The Zune, 0.92 years and a Major Software Update Later ...

Well honestly I was secretly hoping for a major software update for the Zune that matched the features of the new models but I didn't expect them to follow through with it. I'm pleased. The device has a better look & feel with the new software. The old features are still there and a few new ones are available. I've not tried out yet the wireless update and wireless song 'relay' between multiple Zunes but intend to use them.

New features I have tried and really like are the better 'video' indexing and the Podcasts index. WooHoo! Much better and I'm not sifting through all my video content for video Podcasts.

Something not mentioned in any of the press releases on this topic is that consecutive song playback seems to be more continious without the brief blank spot between songs on the same album.

I will note here that this Zune has not caused me a bit of problem this entire year. It has locked up occasionally for a miniute and then re-booted but that has been very infrequent and usually happend only after I dropped the darn thing.

Still kinda like it, not to complicated, my mother could still operate it. :)

PS. The user interface highlight 'click-flash' is very cool. I know it's just UI flash but I like it anyway. Thank you!

The Zune, Six Months Later ...

My desk typically has this sitting on it. The Russian doll is a software design aid, the cactus is named 'Thorn' and the Buddha/cactus combo reminds me of the Zen required in software engineering.

The Zune, Six Months Later

So I've had this Zune gadget for six months as of a few days ago. I use it almost every day, don't keep it in it's or any case, normally I keep it in the breast pocket of my jacket.

The only accessory purchased for it is a set of BOSE noise canceling headphones (the smaller ones). I would swear that the combination of the Zune and the Bose lets me hear new things in music that I've never noticed before.

It's been a pretty durrable machine. I've dropped it a few times, never on concrete or hard enough to chip it but did bang in hard on the thin carpet over the concrete floor in the office at least twice. Had to reboot it once because of the drop. It seems pretty durrable. No chips or scratchs on the case or the clear screen. Though the battery life seems to be getting shorter a bit I can still get a full day (8 hours) of music play before I need to plug it in.

I have shared music with a college at work and my son. It's nice for a few miniutes but in the end fairly pointless because the music often evaporates before I ever get a chance to listen to it. Much better to exchange CD's with mp3's or loan them the original CD.

Getting podcasts from iTunes makes me happy :) I can get videos and podcast financial radio shows and have a steady stream of new material without having to download something by hand, just subscribe to the free mp3s and new material shows up.

The Zune store stopped working for me. I can still log in but it stopped transfering content up to my Zune, even though I was paying the $16 per month. So I cancelled it. Don't need it.

Thats it in a nutshell, third party accessories are non-existant, one of the reasons I don't use a case is becase I can't get a compact one that is useable. I'm a little concerned about long term battery life but we will see how it holds up at one year.

Bottom line the Zune is fine, it's been updated once which fixed a periodic music pause that would happen infrequently I'd buy it again and am not interested in paying for any music online.