http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2006/10/26/my-thoughts-about-zune-vs-ipod/

Scoble's points are mostly good ones. Some specific thoughts:
A lot of the points make me say "yeah, but wait a bit." It's not that we don't get Podcasting (Robert knows I'm among the loudest voices about Podcasting at Microsoft), it's that podcasting wasn't done in time. I don't expect anyone to buy based on my promises, but it's important to separate things we don't have at launch from comments about Zune's long term prospects. Like everyone, he liked the brown better once he saw it in person. Yay! From my previous post - updateability is key. Conversationality created by white headphones . I don't agree here. In 2002, when white headphones said something about you - you were an early adopter cool geek guy with an iPod. Now all white headphones say is that you've got a body temperature over 96 degrees. His point about the edge case - early ado...

My boys over at the Gamerscore Blog post a recap of today's earning's announcement. Among the highlights, one about the Entertainment and Devices Division (of which Zune is a part): · The Entertainment and Devices division reported 70 percent growth...

Okay folks, it's polarization time. Since we hang around, drinking beers and monkeying with gadgets all day and spontaneously erupt into typeage from time to time, it's our job to keep our fingers on the pulse of what's sizzlin' and what's fizzlin'.
While you're working away at your worthwhile jobs, we'll continue sorting out the coolness from the lukewarm for you. Of course, the following list is full of half-baked opinions, but they're probably right. Read along, get angry or applaud, but here it is, in honor of Picasso's birthday yesterday (10/25/06): The Old In/Out.
Fizzlin' Sizzlin'
iPod Zune
Core 2 Quad Core
Plasma LCD
Factory-Installed GPS Portable GPS
KRZR iPhone
HD DVD Blu-ray
Physical Media BitTorrent
WiFi EV-DO Rev A
PS3 Wii
Bikini Boobkini
Forty more, after the jump!


Prints LED Picture Frames
Firefox 2 IE7
Exploding Liquids Exploding Batteries...

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Yeah, we're sure you get tired of us comparing every other music player that comes down the pipe to the iPod nano, but a fresh design now and then could sure help us kick the habit. To its credit, the Nexx NF-810 bears almost as much resemblance to the Sansa as it does to Apple's eponymous player, unfortunately, it seems the NF-810's "scroll wheel" is all for show -- thus aping the Zune and completing the picture of unoriginality. Luckily, the Nexx player is pretty dang diminutive, at a mere 7mm thick, and with 10 hours of playback time and a max a capacity of 2GB, there's plenty to love here. The unit also comes in 512MB and 1GB flavors, and supports MP3, WMA and ADPCM audio codecs, along with SMV for video, with an included converter for prepping MPEG, WMV and AVI files. No word on price or availability

[Via MobileWhack] 
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD ...

Jon Johansen's getting headlines again today for supposedly breaking the iPod's content protection technology, similar to the way he broke DVD copy protection in 1999.
A reader from Mukilteo e-mailed me to share his thoughts on Jon's ethics:
"Doesn't it seem ironic that a hacker is now trying to make money from something he has hacked. Will he be upset the same as the companies he has hacked, when someone hacks his ideas?"
A good point, and I'm sure lots of people are waiting for that moment to come.
But I wonder if Johansen's latest venture has been mischaracterized as a hack. That's a sexy story -- that a famous hacker broke open the iPod -- but it sounds to me like he's really developed a different form of content protection that will be palatable to everyone but Apple. That's a long way from cracking the DVD copy-protection scheme, and it doesn't sound like he's breaking any locks other than the Apple lock-in.
This interview with Johansen's business pa...

I've had a few arm-chair designers (and a few professional ones) ask about Zune and design. Curious myself, I sat down with Steve Kaneko: Design Director, Entertainment and Devices Division. You can find his bio here (scroll down some). Now...

Filed under: Features, Misc. Gadgets
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment. This week marks the second birthday of Switched On, which recently passed the 100-column mark.
If you love the iPod, you may delight in how long it has maintained its superiority over other digital music players. If you hate the iPod, you may bemoan how consumers have overlooked the superiority of other digital music players. But if you're in an Apple Store, you may simply wonder if there are any other digital music players.
Two years ago, the first Switched On column focused on whether the new iPod photo would yield a video-playing heir. That level of attention, though, was nothing compared to the treatment that the the product receives every day in the church of the immaculate gloss. Apple stores present rows of well-maintained iPods fresh from their announcement ready to be enjoyed with a variety of sample songs and...

The Zune patent filing originally explained a DJ Wi-Fi feature where one person could DJ for up to four other Zune users via the Wi-Fi. That idea has since been canned according to Cesar Menendez. Menendez doesn't state specifically the reason that the DJ feature was removed, but many Zunenites out there are suspecting a Wi-Fi battery issue may be the culprit. Maybe they were just not interested in listening to my 80's power ballad playlist. – Travis Hudson
Zune review: Yo DJ! Spin that Zune..but not so fast! [Cliczune]

I just noticed that Dave over at Zunester is offering free tickets for the Charity Event tonight (Link). Not to be outdone, I too have some personal tickets for this event. Please email me by 5:30PM if you want to come (billwitt@microsoft.com) and I'll make sure there are tickets there at will-call for you. Doors open at 7:00PM. Here's who's playing:


Band of horses
Simon Dawes

The Microsoft Zune may pay you for sharing a song with others if they end up buying that song themselves. As you probably know, the Zune's WiFi capability will let you send a song to another Zune user, and then that user can listen to it three times for free within three days, after which a prompt appears asking for $1 to buy it. As the rumor goes, Microsoft will give you an unspecified number of credits for passing along that song that was later bought. Then, you can redeem those credits for free music or anything else from the Zune Marketplace.
This is a great idea. If enough people buy into Zune, the product will reach critical mass, and because of this bounty, everyone will be eager to offer their song lists to others, hoping to amass enough credits to buy more music. It's viral/incentive marketing on a micro-payment scale. If this is just a false rumor, if I were Microsoft I would do it anyway. – Charlie White
Zune to Pay You Back for Sharing Songs? [CrunchG...