September 4, 2008 2:04 PM PDT
120GB Zune coming to a store near you
Updated at 2:30 p.m. PDT with Microsoft comment, and additional photos.
A reader found the 120GB Zune for sale at Fry's for $250 Thursday.
(Credit: Joe)A reader was casually perusing the aisles of his local Fry's Electronics today hoping to buy an 80GB Zune. To Joe's surprise, he found the only-recently-confirmed 120GB Zune there, right below the Product Red 80GB version.
There were "about six" of the 120GB versions that he could see, but no new signage advertising it, he tells CNET.
He paid $250 for the device.
A Microsoft spokesman confirmed that this is "just the beginning" of the rollout of the newest Zune, and more retailers in other regions will start offering the device over the next few weeks.
(Credit: Joe)(More pics after the break.)
(Credit: Joe)
(Credit: Joe)
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who writes about consumer electronics and PCs, mostly as chief correspondent for Crave. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica.
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Music,
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Gadget news
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Microsoft,
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Zune,
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portable music player,
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MP3,
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120GB
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Keep to your own threads, What a twit.
Just because you were dumb enough to download songs with DRM (most likely iTunes), doesn't mean Microsoft's to blame.
I have the 80 right now and have only used 30gb of it, so I guess I can't justify it.
For all those iPodders who are stuck with the same device from the day they bought...Zunes get regular updates..go figure.
Can you help?
I don't use it for Video its pretty nice though, but when I do I use a converter for movies I already own to put onto the device.
As far as other not so legal (unless used for back-up purposes) options. There are a couple of programs that can be used together to further your back-up quest (or your rent from netfilx/blockbuster/friends/family and backup quest)
DVD 43 is a free program that works around DRM protection on DVD's. It runs in the taskbar and uses a smiley face to let you know when the DVD protection has been "removed".
After that, use a free program called HandBrake and proceed to follow the turtorial on the website to backup your dvd's.
It takes a little less time than the length of the movie, but it works very well and has tons of options. It even has a que that can be used for TV show seasons. Put all the episodes you want to backup into the que, hit start and let it work.
take my archos 704 for example. i love it. doesn;t cost as much and it's not made by either manufacturer :)
I don't think the issue with the Zune is necessarily the Apple brainwashing, if the product was really that compelling, then word of mouth would have bolstered the product and Microsoft's marketshare would have increased accordingly, eg: the best product will win (with best being whatever marketing says it is, right?). Moreover, with increased sales comes increased product integration, and if, for example, the Zune had any type of significant marketshare, there would be connection and integration within automobiles and home theater systems. Sure, there is Ford Sync that allows for integration with the Zune, but that is given since Microsoft developed Sync in the first place.
It's not as if Microsoft has not spent a significant amount of money pushing the Zune (just check out historical marketing campaigns at MySpace) and it's not as if Microsoft did not attempt to create special versions of the Zune (eg: the Halo Zune) - it's just that no really cared since the product did not offer enough differentiation versus the other players to make it unique enough to be of interest to the average consumer. Squirting was conceptually a useful idea, but was hindered due to the DRM created by sending songs to your fellow Zune owners regardless of the actual copyright status of the song and moreover, due to the lack of Zunes out there, squirting became a relatively rare occurrence.
Increased storage alone does not make a compelling product to the masses and I'm sure Microsoft knows this. What will be interesting is to what the next generation of the Zune does as Microsoft clearly has to dig deep if they expect to compete and make any sort of dent in the market.
And who cares about DRM...I just buy my songs from Amazon and it's mine to keep and squirt as I see fit. If my friend likes it, he will buy from Amazon.
Not like the iTunes suckers....you pay money and get nothing but locked down songs....iPodders are the most suckered people on the planet...
That's what we'll be saying about the Zune a few years from now.
As it is, the Zune has no real compelling features to tout it.
Maybe come the next product idea, Microsoft should do what Apple did - find a market that has potential, but no real stand-out competitor... then sell a solid product that stands out in it.
Instead, MSFT keeps chasing markets with already established players, and (at least in their more visible efforts) fails miserably or consistently stays in third (or worse) place. That, or they chase markets which are niche at best (Surface, Tablets, etc).
Share content with others. Again, no iPod/iPhone can do this.
Care to try again?
DragNDrop actually works, there's no pointless checkboxes (no one can tell me what the point of those are)
If there's duplicates, it filters them out beforehand unless they are named differently
You don't have to go and buy a new one if you don't need more space, since all the new features work with the old hardware.
It also comes down to personal preference, For me the Zune works a lot better then the ipod in most cases.
Unforunately, the majority of people when asked about mp3 players typically assume Apple IS mp3 players.
"As it is, the Zune has no real compelling features to tout it. " You've never used one nor taken the time to actually research it,. You didn't even realize that most of the Zune Marketplace is available in MP3 format, I pointed that out to you a week ago and yet still on this same story you spread DRM FUD.
Drag and drop works on the iPod (at least on my Mac it does). It also works perfectly with gtkpod on my Linux machine.
The anti-dupe thing I like, but it's not really compelling by itself, and I suspect that the public at large will think the same thing... sorry about that, but the Zune seriously needs more. Not becuase it would otherwise be a failed product, but look at what it's going up against.
Not having to buy a new one? I'm still using a 2GB iPod Nano I bought in 2005, and it works just fine (and as you can tell, I obviously don't need the space).
The Zune store does sell DRM-free tracks - but so does the iTunes Music store. No diff there. OTOH, the DRM comes in when you share music with your friends, and the Zune store's DRM'ed tracks cannot be freed as easily as it can when one uses iTunes. No compelling feature there, either.
Personal preference I can grok. I'm asking as a general question more than anything else, because this is the same question Microsoft needs to ask themselves if they want to be successful at selling the things.
@DD: No, I don't hate Microsoft. I just have the temerity (look it up) to ask the hard-nosed questions that apparently Microsoft's own marketing and management won't (but should) ask themselves.
Also, The "narrow definition" I used for Apple in the instance you point at is "home computers". Not really narrow once folks see what we're talking about, is it? The narrow definition that MSFT used for the Zune last time was something like "30GB battery-powered digital music players priced between $x and $y with a color screen" or somesuch. Trust me - that's no way to tout one's strengths.
OK, So, by that train of thinking, EXPLAIN 25+ YEARS OF APPLE'S SINGLE DIGIT OS MARKETSHARE, WHILE MICROSOFT HAS 90+% SHARE? Gosh, If Macintosh's were worth a ****, maybe more than 5 people in a hundred would have bought them! Especially with all the hype & shilling & commercials they do.
The last market share numbers I've seen released about the Zune where over a year ago when they only had the 30GB model, and the "narrow definition" they used was Hard Drive based portable music player.
"The Zune store does sell DRM-free tracks - but so does the iTunes Music store. No diff there." - First the mp3s available from iTunes are only from one label, big diff there. Second Apple watermarks each iTunes plus track with your name and Apple ID, huge diff there.
" and the Zune store's DRM'ed tracks cannot be freed as easily as it can when one uses iTunes. No compelling feature there, either." - Why would you even try to spread this FUD, that statement is 100% false.
Let's just start with the FM Radio ....oh...btw, get the over the shock and we'll discuss WIFI !!
Macboys are like frogs in a well, they dont know that a world exists outside of their s****ty place....
If it works fine for you, cool - enjoy it as much as you can. But consider that it doesn't sell very well, and that sticking in a big hard disk (esp. when one's biggest competitor already did that) isn't really much of a compelling reason at all.
/P
Go ahead and put your money where your mouth is- buy one and then complain. Otherwise your comments will just be discarded as invalid.
Now if you need to understand the reason for have a 120g version heres my take on it. 1) I am an avid music lover 2) I don't do MP3s because despite what everyone believes their sound quality is crap. 3) I have a 4400 track library thats continuously growing 4) the 120g Zune gives me the space I need to rip my music in MS's lossless format for optimum quality.
Thats a compelling argument to me
@Dan: The complaints in this case aren't technical, they're marketing ones, which don't require purchasing a product first. Now if I complained about use issues (e.g. "ZOMG this thing has such a sucky interface!"), then you might have had a point.
@NPGMBR: Thank you - that was pretty refreshing to read.
arguably better UI
FM radio w/RDS (yes, I know, nobody listens to radio anymore - which why Apple made an FM adapter for the iPod and ClearChannel makes all that money)
Not sure what point is with the "stick a hard drive in" comment. That's what all dmp's were before flash. However, Zune currently has better mb/$ with this release - we'll see what Apple does in the coming months.
Lessee...it fares well in screen size compared to the other large-capacity players.
If MS would just let you manage the thing w/your preferred file browser/let you use it as mass storage, that'd be fairly superior.
Actually, the Zune does decent sales given the rest of the player pie given the head start the head start by the industry (not just Apple), the device is hanging on well.
Apple, being the first to market to people outside of the tech arena, has the device recognition of Xerox, Styrofoam, Kleenex. Many people still think iPod when they think MP3 player. As there are more choices, it becomes more work that the average consumer isn't willing to do (since the most intimidating thing for the customer in a retail environment is research/THOUGHT). It's hard to remember, but it took a minute before people understood the concept of an MP3 player. Even the iPod got shrugged at by the general populace for a while. I think MS's biggest mistake in their initial marketing (which they did do; and has done more than any other iPod competitor in the US market) is to try to engender a sense of cool by being coy about what the device is. The should've just said what the thing does, and tried harder to give it a name that let's you know what it is. But I guess the smart guys in Redmond didn't think the non-sexy masses would pay $150 and up for a music device (which Apple was already proving they would).
At any rate, just go try the thing.
If you want to hear music/audio, then get a standard iPod or other player. The Touch is a PDA.
In addition to everything iPod Classic has (except support for Mac), Zune adds:
- Bigger, crispier screen
- Sturdier, virtually scratch free construction
- WiFi: exchanging songs among Zunes is soooo last year. The killer scenario for WiFi is to liberate you completely from having to physically connect to your home computer. I, for instance, have my first gen Zune in my car the whole time. It syncs wirelessly and I always have the latest downloaded songs and podcasts to go. If you have the Zune connected to your TV, you have a media extender right there, no cost added.
- ZunePass - one cannot praise subscription enough. If you like to listen to your songs over and over again, buying or, for some folks, stealing is your thing. Zune also has that. But if you like the latest and greatest and like to be adventurous regarding your songs - exploring new artists, new genres - subscription is for you. For the price of one CD a month I've downloaded more than 450 albuns in a little more than 1 year. For those concerned with having to pay to continue listening to those songs: I could pay 10 years straight of subscription and not download anything else and I'd still have paid much less than I'd have to pay to own those albuns. And it's all legal!
- FM: don't underestimate the power of local radio stations when you are commuting and want to know why your bus is stuck on traffic...
- Zune software: makes the bloated iTunes look like an 80's spreadsheet. Seriously! First time Microsoft can claim to have a more streamlined software than Apple in recent years (which doesn't say a lot for other MS products)... But that's just what it is. In the Zune vs. iPod comparison, desktop software is a big plus for Zune.
- Zune is much more beautiful than iPod classic: I know, this is a hot topic for some and it's not to say Apple design is ugly. But you can be clean without being uninspiring. And iPod classic design is pretty much the same since its inception (thus, the classic). For me, it's run its course about two generations ago. If you look at the Zune in pictures and think it's just squared and bricky, you obviously never handled one. It's as squared as Bang&Olufsen designs. That's, by no means, a bad thing. And it looks really gorgeous in person with its huge, shiny screen.
Zune doesn't sell like iPods, of course. There's something called momentum and people get locked on what they already know. That's the nature of things and it's difficult to break. iPods still provide the minimun necessary functionality to keep people satisfied, so why changing?
It doesn't mean iPod is better, at all... And it doesn't mean that people shouldn't get more and better things.
So, why should I buy an iPod again?
http://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/
BTW, please remember that codec for codec, the Zune supports less. Furthermore, the Zune software is actually less flexible than iTunes (try adding lyrics to the ID3 tags for example on the Zune).
Go away. Really. Your not helping either side. You shame the apple fanboys.
Seriously people, use a zune before talking s**** about it. and no I am no Microsoft fanboy...I own an iPhone and I love it...but there is no reason to trash Zune. Given a choice between iPod and Zune, I will pick Zune in a heartbeat.
Apple has a bigger share because they brought a product much earlier...so MS can only do catch up...and as you can see, its not easy to change people's mindset.
If Microsoft were confident about the Zune, wouldn't they release it worldwide? Why keep it in America? Because they know it will never sell.
And Apple did this after Microsoft did so gtfo please.