening to it (the pocket option is again applicable). One reason is that I don't want to be a mark for a mugging, and the second is that there are strange people out there that would instantly judge me because I'm not cool enough to *not* own an iPod.

Whatever. Its small, fits well in my pocket, and comes in better colors (my opinion) than the Zune. However, I would agree that they tried to appeal to the super-hipsters too hard with the new Nano.

[Eihwaz]

P.S.
Yes, Zune Software, I'm aware that Massive Attack's brilliant album "Mezzanine" contains two similarly-titled songs, "Exchange" and "(Exchange)." Despite this, they are, surprisingly enough, different songs. I know this can be a surprise, since they both have the same word in them, but note the addition of the parentheses to the latter.

Therefore, please stop fucking either:
a) putting the first one TWICE for no reason or
b) only putting the first or the latter, not adding the other one for some reason, and then incorrectly titling the one you DO include.

This really sends me up a fucking wall, as I listen to this album all the god damn time. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_disapprove.gif

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Eihwaz on 2008-05-04 23:39 ]</font>

[Jaspaller]

Zune software is seriously ftl... but the zune itself is totally awesome. I still have the bulky black 30gb one and I loaded it up with the whole spiderman series from the 90's http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[McLaughlin]

I'm waiting for my iPod (last gen Nano FTW) to die before I get a Zune. Sometimes, I just want to listen to the radio, but iPods don't do that, and I carry around my old MP3 player for it (which is irritating).

Or, at least I think Zune has an FM tuner. >_>

[Jaspaller]

Yeah, you can listen to FM radio stations through the zune.

[Kent]

The only problem I've had with the Zune software thus far...

The World Ends With You's OST has two songs with the exact same title (Hybrid - the songs are the same length, too, just one is English, the other is in Japanese), and I just had to change the exact filenames of them to get them to both register in the software.

...But that's it. Other than that, it's great.

I've never used iTunes, and it's only (relatively) recently that I felt the need to get a digital media player, in the first place. I have heard that iTunes likes to eat system resources like there's no tomorrow while synching... But the Zune software doesn't seem to do so.

So I can be synching and rendering out an animation for class, at the same time! http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

...Oh, and if you need to edit a batch of music files' properties, it's actually been streamlined in Vista quite a bit. Say, for example, you want to edit the name of an album on all of its individual tracks: Select them all, and at the bottom of the Explorer window, it'll display song information. If you change one of those fields (in this example, Album) it will be changed for all of those songs selected. It's pretty handy.

[Blitzkommando]

I suppose that, even though nobody is really calling me on it, I should elaborate as to why I don't care much for the iPods. Firstly, the screen is smaller. It's just a simple little thing and the fact I can get a player of virtually identical size with a larger screen for the same price was a big factor to me. I have an old iPod. Third generation monochrome 20GB. I replaced it not because it stopped working, on the contrary it still works. But I replaced it because I dislike iTunes and I needed more storage (not to mention a color screen was something nice to have). The FM tuner is also nice, although I haven't used it as much as I thought I would. Finally, I rather like the matte black on brushed aluminum look versus the brushed aluminum and chrome of the current generation of "Classic" iPods. In hindsight I should've put this in the original post, but frankly I thought it was lengthy enough as is.

Oh, and just as a note about that weird album splitting: WMP11 still reads it as a single album. Only the Zune software shows it as split up, thankfully.

[Eihwaz]

Kent, I'm on XP, which I guess might explain some of the issues? Either way...fail. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_disapprove.gif

[Eihwaz]

Shameless bump of joy: The latest update to the Zune software allows you to edit the metadata for an entire album all at once, among other new features (such as the ability to view your library based on genre in a way closer to how WMP does it).

I haven't worked with it in-depth just yet, but this is a huge step forward.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Eihwaz on 2008-05-09 02:46 ]</font>

[Jaspaller]

Hmm, i guess it's time to update my zune again. I haven't used that software in forever. My zune just sits connected to my 360 all day and night.

[Rayokarna]

On 2008-05-04 21:03, washuguy wrote:
My psp owns...

[Jaspaller]

On 2008-05-12 12:35, Rayokarna wrote:

On 2008-05-04 21:03, washuguy wrote:
My psp owns...




Owns at killing battery power, amirite?

[Rayokarna]

On 2008-05-13 00:19, Jaspaller wrote:

On 2008-05-12 12:35, Rayokarna wrote:

On 2008-05-04 21:03, washuguy wrote:
My psp owns...




Owns at killing battery power, amirite?



Mine normally lasts for about 6 to 8 hours. Not a problem.

[Eihwaz]

I sort of want to quote my own post discussing why I don't want a PSP, but at this point, that would prove to be somewhat pointless. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_disapprove.gif