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iPod Zune Out

lmalave said:
Furthermore, you people arguing that subscription services cost more by extrapolating for 50 year are INSANE. How can you argue, with a straight face, that 50 years is a good time horizon to evaluate music consumption decisions? You have no idea what will be going on in your life in 50 years. You have no idea what the world will even be like in 50 years, and certainly not the state of music listening. Think about what's happened over the past 50 years: the industry has gone from vinyl records, to cassettes, to 8-Tracks (briefly), to CDs, to digital downloads. Can you *REALLY* be reasonably sure that a $7000 investment in AAC-formatted, Fairplay DRM'ed songs at a particular bitrate is a sound investment now and forever?
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I completely agree with you and you have just eliminated your argument.
Exactly because you don't know what will come in the future you'll be paying monthly for sth. that you don't know will stay with you.

DRMed "bought" songs I can still burn to CD and rerip, they'll stay with me forever.
 
lmalave said:
Yes, but the problem I have with it is that I don't think most people are evaluating this choice rationally. I think most people are just blindly accepting that Apple's current pricing strategy is somehow more "right", just because it's what Apple is doing.

It's ALL marketing folks. It's no different than Apple saying that it would never integrate a video player into the iPod, or that it would never use Intel chips (actually, I don't know if Steve ever said that, but he never deviated from presenting the PPC as superior to Intel when that was what Macs were using).

Let me make this bold prediction: it may not happen next year or even the year after that, but I predict that sometime within the next 5 years or so, Apple WILL make available the subscription model, and it will quickly become the primary way that people consume music.
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-lmalave

Your conclusions are very valid and likely. However I would like to point out there is a big difference between Marketing and Market Analysis & Research. The points you made about the viPod, and your prediction of subscription model are actually based on the Market Analysis & Research Apple does. If there is a significant demand that warrants the introduction of a subscription model, they will do it. Gone are the days of "You will eat what we feed you" and "Not invented here" syndromes.

Again though, it's preference - I just wish the choice was there.

We really should decide on the fights worth fighting - is arguing over the preference of Subscription vs. A La Carte really that important?
 
ezekielrage_99 said:
I've read that apperently Zune will have rootkit installed on it just like the good old Sony laptops and for that reason alone I would never touch the Zune.

With rootkit on a Zune it explains why the record companies specifically Universal and Sony BMG are so happy with the Zune release.

The head of Sony BMG recently said "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
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Source?
 
lmalave said:
Good grief, I've already covered this what, like, TWICE!!! With a subscription model you can download those 7000 songs within the first month after spending just $15. With the purchase model, it would take you years and years to purchase $7000 worth of songs.

Furthermore, you people arguing that subscription services cost more by extrapolating for 50 year are INSANE. How can you argue, with a straight face, that 50 years is a good time horizon to evaluate music consumption decisions? You have no idea what will be going on in your life in 50 years. You have no idea what the world will even be like in 50 years, and certainly not the state of music listening. Think about what's happened over the past 50 years: the industry has gone from vinyl records, to cassettes, to 8-Tracks (briefly), to CDs, to digital downloads. Can you *REALLY* be reasonably sure that a $7000 investment in AAC-formatted, Fairplay DRM'ed songs at a particular bitrate is a sound investment now and forever?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that for the vast majority of consumers, the subscription model is vastly preferable. If Apple did a 180 and offered an iTunes subscription service for $15, I think you'd have to be a moron to keep buying songs at $0.99 cents off of iTunes. IMO the only people that shouldn't go for a subscription are people that really like to own the *physical* product, be it CDs or vinyl.
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Okay, if the subscription would work like it should, it is indeed better. But the it apparently M$ has a very original idea of "unlimited" Reviewers that tried 20 albums found that 5 of those are not part of the subscription. Furthermore, the Zune must be connected at least once a month to maintain the subscription. And for the longer term I still feel safer with FairPlay songs that will garantueed play, and which I can burn to a CD (this is NOT possible with Wincrap songs) 50 years is a lot, but look at WebTV. What if they suddenly decide to scrap Zune all together? I really don't like the idea of "renting" music. especially from M$, faithful lapdog of the big record companies.


EDIT: About the brown Zune, I have to say it looks good, from afar. What makes the Zune ugly is the lack of detail and finish. The color is good, but the little discolorations and translucently materials make it look cheap and unfinished.
 
it has been couple of days since Zune is out. today I headed to bestbuy for checking it again. two guys used it for couple of minutes. and I had a chnace to talk with them. well, one of guys seem to like subcription that he can eat all. unlimited download, explore tons of new songs. well, it's good as far as he pays for. if he stops to do, all of music will be disappeared. another guy said that he has donwloaded songs from URGE. well, it won't be working with zune. what you're gonna do I asked. he said 'I will be stick with sansa'.

couple of minutes later, sales person came to me for asking something. he didn't seem to know much than me. he didn't even know other purchased music with DRM won't be played with zune. wifi is only working with music, photos. NO video sending, NO podcast, NO audiobook because of no bookmarking feature.

then I was hang out 30 minutes more. nobody checked it out. game is over.
 
Macnoviz said:
what's a rootkit?
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Simply put, it's a program that modifies the OS to hide processes which it then enables. These processes can be nearly anything, including, but not limited to, hiding files, changing network connections, and altering parts of the OS. A rootkit can allow an outsider user complete control of your machine.

The most widely known rootkit came from Sony-BMG who planted a rootkit program in an auto-run file on their music CDs, when a user went to rip or even listen to the music on the CD the rootkit infiltrated their computer and enable a piece of 'copy-protection' software. Players of World of Warcraft earned this rootkit would hide files with a certain ending from the system and used the rootkit to cheat the game. Malware authors use a similar strategy to attack vulnerable machines.

You don't want a rootkit on your system.
 
as you know, when you go to Bestbuy or target, zune booth has pamplet. I red it little bit. but there is wrong information on it. it says that zune can play itunes music, too. my gosh! how can they advertise such like that? usual people could just believe it since they don't have certain idea on this zune. it is a biggest time to be wrong.
 
Apple should do something about that. I'm sure it will take away some iPod sales, and it's obviously false. There's no way that "slipped" in, something that blatant had to be done on purpose.
 
archurban said:
as you know, when you go to Bestbuy or target, zune booth has pamplet. I red it little bit. but there is wrong information on it. it says that zune can play itunes music, too. my gosh! how can they advertise such like that? usual people could just believe it since they don't have certain idea on this zune. it is a biggest time to be wrong.
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: On install, the Zune automatically imports your existing iTunes database, for the most part without any hiccups. It even grabs the playlists and converts them to Zune's default playlist format. What it doesn't do is import the smart playlists, so you'll have to start all over with those. Except you can't, because there aren't any smart playlists in the Zune. In any case, the Zune should carry over the non-protected iTunes music, but if you purchased songs from the iTunes store (or any other online store) you're out of luck.
 
clevin said:
What it doesn't do is import the smart playlists, so you'll have to start all over with those. Except you can't, because there aren't any smart playlists in the Zune.
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:eek: Smart playlists are the one feature of iPod+iTunes that convinced me to give OS X a try. I was actually toying with the idea of buying a Zune to try it out, but if it doesn't support anything like SPLs it's USELESS to me.

Just to know, what does the Zune do for Apple Lossless files and non MPEG-4 videos (e.g. MPEG-1 files) that are in the iTunes Library?

B
 
balamw said:
So it is a supported feature, but not easily accessible and with a typically Microsoft over-complicated UI. :rolleyes:
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iTunes makes the smart playlist function a second-class citizen too. It's listed in the File menu, but it doesn't show up in the main interface unless you hold down the option key.
 
balamw said:
:eek: Smart playlists are the one feature of iPod+iTunes that convinced me to give OS X a try. I was actually toying with the idea of buying a Zune to try it out, but if it doesn't support anything like SPLs it's USELESS to me.

Just to know, what does the Zune do for Apple Lossless files and non MPEG-4 videos (e.g. MPEG-1 files) that are in the iTunes Library?

B
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i was just copying from other place, i have no idea, I know Zune spts wmv/wma/aac/mp3, and its software can convert other format video files to wmv 10.
The thing is, I don't believe so called "apple lossless file" really mean anything, being "lossless" requires BIG size, which isn't attractive to many people, and if you got a smaller size file, I doubt it will be "lossless".
 
clevin said:
The thing is, I don't believe so called "apple lossless file" really mean anything, being "lossless" requires BIG size, which isn't attractive to many people, and if you got a smaller size file, I doubt it will be "lossless".
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Huh? What don't you believe about Apple Lossless? It is an audio codec that results in around 2 to 1 compression for common audio streams. It is lossless since you get the original digital audio stream back when you decompress it (unlike MP3 / ACC that results in an approximation of the original).
 
i did check a little about that lossless thing after my post. u r right, it might be good, but to be honest, i really dont think many ppl care about that, on a video player.
 
why is it sooo hard for people to admit that at present time- the zune is better then the ipod- if only by a little?
 
Belly-laughs said:
What? Bigger is better?
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oh, yeah, sometime, when amice trying to squeeze into a small hole to escape cat, smaller mice is nicer. Video player's screen? you bet bigger is better.

this is a funny one, LOL, u know its photoshop-ed
zunevsipodvl2.png
 
wow! it's amazing! zune thread is over 15 pages now. so are we really interested in or just blame? you know, when the pages is getting longer, people start to have interest gradually even some of you weren't before. I just want MS to make Mac version of zune market place like itunes someday so that I could play both zune and ipod. hell. of course you can do that on mac nowadays with bootcamp. but I don't want. feel like unperfect. will they bring it out for us?
 
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