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Technology Lifestyle I’ve played with Microsoft's Zune and it’s nothing special - yet
Technology Lifestyle I’ve played with Microsoft's Zune and it’s nothing special - yet | I’ve played with Microsoft's Zune and it’s nothing special - yet |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Monday, 27 November 2006 | |
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Page 2 of 4 Apple have sold the most dedicated mp3 players after all, even if Nokia and mobile phone companies have sold millions more smartphones with mp3 capability. Apple success does just rest on the menu system – it’s a combination of the interface and click wheel experience, the design, iTunes, an infusion of Apple’s cool cred and the 11 secret herbs and spices that no-one else has fully figured out yet. Featured Whitepaper
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It’s really a four way control pad, letting you click in the direction you choose to navigate the menus. There’s nothing cool about that, although it is functional and works. I guess Microsoft was dissuaded by just about everyone else’s attempt to copy a touch device failing to ignite the imagination of users and the public in anywhere near the way the click wheel has. I’ve always wondered why Apple’s competitors haven’t tried to put a notebook touchpad on an iPod clone. With a rectangular shape – you can go up, or down, draw circles, draw squares... for some reason no-one seems to have tried this yet or there’s some big reason that I don’t know which explains why no-one’s tried it yet. We all know Apple has a lock on the circular click wheel. So make a square or rectangular one, unless Apple has put a lock on that too! It can even still have a menu button in the middle, if Apple hasn’t somehow locked that away also. As I scrolled through the menus, having a look around, I noticed that the Zune’s Wi-Fi feature was turned off. It was funny because the chances of finding another Zune in Australia are pretty slim, and anyway, you can always turn it on if you want to. Looking at the Zune almost makes you think you’re seeing a type of Chinese clone of the iPod. It lacks the elegance and finesse of the iPod, even though a smooth and stylish device is exactly what Microsoft was trying to achieve. After all, this isn’t exactly Microsoft’s first experience with an mp3 player. There’s been a world of mp3 players compatible with Microsoft’s DRM’d WMA format, which a couple of years ago when through a transformation known as PlaysForSure. |
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