On the plus side, the social is nice. Purchasing tracks is easier. Overall use of the system is good. Videos play faster and in wide screen. Overall it’s a solid platform that does exactly what it says it will do.

On the down side, it is not as machine agnostic as I would like. (i.e. it only works on Windows) The interface is hard to navigate when you have a very large music collection like mine. Navigating while driving is close to impossible but something I could get used to. The software lacks major search functionality and there are not enough people in the Social that I want to share with to make me keep it open. Playlists are clunky and a complete lack of rating system makes smart playlists a joke. I also just don’t like how it won’t play with other software to manage my podcasts and other things.

Now for the best part. A week after I have registered the device, I get my first “Welcome to Zune” e-mail. This is the guide I should have had on day one telling me how to use the software to it’s advantage. Just this week I have gotten part 2 of that e-mail and part 3 comes next week. This is a complete fail on Microsoft’s part by keeping usability information from the customer. It only makes me want to use the software less and less.

I am not going to get rid of the device for some time and give it more of a test run. My lack of time with the device is a big deterant and I have gotten away from using the iPod as well. It may be that my need for a portable player is gone and I just need something to store my music which the Zune does very well. But in time I know the lack of scroll wheel will get me then I will look to upgrade. Maybe after the Apple announcements on Sept 9th.

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The software is not great out of the box but I will go into that more tomorrow. The install was very straight forward but the multiple reboots seemed unnecessary. I also don’t like that you can’t import your Podcasts from something like PodNova or use it with a 3rd party pod-catcher like Juice. But I will admit “The Social” does keep me interested. The down side is that so few people in this area have Zunes that it looks like my social interactions will be limited to online.

It took about 20 minutes to get the system running . However, syncing almost 4000 song from my existing collection took well over 4 hours and actually restarted after 2. Not good tho subsequent syncs are a lot faster because they are just content updates. After finally getting the songs on there I was actually able to “use” the device and see how it works.

Initial impressions, it’s nice but I can already see problems. The fact there is no scroll wheel is a HUGE problem. I can’t select exact points in a song to pump to. Only flick back and forth to predefined points. Also, I can tell the interface will be hard to navigate while I am driving. It kinda wants to lock you into traditional Albums or spend a lot of time creating the playlists you want.

Speaking of which, it looks like any song rating system is missing. Either that or it is not accessible from the Zune interface. Also, albums with similar names don’t seem to be grouping together making it harder to find songs I like.

First day is over and I have to say I am not overtly impressed. I like it and can see some cool things in it but it just hasn’t “wowed” me yet.

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But as drive failures continued, Rio discontinued servicing and SONICBlue went bankrupt, I started to seek out an alternative in 2002. In walks the iPod. 15 Gig was less than the 28 I had and letting iTunes control my music after I had complete control over files and menus was not welcome. But at least it didn’t break down every 6 months or so. I then sold the Empeg to pay for a new head unit in the car and the iPod.

Fast forward to 2008 when the iPod finally failed from one too many drops. Normally I would just buy an 80 Gig Classic and go on but fate has intervened. I ended up winning an 80 Gig Zune through some luck which will replace the iPod.

Will it be better? How painful will it be to set up? How will it compare to the iTunes experience? Will it really matter seeing how I rarely use my iPods anymore? Well we will all find out in this week long series. The Zune arrived today and I will post over the course of the week my impressions compared to my other MP3 devices.

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